The Fisher King (film)

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The Fisher King

The Fisher King poster
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Produced by Debra Hill
Lynda Obst
Written by Richard LaGravenese
Starring Jeff Bridges
Robin Williams
Mercedes Ruehl
Amanda Plummer
Michael Jeter
Music by George Fenton
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Release date(s) September 20, 1991 (USA)
Running time 137 min.
Language English
Budget $24,000,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Fisher King is a comedy-drama film made in 1991, written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Terry Gilliam. It starred Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer and Michael Jeter. The film is about a radio shock-jock who tries to find redemption by helping a homeless man whose life he inadvertently shattered.

Peter Travers, of Rolling Stone magazine, wrote that the film 'sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance'. Other reviewers commented on its 'industrial-strength whimsy'.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jack Lucas, a cynical, arrogant shock jock talk radio host (Jeff Bridges), becomes suicidally despondent after his on-air comments inadvertently prompt a psychotic caller to commit multiple murders at a popular bar. Three years later, while heavily intoxicated and depressed, he attempts to commit suicide. But before he can do so, he is mistaken for a homeless person and is attacked and almost set on fire by ruffians. He is rescued by Parry (Robin Williams), a deluded homeless man who is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, and tries to convince Lucas to help him. Lucas is initially reluctant, but comes to feel responsible for Parry when he learns that the man's condition is a result of witnessing his wife's horrific murder at the hands of Lucas's psychotic caller.

The title refers to the legend of the Fisher King, a form of which Parry recounts to Lucas. The legend varies, but all iterations possess three elements: the Fisher King was charged by God with guarding the Holy Grail, but later incurred some form of incapacitating physical punishment for his sin of pride, and had to wait for someone to deliver him from his suffering (usually Percival). Echoes of the legend recur throughout the film, but in a continually shifting manner, so that it sometimes appears that Lucas is Percival to Parry's Fisher King, sometimes vice versa, and sometimes that one or the other is re-enacting part of the story with another character (most obviously in Parry's self-assigned quest to obtain the Grail from the man he believes is its guardian).

[edit] Themes

A central theme of the film, playing on the grail motif, is grace and forgiveness. Jack's signature line in his potential sitcom is "forgive me," which he is constantly repeating but can't get right. Parry is seeking the Holy Grail, which held the wine of the Last Supper and, at the crucifixion, its theological equivalent, the blood of Christ - the very source of grace and forgiveness. The Red Knight figment that Parry sees around New York seems to represent Parry's fears from both his former life as an intellectual, his time in the mental institution and his current life as a homeless dreamer on the street, all of which send him into a catatonic state.

Tagline: 'A Modern Day Tale About The Search For Love, Sanity, Ethel Merman And The Holy Grail.'

[edit] Production

According to Gilliam's episode of The Directors (which is available on the 2-Disc DVD for Gilliam's film Time Bandits), he wanted to do the film because he was tired of doing big budget special effects films, such as his previous film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which went over budget and cost over 45 million dollars, nearly twice as much as King's budget of 24 million.

Also, according to the Directors episode, Gilliam came up with the scene where Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer meet during a huge waltz in the middle of Grand Central Station, because he felt the scene LaGravense had written (which had a large group of people in a crowded subway listen to a homeless black woman sing with a beautiful voice) wasn't working. He was at first hesitant about this because his original intentions were to just shoot the script and that the waltz would make it "a Terry Gilliam film". The scene was shot in one night with some professional extras and others just passengers getting off the train.

[edit] Trivia

  • This was the first film Terry Gilliam directed in which he was not involved in writing the screenplay.
  • It was also Gilliam's first film not to feature any other members of Monty Python.
  • It is his second film involving the Holy Grail, the first being Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Matt Wong of the ska-punk band Reel Big Fish has stated that the band were all fans & intended to name themselves after the film, only settling on the name Reel Big Fish until they "thought of something better."

[edit] Awards

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Films directed by Terry Gilliam
Monty Python and the Holy Grail • Jabberwocky • Time Bandits • The Crimson Permanent Assurance • Brazil • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen • The Fisher King • Twelve Monkeys • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas • The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (unfinished) • The Brothers Grimm • Tideland
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