Gilliam's Fisher King

[Laura Clifford <lcliffor@cc7.bbn.com>]

I know a lot of Love-hounds consider 'Brazil' one of their favorite films,
so thought this was relevant.

Saw a screening of Gilliam's new 'The Fisher King' starring Robin Williams,
Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, and Amanda Plummer last night.  It was GREAT!!
I think it's Gilliam's best film to date, although, interestingly, this
was not his project from inception- he was a 'hired director' on this one.
(Just to give some perspective to my tastes, I thought Brazil was good,
but not great - say *** out of ****.)

Jeff Bridges is a slimy radio talk show host whose lack of compassion
goads one of his regular callers to go beserk and mass murder 8 people
in a yuppie bar.  Bridges' career plummets.  One night, totally drunk,
he's attacked by two kids who want to set the bum on fire.  He's saved
by Perry (Williams), a kook dressed as a knight, and his rag tag band
of homeless.  Perry is obviously totally mad, but he gets under Bridges
skin.  When Bridges looks into Perry a little bit more, he finds out
Perry was at that yuppie bar and saw his wife killed before his eyes...

That's the setup.  This is a very philosophical film told like a fairy
tale with lots of humor and pathos (although never overly sentimental).
I only had one small problem with Bridges character development near
the end, but I guess it was essential to the plot - just could have
been handled more deftly.