Don Quixote in film (2005-2015)

Abstract

This article is a first approximation to the analysis of Quixote films released between 2005 and 2015. The analysis of these 68 productions shows a widespread international interest in Don Quixote across more than 20 countries in three continents, with the US as the powerhouse of Quixote films with 22 pictures, followed by Spain with seventeen. This analysis observes four categories of Quixote films—adaptations, sequels, imitations, and documentaries. The nine adaptations abridge the plot of Cervantes’s novel. The 16 sequels tell of Don Quixote’s new adventures outwith Cervantes’s novel or include Don Quixote as a supporting character. The 35 imitations deploy the Quixotic myth, where a Quixotic protagonist is a dreamer in search of an ideal, a loner in a hostile society, or a character deployed to parody a film genre or a social trend. This classification reveals the tendencies in today’s use of Cervantes’s hero on film. Furthermore, the variety and the quantity of Quixote films confirm them as a well-established film genre and are a testament to Don Quixote’s status as an international cultural icon known and loved worldwide.