Fairy Tale and Film

The Fisher King 
(Terry Gilliam, 1991) significantly places a Pinocchio 
puppet in the hands of its protagonist, Jack (Jeff Bridges), at the start of 
the narrative and we realise it is intended to parallel his own narrative 
situation. Formerly an ego-driven shock jock who inspired a nightclub 
massacre, he spends his days drunk, dissolute and unable to care for 

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Transformations and Male Maturation 
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anyone. Gepetto, in this case, is the vulnerable Parry (Robin Williams), 
whose wife was a victim of the massacre and who has lost his mind as a 
result, living as a vagrant on the streets of New York. Their paths cross 
on the night Jack finds the puppet. Intervening when a group of thugs 
attack Parry, the symbolic intention of his find becomes clear. Like 
Pinocchio, Jack undergoes a redemptive journey that entails helping the 
man whose life he almost destroyed. Gilliam has often expressed admi-
ration for Collodi’s tale and it is likely that he added the motif, having 
appended an abundance of fairy tale allusions to Richard LeGrevenese’s 
script, to give the film ‘resonance’ (see Gilliam, 1999: 195). Jack seeks 
to make amends by helping Parry woo a young woman he has admired 
from afar and enables him to fulfil a mythic quest, putting this vul-
nerable figure first and thereby resolving the guilt that has consumed 
him. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that it eschews 
conventional notions of masculinity and success. Although Jack re-
establishes his career as a DJ, he soon quits when he realises its nega-
tive effect on him, having quickly reverted to a vain, egotistical and 
self-interested man who negates the marginalised figures he formerly 
considered friends. Happiness and fulfilment, he learns, are about being 
with those he cares about and, like Pinocchio, he becomes ‘real’ when 
he acquires sufficient maturity to put his loved ones first, finally com-
mitting to the woman who has stood by him for years. Just as Parry 
wakes from his mysterious coma at the end of the film, joining other 
patients in song, Jack is transformed into a more contented and fulfilled 
person once he has helped to restore this man’s life, and reconsidered 
his own. In this respect the film has some kinship with other narratives 
that reject material success in favour of more principled and personal 
ambitions. The male protagonists in 
Groundhog Day
, 
17 Again
, 
Bruce 
Almighty
and its sequel 
Evan Almighty
are all similarly forced to rethink 
what it is they want from life, learning to put their egos aside and con-
sider others instead. Just as Pinocchio acknowledges the consequences 
of his actions and learns to prioritise those who need him, Jack makes 
amends by helping the less fortunate, and ultimately helping himself.
As children’s tales go, 
Pinocchio
involves its fair share of disturbing 
and sometimes macabre events. The morality of the tale is fairly overt, 
with Pinocchio turned into a donkey when he prioritises play over 
study and threatened with death on numerous occasions, making the 
fact that he learns to become a well-behaved and caring person almost 
more extraordinary than his transformation from a puppet into a boy! 
The world is shown to be filled with cruelty and danger, inhabited by 
many nasty individuals who seek to trick or use him, yet despite this 

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Fairy Tale and Film
he endeavours to be good and considerate, trying to help an injured 
classmate, saving a dog and helping to release a captured tuna fish. 
The blue-haired fairy bears witness to these deeds and eventually 
rewards him by forgiving his misbehaviour and granting his heart’s 
desire, although an irony of the tale is that he becomes a better person 
than many ‘real’ examples seen. In this sense the story’s referencing in