Midweek Mention... The Fisher King

The Fisher King

Dan: everything

Sidey: apart from apart from the film choices this week.

Dan: Wow. Shots, fight,

Sidey: What's that noise

Dan: That was the sound of a fisherman.

Sidey: Okay.

Peter.

Hello, you nominated a film. And I think it was aimed at me because you've got this thing I hate Robin Williams,

which isn't

necessarily true.

Pete: That's

partially true.

It was it wasn't aimed at you? I do really like Robin Williams as an actor, and I like a lot of Robin Williams films.

I feel like you haven't given him enough time

Sidey: giving him, but I'll just

tell him So there's a few things that I really, really like him in

Pete: Okay,

Sidey: Goodwill, hun.

He's he's

down. you know, He's not his usual

zany screaming, shouting.

south

Reegs: dead poets society.

Sidey: I haven't

seen that Aladdin where it suits his over the top

Performance.

I Don't like any of his stand up stuff.

And if his appearances and Most of his other films I just find them a bit too much.

It's okay yeah.

Pete: It's a good film. Does he's another things is that he's in awakenings. I've mentioned before with Bobby de Niro. It's a good

Sidey: And the thing is because he went and died. You can't, you feel like you can't really criticize too much?

Pete: Well, that's never stopped you in the park.

Sidey: It is

Pete: never stopped you alive or dead.

Right. So

Dan: oh, just, just

Reegs: we haven't even mentioned the name of it.

Dan: No,

Sidey: well we're trying to avoid talking about it. really. Cause there,

Dan: have you ever seen the world according to Garp? No, that was a kind of a lower key Robin Williams. One way he was more serious

Sidey: one hour photo. Is that the.

that looks like it might be right, but

Dan: So we are reviewing a Robin Williams

Pete: film.

I mean, it's not just Robin Williams, who is in it. This was a film that I had seen years and years and years. And I heard enjoyed. I believed at that point in time and I was thinking about, I, I was, I really wanted to nominate patch Adams, but I thought that, yeah, I feel like you can't get past the sentimentality.

Of it

Sidey: poster of it. now

Pete: all bit. It's, it's a true story and it's a really good film. I really like it, but I wasn't going to do that because I thought it would make you just hate Robin Williams. I've probably done that anyway by nominating the Fisher king, I had forgotten. Or not appreciated at the time when I first watched this or, or watched it for the second or third time, years and years ago, how long it was.

So I've come to that with my gum shield in, cause I'm expecting a lot of like punches to be thrown, having said. I feel kind of Bulletproof, cause I didn't pick Patterson and that's the worst film anyone's ever nominated. So it's better than that. I know that much. And let's, let's kick her. Let's kick off

Sidey: run time north of

two, hours,

Pete: our 17 or something like that.

Sidey: We were watching it on the same media and UK. resetting me back

to zero.

so

I had to keep restarting it. I

also fell asleep half an hour. And So I started again, so it really did

take the entire weekend to get through this that set

to a backdrop of a WhatsApp group where you were trying to change the

nomination cause you hate it. Everyone else moaning about our shit. it was

So enthusiasm was low.

Pete: There was a point where. We were, I, I I'd messaged side and I think I'd messaged Reese as well. And I'd messaged Dan, but Dan hadn't read the messages and then YouTube had pretty much like waited most of the way through it. Dan hadn't watched it. And then I thought, no, I'd actually be quite funny to put them through this.

So, so, but what, but what I'm going to now say is, I don't think this film is all bad. Like I know it's, I know it's long it's it's way longer

Reegs: I would agree with that.

Pete: This film is not all bad. You're going to say it is down because you're still smarting from the,

Sidey: the past

Pete: bullshit you picked and then felt like compelled to defend yourself.

You didn't make the film. You don't have to love the films that

Reegs: so angry about that. Movie is

Pete: But so what I don't, what I'm not going to do is try and tell people that this is the best film ever, or the, you know, in, in my top 10, like let it ride or whatever. I'm not going to be precious about it. It, it was a film that I liked way back when that I still like elements of

Sidey: first half an hour of it.

