Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys 1995(C)You have to understand that this film deals with things that we as a race haven't achieved yet(time travel), and things that we haven't experienced yet(extinction).....but on a frieghtening scale of a stark possibility that it COULD happen.
A Strange man enters a hospital claiming to have journeyed back in time from the year 2035 to stop a killer virus from exterminating mankind, a beautiful psychologist decides he might be more than delusional. Terry Gilliam populates this labyrinthine, apocalyptic film with twisted characters and eerie revelations. The film was shot primarily in Philadelphia; Gilliam uses the more dilapidated area of the city to the film's apocalyptic advantage. The film is based on the 1962 French short film LA JETEE.
Bruce Willis(James Cole) and Brad Pitt(Jeffery Goines) 12 monkeys (C)In this amazing science fiction film, penal colony prisoner James Cole must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed close to five billion people in 1997. Cole's trip into the past won't be easy. For starters, he winds up in the wrong year on his first attempt. Once, as he time-travels, Cole ends up a prisoner in an insane asylum in 1990. There, he meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly(Stowe) and inmate Jeffrey Goines(Pitt), who could hold the key to the epidemic's spread. Cole later winds up in the middle of a World War I battlefield. After meeting James for a second time, in another year, Dr. Railly gets further involved in his quest. Although she thinks at first that Cole must be crazy, Kathryn soon starts to believe him and attempts to help. But James has already started to question his own sanity and tries to figure out if his journeys through time are real or if he's just been imagining everything.
Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe filmed a "making of" documentary about the film, The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys. The duo later went on to make Lost in La Mancha, despite their protests that they would not make "any more movies about making movies."
The scene in which Cole wanders post-apocalypse Philadelphia was not originally supposed to be set in the winter. After the studio delayed the film's shooting, however, Gilliam decided that he preferred the isolated look of winter. So the docu dissects very useful ideas about film making, and Gillian is always great and funny to listen to. Another film school treasure this bonus film is for peeps who like the behind the scenes stuff!
Madeline Stowe( Kathryn Railly) and Bruce Willis(James Cole) 1995 12 monkeys(C)The film makes frequent use of the "Introduccion" from Astor Piazzolla's Suite Punta del Este as the signature theme from the film. It's an odd, quirky piece, that suggests a tongue in cheek atmosphere, and i think it fits perfectly becouse the characters are all wondering what's going on in the on set of this unfolding crazy story. The use of classics such as What a wonderful world by luise Armstrong and various other "period" pieces helps to establish the time travel feel of coles character, due to his amazing memory at key points in time. I love this sound track, it really fits the scenes and images brilliantly!
Brad Pitt as the crazy Jeffery Goines. 12 Monkeys(C)
Themes in this film are abundent! And wonderfully woven through the the story as the plot thickens...I will try to break down as much for you, this may sound sterile, and clinical, so those of you who do not enjoy scientific or theory discussion, STOP READING NOWWW! lol!!
~ Madness
Madness and sanity are important themes in the film, and Gilliam deliberately left certain scenes ambiguous, allowing for an interpretation that Cole is "mentally divergent" and the whole film a manifestation of his psychosis. From the sleeve notes to the DVD release: "Between the past and the future, sanity and madness, dreams and reality, lies the mystery of the Twelve Monkeys."
one of the scientists who makes James Cole's time travel possible. 1995 12 monkeys(C)~Memory
The film deals with the subjective nature of memories and their effect upon perceptions of reality. Some examples of false memories are:
Cole's recollection of the airport shooting which is altered each time he has a dream.
A "mentally divergent" man at the asylum who has false memories.
Railly telling Cole "I remember you like this" in the scene in which a barely recognizable Cole and Railly are seen in disguise for the first time.
