Product: The Fisher King [VHS] (1991)
Rating: 4.0
Bravo for a well done retelling of a classic myth
This is a very good DVD with a story that remains fresh. The story is built on the armature of the ancient story of the Fisher King. The Fisher King is played here by Robin Williams, a former college professor at Hunter College, who's wife is murdered. From this point on he is mentally wounded and appears to much of the world as a homeless mentally ill man.But we know from the ancient myth that only a Knight who has been cleansed of sin can retreive the Holy Grail and cure the wounded Fisher King. Jeff Bridges plays this part. He is an extremely successful radio personality who is filled with arrogance, contempt for his fellow man, and self absorption. Yet he provokes a listener to commit a violent crime, a mass killing in a dinner club, and this links Jack to to Parry, who lost his wife in the massacre.Jack is hard-headed however, and he has to sink very low before he can become honest with himself. He loses his job, his sophisticated girl-friend, his wealth, and becomes an alcoholic. At the depths of his fall, he meets Parry, who rescues him from young punks. Jack soon learns that Parry is mentally ill since the death of his wife and Jack decides to move out of his own self pity and attempt to give Parry back his life. Jack is living with a woman, played by Mercedes Ruehl, but he will not open himself to love her since despite her big heart, she is far from the sophisticated women he once courted.This leads to the most humorous part of the film where Jack tries to fix Parry up with a strange young woman, played by Amanda Plummer, whom Parry has grown to love from a distance. Jack does finally move out of himself and help someone else and sure enough he gets a job opportunity.The strength of the film is that Jack regresses to his old arrogant self and denies the homeless folks he has befriended and even denies, Mercedes Ruehl, the woman who is devoted to him and helped him arrange the date between Parry and Amanda Plummer's character.However as sneering Jack rises, Parry falls. He fears rejection and loss (symbolized in the film by the Red Knight)and after being beaten by punks, he goes into a catatonic state. Jack knows that only by obtaining the Holy Grail will the Fisher King be cured.Much more action occurs and eventually Jack realizes the mistakes he made and the loss of Mercedes Ruehl. He returns to her after obtaining the Grail and we realize he is the Knight that has sought redemption and thus can obtain the Grail to cure the Fisher King.The drag show performed by Michael Jeter in Amanda Plummer's quite office is worth the price of the video. It is the most over the top scene in this over the top film.The strength of this really excellent film is that it brings to life an ancient myth that through redemption we become better people and as better people, we can move out of our own self interest and move toward the heroic act of helping another and as we heal, the kingdom becomes a better place for us all.