I watched before all the negative feedback started to come through And I was aware of the film from way

back when I'd forgotten it. It was

Reegs: a really good start.

Yeah. It's a great start to

Sidey: it. It was Terry Gilliam and I'd also forgot that Jeff Bridges was in

Pete: it.

Reegs: right.

Sidey: So when it

started out with Jeff Bridges, I was like, oh,

Pete: or should we briefly summarize the, the opening

Reegs: two and a half

Sidey: He's a, he's a Howard stern kind of shocked jock. He was the, the actual

inspiration for the character.

Pete: Right. Okay. Yeah, so people effectively ring up his radio station with a various whoa.

Sidey: Why would you ring him up? Cause it's just going to pan here.

Pete: Yeah. And, and he just completely like pans them for being like miserable, pathetic losers, and really, and, and obviously loads of people tune into this.

Cause they want to hear him tear into people,

Reegs: when he pans this particular yuppie who takes it a little bit to heart and

Sidey: wants to make some friends and things.

here.

Reegs: Yeah.

And eventually, you know, prompt him to, to do a mass shooting. And this was in 1991 and that was still quite shocking in America. It wasn't like, you know, every other week, like it is now, but you know, this was a huge event in the world of the movie. And I think at the time

Pete: Jeff Bridges, character, I'm Jack, isn't it like in Jack's life because he's,

Reegs: well, this was eight weeks before Columbine.

Sidey: Or, I don't

Pete: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Sidey: eight

Reegs: Some things before Columbine.

Sidey: He's living large

Pete: he is living

Sidey: large.

Pete: he's obviously on his way to the top. He's he's getting, he's working towards getting his, his, his agent has got his own TV show. He's an up. Yup Comedian in inverted commerce who's who's going to be famous. He is absolutely believing his own high piece, a sort of egotistical narcissistic piece of shit.

And this sort of not only crushes the, the FA the, the worlds of the families who get murdered, but also completely like detonates, a big bomb in his world as well. So

Reegs: he just collapses into a drunken

Pete: Yeah Yeah. Fast forward, sort of three years on

Dan: that actually real life three years or is

Sidey: it

Pete: no no person and he doesn't try for bus at any, so, so it doesn't stoop that like it then you see him, he's working in a record store with it's his girlfriend's record store yet.

Reegs: Mercedes rule.

She's hot. And She's great in this She's really really good. And she did actually win best supporting actress. And I read that afterwards, cause I tend to try not to read

Pete: stuff,

Reegs: about it, just watch it.

So, and I was thinking the whole way through, she's probably the best thing in this movie.

Pete: Again, she brings to her the best things to the

Reegs: and she does have some good

Pete: babes Yeah. So, yeah. He's but he's like wallowing in self pity. He's pretty horrible to her.

Reegs: There's some women trying to, he's working in the video shop and she says, I won't like her Katherine Hepburny Carrie grantee kind of thing.

So he recommends the poor, no ordinary people

Dan: There's some good pornos.

Reegs: would meet people's. Yeah.

Dan: What's the other one? Kramer vs. Kramer.

Reegs: So there's a couple of good ones in there.

Dan: No. I, I mean, I watched, I seen this probably around the same time that you saw at first time around, it was a big hype film. Wasn't it? It was Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, the Fisher king at a great title. It was just really kind of tempting you in there. I

Reegs: really have a great title. Did

Dan: thought it wasn't a at the time and I watched it around.

There's there's stuff to laugh at. You know, there, there is stuff with Robin Williams it's

Sidey: is it shooting

Dan: well it's hit and miss with his comedy. Isn't it? I mean, some of it will make you laugh because he just keeps it coming all the time in and giving a free reign on, on his improvised station, which you, you must see that he does.

He, they don't

Pete: well, he's so well, w we meet him in the film because Jack has his he's drunk and himself into oblivion, and he's now going to kill himself.

He, he sort of stumbles out into the road, some kids coming out of a

Reegs: they tried to set him on fire.

