The Fisher King (1991)
Columbia Tri-Star DVD (region 1, 4)
d. Terry Gilliam; pr. Debra Hill, Lynda Obst; scr. Richard LaGravenese; ph. Roger Pratt; m. George Fenton; ed. Lesley Walker; cast. Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Tom Waits, Michael Jeter, David Hyde Pierce (137 mins)
Director Terry Gilliam was judged unsuited for Hollywood, especially considering the problems, budget over-runs, studio interference with and box-office failures of his previous works Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
There were many who were dismayed when the unquestioned visionary director agreed to helm a studio-initiated project, The Fisher King. Attracted to the mythic, fairy-tale qualities of the contemporary-set film, Gilliam admitted later that he changed his directorial methods on this movie – not relying on storyboards as much, encouraging the actors more and arguably restraining himself. When the film became a hit (his first) with the critics and the public, garnering five Academy Award nominations in the process, it indeed seemed that Gilliam was poised to become an A-list Hollywood director. As much as his die-hard fans lamented his entry into the mainstream, The Fisher King was nevertheless an ideal merging of Gilliam’s unique vision with a Hollywood sensibility. The mix worked better than anyone would have thought and although not as stylized as earlier films should in no way be considered a compromise. Rather, it is a bridging work, a maturation of sorts almost as if Gilliam momentarily sought some self-discipline – to prove he could do it. His follow-up, Twelve Monkeys, was another fusion of sensibilities and proved another hit: Gilliam was, for a moment, a bankable auteur.
The Fisher King stars Jeff Bridges as a successful but narcissistic radio talk-show host. His illusions are broken when he hears a television news bulletin that a fan had been inspired by what he said on-air and took a gun to a nightclub.
Years later, he is plagued by guilt and responsibility: he has quit work and is now living with a video store owner (Mercedes Ruehl). A drunk, he is almost beaten by street punks but is rescued by several homeless bums, led by Robin Williams. After crashing at Williams’ home in the basement of a building, Bridges is about to leave when he discovers the truth of the psychotic Williams’ predicament: his wife was killed by the demented radio fan. Bridges now feels somehow responsible for Williams’ fate, even though he considers Williams, who thinks himself on a quest for the Holy Grail, to be beyond help. At first he tries to buy him off but when this does not ease his conscience Bridges becomes increasingly drawn into Williams’ personal life and sees the man’s devout infatuation with a mousy office worker (Amanda Plummer). Bridges subsequently feels that if he can play match-maker and somehow bring these two together then things will improve for him too. However, he must contend with the dynamics of Williams’ psychosis – that his past trauma will prevent him from ever moving on and regaining “reality”. Williams’ fate prompts Bridges into ever greater acts.
The Fisher King concerns the journey from total self-absorption to selfless humanity. It works as thus intended: a look at how the individual ego is broken down and reconstituted in relation to a central trauma that in fact entwines the fates of two characters.
It is beautifully and movingly realized as Bridges and Williams enter into a kind of mutual interdependence, each uniquely able to help the other to overcome their respective psychological burden. For Bridges, it is the re-discovery of a sense of humanity beyond himself. At first Bridges wants to help Williams only to ease his own sense of guilt. His acts of charity are still selfish in nature, as if he can buy his way out (as if penance were that easy); but the more he begins to know Williams the more he cares for him on a personal level and his actions become increasingly truly selfless, no longer out of guilt but out of a genuine fondness and responsibility for this unusual homeless man – he wants to help him rather than feeling that he has to. The film is about this emotional journey and as much as it develops Bridges so too it explores Williams’ dilemma as a man who has experienced a psychotic break in order to distance himself from a trauma that is too unbearable to confront. Love for Plummer may change this, but he must confront that which has entwined his fate so closely to Bridges. Selflessness, friendship and love thus become meaningful factors, so close to the Christian ethos.
As affecting as much of this film is, there is always the potential for tragedy, whether it be in Williams’ battle with his personal demons or in the worrying suggestion that Bridges may return to his old selfishness after what he considers a due act of penance.
