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Gilliam eventually expanded on his sense of the visual when directing life-action movies with some theme to them, even for comedies like Brazil, which is a very visual and sometimes hallucinogenic movie, despite its comedy. The Fisher King has some similarities to this, but it's also largely a modern-day drama with real-life problems, largely trauma. This is actually a heavy-hitting movie in that respect. And somehow, Gilliam is able to bring out his comedy with this while still making the drama strong, often combining the two. See, there is such a thing as a dramedy, and they're common, but the absurdities of the plot are what make this movie a challenge to balance the two. It was a hard enough balance for Charlie Chaplin to manage the sentiment and the comedy without tonal shifts until Modern Times. This was handled just as artfully, if not more so. This is Gilliam's Modern Times.
The humor revolves around a large number of eccentricities. The trauma is largely displayed in a pitiful and adventurous form, which helps this movie to keep both the humorous and dramatic aspects of the story in pure harmony. Robin Williams' performance is too real not to love. This could easily be one of his best performances. His adventurous spirit is the very essence of blissful ignorance, but he takes his hallucinations as a way of life. So while we want to keep him from his hallucinations, we can also want to be a part of the adventure. We can sympathize with him every time he's on screen, but we want to have fun with him as well. We can also say the same for Jeff Bridges as his performance is effortless in its glory, and he learns a few things while running with this lone wolf in his own world. This world of Williams is partially built on hallucinations stemming from the trauma. For example, these scenes involving the red night in his head (and the overdressed actor and visuals that come with it) not only recall 80's charm and the vibes of the angelic / heroic form of our lead from Brazil in its visual aesthetics, but also manage to somehow maintain the strong vibes of the various tones without endangering the balance.
The one flaw: It's a TINY BIT SLOW. But most scenes that are slow have perfect dialogue.
I didn't think I was going to like The Fisher King this much. This could end up as one of my favorite movies of all time, because I really want to come back to this. This is Terry Gilliam on a stylistic rampage where he takes the time to perfect as much as possible while being himself as a director. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges are also being themselves, rocking their roles with a perfect sense of buddy charisma and even misunderstanding of each other, while letting their characters and their realistic dialogue handle the heavy themes. This is a wild, weird and surprisingly emotional movie that justifies its wackiness with both psychological behavior and mere plausibility, and I seriously recommend this for everyone. In fact, I'm reminded of the weirdest drama I've ever seen, American Beauty, which was totally out of whack. But This has less of a moral issue with its subject matter and is more consistent. So with its tiny flaw present, I'm going to give this a very slightly higher position on my chart than American Beauty.
= 99.5
Terry Gilliam's Directorial Score (7 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: 100
12 Monkeys: 100
The Fisher King: 99.5
Brazil: 95
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: 90
Score: 96.9 / 5
The Fisher King knocks off Jabberwocky (59), which forbids anything less than 90/100 from making the top 5. With 4 five-star ratings, Terry Gilliam's status in the greatest directors on my Best Directors List is cemented. Because his score raises from 88.8 / 5 to 96.9 / 5, Terry Gilliam raises on my Best Directors List from #70 to #18 between Brian De Palma and Ingmar Bergman.
The Fisher King
(1991) - Directed by Terry Gilliam
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Psycho-Drama / Dramedy / Buddy
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(1991) - Directed by Terry Gilliam
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Psycho-Drama / Dramedy / Buddy
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"Please let me have this!"
When I watch a Terry Gilliam movie, I want it to feel like a Terry Gilliam movie. He's got a distinct style which really works when he uses it, but his other movies tend to fail without it. In the mood for Gilliam, I went for the most highly-rated (as opposed to the most popular) movie of his that I haven't seen yet: The Fisher King. I knew nothing about the movie before giving it a shot, so I'm largely just forcing this on myself.
Jack (Jeff Bridges) was a radio talk-show host that people knew and loved. But one day, he tells a man to stop chasing after women who don't care about him, and he finds out this same man killed seven people in a restaurant before killing himself. Having quit his job, Jack works in a video store three years later, and is about to kill himself when a bunch of hoodlums rough him up, only to be saved by Perry (Robin Williams), a hobo with a severe trauma: seeing his wife killed by that same man on that same day. Now Jack is on a quest to help this delusionary man on the quest the Holy Grail in his own mind, and hopefully find purpose again.
