JACOB'S LADDER (1990)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Drama / Horror / War

Director: Adrian Lyne

Cast: Tim Robbins / Elizabeth Pena / Danny Aiello

Plot

Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer sees demons everywhere.  His girlfriend thinks he’s losing his mind, but Jacob is sure that these creatures are out to get him.  As his life becomes a nightmarish realm of phantoms and paranoia, Jacob can’t tell if he’s mad or sane, awake or dreaming, living or dead.

What I Liked

One of my very greatest fears is losing my mind, not knowing what’s real and what isn’t, not being in control of my own consciousness.  One of my all-time favorite horror films, “Jacob’s Ladder” taps directly into that fear.  One of the ways the filmmakers accomplished this so effectively was to avoid the use of CGI, animation, blue screens, and the like.  Everything one sees in this movie, lead actor Tim Robbins is really seeing as well.  Thus, the filmmakers avoid losing their audience with over-the-top effects and instead ground the film in visuals so real that they’re all the more frightening for it.  Outside of a few tricks of the camera and makeup, everything was filmed natural.  To further immerse us in the nightmare, screenwriter Bruce Rubin grounds his Hell in real life settings: the Vietnam jungle, an operating room, city streets, or an abandoned subway.  Robbins helps the filmmakers by giving my favorite of all of his performances that I have seen, with his thoroughly relatable Jacob Singer drawing us right in to reluctantly explore that Hell through his eyes.

The multi-layered depth of “Jacob’s Ladder” helps make it just as compelling on the tenth viewing as is it was one the first, maybe even more so.  The horror elements of the film are just the surface of one of the most thematically complex films I’ve ever seen.  The movie can be read in so many ways.  Straight up horror film.  Conspiracy movie.  Or, as I see it, a moving and thought-provoking chronicle of the battle for a man’s very soul.  Indeed, one prominent character in the film can be read as Satan while another is an angel, if not God himself.  There are elements of literature, religion, mythology, and philosophy woven into the film’s plot and script that at first seem to contribute to the film’s barrage of confusion, but ultimately boil down to a cohesive theme: “The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won’t let go of life, your memories, your attachments.  They burn them all away.”  That’s what happens to Jacob Singer in this, one of the most disturbing and astonishing films I have ever seen.

It’s also a credit to this film that everyone I know of who has seen this film remembers it vividly and loves it.

What I Didn’t Like

Personally, I did not go in much for the whole conspiracy angle of the film.  Whether it’s meant as a slight of hand by the filmmakers to momentarily distract us from the film’s inevitable direction or as a way to entertain audiences who wouldn't be entertained by the metaphysical elements of the film, I found it to be ultimately inconsequential to the film’s outcome and greatness.  Perhaps, also, the filmmakers meant to use it as an illustration of Jacob’s paranoia, another element of his descent into insanity.  However, if that were so, they didn’t need to validate his paranoia with the big twist reveal toward end.  I much prefer the more philosophical themes that otherwise predominate in this movie.

Most Memorable Scene

Wow.  What single moment can I pick in a film that is so effective that virtually every scene is traumatic?  To be honest the part that always has me wanting to look away (though I never can) is when Jacob is brought into what seems to be an innocuous hospital, only to be wheeled through a dark and caged hallway populated with characters that look like they were rejected from Tod Browning’s “Freaks” for being too… freaky.  He winds up helplessly strapped to an operating table, surrounded by eyeless surgeons with huge needles that insist that he is dead.  Unfortunately, my description doesn’t do it justice.  I can only say it is one of the most frightening moments ever captured on film.

My Rating: 5 out of 5