12 Monkeys (1995)

Amazing movie, nearly perfect.

I'll try not to explain the contents of the movie, which will be difficult because this one is hard to review without actually defining what happens within.

Suffice it to say, though, that this is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It seems to not get much more than a cult following at this moment, but as time passes there's no doubt in my mind that this will become a classic science fiction psychological thriller of the first order. Bruce Willis is unbelievable in this movie. Brad Pitt is very good, too. The acting is superb.

But, what I cannot stress enough is the absolute necessity of understanding what this film is really intended to do: *spoiler below*

*It's intended to express as best as possible what paranoid delusions are actually really like for mental illness patients. Trust me on that.

Ok, spoiler over, and that's not really much of one as it is. But, if you want to get into a little schizophrenia for yourself this is your movie. It's not for all audiences, though. Those who have genuine mental illness probably should not watch the movie at all. Maybe. On the other hand, maybe it could help them to understand better their own confusions.

Whatever.

The bottom line is that this is a fantastically well developed thriller with science fiction elements. It's totally psychological, and completely and utterly confusing in every way. In the end you are left wondering what you've just witnessed and what has just happened. You really don't know, but you think you do, but you don't. Seriously, the gripping conclusion continues the parallel theme of mental illness along side fantastic sci-fi trek through time.

It's perfectly done. I cannot recommend too many better movies for you. There just are very few that are as good as this one. November 3, 2008

A flawless film

Sci-fi film in which Bruce Willis plays a time traveller who travels back to the year 1990 from a dystopian future to stop a virus that in the year 1996 will wipe out most of mankind and forces the survivors to live underground. However, when he arrives in the year 1990, he is believed to be mad and is placed in a mental institution, under the care of psychiatrist Madeleine Stowe. Stowe also believes that Willis is suffering from mental illness, with paranoid delusions of the end of the world, but then Willis mysteriously escapes from the solitary confinement cell he has been placed in following an attempt to escape the mental institution. Six years later, in 1996, Willis appears again and tracks Stowe down, taking her hostage and forcing her to drive across country to Philadelphia, because he needs her help to stop what he refers to as the `army of the twelve monkeys'. Stowe believes that she has been kidnapped by a dangerous schizophrenic and does not believe his claims, that he is from a future in which most of the world's population has been wiped out by a deadly virus and that he has come to try and stop this virus. But when strange things start happening that verify that Willis is indeed a time traveller, Stowe is forced to put her professional scepticism to one side and accept that Willis is not insane but has been speaking the truth the whole time. Now Stowe tracks Willis down, and is anxious to help him try to stop the virus and the end of the world. But now Willis has become the unbeliever, and has started to doubt his own sanity and wonder whether his memories of time travel and a dystopian future are real or rather the invention of a deranged mind. Ironically, Willis' psychiatrist now has to convince him that he is sane after all, and the stakes could not be higher, because if he does not start to believe this, all will be lost. This film was a quite flawless work of science-fiction imagination, relying on story rather than special effects to make its mark. Bruce Willis is excellent as our bemused hero who doesn't know whether he is sane or crazy and Madeleine Stowe is also faultless as the psychiatrist who at first believes that Willis is mentally ill but slowly becomes a believer. Brad Pitt is also notable as an eccentric animal rights activist that Willis first meets in the mental institution. This film has few if any special effects, even in the scenes set in the future and it is a testament to Willis's acting ability that I found myself empathising with the pain of Willis' character as he joyfully experienced the things that we take for granted - clean air, music, being able to live above ground - in contrast to the horrors of his own time. This film was an exemplar piece of story-telling; with its message about appreciating the world that we have even with its imperfections, a wonderful red herring and an excellent twist near the end of the film that elevated what would have been just an excellent film into an outstanding one. Highly recommended. October 26, 2008

12 Monkeys

Great sci-fi movie to watch. Bruce Willis does a great job playing the part, along with Brad Pitt also. Need to see movie. September 2, 2008

Beware the Army of the 12 Monkeys

From his days with Monty Python to his visionary epic Brazil, Terry Gilliam has never been an ordinary filmmaker. His unique sense of style and his trademark absurdist humor can be found in all of his films. In 1995, he cemented his reputation as one of the most unconventional directors in America with his brilliant science fiction film, 12 Monkeys. 12 Monkeys is an apocalyptic, romantic, time travel adventure inspired by the French film, La Jetée, which was written by Chris Marker. However, Gilliam's film is entirely his own, a stunning masterpiece of contemporary cinema, and one of the most cleverly bizarre films ever made. The screenplay was written by David and Janet Peoples, who inject the story with an intimate humanistic quality, juxtaposing romance with an eerie atmosphere of impending disaster.