~Time
In one scene, Cole and Railly watch Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and the scene that appears is that of James Stewart and Kim Novak in Muir Woods National Monument where Novak looks at the growth rings of a felled redwood and traces back events in her past life ("here I was born ... and here I died"). In addition to resonating with the movie's larger themes, Cole and Railly later have a similar conversation while the same music from Vertigo is repeated. As Roger Ebert has described the moment, "He's not simply providing a movie in-joke. The point is that Cole's own life is caught between rewind and fast-forward, and he finds himself repeating in the past what he learned in the future, and vice versa." This scene from Vertigo is also observed explicitly by Chris Marker, whose La Jetée inspired Twelve Monkeys, in his 1982 documentary montage Sans Soleil.
The poetry reading interrupted by Railly's pager includes the following quatrain from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
"Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;
Tomorrow's Silence, Triumph or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where."
References to time, time travel, and monkeys are scattered throughout the film, including the Woody Woodpecker "Time Tunnel" cartoon playing on the TV in a hotel room, The Marx Brothers movie "Monkey Business" on TV in the asylum and a monkey taking a sandwich to the boy thought to be trapped in a well.
~Prophecy
There is a recurring motif in the film regarding the depiction of time travelers as prophets. During Railly's lecture on "Madness and Apocalyptic Visions", she recounts the Cassandra myth, and speaks of medieval and war-time predictions of an apocalypse in the year 1996. Later in the movie, we encounter a medieval evangelist who tells Cole "You're one of us" and Railly's photograph reveals that the soldier from 1917 was actually Cole's friend Jose with "Cole" in the background reaching towards him.
Furthermore, religious studies academics have authored essays claiming that the lead character James Cole (initials J.C.) fits the cinematic character type of a Christ-figure, a savior sent to sacrifice himself in order to save humanity.
Bruce Willis as the torchured, sorrowed hero in 12 Monkeys 1995(C)So here are the DVD features on the special edition:
12 Monkeys Archives, Feature Commentary with Director Terry Gilliam & Producer Charles Roven, The Hamster Factor And Other Tales Of 12 Monkeys (The Making Of 12 Monkeys), Theatrical trailer, Widescreen Presentation, Commentary with Director Terry Gilliam and Producer Charles Roven The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of 12 Monkeys making of feature.
OK what I didn't like about the film, was that some of the set designs looked like they were right out of Gilliam's other film Brazil. But I also was thinking, maybe that was the point! If the human race was devastated by a deadly virus, and 90 percent of this race was wiped out, then the remaining survivors, however intellent, would have to use the resources left to use, or technology that had to be re-made from scratch. So bare in mind, even though this is infact a classic to me, I was disturbed by the low quality of the set designs (until I actually understood WHY everything looked shitty that is haha!) It's a tough film to wrap your brain around, because again, it's something this race has never had to experience on a full scale extinction level event. And quite frankly hard to imagine!
Brad Pitt as Jeffery Goines in 1995's 12 Monkeys (C)When you see Brad Pitt in this you will realize, if you haven't already, the pure genius of what Brad does, and what exactly Brad gets payed for. This role was meant to go to him, because I can't picture too many(ok Sean Penn was suppose to do this role, so maybe he'd have been good too) actors that are good at "crazy haha! Brad is an expert at CRAZY, the role was sooo fun to watch, was a high light in this film for me, splendid actor!
Bruce Willis, well..was Bruce, what can you say about such an amazing actor. I mean he's had his share of bad films..but that's not his fault, I mean, he's great even in bad films.he's the salvaging bright light in some really bad films (cough!armageddon,cough!,cough!! lols) But this role, I must say, he nailed it, it was spot on...funny, terrifying, mournful, hurt, tortured......this guy goes through so much in this film and still manages to get Kathryne to believe he's tellng the truth and that he is from the future..awesome, awesome performance!!
So, I will end this now, I need to eat, shower and possibly enjoy a potentially amazing weekend. So I bid you all an awesome weekend as well, hope you enjoyed this critical review of one of my NOW favorite films (not gonna lie, didn't enjoy alot of it when I first saw it years ago) But I think it was because it was sooo over my head when my brain was young and formative, I didn't understand alot of the concepts that the film is based in. But all that has changed, and this film has definitly grown on me with time... 9/10
Goodnite!
deadsurfkiss
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