Pete: Well, yeah, so some kid gives him like a Pinocchio doll and then he, he like tapes, the podo Kio dull and some breeze blocks to his feet. And he's about to jump in the river. And just as he's about to do it, some. Young assholes, like rock up in a Jeep with some baseball bats and some Petro.

And they're going to, yeah, they presumably just like beating up traps and setting them on fire, which we've all done

Reegs: I was quite shocked by that though. They just suddenly get this count of petrol out and they're just like dousing them. And I'm like, what? We've just seen a mass shooting or implied a mass shooting. And we saw Bridge's horrified reaction to it in quite a lot of mega acting detail and. And then yeah, they're going to set him on fire, but they don't because

Sidey: Perry

Pete: Perry who is played by Robin Williams comes to the rescue and he's like a, I guess like a down and out bum vigilante type

Dan: kind of reminds me of

the.

The the, rubbish heap in Fraggle rock, you know, where the trashy peaches kind of

Pete: He almost looks like part of the, the, the, the surroundings. Yeah.

Dan: he finds a silvery piece of metal that he holds

Reegs: he's like a Knight isn't. He sort of got a suit of armor and a shield and a sword made out of like bits of

bullshit

Dan: then loads of other kind of trumps and,

Pete: like

Dan: Homeless come along. Non frightened just looked absolutely mad

Pete: Yeah, because they, you think that cause they start assembling and you think of what they're going to do here. And they start singing. And this is the first time the song I like New York in June, the first of about 40,000 times, it appears in the film and they start they start singing it.

Dan: They say, what are you going to do? And they go, I've got it. I've got it. And they break into song.

Reegs: This is really the fun side of homelessness and mental illness.

Pete: And then you go, yeah, like Perry takes them off to two, well, yeah, he tapes one of the guys down and then starts like shouting, like D pulls his trousers down and shouts like dinner time. So I'm assuming this guy, there's a mass bombing as well in that.

So it's quite a lot of boxes getting

Reegs: one of the kids who does the beating up?

They're the same kids at the end.

Right. One of them played Robin Williams, his gay son in birdcage, in the movie that was released after this. So that's a

Dan: Isn't it funny how life comes round? Yeah. So Robin Williams or Perry brings Jack back to his quarter's where he's been given a basic. Kind of room in the apartment block where they used to live, they felt sorry for him.

So he's staying in where it's the, the bowels of the building. Isn't it? It's

Reegs: Yeah. This was almost unwatchable this scene for me. Just a really bad acting from Williams, like, well, over the top and I, it just lots of shouting from both of them. Like it just really hard to listen

Sidey: to

Reegs: and everything being shot from the Dutch angle from the below.

And it was like, oh man, this is hard

Pete: disorientating scene. I think, well, they try to portray as like the main. Of both of these people, like one is, is SSRIs, like a, an egotistical maniac who's fallen massively from grace and is suicidal

Reegs: I get it. It

Pete: and the, and the other one. Yeah. And the other one is you find out in this scene that he used to be. Like a lecturer, a, a college that he was like, you know, highly intellectual and, and not always this down and out that

Reegs: his real name is Henry Sagan.

Is that, is this where we find this bit

Pete: I think so, because I think the the, the, the, the guy who, the janitor of the building is happy for, for Perry to live down there, but doesn't want it.

Guests or anything. But he also in this scene, Perry eludes to the fact that he's on a quest to find the holy grail, because he's seen it in a picture, in a magazine. And it's just in some guy's house who lives in New York.

Dan: Just a random trophy, isn't it? Yeah.

Well, it's clear Perry is, is mad and Jack is massively depressed.

Reegs: Well, I don't think you say mad though. Do you? Cause what is I'm trying?

Sidey: crazy.

Reegs: It was what was his

Pete: what did he suffers So he's a paranoid delusion or yeah. Cause, cause at one point you, you find out that a trauma that he's had, he suffered a significant trauma and he became completely, almost like locked in syndrome.

