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
Transformations and Male Maturation
63
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
64
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
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