The Fisher King"
written by Richard LaGravenese
Jack: (staring up into the clouds): Nothing's happening.
Parry: Concentrate.
Jack (deadpan): What if some homophobic jogger runs by and kills us to get back at this father? "Jack Lucas Found Dead Next to a Dead Naked Man" "The two were dead, his companion was naked." Hate it when they use the term "companion"--it's so insinuating. It'll probably boost the sales of my biography though. The public have a fascination with celebrity murders that involve nakedness, bastards.
Parry: Jack--I may be going out on a limb here but you don't seem like a happy camper. (pause) Did you ever hear the story of the Fisher King?
Jack: No.
Parry: It begins with the King as a boy--having to spend a night alone in the forest to prove his courage so that he could become king. While he was standing there alone, he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail, the symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be the keeper of the Grail, so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions, of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement, he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible...like God. So he reached into the fire to take the Grail. And the Grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire, to be terribly wounded.
Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper, until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die.
One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. Being a fool, he was simpleminded, he didn't see a king, he saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you, friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need a some water to cool my throat." So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water, handed it to the king. As the king began to drink he realized that his wound was healed. He looked at his hands, and there was the Holy Grail that which he sought all of his life! And he turned to the fool and said in amazement, "How could you find that which what my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty." Very beautiful, isn't it? I think I heard that at a lecture once...I don't know...a professor...at Hunter.