The Fisher King (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-Jacob The Liar, Jumanji, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Starman
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	132:03
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (76:49)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Terry Gilliam
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Jeff Bridges Robin Williams Mercedes Ruehl Amanda Plummer David Hyde Pierce Ted Ross Lara Harris Warren Olney Frazer Smith Kathy Najimy Harry Shearer
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	George Fenton Robert J. Walsh

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Russian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Russian Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    A simple philosophy to live by: 
"There are three things in this world that you need: 
Respect for all kinds of life, a nice bowel movement on a regular basis... and a navy blazer!" (Parry, Robin Williams)

    The Fisher King is one of the most satisfying "feel good" films you will ever see. I would also argue that this film is nothing short of Terry Gilliam's finest accomplishment. Whilst that's a very big call up against such brilliant works as Brazil (1985) and 12 Monkeys (1995), these other films - as is the case with most Terry Gilliam films - require some investment on the part of the viewer before rewarding in spades. The Fisher King on the other hand is quite unusual in the Terry Gilliam catalogue in that it is a much more linear, accessible and "down-to-earth" feature, and so can immediately appeal to a wider audience, but yet without compromising for a minute that uniquely off-beat sense of characterisation and visual style that distinguishes a Gilliam film experience as so refreshing.

    For many of us, The Fisher King is probably one of those films you enjoyed visiting once or maybe twice on VHS way back in the early 1990s, but then have since forgotten about and haven't got around to seeing again recently. No doubt this is principally due to the fact that it has not been available on DVD (at least here in Region 4). Well this film certainly has been a long time overdue for a Region 4 DVD release, but now, finally, this truly rewarding piece of cinema is available to us for posterity on our beloved disc format.

    For those who haven't seen the film before, The Fisher King might be summarised rather contritely as a story of redemption and finding faith and love in the human spirit. The film might also be categorised - if one must resort to categorisations - as a romantic comedy. But before this scares you away, let me hasten to add that this film is indeed much more than that. The film is almost a fable - and, indeed, it has been titled after a fable, as elucidated by one of the film's central characters, Parry (Robin Williams), about half way through the movie. But whilst "a fable about redemption and finding faith and love in the human spirit" might sound rather banal and simplistic, never fear, as being a Terry Gilliam epic this little fable happens to be told using a rather involving and off-beat storyline that evokes a rather dark and at times surrealistic undercurrent of emotions. Oh, and being a Terry Gilliam film, the plot also manages to successfully weave in the modern day search for the Holy Grail - of course!

    So what is it about? The story focuses on Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), a successful, self-centred, opinionated, narcissistic and not very likeable 'shock-jock', who as the movie starts has the world at his feet. That is until one day one of his radio fans takes Jack's rather flippant off-hand remarks about a certain section of society just a little too seriously and casually blows away several innocent people in a city restaurant, before turning the gun on himself. Suddenly Jack Lucas' world crumbles around him. Feeling the weight of responsibility for indirectly inciting the homicide of several innocent people, Jack goes into a rapid decline and soon finds himself a drunken, suicidal bum living on the streets. Attacked by some young hoods, Jack is lucky to be rescued by a rather strange man, the schizophrenic, but enigmatic and completely likeable bum Parry (Robin Williams). Parry introduces himself to Jack as a "knight" and a "janitor of God". He also casually explains to Jack that he is on a quest for the Holy Grail and that, as it happens, he already knows where the grail is (that's the easy part, it's held by a billionaire in his personal library, on Fifth Avenue), he just needs some help to actually get it!  Parry is also haunted in his life by the frequent appearance of a terrifying Red Knight, a surrealistic physical manifestation of Parry's deepest fears. Clearly Parry has a few loose wires upstairs to deal with, but we soon learn that, just like Jack, he also used to lead a normal life and there is a valid reason for his decline and now strange behaviour, as Parry too is tormented by a tragic event from the past. Is it chance that these two men's lives cross, or was it meant to happen?... In any event, Jack is determined to help out his new friend and, in so becoming a good Samaritan, also help to drag himself out of the quagmire of his own despair.

