Four years (and one week) ago today, I posted on Facebook the following statement regarding this week's film: "If you've never seen it, do yourself a favour, drop whatever it is you're doing in the moment, and watch this film. It is a moral imperative!"
I'm
going to state an unpopular opinion. Don't worry--I have my reasons.
I've always felt that Anthony Hopkins should not have won the Oscar for
playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Yeah, I
said it. Don't get me wrong--he did a fantastic job in the role. I
just felt that he should have not won in the Best Leading Actor
category. I thought that, given his amount of screen time, it
would have been better had he been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
(If you're an Oscar junkie like I am, you know that that would have put
him in contention with Jack Palance who won the category that year for City Slickers. Tough call on that one.) More on the Academy Awards in a bit.
The
older I get, the more amazed I am that certain works of
art--particularly film and music--can move me on a deep, emotional, even
spiritual level. This week's film always does that to me. Like so
many works of art that do move me, I couldn't begin to tell you why or
how. I just know one minute I can be laughing my ass off, the next
minute sobbing, and the next minute smiling through the tears because I
recognize some intangible truth in my own life that I can't quite put my
finger on.
Without
giving too much away if you haven't seen it--again, moral
imperative--Jack Lucas (played by Jeff Bridges) is a down and out former
yuppie morning "shock jock" who finds his life intertwined with Parry
(Robin Williams), a homeless man who suffered a terrible tragedy, now
believes he's a knight on a quest to find the Holy Grail, and has
delusions involving fairies, little people, and the dreaded Red Knight.
Jack feels responsible for helping Parry and enlists his girlfriend
Anne (played by Mercedes Ruehl who won the film's only Oscar for Best
Supporting Actress) to help Parry win the girl of his dreams (Amanda
Plummer).
This
is one of those films where every element works in conjunction and in
harmony with every other element. If any little part had been
different, whether it be the writer, the director, the production
design, or even a non-speaking extra, I'm not sure it would have been as
good a movie as it is. It celebrates the beauty in life, but doesn't
shy away from the ugliness. It's a cinematic masterpiece. I don't
watch it as often as I should--but that's true of other films that move
me.
"When
I watched the film a couple weeks after Robin [Williams] died, I was
full of trepidation, to say the least. And I came out at the end just
grinning like a fool, because Robin's alive. He will live forever in
that character. That is Robin--all of his madness, all of his
sweetness, all of his vulnerability, all of his dangerousness. It's all
in there."
--Director Terry Gilliam on Robin Williams in The Fisher King
Robin
Williams received his third Oscar nomination for playing Parry. I
still contend that he should have won. Yeah, I know--Hannibal Lecter
and all that. But you don't feel for the doctor the way you feel for
Parry (or... at least I hope not). In fact, all the characters are
sympathetic and likeable. You feel for all of them--even Jack who can
be a real self-centered asshole. Especially Jack because he's a
real self-centered asshole and you generally get the impression that he
doesn't want to be and is just a broken man searching for a quick and
easy way to put himself back together. I think Bridges should have also
been nominated along with Plummer and even Michael Jeter.
I
can't imagine anyone but an oddball like Terry Gilliam directing this
film--granted, I'm biased as both a fan of Gilliam as well as oddballs.
He had a wonderful vision of Richard LaGravenese's script and brought
forth magic. It was a shame he wasn't also nominated for Best
Director. I would have also nominated it for Best Picture. At the end
of the day, it makes you feel better about the world and quite possibly
yourself than The Silence of the Lambs ever could--no matter how
great that movie is too. What's really interesting to me is that, in
spite of everything I've just written, I still feel as if I've been
struck speechless by this beautiful work of art.
Featuring
Harry Nilsson's last recording (an adaptation of "How About You?"
written by Ralph Freed and Burton Lane, heard over the end credits) as well as appearances by David
Hyde Pierce, Kathy Najimy, Harry Shearer, and an uncredited cameo by the great Tom
Waits, this week please enjoy The Fisher King.
As
I said in my album "sermon," I'll be taking a few weeks away from
writing these. Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours,
and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving
definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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