He didn't speak for a year. He was in a mental institution.

This, this is now him on his, I guess he's now talking and he's interacting with people, but he's delusional. He has visions and he believes that he has been given this quest to, to source and yeah. Find what, find the holy grail. Yeah.

Dan: is everything will be happy then, but it's, it's not, of course because. Life doesn't quite work like that. But Jack gets back to, to his apartment, to his girlfriend's apartment. Who's obviously angry. He's been out all night. Where the hell have you been there?

She finds out, wait a minute. He'd been beaten up he's and he talked a little bit, she thinks he's a girl, doesn't she? First of all. But he says, no, it's not. I've met this guy. He's and I've kind of taken him under my wing and he gets to the stage and he says to her. I want it to make him feel better because I thought it might help me feel better.

Reegs: yeah, but, and her story is interesting as well. And Anna's, and because she has obviously supported Jeff Bridges through like three years of drinking himself into a coma and she's got her own business and she supports him her story.

And what happens to her over the course of movies? Quite interesting, because

Dan: And I was just going to ask about her.

Was she the same girlfriend that he had when he was flying high in the apartment up the top? No, it's different. Isn't it? So he, yeah,

Reegs: she's picked up the pieces and at the moment she's sort of, she's relieved that he's not womanizing and almost happy because bridges now finds himself the way he wants to redeem himself is by finding love.

For, for Perry,

Sidey: he has,

of course.

learned

What the traumatic event was

Reegs: as he learned

Sidey: Yeah he has. Yeah. because he goes back and he says, I feel like shit, I attract shit. You know,

he is a bad person

And he wants to try and

turn his life around in that way. And it turns

out that

Perry and his wife

were at the scene of the mass shooting as well.

And she was, she had,

a head blown off effectively.

Reegs: blood

Sidey: Fucking,

Pete: you see

Reegs: all over his

Pete: in the film, that was like, I didn't remember that from when I watched it originally. I think

Sidey: I probably an ITB and they cut that

Pete: I would imagine. So that probably possibly what might have happened. And I don't know, like how long the version you wish it was cited. And I watched the same.

Al's was two hours 17. I imagine that, that when I first would have seen it, it would have been ITV channel four. Yeah. And it would have been edited down that would have been

Sidey: they also they also play it

quicker.

Pete: Is that a true story? I feel like that that is a massive, like I okay. I'm not going to go one way or the other with that.

So you play it.

Reegs: total sense now because yeah.

Once I observed that watching the matrix are reloaded and the rhythm of it felt really

Sidey: different

Reegs: watching it on. that would make sense.

Sidey: day

Pete: Yes. So yeah, he's realized, so obviously his guilt is now. Magnified even more because he realizes that he slights, but again, he, he goes back to self pity. It's like, oh, just my luck finding like there's millions of people in New York. And I found a guy who's Mrs. Was murdered by the guy that I fucking sweat, like effectively facilitated the murder, you know, to turn into a murderer.

Sidey: He wants to have him, but also,

Reegs: And stuff,

Sidey: Well, it's

just some of this. So he,

he is sort of obsessed with a lady,

But all of a

sudden he's

Pete: Peri is we've not, we've not

Sidey: with he sort of

Pete: Follows

Sidey: and

Pete: every.

Sidey: but he's

also obsessed with this

with his holy grail quest,

which

is clearly nonsense,

you know, Jack's mind, but

he's happy to try and help him meet this.

Dan: Oh Jack. Well, Jack wants to give him money first and he just give him money. He gives him money in Egypt and Perry's like, oh, thanks very much. And just hand it straight over. He's no interest in money, but he goes, absolutely do lolly. When this watch stopped Jack stopped and he hides behind the, like a pillar.

He said, there she is.

Bumbling kind of female come out of

Reegs: this was brilliant.

This scene. Yeah.

Dan: come out of the, the revolving door. She gets swept up in him again and eventually it spits out into the street and she knocks everything over in the bookstand and he's just besotted by her. Isn't he he's just, he can't everything she

Pete: he loves her imperfections and

Reegs: when

they all start dancing

Pete: Oh

Sidey: she wearing a bra.

