Trivia for
The Fisher King (1991) More at IMDbPro »

• 'Bruce Willis (I)' auditioned for a role.
  
  
• The front window of the video store features a poster for director Terry Gilliam's previous film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). A poster for Brazil (1985) (also directed by Gilliam) appears on the wall in the first video store scene. Almost all of the posters and video tape boxes in the video store are from RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, the video arm of TriStar Pictures, which released the film.
  
  
• While it is not mentioned in the film, Parry's name is short for Parsifal, the "pure fool" and legendary knight of the Holy Grail. Parry brings redemption to Jack Lucas just as Parsifal brings redemption to the Fisher King Amfortas. Also, like Parsifal, Parry does battle with a Red Knight. In still another parallel, Parry experiences a cosmic awakening after kissing Lydia, just as Parsifal experiences a cosmic awakening after kissing the beautiful Kundry.
  
  
• For the "waltzing commuter" scene in Grand Central station, the main hall of the terminal was shut down for the shoot from 8pm until the first commuter trains arrived at 5:30 am the next morning. Lighting effects outside of the large terminal windows made it seem to be 5:00 in the evening the entire night, and over 400 extras waltzed around the mirror-ball topped Information Booth again and again throughout the night. Now, on New Year's, an orchestra plays there and people waltz for real.
  
  
• At college, Mercedes Ruehl had done a thesis about T.S. Eliot's poem "The Wasteland", in which the Fisher King features. Consequently when she received a script entitled "The Fisher King", she knew that this was the right project for her.
  
  
• Cameo: [Tom Waits] the beggar in the wheelchair at the train station.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Terry Gilliam] [burst] at the diner.
  
  
• The first film directed by Terry Gilliam to not feature any other members of Monty Python.
  
  
• The "castle" in New York is the facade of the Squadron A Armory, now part of the Hunter College Campus Schools building, located at 94th and Madison Avenue. When Robin Williams tells the story of the fisher king, he says, "I think I heard it at a lecture once... I don't know... a professor... at Hunter."
  
  
• The Girl that Jack says might be able to help Parry to find the Holy Grail is named Lydia Sinclair. One of the legends about the grail is that it is buried under Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland which was built by the Sinclair clan. The name Sinclair comes back in several grail myths.
  
  
• 'Howard Stern' was asked for tapes of his radio show. Howard refused and instead asked to be a consultant since they were modeling the character after him. The studio did not want to pay Stern, so they declined and in return Stern told them he wasn't interested in giving them his tapes.
  
  
• The positioning of Jack Lucas with the homeless cabaret singer in his arms at the hospital echoes the positions of Mary and Christ in Michelangelo's Pieta at the Vatican.
  
  

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