# The Fisher King

The Fisher King is a 1991 American fantasy comedy drama film written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Terry Gilliam. Starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, with Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer and Michael Jeter, the film tells the story of a radio shock jock who tries to find redemption by helping a man whose life he inadvertently shattered. It explores "the intermingling of New York City's usually strictly separated social strata", and has been described as "a modern-day Grail Quest that fused New York romantic comedy with timeless fantasy".
The film was released in the United States by Tri-Star Pictures on September 20, 1991. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, and grossed $72 million on a $24 million budget. At the 64th Academy Awards, the film earned five nominations, including Best Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for LaGravenese, with Ruehl winning Best Supporting Actress, making The Fisher King the only Oscar-winning film of Gilliam's career.

## Plot

Jack Lucas, a narcissistic, misanthropic shock jock, dismisses a disturbed regular caller, Edwin, over his infatuation with a woman he met at a Manhattan restaurant, brashly describing her social circle as a vain enemy to people like Edwin that "must be stopped before it's too late". Meanwhile, Jack has an equally vain girlfriend, a high rise penthouse apartment, and is in consideration for the lead in a comedic TV pilot. While practicing a line read at home, he turns on a news report and discovers his comments spurred Edwin to commit a mass murder–suicide at the restaurant, to his horror.
Three years later, Jack is working for his new girlfriend, Anne, in her video store, and is in a mostly drunken, depressed state, fearful of being recognized. One night, while on a bender, he is moments from suicide. However, he is attacked and nearly set on fire by teenage punks who mistake him for a homeless person. He is rescued by Parry, a delusional homeless man who claims to have been tasked by cherubs to find the Holy Grail.
Parry tries to enlist Jack's help in getting the Grail, relaying the legend of God charging the Fisher King with finding the Holy Grail, but the King incurred an incapacitating wound for his sin of pride. "A Fool asks the King why he suffers, and when the King says he is thirsty, the Fool gives him a cup of water to drink. The King realizes the cup is the Grail and asks, 'How did you find what my brightest and bravest could not?' The Fool said 'I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty.'"
Jack is initially reluctant, but acquiesces after learning his role in Parry's current condition. Parry, whose real name is Henry Sagan, had been a teacher at Hunter College. After witnessing his wife's gruesome death during Edwin's massacre, Henry had a psychotic break and became catatonic. When he awakened, he took on the persona of Parry and became obsessed with the legend of the Fisher King. With Parry as his shielding persona, mentions of reality panic him, and he is continually haunted by a terrifying, hallucinatory Red Knight, from a distorted memory of his wife's face exploding from a shotgun blast.
Jack seeks to redeem himself by helping Parry find love again. Lydia, a shy woman with whom Parry is smitten, is at first sent a cabaret telegram performed by a homeless singer, inviting her to Anne's video store membership. While there, she's prodded to meet Parry for joining Jack and Anne for dinner. Afterward, Parry walks Lydia home and declares his love for her from observing her for months. She reciprocates before heading inside, but Parry's initiating a new romance summons the Red Knight. Fleeing his vision, the memory of his wife's murder, and his institutionalization, he is ambushed by the same punks against whom he had defended Jack. Beaten and knifed mercilessly, Parry becomes catatonic again. Jack, feeling whole again after "saving" Parry, breaks up with Anne and begins to rebuild his career. However, he has a crisis of conscience during a sitcom pitch after ignoring the homeless cabaret singer's reaching out to him.
After finding out what happened to Parry, Jack furiously wrestles with his self-loathing and Parry's earlier belief in him. Ultimately wanting to help his friend, dons Parry's clothing and infiltrates the Upper East Side castle of a famous architect and retrieves the "Grail", a trophy that Parry believes to be the real Grail. During the theft, Jack finds the architect unconscious from attempting suicide. He triggers the alarm while leaving, alerting authorities and saving the man's life.
When he brings the "Grail" to Parry, Parry regains consciousness and tells a silent Jack that he is ready to miss his wife. Lydia visits Parry in the hospital; she finds him awake and leading the patients of the ward in a rendition of the song, "How About You?", with Jack. Parry and Lydia embrace, and Jack reconciles with Anne, telling her that he loves her. She slaps him, but grabs and kisses him. That night, Jack and Parry lie naked in Central Park gazing at the clouds, as they view a fireworks display over New York.

