Lost in La Mancha is a film documenting director Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to bring Don Quixote to the screen; all that could go wrong did. Gilliam is Quixote. The Don does battle for his Romantic cause against Reality, just as Gilliam struggles to give his Romantic vision life in the cinema. Much of Gilliam's work is manifest as clash between these two opponents—it is a recurring theme. As with Quixote so with Gilliam, one is sympathetic to their cause.