Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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120 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Profoundly moving journey to enlightenment, May 30, 2000
I wonder if this movie could be made today - after all, it doesn't have any computer-generated special effects, it demands the viewer's complete attention, and really needs to be seen more than once to appreciate fully the meaning of all of the scenes. Incredible too is that the writer (Bruce Joel Rubin) was working on the filming of this and his more popular movie "Ghost" at the same time. Director Adrian Lynne wisely avoided some of the more sacharrine touches that Rubin had in the original script (such as the view of "Heaven") and added many subtle disturbing elements of his own. The final result is a film that you will think about long after you see it, a man's journey through the bardo state to his final enlightenment. In a way, this is the cinematic equivalent of a Pettersson symphony - an emotional catharsis after the long, dark night of the soul. I'm not ashamed to say that I cry like a baby every time I watch it.Comparisons with Bierce's "Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Carnival of Souls" are inevitable and not out of place, but "Jacob's Ladder" has more layers than either of those and ambitiously takes on the psychological layers of one man's life, the tension between the comforts of home, wife and family and the unfufilled desires he harbors. There are some violent scenes and very disturbing imagery throughout the movie; after all, it *is* about war, fear, and death. However, none of it is gratuitous, and the use of strobe lighting, quick cuts, and odd camera angles keep the viewer from being able to see anything definite. But don't say you weren't warned.... The DVD's documentary and deleted scenes, along with the director's commentary, will enable the first-time viewer to get a more complete idea of what is happening. I've watched this film at least a dozen times, and never fail to see something new in it each time. Sound and image quality are excellent. This one isn't for casual viewing; it is *certainly* not a Saturday-night time killer, nor is it a "horror" movie in the standard sense of the term. Still, absolutley my highest recommendation.
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78 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Criminally underrated and terrifying, October 18, 2000
This criminally underrated masterpiece of psychological horror broadsided audiences who were expecting ... well, come to think of it, what were they expecting, exactly? Billed and promoted as a kind of pseudo-Argento horror experience, it's in fact one of the bleakest head-trip movies ever -- a closer cousin to films like Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" than "Friday the 13th".Opening with Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) in Vietnam, the movie flashes forwards to his life back in the States, where he lives an isolated existence as a postal clerk. He has a shy, touching relationship with a girl (Elizabeth Pena) he has met at the post office, but he cannot seem to really connect with people. Something in him has been damaged, it seems, by the horror of the war. Worse, he's hallucinating badly and suffering from flashbacks. Slowly a plot emerges. We see shots of him before the war, happy, with a wife and son, and then learn that he may have been used as a subject for unorthodox drug experiments. He meets other vets who are similarly disturbed, and a gentle chiropractor (Danny Aiello) who has some sage words of advice about his past and future. And then we get a series of unsettling scenes that subvert everything we have seen and force us to read it in an unsettling new way -- which of course would be absolutely criminal to reveal here. Let's face it -- this isn't a fun movie. It's bleak, depressing, disturbing, and ends on the darkest possible note. But it's also made with absolutely consummate skill and complete assurance in the material. This wasn't a hatchet job, but a real piece of art, and it needs to be seen in that light.
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jacob's Ladder Is A Super Psychological Thriller, January 4, 2000
Jacob's Ladder is a psychological thriller in which Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam veteran, is suffering from hallucinations which seem to have some connection with what happened to him one night in Vietnam war. Jacob finds himself living in different time realities and he just cannot grab at the present time. He sees demons and nightmarish visions strangely combined with flashbacks of that night in Vietnam which make him pass out. When he regains conciousness, he wakes up to completely a different time reality which, too, turns out to be a false at the end, leading him to another false reality. He cannot make sense of the situation and thinks he is losing his mind. He constantly finds himself trapped in neverending sequences of nightmares that he cannot wake up from. This cycle never ends until the end of the film when all the other realities vanish, leaving out only one reality which makes Jacob's Ladder a brilliant movie. Jacob's physician Louis probably express the main theme of the movie best in these words: "So, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."I think this movie is unfairly underestimated and not given enough credit. Tim Robbins' performance is flawless and fascinating. Adrian Lyne directed the movie very well; the emotions and the tension that are aimed to be brought about are achieved quite successfully. One interesting fact about the movie is that when you watch it for the second time, you notice a lot of things, which you did not notice or could not make sense out of in the first place. Names, small incidents, conversations, even the advertisement in the downtown train take on a new meaning once you know what is really happening to Jacob Singer. I strongly recommend Jacob's Ladder to the people who like psychological thrillers and soft horror movies.
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