The Fisher King
Starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, with Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer and Michael Jeter, the film tells the story of a radio shock jock who tries to find redemption by helping a man whose life he inadvertently shattered.While practicing a line read at home, he turns on a news report and discovers his comments spurred Edwin to commit a mass murder–suicide at the restaurant, to his horror.With Parry as his shielding persona, mentions of reality panic him, and he is continually haunted by a terrifying, hallucinatory Red Knight, from a distorted memory of his wife's face exploding from a shotgun blast.Lydia, a shy woman with whom Parry is smitten, is at first sent a cabaret telegram performed by a homeless singer, inviting her to Anne's video store membership.According to The Directors episode, Gilliam came up with the scene in which Robin Williams shadows Amanda Plummer through a large crowd performing a waltz in the middle of Grand Central Terminal because he felt that the scene that LaGravenese had written, in which a large group of people in a crowded subway listen to a homeless woman sing with a beautiful voice that fills the room, was not working.The site's critics' consensus reads: "An odd but affecting mixture of drama, comedy and fantasy, The Fisher King manages to balance moving performances from Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges with director Terry Gilliam's typically askew universe.[12] John Simon of the National Review described The Fisher King as "one of the most nonsensical, pretentious, mawkishly cloying movies I ever had to wretch[sic] through".[26] In 2011, Image Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, utilizing a new high-definition master in the 1.85:1 theatrical ratio, with Dolby Digital Tru-HD 5.1 surround, with no special features.[26] On June 23, 2015, The Criterion Collection re-released the film on Blu-ray and DVD, featuring a brand new 2K transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound mix.