Terry Gilliam: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

10. The Fisher King

The first of Gilliam's Trilogy of Americana, The Fisher King marked a distinct move away from the excessive fantasy realms of his previous work and towards something both modest in terms of production values and - relative to his previous films - grounded closer to reality. Jeff Bridges stars as the insensitive and scathing radio host Jack Lucas, whose thoughtless remarks to a psychologically disturbed caller leads to a massacre in a Manhattan bar. Three years later and the guilt and depression has taken its toll to the point where he decides to commit suicide, only to be set upon by thugs who try to set him on fire thinking he's a homeless man. Enter Parry (Robin Williams), a deluded homeless man who comes to his rescue and tries to convince Jack to help him track down the Holy Grail (sometimes it isn't too hard to play "connect the Gilliam films"). When Jack learns that Parry's disturbed state of mind came about from the death of his wife in the massacre he'd inadvertently triggered as a radio DJ, he feels compelled to help him overcome his demons (which sometimes manifest in the form of a hallucinated red knight) and find love again. The Fisher King is perhaps Gilliam's most earnest and affecting movie - despite Parry's delusional state of mind it rarely transforms into visual flights of pure fantasy and the emotional core - guilt, grief, reconciliation and rediscovering the potential of love - are grounded in the contemporary New York setting and characters.