I

Pete: yeah. Yeah. So it's Amanda Plummer who I just cannot get over. It's Christopher Plummer's face on his that's his daughter.

Reegs: That makes sense. I didn't,

Pete: Everyone's looking back at me like

Reegs: yeah,

Pete: if it is Christopher Plummer in a wig, like for 20, 30 years younger or

Sidey: whatever,

but now you say that.

Pete: is Christopher.

Sidey: Yeah,

Pete: that's his daughter, Amanda Plummer. She's beginning of

pulp fiction and shit, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. She always plays like fucking wacky crazy. Cause there's another character as well.

The, the, like the drag bomb guy who he's been in he's in the green mile and he's in a few other things where he's always

Reegs: paid It was amazing. And he does the movies best dealer. They

Pete: With the balloons and stuff. Yeah.

Reegs: wait to start a huge musical done, but just by himself. And there's no like big backing music on the score, it's just a fucking guy, belting it out.

Like, yeah. It's amazing.

Pete: Yeah.

So obviously Jack wants to, he thinks he's going to redeem himself and be able to move past this thing. That's happened in his life by helping parents. Find love we'll find the holy grail or just by paying him off. But it's all just for selfish reasons. It's still at this point and he can't even pay him up because Perry just gives the money to other down and outs.

Dan: Yeah. I mean, basically Jack wants this guy out of his life and guilt-free, he wants him to. Oh, look, he's found a woman there and now he's happy and I can go back to being depressed or go back to doing whatever I wanted to do, but slowly over time Perry kind of grows on him a little bit, I guess. And,

Sidey: that's probably after he seen his Dick.

Dan: yeah.

Yeah,

Pete: Oh yeah. Yeah. So, so I think that's, that's about halfway through the film is the, is the deck scene, you get Robin Williams,

Reegs: It's the explanation of what the Fisher king is and then the deck scene. Isn't it. So it, should we mention what the fish king is?

Pete: that, or just move straight onto the deck action.

Sidey: because you probably do the.

Dan: Yeah remind me what it

Reegs: Well, it is, it's the story about the Fisher king was charged by God with finding the holy grail, but he got it.

He incurred an incapacitating wound for his sin of pride. And then he says a fool asked the king way suffers. And when the king says he's thirsty, the fool gives him a cup of water to drink the king, realizes the cup is the grail and asks, how did you find what my brightest and bravest could not in the full set?

I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty. It sounds kind of by bleed,

Dan: And then what about this Dick?

Sidey: Well

Pete: and then straight away Robin Williams

Sidey: he just wants to get naked lie on in central park and look up at the stars.

Dan: Well,

Sidey: he

jumps around and he says, Dick, just like

Dan: he can split the clouds by concentrating on him, Connie, if he looks

Sidey: So that's two weeks in a row.

Reegs: I was going to say, what did you compare?

Like where would you rate what

Sidey: this Wasn't this wasn't bad flight deck night but who's nominating for next week. Have you considered

Pete: the, the deck action. So this, I liked, I liked this deck because it was just, I feel like some, like when you see deck and Phillips, obviously some people have got absolutely enormous penises and congratulations to them.

But when you see deck and film, there tends to be like quite, quite a lot of felt Dick or whatever that was. Yeah. See again, that was why that was better than person. You, but you don't just see sort of like blokes with like normal size middle-aged man penis. Like we, I presume we'll. You don't see that a great deal.

Dan: you've seen it. Oh, you've seen we've all got them out.

Pete: Spoiler. Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, I like that. And he was just, he was jumping around he's he's a really heavy dude and he's quite

Reegs: he was quite trim. I thought he

Pete: thighs and OS a massive, like he's a strange shape. He's almost like a Minotaur it's like

Sidey: he

Pete: wearing. Yeah, he's got Rams legs

Sidey: find his way out.

Reegs: he's showing free up the little guy. Let him flap in the breeze.

