The Fisher King Essay, Research Paper

The Fisher King

In the movie The Fisher King, performed in 1991,a man named Jack was a DJ a talk radio station. The purpose of this radio station was for people to call in and discuss their problems. On one particular call, a man named Edwin called to talk about is affection towards a certain woman. The DJ was extremely rude to the man, telling him that he was stupid for thinking that he would ever have a chance with her. The man Edwin, was sad and depressed. He walked into a bar with a shotgun killing seven people before turning the gun on him self. The next day Jack was watching the news and heard about the terrible tragedy. Jack felt like a failure and quit his job. He became a lush and could not handle his grief anymore. One night he got drunk and tied bricks to his ankle to drown himself. In the middle of him doing so, some teenage hoodlums were out doing no good and intended to beat him up. Before they got a chance to, a homeless man scares the boys away. With Jack drunk and unconcionce, the man took him to his home. The homeless man s name is Perry. He claims to be a knight on a quest to find the Holy Grail, which is located in a house down the street.

Perry had a psychological ailment called schizophrenia. He has the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. The symptoms are, Delusions, disorganized thinking and speech, heighten perceptions and hallucinations, and inappropriate affect. Perry had delusions of being this knight that is on a quest and in search for the Holy Grail. He had hallucinations of little fat people, visions of an evil knight that is out to hurt him. This can also be diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia.

Perry was not born with this disease. He used to be a happily married man and a teacher. Three years ago, his wife was one of the seven victims in the horrible blowout at the bar. It was not until two years later after the accident when he began to experience the symptoms of schizophrenia.

After the DJ finds out that his wife was involved in the massacre, he felt obligated to help him. Perry told Jack about a woman he liked named Lydia. Jack decided to bring them together. They fall involve very fast. After a date, Perry leaves and starts thinking about his wife and the horrible night he lost her. It distresses him greatly, and he starts to hallucinate, seeing the evil knight coming after him to kill him. He tries to run away from it and running into a deserted area he is attacked and almost killed by two teenagers. After Jack heard about it, he went down to the hospital to find that Perry had been beaten unconscious. He was told that Perry had gone into a catatonic stage, where a person remains silent and motionless. No one knows when a person will snap out of it. It could take days months or years.

Jack went back to being a DJ, completely changing his style. Perry still lies motionless and emotionless. Jack feels restless and wants to do something to help him get out of this catatonic sate. He decides to grab the Holy Grail from the house downtown. After he gets the Grail , he brings it to Perry. Perry sees the Holy Grail. He feels that his mission was accomplished so now he can rest.

I think cases like Perry s is strange. How can a man with a normal life, a fine education, and no symptoms of schizophrenia , can all of a sudden lose his sanity. Perry s diagnoses was from a sociocultural point of view. Something tragic in his life set off something in his brain in which he was prone to schizophrenia all along.The sociocultural point of views have been influential but are not accurate. I believe Perry s Schizophrenia, was triggered by this horrible event in which he tried to repress the memory by thinking and seeing illogical things.

I chose this movie because I think it did a good job of portraying a schizophrenic. I think it is strange how the human mind can control the delusions and hallucinations of a person. I can not imagine what it would be like to spontaneously loose my mind, have no control over my sight and hearing, and not know what is reality or not.