(1991. Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Amanda Plummer, very funny as an extreme social incompetent. Dir. Terry Gilliam) I didn't like The Fisher Kind as much as I did when I first saw it in the theater, first because I thought its message of ‘acceptance’ was oversold rather than organic to the story, but mainly because at its core it’s a schmaltzy, sentimental love story made at least interesting because the schmaltz goes through the Monty Pythonesque wringer of Terry Gilliam, a meticulous filmmaker who's just-this-side-of surreal production design is a wonder to look at.
What I really liked about the movie, and why I’m recommending it, is it’s amazing first act where we see Bridges as a New York City radio shock-jock Jack Lucas, a man typical of his type, who will say anything to get a rise in the ratings and a boost to his career. His spew, primarily ‘Die yuppie scum’ ‘America the banal’ and ‘the homeless can Fuck themselves’ is so hilariously generic that you can’t even be sure if he’s a Right Wing spewer or Left Wing spewer – he just plain old spews. He puts a fine point upon all this by twitting an Average Frustrated Chump named Edwin, a frequent caller to his show.
Ambitious arrogant Lucas, about to make the jump to a TV sitcom, then sees on the news that Edwin has taken the ‘die yuppie scum’ trip literally and totes a shogun down to some fashionable NYC bistro where he blows away a bunch of patrons, including the wife of Perry played by Robin Williams. Lucas gets New York Posted by the scandal and his life falls apart. For my money, the first third of the film is an original and very comic vision of getting sent, if not straight to hell, at least to the weird purgatory of a job at a video store run by his sexy girlfriend Anne (Ruehl), all cleavage all the time, her lovely breasts in a great bra doing just as much acting as the principles in the film, probably deserving of two little statuettes in their own right.
So I’m watching this movie and immediately I’m reminded of
Jared Loughner (and the attempted murder of Rep. Gabby Giffords) and Oscar
Ramiro Ortega – Hernandez (alleged to have taken pot-shots at the White House)
and I’m horrified. The movie The Fisher
King is older then some kids with fake IDs and I thought, “Haven’t we learned
anything?” Apparently not, which finds
an interesting parallel to the film.
Bridges’s Lucas, even after taking repeated plates of karma to the face
during adventures with sweet-souled but delusional Perry, gets a chance to get
back into radio after five years in the wilderness. Immediately he reverts back to his old scumbag ways by telling
girl friend Anne “Maybe we should take it slow.” He’s ready to burn all his
bridges (no pun intended) and go back to right where he started. That was shocking.
This
takes me to The Birther Argument (how’s that for a segue?) and after watching
The Fisher King I can’t help but draw a line straight from it to crazy Oscar
Hernandez. Guys like Loughner and
Hernandez, (believing he’s Jesus with a semi-automatic rifle), don’t need to be
of one political persuasion or another; both are just as delusional and as
dangerous as AFC Edwin who feeds off the spew from hate-media to the point
where they think they have to act. This
is why I wanted to stick The Scarlet ‘B’ on everybody in the public eye who
indulged in this Birther nonsense, and I'm talking mostly about guys from Jim Quinn who went whole hog over it to Limbaugh who'd chortle over the idea, just to let them all know they’re playing with fire as much as clueless Jack Lucas.
P.S. I can still get sore about this because I
have it on good authority that during The Obama administration there were the
assassination attempts you heard about, and the one’s you didn’t. And yes the Birther rumors started during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 primary campaign before either side picked its nominees,
but that’s no excuse for picking up such crap - it's fruit from a poison tree. Hey, consider the source people.
