The Fisher King (1991) on Netflix
Shock jock Jack Lucas makes a glib remark to a caller, and a murder spree follows. Three years later he meets Parry, a homeless man on a quest for the Holy Grail.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.5/1097,629 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes84%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jack Lucas is a narcissistic New York call-in radio host with a penthouse apartment, a girlfriend and a shot at a television pilot when a glib on-air remark to a regular caller named Edwin sets off a mass murder at a Manhattan restaurant. Three years on, Jack is broke, drinking, frightened of being recognized, and working in the video store of his girlfriend Anne. One night, drunk and despondent, he is attacked by teenage punks and rescued by Parry, a homeless man who says cherubs have told him to find the Holy Grail. Parry recounts the legend of the Fisher King, wounded for his pride, and Jack agrees to help him.
Cast
- William Jay Marshallas Jamaican Bum
- Chris Howellas Red Knight
- Adam Bryantas Radio Engineer
- Paul Lombardias Radio Engineer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Fisher King (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- At the 64th Academy Awards the film took five nominations, including Best Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for LaGravenese, and Ruehl won Best Supporting Actress, making The Fisher King the only Oscar-winning film of Gilliam's career to date.
- Richard LaGravenese had to jettison his first draft after finding it too similar to Rain Man. Jack Lucas was a cynical cab driver until LaGravenese had an epiphany while listening to The Howard Stern Show, which made him turn the character into a DJ.
- Gilliam took the film on after The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which had gone so far over budget that it cost more than $45 million, nearly double The Fisher King's $24 million. It was also the first film he directed without writing the screenplay, and his first without any other member of Monty Python.
- Gilliam invented the scene in which Robin Williams shadows Amanda Plummer through a waltzing crowd in Grand Central Terminal, feeling that LaGravenese's original scene, a homeless woman's singing filling a subway, was not working. The waltz was shot in a single night using a mix of professional extras and actual train passengers.