Pete: jiggle around. We spent a lot of time talking about the Dixie in there.

Reegs: I actually had to. Cause I was watching this with the words on, I don't know whether you were

Pete: I always

Reegs: I had to turn the words off so I could

Sidey: get

Reegs: look at the day because I thought we could have enough up talking about this.

So I have to,

Pete: Yeah.

Make some notes about it. So anyway, the plan then becomes to tell oh my God, I've forgotten the girl's name. Amanda Plummer. What do it, Lydia? Yes, it is Lydia. Cause he sings. So to tell Lydia that she has, so to get her to notice Perry, they get, they return that she has one, a special membership for the video store.

And so they get her in the video store. They they put a t-shirt. Yeah. Like you would like a monkey or something like, so they just put a t-shirt and like spray some stuff on him, but his hands are absolutely filthy. Like they could have helped him out

Dan: just looks like a dog in a t-shirt doesn't he? And he's kind of flopping around there.

Reegs: yeah, but he, this was good though, because he was like he was much more restrained in the initial meeting. He's brilliant. Like he's, he's hidden behind. Jeff Bridges like the blockings and that he's just completely obscured. And then he comes out and he's not actually doing very much until he starts flummoxing into the videos and they knock them all down.

Don't they,

Dan: there. There are a couple of classes like that. She was always going to knock the videos down and him helping her was only going to make everything worse.

So Jeff Bridges and Annie are, they're just kind of watching on Jack and Annie,

Pete: check, check, slide, basically promising anything that Lydia wants, because he's desperate for them to, to her cup and keeps like backtracking on like on the deals

Dan: Well she says at one point you you've.

Free video, you know, for years you got a free video.

She says, I don't have a VCR though. You get a free VCR. And Anne's like, gives him a punch and says, we're not given until you get your own. Then you've got to give it back

Pete: what hooks Lydia into or intrigues her more is, is Ann's nails. She notices those and Ann's like, oh yeah, I do. I do. I'm a nail technician. I'll do those yet. It's $40, but that's the the, the end to get Lydia back to the flat, the, the, the same evening and then take them out for.

Dan: which happens. And they all get on famously just

Reegs: This was a weird scene when it

Pete: Well, the dinner

Reegs: dentist didn't you feel like this was. From almost from a different movie.

Like it was like when Harry met Sally

Pete: a bit slapsticky. Yeah. Like we'd already seen her with the, with the chops. So you knew the chopstick, like gag of you know, it was, was going to come.

To like empathize with her or whatever. It's like, it's like deliberately dropping things all over the floor and knocking things over. Yeah. It was a bit, it was a bit clumsy.

And

Dan: in little China for one minute.

Reegs: honestly, it felt like a scene from a different

Pete: Yeah, I do. I do know where you've heard, not a fan, not a fan of that. So what, so what tends to happen with me in this film is that I experienced enjoyment of scenes and interest in scenes and then scenes where I.

Fucking hell and checking the time and stuff. And this, I know I nominated this film mine, so it's all me. Right. But I, it was apparent to me that this was longer than it needed to be. Some of the films were like clumsy and ugly and

Reegs: actually, right. I know I'm getting this going to sound crazy, but some of what makes it difficult to watch is how incoherent it is a maybe actually a little bit more power rounding out some of the stuff and breaking up the scenes of people, shouting at each other, that there were a lot of back to back scenes of people being crazy and shouting at each other.

And it was like, you know, But maybe some stuff that was a bit more subtle to fill bits

Dan: add another hour on today.

Reegs: No. Well add another couple of weeks.

Pete: you were saying they should've made a trilogy

Reegs: because there is loads of stuff that we've skipped. And I know we've talked for about two years on this already, but we've not talked about is troubling visions of a red Knight.

That's coming to kill him. That Saul's shot quite well, but you know, adds to the runtime.

Pete: So th the, there is a day, it goes really well. They have a kiss.

