The film is the oldest surviving cinematographic adaptation of the eponymous novel by Miguel de Cervantes.
[1] The film is described in the Pathé catalogue as a Grand comic scene in 15 tableaux from the Romance by Cervantes.
[2] After its initial release in France in October 1903, the film was exhibited in December 1903 in Washington D.C. (USA).
[2][3] In 1904, Pathé released a shorter version of the film (840 ft. instead of 1420 ft.), including only the best scenes.
The opening scene is a red-tinted medium close-up showing the two main protagonists.
It is followed by seven wide shots of theatre-like sets introduced by a title card.
Shots two through seven are hand-coloured, using the Pathécolor stencil-based tinting process, and Abel stresses how the coloring plays an important role, in particular with the explosion at the end of the sixth scene and the garish reds and yellows of Sancho's costume in the seventh scene.
The final scene, Don Quixote's death, is tinted in a somber blue.
The scene uses an in-camera matte shot in the upper right corner, to show what Don Quixote believes he is seeing.
Don Quixote and Sancho are on a rowing boat in front of a water mill.
The scene also uses an in-camera matte shot to show first the inside of the building and then the facade of a castle with a lady brought by guards and kneeling in front of a gentleman.
Richard Abel notes the novelty of the organisation of this composite shot where "the mill workers run left to exit from the matte interior (...) (and) appear just a couple of frames later, and in the order of their exit, on the exterior studio dock, from which they can reach the struggling heroes.
Don Quixote and Sancho, after having been made-up in black and white, climb on a pommel horse where they must fight blindfolded.
Don Quixote lies in bed surrounded by his friends and with Sancho at his side.