The Fisher King Essay Questions

What do the hallucinations in the film (mostly Parry's, but also Jack's) symbolize?

The director uses hallucinations to illustrate the times in which the characters are breaking from reality and confronting their respective traumas. For Parry, his hallucinations are filtered through more fantastical imagery. For instance, when he is forced to remember his past and the loss of his wife, Parry sees a Red Knight, a grotesque and devilish figure whom Parry must chase away. He then sees the Red Knight again, when he has just had a positive experience on a date with Lydia, and is just on the verge of being happy. When he is getting close to allowing himself to confront his grief over the loss of his wife, the Red Knight appears to haunt him. In this way, the knight is a direct stand-in for the experience of trauma. Jack experiences a hallucination when he breaks into the architect's apartment. In the hall, he sees Edwin, the man who shot up the restaurant, a shooting for which Jack feels responsible. Instead of using language to express Jack's fear in this moment, Terry Gilliam uses a nightmarish visual representation of it.

Is Jack's "shock-jock" persona genuine?

Jack's shock-jock persona is largely genuine but is exaggerated for effect and ratings. Although he seems to be completely without empathy, and does not suffer fools gladly, he is not irredeemable, and knows deep down that he does have a responsibility to his listeners. He is not naturally tactful, as evidenced in his brutal claim to Anne that he is only with her for sex. In this way, his coldness and detachment are genuine elements of his personality, but through his friendship with the whimsical Parry, he learns to commune with his own sense of magic and his own imagination. Jack is not a fundamentally cruel person, but he does need Parry's help to become more thoughtful.

How are Anne and Jack different from Parry and Lydia?

In many ways, these two couples are foils for one another. Where Parry and Lydia are uncoordinated, impractical, and somewhat cut off from reality, Anne and Jack are earthy, pragmatic, and very tuned into reality. Anne is a business owner, with a strong sense of proportion and practical common sense that allows her to meet the world with toughness. Lydia, on the other hand, can barely go through a revolving door and lives in fear of the world. While Parry is whimsical, impractical, and kooky, Jack is cynical and spent. By the end of the film, however, the two couples see that they have more in common than might meet the eye.

Although this is the first movie directed by Terry Gilliam that he did not write, there are certain trademarks he uses in all his films. What elements in this movie recall his other films?

Whenever a Terry Gilliam-directed movie includes a medieval knight, it is difficult not to be reminded of his work on the Monty Python films, particularly Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is a comedic look at the same legend of the Holy Grail that is at the center of this film. The Monty Python version of Gilliam's take on the legend is actually set in medieval times, whereas in this film the medieval character of the Red Knight, and Parry's view of himself as a sacred knight of the realm, are more ambiguous characters that are brought into modern times. Gilliam's unique camera angles, which often reflect a warped sense of reality, as well as his fully-realized if more figurative representations of medieval figures, also connect this film with his others.

How is the Fisher King story an allegory?

In many ways, Parry and Jack are both stand-ins for the Fisher King from the story. Jack is a depressive man who has fallen from a place of great wealth and prosperity, but who is restored to a sense of purpose and happiness by his run-in with Parry, a stand-in for the story's fool. Then, when Parry becomes catatonic after being beat up, Jack turns into his "fool" and retrieves the Grail for him. The possession of the Holy Grail, however fake it may be, is what wakes Parry from his stupor and restores his consciousness and vitality.