On August 11th I was walking home from a meeting and started texting a friend of mine. We were joking around, taking shots at each other, usual guy stuff, when he all of a sudden got serious in his next text.
“Robin William just died.” The guy was brilliant.”
“Not in Patch Adams.” I replied like the arse I can be at times. I really didn’t believe that he was dead and I was still in joke mode. But then I felt like a douche later on when I got home, looked online and realized he was indeed dead.
“Damn.” “Robin Williams died.” “He was brilliant.”
Perhaps Robin would have liked my smart ass comment. After all, his main job in life was being a comic and always attempting to tread that line of comedy and insensitivity. The closer he got to the line without crossing usually lead to the biggest laugh.
Two days before he died I was out for dinner with my fiance and friends and I brought up how I heard that they were going to make Mrs. Doubtfire 2. Everyone was so excited because that film defines a generation for so many of us. If you think of a great comedy, you remember the first time you saw it and the state of mind you were in. I remember seeing Doubtfire as a young teenager on a double date and having hamburgers afterwards and laughing about what we just watched. It was silly and totally ridiculous and that was the point. It made us giggle over and over again. The man’s legacy is still intact.
Here is WILDsound’s Top 20 Robin Williams movies with a review for each: http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/robin_williams.html
The man had an interesting hit and miss movie career. We put The Fisher King (1991) at #1 because it’s arguably the best film he was apart of and it seems to really define the man he really was: All over the place.
His character in The Fisher King is funny at times and depressed at the other times. All the while he’s looking for love and meaning. He needs to find it to rationalize his existence. And I have a funny feeling that’s what he was looking for. Some of us find it. Some of us don’t. And some of us don’t care either way.
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 