This was really just too wonderful. Enjoyed it so much I rewatched The Fisher King which may be my second favorite film of Robins…huge fan of Jumanji which is my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyKGLSKXZkw
Fisher King has Jeff Bridges who I love and I don’t think I’ve seen him in a bad film. Big shout out for Jeff in “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” with Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy and in the remake of True Grit with Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld.
I complained to Ron once that the remake of True Grit showed it was written by the Coen Brothers but does not mention Charles Portis who wrote the novel considered one of the great Western novels of all time, taking nothing away from Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour. Ron picked up the phone and spoke with one of the Coen Bros. I listened in to the conversation and the Coen brother pled ignorance. He said he had no idea they were doing that. I don’t believe it said screenplay by the Coen Brothers it simply said True Grit written by the Coen Brothers. Still the film is one of my favorites and i’ve seen it over and over. The original version had John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and Glen Campbell as the Texas Ranger with Kim Darby as Mattie Ross.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Terry Gilliam who directed The Fisher King. I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve seen of his: Time Bandits (1981), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). I’ve missed a few of his films and I’ll try and catch up.
I tried watching Brazil on a couple of occasions and had a hard time of it. Before I try again I went to read the reviews and I resonated with Roger Ebert’s review: Roger Ebert was less enthusiastic in the Chicago Sun-Times, giving the film two out of four stars and claiming that it was “hard to follow”. He felt the film lacked a confident grasp on its characters’ roles in a story “awash in elaborate special effects, sensational sets, apocalyptic scenes of destruction and a general lack of discipline”. Ebert wrote positively of certain scenes, especially one in which “Sam moves into half an office and finds himself engaged in a tug-of-war over his desk with the man through the wall. I was reminded of a Chaplin film, Modern Times, and reminded, too, that in Chaplin economy and simplicity were virtues, not the enemy.”[51]
So I met Terry Gilliam at one of the live Ed Shows (The Ed Show Live), written, directed and produced by Ron Howard (I helped out but Ron oversaw all aspects of the show and made it work. As I recall Terry was kind of unsatisfied with the work he was doing. I told him I believed he was operating at somewhere between 80-90 % of his potential which for a genius like Terry would be really pretty good, but not good enough for a genius like Terry. He was hanging with a bunch of “Yes” people which is better than hanging with a bunch of “No” people but again not good enough. I brought up he was not pursuing his great love which is cartooning and he had a good deal of work he was doing locked in his safe. I don’t know where it went from there but it was a pleasure meeting him and again I’ve loved his films and of course Monty Python!
Next: The Ed Show Live
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