Don Juan DeMarco

Every movie reflects its times. This one is certainly no exception. The mysteries of courtship have reduced to awkward teen-age comedies or sexual romps where the sex has little or no relevance and even less lust.

So much of the wonder of this film is derived from its fantasy. As long as we think its fantasy, we do not have to ask how accurate it may represent our reality. In other words this film wisely avoids what is and focuses on what should be. Or maybe what was.

The movie opens with Don Juan DeMarco (Johnny Depp) walking with purpose and in the full costume of an 18th century cavalier (complete with a cape). He goes into a restaurant. There he finds a beautiful young woman waiting for her dinner companion (who is late). Don Juan begins to talk to her. He takes her hand, and noticing her knuckles (a word of cacophony if ever there was one) and delivers an ode, which celebrates the perfection of that part of her hand. His words are smooth and his delivery flawless. His sincerity cannot be questioned. She succumbs to his charm. After a seduction (he would not have been concerned if he had failed), he announces that he is now ready to kill himself! Talk about tongue in cheek.

He is set to do it when Marlon Brando enters as the wonderful Dr. Mickler/ Don Octavio De Flores who is hoisted up to where Don Juan is by a Cherry Picker that he has trouble getting into. Don Octavio immediately talks Don Juan down by accepting whom Juan thinks they both are. That's the wonderful beginning.

In the next 10 days, Don Juan tells Don Octavio, a series of tales that reminds one of Scherezade. In the meantime every woman and one of the men besides Don Octavio (a really tall muscular masculine type named Rocco) come completely under his spell and they all listen to their hidden romantic side.

Don't confuse Don Juan DeMarco with the Decameron. The movie is not really about sex, seduction, or relationships between men and woman.

I may be wrong, but I think it is a yearning. It is a cry for something better that we all want for ourselves. What woman would not want to have notice taken of the effort she has gone to make herself as good looking as she can? What man would not like to have the skill to make a woman believe what he says about her? What man does not secretly wish he was so deeply committed to something (women in this case) that his words would convey his deep feelings effortlessly? Furthermore that his commitment was pure and truthful? That it was not a line? We cannot look at these questions in a movie without covering them with something like fantasy. The ideal is so unappealing. We want instant gratification.

I have thought about this for a considerable time and have come to the conclusion that a woman could never accept what I have written without thinking it was masculine crap. If cornered I would agree. But before I did, I would point out that Don Juan was a poet whose verses are life. He believes what he says: it is his ultimate truth. Seduction and sex are really quite secondary. Finding perfection and conveying it is primary.

Don Juan is well worth your two-hour investment. Perhaps it will connect you to what you yearn for and the truth everyone seeks.