    Now Parry is desperately in love with Lydia (Amanda Plummer) and dotes on her every day as she goes about her boring daily routine. Nothing wrong here. It's just that the only trouble is Lydia doesn't know of Parry's feelings for her. In fact, she doesn't even know that this strange bum is stalking her!  So Jack and his faithful girlfriend Anne (Mercedes Ruehl) devise a plan to match make these two incongruous people. The rest of the story unfolds to include everything from contributions from a hilarious homeless cabaret singer, a competition for free video-club membership, visits to a psychiatric ward of the local hospital (scenes very reminiscent of 12 Monkeys)..... oh, and of course that quest for the Holy Grail. Amazingly, in a way that only Gilliam could achieve, all of these bizarre and disparate plot elements are seamlessly brought together and resolved by the end of the film, which will definitely leave you on an emotional high (you know that feeling where you're trying to laugh and cry at the same time?...).

    It is not just Richard LaGravenese's fantastic original story or Terry Gilliam's stylistic direction that make The Fisher King a wonderfully enjoyable two hours of entertainment. It's also the acting - all of the acting - in this film that is first rate. Of course there's Robin Williams being his zany, spontaneous self, ad-libbing lines like crazy and adding subtle comedy to his character at every turn, whilst still mustering believability and empathy as well as any serious actor when he needs to (can this man do no wrong?). But it's really Jeff Bridges that steals the show here, in my view. He delivers a knock-out performance and if ever you needed any convincing at all what a brilliant actor the man can be, you need look no further than this movie. The two male leads gel and that's what gives this film great heart. They are also strongly supported by the two female leads, being Mercedes Ruehl (as Jack's girlfriend Anne) and the quirky but highly likeable Amanda Plummer (as Lydia), and a great cast of supports. Mercedes Ruehl actually won the 1992 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this film, and Robin Williams was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Both deservedly so. I don't know why for the life of me Jeff Bridges wasn't also nominated for his performance.

    Just see the film. Or see it again as the case may be. You'll love it.

Video

    The presented aspect ratio is close enough to the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 so as not to matter. (I measured the DVD's aspect ratio at 1.81:1, and it appears that the image might have been very marginally cropped.)  The transfer is presented 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is surprisingly detailed and clear. Yes there is some visible film grain and a softness to resolution noted to several scenes that would be perfectly expected for a film source of this age, and this softness is highlighted more so in several of the indoor/low light scenes. Yet for the most part the image on offer is in fact quite detailed and well rendered, presenting a more than sufficient level of resolution to all foreground images and (in most cases) background images. Shadow detail is also quite well handled in this transfer for a film of this age. No low level noise issues are noted.

    The handling of colour is where this modest little transfer shines. Whilst the director has employed a generally drab and washed out colour palette for the first half of the film, to reflect the down-and-out nature of the life of the two central characters at this point, the colours are handled faithfully by the transfer. As the film progresses though, there is a gradual and highly effective increase by the director in the use of colour employed, particularly for stark relief of such central images as the appearances of the Red Knight (very impacting against its drab street surroundings) and the Chinese restaurant scene. The DVD transfer handles all these colours and contrasts faithfully, providing natural skin tones and great saturation when called upon. Black levels are for the most part deep and solid, although the black levels do slip a bit to become a tad murky in one or two night-time scenes - but no doubt this is probably just a function of the age and quality of the originally used film stock.

    No MPEG artefacts are noted in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts are virtually non-existent, with the only issue noted being some instances of near-aliasing breakout in the fine lines of things like the Venetian blinds in Jack's apartment - although on my TV setup such instances remain just on the verge of breaking out into aliasing without actually doing so. Film artefacts are also - amazingly - all but absent here. I was quite surprised for a film of this age not to see many more tiny film flecks, scratches or positive/negative marks, particularly seeing as it appears the transfer has not received any special remastering treatment. There are some minor film artefacts here, but they are both minor, infrequent and not distracting. The interpositive from which this DVD transfer was sourced was clearly of high quality and well maintained.

