YET ANOTHER OF THE FORGOTTEN FILMS THAT DESERVE TO BE REMEMBERED 

So we haven’t had one of these for ages then two come along at once, this first film was one that I had long forgotten about myself till I ran through a list in my head of Jeff Bridges best films (And best roles) and quite a lot of obvious ones came up “TRUE GRIT”, “IRON MAN”, “SEABISCUIT” etc, but then I remembered a couple of films that seem to have been scattered to the out-take bin of time, which included the excellent “JAGGED EDGE” (Which could well make the list in future) as well as today’s choice.  NOW the Jeff Bridges film we have today features of stellar performance, one of which was deemed Oscar-worthy.  The film is about second chances and parallels can be drawn with the film’s director who was also in major need of a second chance after his previous film was a critical and commercial disaster but like the Bridges film “SEABISCUIT” it’s ultimately one of those Oscar films that people watch, enjoy, garner critical praise, and a few awards then disappears so lets make it reappear right now.  Ladies and gentlemen I present the case for...

THE FISHER KING (1991)

The Fisher King is the story of shock-jock, Jack Lucas, radio DJ on the verge of TV big time until the night his rant against yuppies sends one of his listeners on a killing spree which is the kind of publicity few people can recover from.  Jack spirals downward clutching for any sort of normality he can hold onto and falls into the arms of Anne (Mercedes Rheul) a video store owner, he seeks to lick his wounds and stay out of sight like a slug under a rock until he encounters Parry a homeless man who believes he is on a quest to find the holy grail and, as part of that quest battle against the machinations of the red knight.

Now by the time you’ve got to the last few lines of that paragraph you’re probably thinking “What the fish?” and you’d be right as this is one of those films that, to put it simply, is what it is.  It defies pigeon-holing, it’s dramatic, dark, comedic, tragic and romantic.  It’s not really a drama or a tragedy or a romantic-comedy and I think that this lack of “Definition” is possibly one of the reasons it has gotten pushed out of people’s consciousness because conceivably there is no other reason for it to be so forgotten.

Jeff Bridges is amazing as both the brash idiotic celeb and the crushed defeated shell in his place.  Mercedes Rheul is solid as the ...er ...solid and dependable Anne who takes in Jack, Amanda Plummer is excellent as the object of Parry’s new-found romantic interest but stealing all the plaudits in his quest for the grail and his battle with demons, real and imagined, is Robin Williams in perhaps his greatest ever role, straddling Pathos and madness with a combination of wonderful comic brilliance and skillful deft acting and this Oscar nod here is perhaps his most deserved ever.  The script is one where almost every line feels poured over and precise and with this film Gilliam, much in need of a hit, showed that he could do so much more than Python-esque surreality making fantasy fantastic rather than silly.  

For those people who don’t mind if their films don’t have people who were former pop-stars or models  then this is a worthwhile film to add to your must-see list.  Terry Gilliam’s forgotten masterpiece, and arguably his modern-day retelling of Don Quixote ...Judge for yourself.  

And to add food for thought I've added not the trailer but possibly the most stunning visual from the film, ENJOY!

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2010/6/15/1276613842049/Jeff-Bridges-006.jpg

http://celluloidzombie.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/fisherking.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lASPrnWf6cA