The Fisher King is a dramatic comedy that concerns one man's attempt to redeem himself from a life of fatal cynicism through his unlikely alliance with a visionary street person.1

The film was directed by Terry Gilliam who, as part of the Monty Python team, had been involved in Holy Grail imagery before, albeit in a comedic aspect, in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. However, there is comedy in The Fisher King too, although it is mixed with dark seriousness and moments of violence.

The character of Parry is played by Robin Williams. A former professor of medieval history, this character has suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of witnessing the violent and bloody shooting of his wife, gunned down by a deranged madman in an uptown New York restaurant. He lives in a world of his own creation, his is a New York of Arthurian Quest, Damsels in distress, the evil red knight, and, of course, the Holy Grail. Jeff Bridges plays the other male lead, that of Jack Lucas; He is the menace of Manhatten's airwaves, the city's No. 1 shock DJ 2. He is cynical, arrogant and self-centered. He considers other peoples problems as a joke, treating them with disdain, putting them down with pithy one-liners and inconsiderate outbursts across the airwaves of his talk show. Within the first ten minutes of the film his attitude is made apparent, as is the throwaway action that is to turn his life around: A regular caller phones in telling Jack of his new love, Jack treats it with spite, unloading some of his own pent up dysfunctional attitudes upon the faceless caller. This quiet, unassuming butt of Lucas's tirade is the man who walks into the restaurant and guns a number of people down, including Parry's partner. Jack Lucas learns of this tragedy as he self-indulgently rehearses his one line catchphrase that was going to launch his television career, he hears the news on the television, and his life collapses around him.

There is a three year interlude and we rejoin Jack, now an out of work alcoholic living above a video rental shop with the owner, his girlfriend Anne, played by Mercedes Ruehl. He attempts to help out in the store, but is disinterested, more concerned with the guilt and self-hatred he now feels because of what happened. They argue, and he rushes out wandering the streets drunk, being mistaken by a rich man's son for a homeless person, who gives him a Pinnochio puppet, perhaps symbolising lying to ones self, (Parry later makes an allusion to this with Jack: miming his nose growing longer when Jack attempts to lie to himself). He ends up by the river contemplating suicide when he is, again, mistaken for a down and out. This time, however, it has more sinister overtones. A gang of punk teenagers, intent on cleaning up their area of drunks and tramps, beat Lucas up, pour gasoline over him, and are ready to set him on fire, when another tramp appears on the scene and with the help of friends saves Lucas. This is the first time Parry and Lucas meet, seemingly unaware of their former tragic connection.

At first, Lucas is convinced that Parry is just another mentally ill victim of society. The sort of person he had no time for in his former life. Parry sees little people, sees his own fears and terror personified in the red Knight, and talks about the Grail existing in a house owned by a New York Billionaire. Parry can not attain the grail, in his own mind he feels unable to do so because of his fear of the red knight. The unseen people he converses with have told him that Lucas is the one to win it. Lucas does not want to know, even though he has learned who Parry was and his part in altering Parry's life. He goes back to his life above the video store, but his life has changed. The past has returned, he can no longer ignore his wounded self. It is time to face the guilt, to repay the debt. He feels this. He genuinely feels he is personally responsible for killing the people in the restaurant. "I wish I could just pay the fine and walk away" he says, still viewing the cure in financial, worldly terms. He tries to buy his absolution, giving Parry money, but Parry gives it to another tramp, saying he does not need money. Parry knows that this is a spiritual quest, a quest for healing and transformation. To give money would be the easy way out and true forgiveness, true understanding does not come so easy. One gets the feeling that from the very first time they meet Parry, despite the mental turmoil he has suffered, knows who Lucas really is. Knows that, indeed, he is the one, the only one who can bring about a complete healing for them both. There is a moment when Lucas actually speaks in his old DJ manner with Parry.

Lucas begins to help Parry, trying to get him together with a woman he loves from afar. This is the sub-plot much exploited for comic effect. Though through this, Lucas begins to learn more about himself and of compassion for others; feelings new to him. This is particularly apparent when he and Parry help a homosexual man, taking him to hospital. At first the audience is led to view this man from Lucas's old self. To think of him as pitiful, one of life's victims. In hospital, covered in blood he talks to Lucas and we learn that he has watched his friends die of AIDS. Lucas hugs him, probably the first time he has felt this level of compassion for a stranger. However, Lucas is still too worldly to get mixed up into breaking into a mansion to steal a cup. Parry finds love in the character of Lydia, played by Amanda Plummer and it is only when he has won his damsel that the horrors of his past return in the form of the red knight. This is an amazing filmatic creation. Keith Greco and Vincent Jefferds of R&R Design of Los Angeles built the armour 3:

The concept was of a 500 year old incarnation of evil, of corrupted chivalry, that's
disintegrated and smouldering inside-a Red Knightmare........Our idea was of an
illuminated manuscript of a knight with all the flourishing heraldic fabric, so from
the front he looks like he's swimming in burning fabric 4.

Beneath the Red Knight's costume was stunt co-ordinator Chris Howell carrying a sixteen pound flamethrower on his head that shot forth the hell like flame from the helmet. The whole effect and shape of the knight also mimics the spray of blood from the shotgun blast and this connection is intensified with flashbacks of the terrible moment. The Red Knight chases Parry to the riverside. The gang reappears led on in Parry's mind by the Knight. He is badly beaten up by them. As they hit him, he says thank you. Did he wish he had taken the shotgun blast instead of his wife, and now symbolically can do so. Does he also know deep down that he must undergo another catatonic coma to be fully healed.

This acts as the final impetus for Lucas to attempt the break in to steal the cup. Dressed like Parry, he enters the castle like house of the billionaire. As he descends the stairs he sees a figure ascending, this turns and fires a ghostly shotgun before disappearing: It is the ghost of the killer who committed suicide after his act of massacre. Is there some truth in all that Parry has said and seen, does Lucas, now on his own quest, see this other dimension too. He finds the cup that turns out to be a presentation trophy, but this is not important because to Parry it has become to symbolise in a very metaphysical sense the true Grail. Lucas turns to see the billionaire slumped in his chair, having taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Whether this was a mistake or a deliberate act is left for the viewer to decide. Is this billionaire the rich fisher of Grail legend who has become the wounded King, unable to find healing in a wasteland of his own making, has he tired of the stagnating pain and tried to end his life. Why is the ghost of the killer there, is he somehow tied into the Grail, or connected to the billionaire. was he too a Grail seeker who strayed from the path, unable to contain the power within, becoming dysfunctional and turning to violence, in a similar way to the red and black Knights of Grail mythology. The billionaire is, presumably, saved because of Lucas deliberately setting off the house alarms to bring help; in so doing he is saving another fisher king. Parry is saved, Lucas is redeemed, and they both get their girl, but how much of this contains the true story of the Holy Grail?