This movie contains my favorite scene of any movie. If you’ve seen it, it’s the one between Parry and Lydia on the sidewalk. Over the last few years I’ve revisited that scene over and over, I’ve probably watched it 50 times if not more. It incapsulates a love I have for somebody special in my life who I’ve missed dearly like nothing else. After many years I reunited with this person and we watched the movie together, they hadn’t seen it. When the scene came up, that made me think of them for years, they turned around and held me. I didn’t tell them about the scene, they just felt it too. We paused the movie and cried for an hour. I missed them so much. I love movies.
The building blocks for the legend of The Fisher King revolve around the hero. No matter the problem or the issue, no matter how modern or ancient in its magnitude; the hero must go on a quest to heal the wounds of The Fisher King, one who is lost, lonely, and in need of purity to cleanse the dirt within his inflicted damages. The emotional anguish and the heartbreak is too much to bear, for when dark times rain down from the clouds, only a hero can bring light to extinguish the dark. But what if our hero has scars of his own? Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King is a masterpiece. Plain and fucking simple. It's been a few years since I've seen this, but man, I don't remember it being THIS stunning from start to finish. A gorgeous and emotionally affecting odyssey through modern castles and sun-streaked forests; no film has captured such fluid purity in regards to its honesty and its surreal flourishes. Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, and Amanda Plummer all knock it out of the park, but Robin Williams is in a league of his own. Undoubtedly, indisputably, unquestionably one of the greatest performances that I've seen in a film. He'll make your side ache from laughter and he'll make your heart ache from the amount of pathos radiating from his remarkable performance. It's an acting role full of truth and candid elegance, and I was absolutely blown away. I miss you Robin, RIP. Terry Gilliam's direction oozes from the screen, capturing that fairy-tale lightness while never skimping out on character potency. With Roger Pratt's cinematography visualizing New York like a 10th Century landscape raised by gigantic castles and ravishing forests, The Fisher King is simply splendid in its visual language. The multiple surrealistic sequences, handled flawlessly by Gilliam (I mean obviously), are highlights in their tranquil horror and their sweeping punch. I don't think I've had a film like this in quite awhile: one that is so superb and astonishing that I can't even really write about it. All I want to do is to go grab my Criterion Blu-ray off the shelf and fall in love with this piece of cinema all over again. Howard Hawks famously said that "a good movie is three great scenes and no bad ones", but when a film has six legendary, incredible, exquisite, outstanding, and borderline miraculous scenes; what are you supposed to call that? Oh, I know. A MASTERPIECE.
Robin Williams has touched and inspired the lives of many people with his work throughout the ages. Cinema just lost one of its legends, but his legacy will live for eternity! The usual fantastical and supernatural elements that are trademarks from Terry Gilliam are present again in The Fisher King and I felt they were used in a very powerful way here. They represent Parry’s traumatic past that won’t let him go and start over. Robin Williams’ vibrant and joyful presence mesh with moments of complete despair, making it one of his best performances. Jeff Bridges makes an impressive turn as well and shares a couple of touching moments with his co-star. I found very interesting the idea that we keep insisting on our mistakes and how they can damage the life of many others in the process. My only gripe with the film is that its tone abruptly shifts at times but the director manages to balance comedy with drama really well overall. The Fisher King is a mesmerizing story of redemption and my favorite Terry Gilliam film so far.