On the doorstep of Lydia's place,

Reegs: because

you would instantly fall in love with the homeless man with mental illness. I mean,

Pete: well, she's also, I can't imagine. I imagine it's cause she does make reference to her like urges and stuff like that.

And she's been.

Reegs: Yeah, but she's got a job in a life and all that stuff and the he's homeless.

Pete: very unfulfilled. She doesn't have friends, she doesn't have any romantic interests. She's very lonely and she's very unfulfilled and he's immediately sort of like said, look, I fucking love you. Like I am he's.

Sidey: Yeah,

Pete: exactly. Yeah, yeah,

Reegs: Mediocre.

Pete: yeah, yeah. But then no sooner as she's closed the door and got into a flat, he has a massive, like, well, like a panic attack.

It doesn't do it justice, a massive episode. He gets chased down the road by this vision and ends up back where we first saw him like on the, on the docks. And that's where the your, your boys come back and That's a rim too, with an inch of his life.

Reegs: They slash him with a knife.

Don't they? Because it's quite graphic. You see the blood actually like pouring out of a stomach

Dan: They do a real job on him and he's back in the hospital and Jeff Bridges

Pete: He's catatonic again. Yeah.

Dan: it. He gets a call. He goes to visit him and S he says, you know, I'm not family.

You know, want to, want to see him. And the doctor says, oh, okay, well look, you know, the state, the city is going to decide what to do with this guy. He's going to be institutionalized probably. And that's kind of what happens, but Jeff Bridges and Lydia, they continue to go and visit him. And Jack Jeff Bridges, he decides to dress up in some.

Like trash clothes,

Pete: Perry's clothes. I thought it was, yeah, he's going to, he wants to fulfill his, his quest.

He wants to go and get the holy grail from,

Dan: he, he tries to break in and get the holy grail or this guy's apartment block, which looks like a big car. So in New York and he actually goes in and pulls it off. He finds the guy dying or dead next to the

fireplace

Pete: because it references it in the paper the next day, it's like burglar, like accidental suicide or something like that.

Like it says accidental suicide, but he's got a pile of pills in his hand, but yeah,

Dan: well he grabs the the holy grail, which turns out to be a cup for

Pete: something or other

Dan: origami folding or something like that. And takes that back down to

Perry

in the hospital who puts his hat, who he kind of puts his hands around it for him.

Yeah.

As if by magic and miracle

Pete: following the following day, the following day, he's, he's no longer in his bed when Lydia goes to, to me, am I quite liked as pajamas actually, they'd like watermelons on or something. That was quite cool. And he's not in bed and there's another

Dan: I like New York. And you, how about you? I love.

Pete: Okay. I put you through the film. So you get to put me through the,

Reegs: we were going to go for a bit more there

cause

Pete: I, that it's really sort of grating on me that, that song.

Yeah. And then, yeah, there's Lydia finds him. He's he's, he's now awake and I guess they, they all get exactly what they wanted to Jack

Reegs: and Jack have this brigade good.

Seen where it, because. I love you

Pete: Oh yeah. He goes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah

Reegs: because he's fucked off. He fucks her off for a bit when he gets successful, but she does take him back, but it's not, it's not in a pitiful way. She's got agency in it and she's making the decisions there because she's a strong character in there.

She's really good. It's a great performance and a great character.

Pete: We missed a bit where Jack, you see him actually he's he's pied down. Cause he doesn't think it doesn't know where he loves her. And he's actually started getting back into his radio shows and builds up his stock as it were again. So he's now back into being successful is a scene where he goes into a room and he's going to be offered a TV show.

He makes reference to some light insanely hot girlfriend or whatever, but he really knows he's unfulfilled. It's actually what, seeing the I've forgotten the guy's name.

You know, like the, the, the, the cabaret guy outside and it's him that makes him like, it's too much for him. He has to go. And that's, that's what initiate him, fulfilling the quest, which he does.

And then the, the, the film closes with everyone's got what they want. And they're both naked in the park and they sing that fucking song again. And you don't get, see Jeff Bridges, Dick. I reckon it's going to be a lot bigger than Robin.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Or maybe not. That's why I didn't show it. Niles crane was in there as well. Wasn't he?

