ARTS The Michigan Daily Mork and Starman Wednesday, October 2, 1991 Page 5 search for Holy Grail r- The Fisher. King 1 artistic consistency, The Fisherl dir. Terry Gilliam "King,while not devoid of any merit, is ultimately disappointing. As the medieval legend goes, the by Brent Edwards Fisher King is the guardian of the Holy Grail who loses it after be- Director Terry Gilliam is a man coming blinded by betrayal and de- with visions. As one of the original spair. As the world around him de- Monty Python members, he learned cays and his life deteriorates, a fool not to sweeten his material for mass. finds the Grail right beside the consumption, nor to pull punches King's bed - the fool's innocence that might offend audiences. His di- thereby purging the King's an- recting was boldly initiated with guished soul. In The Fisher King, Monty Python .and the Holy Grail Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams and The Meaning of Life. Gilliam's both play the fool against each later films, such as The Adventures other's.King. of Baron Munchausen, were impres- Williams' character, Parry, was sive for their jarring images and sen- once a college professor of medieval sual overload, fantastic and heroic history, until his wife was killed by quests with the bizarre that occa- a random shooting in a bar. This re- sionally verged on hysteria, suited in his transformation into a Gilliam's unwillingness to com- homeless person unable to deal with promise his vision was displayed his past or. reality. As expected, when the American distributor of Williams is wonderfully crazy and Brazil 'refused to release the film charismatic as a man who thinks-he's -until Gilliam changed the bleak, a knight on a quest for the Holy depressing finish to the happy end- Grail. The scene when Parry's dan- ing they felt an American audience cing around codpiece-less (and would want. Gilliam refused and naked), flapping his lance in the wind, is pure Williams mania. He is Robin Williams' also effective in the quiet scenes, plunge into a cata- something at which he gets better tonic state, only to with each of his films, and it is almost painful to watch his shyness 1 awaken, dance with when he is set up with the woman of his girlfriend, and his dreams. lead other patients at Through Parry and other charac:- the hospital in a sing ters, the film touches on the human- Sis too re-ity behind the faceless homeless alingiS en of that people ignore everyday. Tom m niscent of Waits, in a bit role, says as people . Awakenings to be .drop money into his can without taken seriously looking at him, "They pay so they* don't have to look." The cinematography of Roger bought full page ads in Variety, pu- Pratt (Brazil, Mona Lisa, Batman). blicly asking the head of the transforms the homeless areas into company when he was going to re- Dante-esque hells, while making lease the movie. New York seem like a beast of op- Gilliam finally gave a private pressive stone and steel monoliths screening to local film critics and - not that difficult to do, I the L.A. Film Critics Circle .award- suppose. Also impressive, is the fan- ed Brazil best picture,, best director tastic fire-breathing Red Knight, the and best screenplay, forcing the dis- embodiment of Parry's memory of. tribution company to release the his wife's death, which almost kills film while the publicity was hot, him. Parry's torment by his mem- Due to the expectation of Gilliam's ory/Knight, along with the home- less commentary, provides the most powerful moment in the movie. Jeff Bridges' Jack Lucas, a shock radio DJ who incited a person to kill Due Gilliam's artistic consistency, the film, while not devoid of any merit, is ultimate- ly disappointing several innocent people at a bar, (yup, the same incident in which Parry's wife was killed) hopes to redeem himself and extinguish his torment by helping Parry. Of course, Parry's innocence and vi- brancy dig beneath Jack's selfish motives, and they both help each other to conquer their own demons. It is with Jack that some of the film's more trite episodes occur. Parry teaches Jack to remove his clothes in Central Park and lay in the grass, a la Pretty Woman, when Julia Roberts teaches Richard Gere to remove his shoes and feel the grass between his toes. Jack's last- second realization that he really does love the woman he left (Mer- cedes Ruehl) is formulaic of half the films ever made in Hollywood. and provides an eyerolling feel-good ending. ~And Robin Williams' plunge into a catatonic state, only to awaken, dance with his girlfriend, and lead other patients at the hospital in a sing along, is too re- miniscent of Awakenings to be taken seriously. All of these moments are un- characteristic of Gilliam, but can be explained by the fact that he wrote his other films and did not write this one. While The Fisher King is a Hollywoodization of Gilliam, he has kept some of his vision intact, unlike the sellout of the formerly- visionary Peter Weir in G r.e en Card. The Fisher King has its mo- ments, but is too much Hollywood and not enough Gilliam. THE FISHER KING is playing at Briarwood and Showcase. My cup runneth over Parry and Jack (Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, above) dance crazily through the streets of New York. "Nanu, Nanu, New York!" shouts Parry. "Carpe Diem, Jack!" And then he falls into a catatonic state. And people say that Robin Williams can only play one part. But who cares about him. Leonine Jeff Bridges is sullenly sexy, a perfect match for the gravity- defying cleavage of his girlfriend, Anne (Mercedes Ruehl, right). Ruehl recently won a Tony award for her performance in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. And, speaking of Yonkers... oh, never mind. Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey Mavericks Rhino/RNA Most of America was first ex- posed to Peter Holsapple as the "fifth R.E.M." on MTV Unplugged. But years before that.show, Holsap- ple; (along with Chris Stamey) was. a member of a band called the dB's, a bunch of smart guys from Hoboken, New Jersey. Their albums of well- composed, jangly rock tunes earned them much critical praise 'and little financial reward. What else is new? Anyway, after the second album, Stamey left, and the band continued to play, making a few decent records on Bearsville and IRS and never straying from their style. Maver- icks, a reunion .effort by Holsapple and Stamey, is basically an attempt to see whether or not the guys could still write songs together. They have succeeded. If Maver- icks can be compared to anything, it would be Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. Not only do both discs in.- clude Byrds' covers, but each sounds like the respective artists were hav- ing a good time while recording. For these guys, making a record isn't just another day at the office. "The Child In You," like "Free Fallin'," contains a subliminal mes- sage which says, "Listen to me over and over again until you can't get me out of your head." A relatively slow-tempoed number, driven by acoustic and jangly guitars, the song features Holsapple commenting on the difference between getting old and growing up. A few of- the other stand-out tracks include "Geometry," a very Beatle-like tune with an enjoyable 12-string acoustic part; "Taken," a ballad with great harmonies; and the up-tempo opener "Angel." Each of the tunes sounds distinct from the others, but at the same time, all include many similar elements. The two singers' voices aren't too dis- tant, making the harmonies sound great. And in addition, Holsapple and Stamey are both accomplished at layering guitar tracks over one an- other, giving each tune a pleasant mix of counter-melodies: See RECORDS, Page 8 In his dB days, Peter Holsapple sweated it out at Ann Arbor's own Rick's American Cafe. Yeah, he looks like hell, but apparently the H mellowed* with age, appearing on MTV Unplugged with pop faves R.E.M. and cutting -a melodic reunion album, Mavericks, with ex-bandmate Chris Stamey. 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