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Oct 28, 2021

"The Man Who Killed Don Quixote": Killing Your Enjoyment of the Miguel Cervantes Classic

 


Everything you have been told about Miguel Cervantes' iconic novel Don Quixote is a heterosexist myth.  Don Quixote is not a hero, his quest is not to win the heart of Dulcinea del Toboso (the barmaid whom Don Quixote mistakes for a princess is not a love interest, and appears only briefly), and his relationship withi Sancho Panza has a decidedly homoromantic subtext.  

Modern adaptations, notably the execrable musical Man of La Mancha, usually make Don Quixote a heterosexual love story.  So I went into The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with low expectations.  But it got worse.  Much, much worse.

Ten years ago, director Toby Grumetti (Adam Driver) made a movie about Don Quixote in a village in rural Spain.  Today he's back in Spain filming a commercial.  While watching his old movie during sex with the Boss's wife (Strike 1), he gets the idea of looking up the stars.


The elderly Jauvier now believes that he really is Don Quixote.  He "recognizes" Toby as Sancho Panza, and due to plot complications, the two set out on a quest to find Angelica, who was in the earlier movie (Strike 2).  Now she's working as the sex companion of vodka mogul Alexei Miskin, so Toby wants to "save" her. 

Eventually Jauvier dies, and Toby becomes the new Don Quixote, with Angelica at his side as a female Sancho Panza (Strikes 3-9).  They took one of the great gay couples of literature, and turned them into a boy and a girl.  That's not just heterosexist, it's downright homophobic, literally erasing gay people from existence.

Plus there's an obnoxious Romani stereotype named The Gypsy, who may have mystical powers.


According to wikipedia, this movie spent 20 years in development, plagued by lawsuits, illness, budget problems, writing problems, premise changes, new directors, and multiple recasts.  Toby, for instance was cast with Robin Williams, Johnny Depp, Ewan MacGregor, and Jack O'Connell.  Couldn't they have just left Don Quixote alone?


4 comments:

  1. Adam Driver was a Marine and has the body to prove it

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  2. Boomer what happened to the Tim Matheson actor page? I just watched him in "Yours Mine and Ours' he is so cute in that movie and has nice beefcake moment

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    Replies
    1. There's a post on Tim Matheson on March 1, 2021, actually a repost from 2017. Here's the link: https://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2017/01/tim-matheson.html

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  3. I thought everyone knew Don Quixote was a lunatic. And oF course the love he has for Dulcinea was already idealized as no erotic element. as she probably already has a fiancé picked out for her.

    Yeah, only the most bowdlerized of stories plays monarchy as anything other than "The lady is engaged to a cousin she never met, anyone who suggests any improvements to life is burned as a heretic, and the king is two years old, get off his case already!" (The king can instead be a thirtysomething sadistic manchild making you miss the two-year-old.)

    ReplyDelete

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