    The DVD boasts more subtitle language options than you can poke a stick at. I sampled the English subtitle stream for a good portion of the feature and found them to be well placed, easy to read and quite accurate, with only the usual liberties taken to summarise some lines.

    The disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring at 76:49. The change is mid-scene, yet the layer change is negotiated perfectly seamlessly to the action. This is in fact one of the best layer changes (for a non Superbit title) that I have seen in recent times.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are a total of seven different language audio tracks available on this DVD, all of which are Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround (at 192 Kb/s). This is fine and perfectly commensurate with the film's theatrical release in 1991 with Dolby Stereo SR audio.

     Dialogue quality is excellent, remaining perfectly clear and strong in the mix, with no dropouts or instances of mumbled/lost lines noted. (I did not even have any problems deciphering dialogue during the many instances of Robin Williams' quick-fire dialogue.)  I did not have any material problems with the audio sync, although there is the occasional instance of less-than-perfect ADR for some lines, if you really want to look out for it.

    The original music score for this film is provided by George Fenton and Robert Walsh, each a veteran composer of a long list of film and TV scores over the years. I can't recall their efforts in this film being anything outstanding, but it seemed to do the job unobtrusively. The music track also features some great original old songs, used very effectively. The DVD audio transfer handles the music well across the midranges, although I did find it lacked a bit of punch at the bottom end (maybe just because of the subject material itself).

    Despite the audio track utilising only matrixed surround sound, the level and effectiveness of surround activity on this audio track rates well. The surround use is at times subtle, at other times quite aggressive for a 2.0 Surround recording, but on balance is a surprisingly successful mix in expanding the soundstage for what is essentially an older stereo soundtrack. The surrounds are used most effectively for swells in the music score, for various sound effects and for room ambience. Of course, being only matrixed surround audio, and with the surround channel use being admittedly not 100% constant throughout the entire length of the feature, the audio track will not "immerse the viewer completely" in the film in the same way that a more modern, thoroughly designed 5.1 channel mix would. But for an older recording, it is evident that the quality of the source recording and mixing here is of a high standard.

    The subwoofer doesn't get very much to do in this audio track. Depending on your amplifier's bass management setting, the subwoofer does help out the main channels for the occasional knock and bump and to provide some emphasis in the more dramatic action pieces, but otherwise there is little subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Not a sausage. Now this is extremely disappointing, to the point of being criminal, given the number of Terry Gilliam fans out there who would have loved the benefit of any insight at all into the process of filming this truly great movie. Furthermore, it is a travesty that no extras could be found when you consider the quality of great making-of extras to have graced several other Gilliam DVD releases (most notably the making-of featurettes on 12 Monkeys and Brazil). This time around we do not even get a theatrical trailer! Bah!....

    The menus are very basic, being still menus only with no audio underscore. Still, at least the menus are in the appropriate aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced and functionally service this bare bones disc. The main menu screen gives access to audio language setup, subtitle setup, scene selection and "theatrical trailers", but when you excitedly select this option, unfortunately you are only confronted with theatrical trailers for other unrelated features.

    The film was also released on DVD in Region 2 last year, this time in a completely identical disc format to our new Region 4 release. The identical nature of all specs is confirmed not only from the European reviews confirming the disc specs, but also by the fact that both the European disc and our new Australian disc are zoned Region 2,4,5, indicating these discs are indeed identical.

    Unfortunately, it's a bare bones disc - the same as other Region releases. At least to compensate for that, we do get a great video and audio transfer.

    Being released at a bargain-basement price, you must have this DVD as part of your collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall