Verdict
Summary
Long unreleased in any format, The Annihilation of Fish is a special little movie with two very strong performances and a plot (that was based on a short story) that has quite a lot of nuance and originality. It certainly didn’t deserve to be swept under the rug for so long, and now that its two leads are no longer with us, the film takes on even more special meaning.
Plot:
Two eccentric single elderly people meet “cute” at a boarding house and fall in love.
Review:
Elderly Jamaican “Fish” Johnson (James Earl Jones) has just been released from a mental institution and set free after literally wrestling with a demon for most of his life. He finds himself at a boarding house run by a meek older woman (played by Margot Kidder) who accepts Fish as a tenant because he’s mostly quiet, but he explains that he has one eccentricity – he wrestles with a demon at night. She accepts that, and sure enough Fish rolls around the floor most nights battling his demon (named Hank). Another eccentric tenant moves in – an elderly woman named Poinsettia (Lynn Redgrave) who swears that she’s married to the ghost of the opera great Puccini, but of course everyone thinks she’s crazy. Dejected from normal society for being a loon, she moves in next door to Fish and despite how crazy they seem, they strike up a friendship that soon turns to an intense urgent need and love. Fish depends on her to be the referee when he wrestles with Hank, his demon, and she depends on him for touch and personal intimacy because he’s the first man to touch her in many years (especially considering that her unseen husband has no physical form). But when Poinsettia murders Hank, Fish’s demon, during a wrestling match, Fish’s entire outlook on life deteriorates because it was the demon keeping him grounded on earth, and now she has to figure out a way to nurse him back to health and reality.
Long unreleased in any format, The Annihilation of Fish is a special little movie with two very strong performances and a plot (that was based on a short story) that has quite a lot of nuance and originality. It certainly didn’t deserve to be swept under the rug for so long, and now that its two leads are no longer with us, the film takes on even more special meaning. Celebrated filmmaker Charles Burnett gives the film a unique and grounded (yet whimsical) perspective and he seemed to have gotten the best out of his actors who go for broke with their roles. Jones delivered an especially physical performance, and it’s a complicated piece of work he did here. Well worth checking out, this is a film worth seeking and finding.
Milestone and Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of The Annihilation of Fish is finally available for all to see and own. It’s been restored in 4K, and comes with a short film by director Burnett, an audio commentary by Burnett, a Q & A with Burnett, and a trailer.
Version 1.0.0