The Fisher King

Director: Terry Gilliam

11 February 2024

See

Him: Val Kilmer (or so she thought) a young Jeff Bridges, looking alot like Val Kilmer or Micky Rourke in their prime, stars as Jack, a New York ‘shock jock’ (as we say in Australia) radio host who taunts and tormets his listeners with his cynical and sarcastic world view. One disenfranchised listener goes on a mass shooting rampage and Jack comes undone by self-loathing and pity, feeling responsible in the public and his own eyes. Just as he’s about to drown himself in the Hudson river, he’s attacked and unexpectedly rescued by Robin Williams, who plays Perry, a homeless man who had a mental breakdown when his wife was killed in the mass shooting. He’s on a quest to recover the Holy Grail, and Jack feels obligated to help.

Think

Him: Mental illness and homelessness are very hard to depict on screen. I think Jack Nicolson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nNest and Mark Ruffalo in I Know This Much Is True are the only examples I can think of were I didn’t want to avert my gaze because of the discomfort it causes. Not just issues of mental illness and homelessness, because there is no answer to them. But showing it as a Don Quixote quest.

Feel

Him: Terry Gilliam is good at magical realism. And the Tom Waits monologue was particularly poignant. I should watch more of Terry Gilliam’s films, as I’ve only seen The Brother’s Frimm and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnasus. Brazil next? I did believe in the friendship between Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams though. And the female characters were original and passed the Bechdel test, not just talking about the male characters.

 It wasn’t an enjoyable watch. But I’m glad I saw it. And relieved that Jack redeemed himself in service of someone else, just like the Fisher King parable told him to.