It is this realization of precariousness that runs through the emotional relationships and makes the moments of connection all the more telling as it hopes to anchor these characters in a truly shared inter-personal base. This also makes for sudden shifts in tone that give it a genuine sense of the madcap. Gilliam has always been fascinated by “madness” and The Fisher King remains his most balanced look at this, as if the grounding in Hollywood norms allowed him the critical distance needed to confront his fascination more so than indulge it. This is played out as the film contrasts the harsh reality of psychosis (the day to day homelessness, the disregard for personal hygiene or appearance, the idea of the psychotic break as rooted in trauma, and the reality of living with, and accepting, hallucination) with the more Romanticized and overtly poetic conceptions of the madman as an insightful visionary or even holy fool. This knowing tension adds immeasurably to Williams’ hallucinations as his imagined enemy, the red knight, is at once a Romantic image and a symbol of the past that pursues and prevents him from finding resolution: the essence of his psychosis.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
Gilliam adapts his visual style to suit this assessment of balance and such is preserved in this anamorphic widescreen transfer. Gilliam is known for visual extravagance, in particular his fondness for off-kilter camera positions and wide-angle lenses and an often hallucinatory sense of imaginative fantasy. The Fisher King is his most grounded work. He employs the techniques but gradually associates them with the emotional and psychological imbalances of the characters rather than the world around them. As the characters find stability, so too the film becomes less stylized and the restoration of psychological order becomes a key motif: selflessness arguably permits the transition. The parallels between Williams and Bridges are featured throughout, and Williams brilliantly explores the quirky humanity of the psychotic. In its sense of the interplay between grounded reality and a psychotic sense of both magic and fear, The Fisher King is Gilliam’s self-reflexive assessment of his own imagination in relation to Hollywood forms. The DVD transfer, however, has noticeable flaws: it is frequently grainy, background clarity is often wanting and interior scenes feel too hot and fleshy (particularly inside Ruehl’s apartment). The Grand Central Station scene remains one of the most magical scenes in all of Gilliam’s work and the use of costume and disheveled appearances works well – both Williams and Bridges gradually cleaned up.
Sound
The sound transfer is in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo only. Nice use is made of “forgive me” as a refrain – the phrase also hits on the crux of Bridges’ sense of guilty self-absorption. The audio design and in particular the score enhance the sense of over-lapping tonality and the way in which relationships always hover above the potentially tragic – this idea of fragility recurs throughout the film. The sounds of the city (traffic and people) serve as reminders of the ordinary reality surrounding these characters and give the emotional flights of fancy a common ground to return to. As befits a film about psychosis, there is often a hallucinatory quality – and indeed, the idea of hallucination as a kind of ritual confrontation is stressed in the final scenes where Bridges sees his own personal demon (and the force working against his selflessness). Fine use is made of Bridges listening to the tapes of his former shows as a means of charting his intent to return to what he once was, if he can. What is also interesting is that Bridges’ radio persona aggressiveness implies parallel to the vitriolic misanthropy of Eric Bogosian in Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio: in some respects, The Fisher King is a retort to that film, calling to task the irresponsible humanity of the shock-jock phenomenon and moving towards humanity rather than misanthropy. Overall, the sound transfer is only moderately engaging, despite the clever design of the film itself.
Special Features
In the way of special features are trailers for two Robin Williams films – Jumanji and Awakenings – and two Jeff Bridges films – The Mirror Has Two Faces and Starman – but, disappointingly, nothing related to The Fisher King itself.
an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)
For the film The Fisher King, producer Linda Obst faced several problems. She was in awe of the script and when considering directors had serendipitously thought of one Terry Gilliam, whose previous work in Monty Python and the Holy Grail made him a natural ironic choice for the project, with its own allusions to the Holy Grail.
Traditionally, however, Gilliam only directed his own material. But he had been having a run of box-office flops to that point and his agent made it clear that Gilliam was receptive to material he didn’t write. Thus, the script was sent to Gilliam who loved it and agreed to do the picture. When it came time for the pre-production deal to be made, she naturally thus had to “sell” this prospective film to her boss, over and above the fact that the scheduled director was known for his previous box-office flops.
She argued that the film was a “masterpiece about the healing power of grace” and a worthwhile film for the studio to make but according to her, she left knowing that her boss, who eventually approved the picture, felt that the casting gimmick and script was merely gearing up to be a hit as “a summer buddy comedy.” Either way, it proved to be a surprisingly graceful summer hit.