So Gilliam, if you didn't know, is the ex-animator for Monty Python, and is responsible for the legend'ry black beast of
Jack (Jeff Bridges) was a radio talk-show host that people knew and loved. But one day, he tells a man to stop chasing after women who don't care about him, and he finds out this same man killed seven people in a restaurant before killing himself. Having quit his job, Jack works in a video store three years later, and is about to kill himself when a bunch of hoodlums rough him up, only to be saved by Perry (Robin Williams), a hobo with a severe trauma: seeing his wife killed by that same man on that same day. Now Jack is on a quest to help this delusionary man on the quest the Holy Grail in his own mind, and hopefully find purpose again.
So Gilliam, if you didn't know, is the ex-animator for Monty Python, and is responsible for the legend'ry black beast of
Gilliam eventually expanded on his sense of the visual when directing life-action movies with some theme to them, even for comedies like Brazil, which is a very visual and sometimes hallucinogenic movie, despite its comedy. The Fisher King has some similarities to this, but it's also largely a modern-day drama with real-life problems, largely trauma. This is actually a heavy-hitting movie in that respect. And somehow, Gilliam is able to bring out his comedy with this while still making the drama strong, often combining the two. See, there is such a thing as a dramedy, and they're common, but the absurdities of the plot are what make this movie a challenge to balance the two. It was a hard enough balance for Charlie Chaplin to manage the sentiment and the comedy without tonal shifts until Modern Times. This was handled just as artfully, if not more so. This is Gilliam's Modern Times.
The humor revolves around a large number of eccentricities. The trauma is largely displayed in a pitiful and adventurous form, which helps this movie to keep both the humorous and dramatic aspects of the story in pure harmony. Robin Williams' performance is too real not to love. This could easily be one of his best performances. His adventurous spirit is the very essence of blissful ignorance, but he takes his hallucinations as a way of life. So while we want to keep him from his hallucinations, we can also want to be a part of the adventure. We can sympathize with him every time he's on screen, but we want to have fun with him as well. We can also say the same for Jeff Bridges as his performance is effortless in its glory, and he learns a few things while running with this lone wolf in his own world. This world of Williams is partially built on hallucinations stemming from the trauma. For example, these scenes involving the red night in his head (and the overdressed actor and visuals that come with it) not only recall 80's charm and the vibes of the angelic / heroic form of our lead from Brazil in its visual aesthetics, but also manage to somehow maintain the strong vibes of the various tones without endangering the balance.
The one flaw: It's a TINY BIT SLOW. But most scenes that are slow have perfect dialogue.
I didn't think I was going to like The Fisher King this much. This could end up as one of my favorite movies of all time, because I really want to come back to this. This is Terry Gilliam on a stylistic rampage where he takes the time to perfect as much as possible while being himself as a director. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges are also being themselves, rocking their roles with a perfect sense of buddy charisma and even misunderstanding of each other, while letting their characters and their realistic dialogue handle the heavy themes. This is a wild, weird and surprisingly emotional movie that justifies its wackiness with both psychological behavior and mere plausibility, and I seriously recommend this for everyone. In fact, I'm reminded of the weirdest drama I've ever seen, American Beauty, which was totally out of whack. But This has less of a moral issue with its subject matter and is more consistent. So with its tiny flaw present, I'm going to give this a very slightly higher position on my chart than American Beauty.
= 99.5
Terry Gilliam's Directorial Score (7 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: 100
12 Monkeys: 100
The Fisher King: 99.5
Brazil: 95
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: 90
Score: 96.9 / 5
The Fisher King knocks off Jabberwocky (59), which forbids anything less than 90/100 from making the top 5. With 4 five-star ratings, Terry Gilliam's status in the greatest directors on my Best Directors List is cemented. Because his score raises from 88.8 / 5 to 96.9 / 5, Terry Gilliam raises on my Best Directors List from #70 to #18 between Brian De Palma and Ingmar Bergman.