I have a difficult time grading this film. I have always been prejudiced against films of stage productions. I just find that to take one medium and try to force it into another is artistically dishonest. And this movie is very much a play. But, a play/film with Peter O'Toole, arguably the best Shakespearian actor of his generation. So, if anyone can pull this off, it's O'Toole. His performance as the madman of La Mancha is riveting, and Loren is both beautiful and brilliant in this one. They both get a 10. I can't fathom why neither received an Oscar nomination for their work in Man of La Mancha. (If not for The Godfather, O'Toole would have won an Oscar the following year for The Ruling Class.) He never made a bad movie. So, this may be the only exception to my rule against cross-genre productions, and it rightfully should be considered a must-see Classic.

I've always heard bad things about this film until fairly recently from some posters on here so I decided to check it out since I like the original show (which I've never seen, but I have the cast album). It's a star studded affair with Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren in the leads. An elaborate framing device sets up the story as one told by Cervantes (O'Toole) to fellow prisoners awaiting trial by the court of the inquisition. I liked the framing device, and it gave opportunities for all the actors to essentially play dual roles. There's a wealth of solid character acting here in this film -- Brian Blessed appears as a sexually violent muleteer, Ian Richardson plays a Padre (and the most enthusiastic volunteer for the play) and Gino Conforti is very funny as the barber whose shaving basin is taken for a golden helm of fable. I don't usually care all that much for Sophia Loren frankly but I thought this was some of her best work. She's got just the right combination of fiery cynicism and graceful femininity to make the character Alonza/Dulcinea work. O'Toole is fine, although his singing voice (or the one dubbed for him?) leaves something to be desired. James Coco is a bit underwhelming unfortunately as Sancho Panza. The role of Sancho Panza is the kind of thing that can really appear easy, and could be easy to play in a casual or typical fat-funny-man kind of way which is how Coco played it, but it really demands a sublime performer to bring out the interesting elements of the character. You think of someone like Zero Mostel but probably he wasn't available.

Most of the music from the show is presented here pretty much the same way it is on the album, so it seems to be fairly true to the show as far as I can tell. The idea of setting Don Quixote to music is wonderful and the play was a solid effort.

Arthur Hiller's direction is as always up to the level of his work but unremarkable in its own right.

All told, not a bad version of the Don Quixote story and not a bad vehicle for O'Toole and Loren. I'm not quite sure how this got its bad reputation. Maybe people just don't like the play; I know my mom told me she doesn't like it but she also doesn't like "Gigi" so I think she just dislikes anything with sympathetic pictures of prostitues. Maybe a lot of people feel that way, I don't know. There's also a certain aspect of this film that could seem anti-religious or anti-Catholic, which is probably why the Padre character is so much more sympathetic here than he is in Cervantes' book if memory serves. But based on what I know of the original play, this is a solid adaption and I can't imagine anyone doing significantly more with it.