Details

Release year: 1991

Storyline

A former radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a terrible mistake he once made, finds redemption in helping a mentally unstable homeless man who was an innocent victim of that mistake.

Top credits

Directors

Terry Gilliam

Writers

Richard LaGravenese

Cast

Jeff Bridges — Jack Lucas
Robin Williams — Parry
Adam Bryant — Radio Engineer
Paul Lombardi — Radio Engineer

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Awards

1 win & 4 nominations

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Did you know

• 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.

• The Grand Central Station waltz sequence is an idea that came up to Terry Gilliam when they were about to shoot a small and scripted sequence on that location. Of this, Gilliam said: "The script had a scene in Grand Central Station where Jeff Bridges' character in kind of a mood and he hears this poor, black woman singing a beautiful song and he stops in the rush of his life and he assesses his situation. Well, that was fine, and we were in Grand Central Station reccing it and I looked down from this raised area and I said "Ah, wouldn't it be nice if in the middle of this rush hour - cause people were just running past each other - if, as they pass somebody, they glanced to their left or right, fell in love and started waltzing?" I thought, "What a sweet idea that would be." And that's the sequence that end up in the final movie.

• Terry Gilliam had three rules in life when it came to filmmaking: 1) he'd never do anyone's script but his own, 2) he'd never work for a major studio, and 3) he'd never work in America. He violated all three of the rules to make this film.