## Cast

* Robin Williams as Henry "Parry" Sagan
* Jeff Bridges as Jack Lucas
* Mercedes Ruehl as Anne Napolitano
* Amanda Plummer as Lydia Sinclair
* Christian Clemenson as Edwin Malnek
* Michael Jeter as Homeless Cabaret Singer
* David Hyde Pierce as Lou Rosen
* Lara Harris as Sondra
* Harry Shearer as Ben Starr
* William Jay Marshall as Jamaican Bum
* Chris Howell as the Red Knight
* Kathy Najimy as Crazed Video Customer
* John de Lancie as TV Executive
* Tom Waits as Disabled Veteran
* Melinda Culea as Sitcom Wife
* Paul Michael Lombardi as Radio Engineer
* Ted Ross as Limo Bum

## Production

During an appearance on an episode of The Directors, Gilliam said that he wanted to do the film because he was tired of big-budget special-effects films, such as his previous film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which went over budget and cost more than $45 million, nearly twice as much as The Fisher King's budget of $24 million. This was the first film that Gilliam directed in which he was not involved in writing the screenplay, as well as his first film to not feature any other members of Monty Python.
According to The Directors episode, Gilliam came up with the scene in which Robin Williams shadows Amanda Plummer through a large crowd performing a waltz in the middle of Grand Central Terminal because he felt that the scene that LaGravenese had written, in which a large group of people in a crowded subway listen to a homeless woman sing with a beautiful voice that fills the room, was not working. Initially, he hesitated about this because his original intentions were to shoot the script, and the waltz would make it "a Terry Gilliam film". The scene was shot in one night with a mix of professional extras and passengers alighting from the train.

## Reception
### Box office

The film did moderately well at the box office, with a gross of almost $42 million in the United States and Canada, and an international gross of $30.5 million, for a worldwide total of $72.4 million.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Fisher King has an approval rating of 85%, based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "An odd but affecting mixture of drama, comedy and fantasy, The Fisher King manages to balance moving performances from Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges with director Terry Gilliam's typically askew universe." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on scale of A+ to F.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that the film "sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance".
John Simon of the National Review described The Fisher King as "one of the most nonsensical, pretentious, mawkishly cloying movies I ever had to wretch[sic] through".
Following Robin Williams's death, a reappraisal of the film on RogerEbert.com said that "no Williams film can hit harder—or be so fully consoling in such heartbreaking circumstances—than The Fisher King", in which his character "gradually simmers to a boil of bristling insecurities, terror and agonizing internalized pain".

## Accolades

| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
| Academy Awards | Best Actor | Robin Williams | Nominated |
| Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Academy Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Richard LaGravenese | Nominated |
| Academy Awards | Best Production Design | Art Direction: Mel Bourne; Set Decoration: Cindy Carr | Nominated |
| Academy Awards | Best Original Score | George Fenton | Nominated |
| American Comedy Awards | Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) | Robin Williams | Nominated |
| American Comedy Awards | Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Artios Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Comedy | Howard Feuer | Won |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Amanda Plummer | Nominated |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Richard LaGravenese | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Director | Terry Gilliam | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Amanda Plummer | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Association Awards | Best Film | Best Film | Nominated |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Association Awards | Best Actor | Robin Williams | Nominated |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Amanda Plummer | Nominated |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Jeff Bridges | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Robin Williams | Won |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Director | Terry Gilliam | Nominated |
| Guldbagge Awards | Best Foreign Film | Best Foreign Film | Nominated |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Film | Best Film | Runner-up |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Director | Terry Gilliam | Runner-up |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Amanda Plummer | Runner-up |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Screenplay | Richard LaGravenese | Runner-up |
| Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Film | Best Fantasy Film | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | Best Actor | Jeff Bridges | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | Best Actor | Robin Williams | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Saturn Awards | Best Director | Terry Gilliam | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | Best Writing | Richard LaGravenese | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | Best Costumes | Beatrix Aruna Pasztor | Nominated |
| Toronto Film Critics Association Awards | People's Choice Award | Terry Gilliam | Won |
| Turkish Film Critics Association Awards | Best Foreign Film | Best Foreign Film | 6th Place |
| Venice International Film Festival | Golden Lion | Terry Gilliam | Nominated |
| Venice International Film Festival | Little Golden Lion | Terry Gilliam | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | Silver Lion | Terry Gilliam | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | Best Actress (Pasinetti Award) | Mercedes Ruehl | Won |
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen | Richard LaGravenese | Nominated |

## Home media
### Laserdisc

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Columbia TriStar Home Video in 1992. The first Laserdisc release was a fullscreen presentation, but showed more vertical information while cropping horizontally. The second release in 1997 presented the film in its 1.85:1 theatrical ratio. The Criterion Collection released their Laserdisc version in 1993 with several extras that have not surfaced on any other release, and a director-approved widescreen transfer in 1.66:1.

### DVD and Blu-ray

The film was released on DVD in 1999 by Columbia TriStar Home Video, using the same master as the 1997 Laserdisc release, with only the theatrical trailer as a special feature. In 2011, Image Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, utilizing a new high-definition master in the 1.85:1 theatrical ratio, with Dolby Digital Tru-HD 5.1 surround, with no special features.
On June 23, 2015, The Criterion Collection re-released the film on Blu-ray and DVD, featuring a brand new 2K transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound mix.
On April 11, 2023, Criterion again released the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, featuring a brand new 4K restoration approved by Terry Gilliam.