Defining Favourites: The Fisher King (1991)

The most modest film of Terry Gilliam's career is also his most human.

Photo: TriStar Pictures

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Directed by Terry Gilliam
Screenplay by Richard LaGravenese
Produced by Debra Hill, Lynda Obst
Starring Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter
Premiere Date: September 10, 1991
Running Time: 137 minutes

It only fits that Terry Gilliam would follow up the massive box office disaster of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen with something on a much smaller scale. Yet even on a smaller budget, all of Gilliam’s usual idiosyncrasies are still found all throughout The Fisher King. Being Gilliam’s first feature film without him involved in writing the screenplay, together with the absence of any of his fellow Monty Python castmates acting whatsoever, it also feels like the perfect setup for him to show a more human side to his filmmaking. That also adds into The Fisher King being one of Terry Gilliam’s best works at that.

The Fisher King is a film built around regrets, but also inflated egos. It all starts with the introduction of Jeff Bridges as our protagonist Jack Lucas, a crass radio shock jock who’s continuously berating his callers over the phone to many listeners. After humiliating enough of his own listeners on the air, he goes on a horribly misogynistic rant about women’s standards with regards to finding love in New York City – which sends that exact same caller to commit mass murder before eventually killing himself. This also happens to be the perfect manner for Lucas to come into contact with Robin Williams’s Parry, a peculiar homeless man with an obsession with finding the Holy Grail and the legend of the titular Fisher King: and for Lucas, this might be the perfect chance to redeem himself.