All the allusions to Parry's past are specifically on target, but the symbolism from the original "Fisher King" story is that in order to grow up and be a man, a young boy must face his greatest fear and overcome it. When Percival, the young fool (boy), first arrives at court, he sees this magnificent knight, all dressed in red armor, with his horse dressed in red battle colors and plumes (his vision of what a great man looks like, whether it's a doctor or a hunter or a pimp - all of a sudden, he decides that THAT is what a man is, and THAT is what he wants to look like).
Percival says that he wants the Red Knight's "gear" - the "outfit" (representing what men have that women don't, the outward sign that he is a man inside). So the wiseacres at court tell him that all he has to do is ask the Red Knight nicely and he will give them to him. Percival, the fool, believes every word uttered to him, so he goes up to the Red Knight and asks for his armor and his horse and all the accoutrements. The Red Knight laughs at him and says, in effect "Sure, kid, you can have it - if you're man enough to take it" and throws down the gauntlet. (They fight.)
Of course the Red Knight makes short work of it, and Percival is immediately thrown on the ground, where he reaches into his boot, pulls out a small dagger and flings it upward toward the mounted Red Knight. Somehow, unbelievably, unexpectedly (read "God's hand" here), the knife goes right through the eyeslit in the Red Knight's helmet, into his brain and kills him instantly. So, Percival becomes a man and gets all the outward appearances of manhood. It seems (to him) like a fluke. It happens. He doesn't deserve it, but it happens to every boy. Hard to believe such a wonderful thing - JUST HAPPENS! HE HAS THIS MARVELOUS EQUIPMENT!
That's the physiological part of the story. But psychologically, Percival (every boy) gets the equipment long before he has a clue what to do with it. That is a process that takes a long time to attain fully. (Read the rest of the story for that.) But psychologically, a boy takes his first step into manhood when he first confronts his father man-to-man (where ELSE would he get his "manhood" except from his father's Y chromosome?)...he stands up to his father, emotionally. It doesn't have to be a physical fight - although it sometimes is! But he has to go toe-to-toe with his father to become a man. It's even harder for boys like Parsifal/Percival whose fathers are absent, and who are raised by mothers who warn them to be afraid of everything because the mother is afraid of losing another child. (Percival's big brother had become a knight like the father, and had been killed, like their father.)
So Parry, in the movie, has to face his demons, as everyone has already understood and explained, before he can become a whole man again psychologically and function in a healthy way. He has always run FROM the Red Knight, but with Jack's help, he starts feeling good enough about himself to try to face the Red Knight and chase him away.
Percival does finally find the Grail, but only after he has searched and searched for years and given up. Percival accidentally finds the Holy Grail early on (as Leonard finds a good life with his beautiful wife and Jack was the successful DJ on his way), but he can't hold onto it. He doesn't appreciate what he has, and it is taken from him. (He KNOWS he is supposed to, but he just doesn't do it.) When he finds it again, he knows how to appreciate what he has been through, but just before he does, he falls into a trance (a cataconic state in Parry's case; a drunken stupor in Jack's) from looking at three drops of blood in the snow until he just freezes (emotionally, inside, like Parry) until a good (male) friend finds him and shakes him out of it: C'mon, good buddy, let's get going. Yes. Life is absurd and painful and all of that, but we men know that our job is just to keep on keeping on. Not to win every battle, but to keep fighting the fight, at least. That's what men do. C'mon. Let's go home.
And everyone is waiting there to give him a party.
Well, there is more...but...that's the answer to your question about the Red Knight.
The Fisher King is the guardian of the Grail Castle, the one whose pain can never be healed but can be forgotten when he is fishing. (When a man indulges in his hobby or work that he loves deeply, he can forget.) Meanwhile, he waits and waits for The Knight who will come and ask the right question (not answer it, as in the movies)...which will heal him permanently. So they prepare the feast for every young man who comes, hoping he is The One.
The Fisher King is injured - gravely, but not mortally. Usually a thigh wound (symbolic because it is dangerously close to his manhood), but sometimes a burn - burned by experience, sick from harsh life experiences as both Jack and Parry are.) Jack's coat catches fire accidentally after rescuing Parry who was going to be burned by the teen jerks. Parry's wound is emotional. It can be alleviated temporarily, but no amount of money or good works can cure him permanently. (A young man must face it head-on in order to become a man, instead of running to drugs, alcohol, meaningless sex, workaholism, false gods, etc.) After he deals with his demons, then he will become a man.
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memalley
15 years ago
bravo.
as if written by harvey (pre wife-slain parry) himself.
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jostaley
14 years ago
The red knight has a lot of different symbolic elements, but the main one is the splatter of the wife's blood on his face. In the scene where Jack sees the pictures Perry has drawn of the red knight, its clear that they are an evolution of the blood splatters becoming the the knight. He can't face the reality of his wife's death, so the reality becomes a knight in his psyche. He runs from this "thing" his mind has created to keep himself disassociated from the tragedy.
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