Sidey: So as Tom waits,

Dan: Tom waits as well. Yeah. Lots of musicians are sand tight.

Sidey: and then I was looking online today.

and it's nothing it's like it's definitely,

definitely him, but I did find

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. These, these directors do don't they, it's nice to wedge that in where I can.

Reegs: I think like the portrayal of mental illness and homelessness is probably a bit dated. Let's be fair by now, but it does tackle it,

Dan: years old,

Reegs: but it, it did. It did it out of a lot of love. You could tell that I had a lot of love for what was going on. And of course it has got extra significance now. Robin Williams, you know, death, he suffered so badly from depression.

He took his own life in August, 2014. And he, you know, Gilliam credits him is turning the scenes that were cute into something, a lot darker in the movie. And maybe, you know, it's easy to read things after the fact, but there is a lot of dark stuff from a troubled man there. Yeah.

Pete: so this, this was not the film that I remembered it. I remembered it being shorter for starters and being not like blown away, this was never, this was something that the reason I picked it is quite often with the mid-week mentions. I think. Out of like nostalgia or things that we remembered were good.

Short circuit was another one similar where we probably all loved it as kids. And then we went and watched it again and there was some unfortunate stuff that, that definitely dated some things that we thought were still okay. But in general, I can't imagine I'm going to re I don't think I'll recommend this film and I don't think I'll go back and watch it again.

They were definitely parts of it that I enjoyed. Again, this time round, it probably didn't achieve what I wanted, which was a bit more love for Robin Williams on, on this pod or certainly society. But uh well

Dan: yeah.

Well, I, I enjoyed it to a point, you know, it's five and a half, six out of 10, you know, kind of movie. It's not the worst movie that I, I I've, I've watched no, I mean, we're talking solid numbers there, but You know, you've hit the nail on the head for it really P I remembered this being better than it was.

I remember it being shorter than it was when you mentioned it, first of all. Okay. Yeah, the, the long one time does make you look at your watch a few times, but I really liked Jeff Bridges as well. You know, I th the, the cost actually was, was fantastic. I think we've a lesser cost. This would have been. Pretty much on watchable, you know? But the the cast were, were fantastic. Particularly the, the actress there who played uh

Reegs: she won the Oscar for best supporting actress

Dan: me at all loads of class with her, with her par and and the her relationship with, with Jack was probably the highlight in a film for me.

Yeah,

I wouldn't recommend it though. You know, not with so many other films to watch, but if you're, you know, a real Robin Williams fan, you'll watch it once you watch this film, once

Reegs: some really great scenes in it.

But

Sidey: yeah.

it's, I didn't actually quite like Robin Williams did it. I don't hate him, Like You accused me of all the time.

but I'm

not a huge fan either. This was okay. It's dated, like you say, re some

of the mental illness stuff is,

is quite

Blunt should we say. And it has that

early nineties

sort of aesthetic that I just find look shit now.

Reegs: It's dated really badly that period doesn't.

Sidey: but it was okay.

It was some Dick

and I really liked Jeff Bridges. but Yeah, I wouldn't rush out and, you know, I, I bumped into an old friend at the weekend and he said, oh, what have you seen? You know, talking about the pod and This

wouldn't be one that I'd say, oh yeah, we watched that go and watch, you know, go watch it. It's just not it's just not on that bed, that the list.

Dan: But it is the kind of film. If you talk about people of our generation. Oh, fish king. Yeah. That's really good. Or they say, I remember that first time around.

So I think there was a little bit of nostalgia in there when I went to watch it this time

Pete: That's what brought me back to it

Sidey: for a Terry Gilliam film. And I think it was very Terry Gilliam,

me

Dan: no

Pete: some bits

Reegs: Some of it, yeah, the bits. Cause there's quite a lot in the it's not a mental hospital is it's a

Pete: psychiatric hospital,

Reegs: something like

that Yeah. Sorry.