Watching the Great American Read: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes #SaturdayMatinee #book2movie

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

Miguel de Cervantes, whose acclaimed novel Don Quixote gave us the word quixotic, was born on September 29th, 1547.  The novel has been translated into over 60 languages and according to some published more times than any other piece of literature outside of the bible. The book, on the top 100 list of PBS' Great American Read has been adapted for stage and screen multiple times, and so today, Don Quixote is our Saturday Matinee. There are a couple of recent versions, one starring John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins and Isabella Rossellini from 2000 which sadly doesn't seem to be available online. Lithgow got a SAG acting nom for his always fine work on this one.

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exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

"a vast and perhaps quixotic project"

synonyms:

idealistic, romantic, visionary, utopian, extravagant, starry-eyed, unrealistic, unworldly;

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A more recent version from 2015 featuring Horatio Sanz as Sancho Panza with Luis Guzman, James Franco and Carmen Argenziano is online and available to stream on Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and GooglePlay. Take a look at both trailers below and see if you agree the SNL alum doesn't look half bad!