In the year 2035, James Cole (Bruce Willis) is a prisoner in a subterranean stronghold where the last survivors of a cataclysmic virus are held up. Their world is monitored by a panel of scientists who use the prisoners for mysterious experiments. Cole is selected to go up onto the Earth's desolate surface and collect life forms for the scientists to study. Upon his return to the underground prison, Cole is told that he's a candidate for an experiment, which if it were successful he would be given a full pardon. He is sent back in time to discover the source of the virus, but he arrives in the wrong year. After getting into a fight with police officers, Cole is sent to a rundown insane asylum where he befriends a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). He also meets a host of mentally dysfunctional patients, including a paranoid schizophrenic named Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) who spends most of his time watching cartoons, harassing other patients, and ranting about government conspiracies. Jeffrey helps Cole in an escape attempt, which ends with Cole being caught by the mental hospital's guards and being put into an isolation room, heavily restrained. He mysteriously disappears from the hospital and arrives back in the future. There, the scientists tell him that despite his failure he has been exceptionally useful. They ask him if he would be willing to go back and further investigate the 12 Monkeys... and Jeffrey Goines who may be involved with their formation. However Cole is sent, not only to the wrong time but the wrong place. He lands in Southern France, in the middle of WWI. He's shot in the leg before he vanishes into time.
Meanwhile, Kathryn Railly has been giving lectures on abnormal psychology and the theoretical "Cassandra complex", which states that some people suffer a mental disorder that makes them believe that they are clairvoyant, and knowledgeable of future catastrophes. After one of her lectures, she's ambushed by a strange man who wants her to drive him to Philadelphia. It's Cole and he's traced the origin of the virus to Jeffrey Goines and his billionaire virologist father. Kathryn convinces Cole that he's delusional, but then Cole's story is proven to be true when she discovers that the bullet she removed from his leg dates back to the first quarter of the 20th century. Now she must uncover the truth and help Cole to stop the spread of the virus, but nothing is what it appears to be.

The entire cast is superb. Bruce Willis delivers one of his most nuanced performances as Cole, creating a strong yet vulnerable man who must overcome his own fears of madness in order to save humanity. Madeleine Stowe gives a fascinating performance of a sane woman, who must call into question all of her long held beliefs, and face the insanity of the world around her. But the most memorable character is Jeffrey Goines, who is brought to by Brad Pitt in one of his most remarkable performances ever. He succeeds in making Goines sympathetic, funny, and completely manic. Not only does show off his underutilized versatility as an actor, Brad Pitt also gives us, the audience, access to the off kilter world in which the entire film unfolds. As for Gilliam's direction, 12 Monkeys proves that he's capable of making films that are not only humorous, but stark and profound as well. Ironically, the film's greatest flaw is also its greatest strength. As an audience, we are never explicitly told how the story ends. Sure, there are implications within the film, but there are so many different interpretations that one single idea feels constricting and limiting. Terry Gilliam's brilliance is that he doesn't dictate his story to the viewers; rather he allows them to discover its subtleties and secrets on their own, and then draw their own conclusions. It makes the film even more interesting to watch with a group of friends and everyone's perception of the ending is contrary. It's this idea of open interpretation that makes 12 Monkeys so timeless.

Also recommended:
Monty Python's Flying Circus: Terry Gilliam's Personal Best
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Jabberwocky
Time Bandits
Brazil
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Fisher King
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas August 26, 2008

Worth watching for Brad's performance alone - and Bruce's naked butt

I initially didn't want to watch this film, I'd heard things from other people, who'd found it quite difficult to follow, and yes, that did put me off. But after some persuasion (and the fact I always make my Dad watch my movies, and I rarely watch his), I decided to give it a go.

I did find that I really got into watching Twelve Monkeys, including working out stuff that my Dad hadn't worked out when he first saw it. (The first shot of the young boys eyes was so obviously Cole's character younger - but I worked it out cos it's a hideous cliché, that's always used.) I also noticed that the passage from The Book Of The Revelation is quoted twice, referring to seven golden vials filled with God's wrath. Kathryn says it in her lecture, and then the homeless guy also repeats it.

The story starts off in the future - the viewer is never given a set year, although it's mentioned that 1% of the population survived by the year 2035. So possibly, the viewers are left to make up their own minds that it could possibly be sometime after this. An unknown, lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. The survivors now live underground, and a convict called James Cole (Bruce Willis) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back tin time to 1996 to gather information about the source of the epidemic so scientists can study it. Mistakenly, Cole is sent back to 1990, where he is promptly locked up in a mental institution, and he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), who is also in the mental institution. He needs to find a group of people, calling themselves The Twelve Monkeys, who could possibly be releasing the virus in different cities. He also recurring dreams, which feature intermittantly throughout the movie, showing the viewer a bit more each time. What's really happening?

I found it incredibly difficult to watch Brad Pitt in this movie. His acting is incredible, but I just couldn't handle watching him. Apparently, to get him to act the way he did, he inititally sent him to a speech coach, and then took away his cigarettes. Very strange. And what was with the eyes? I didn't really notice them (I was focusing on something else), until it was pointed out, and then they gave me shivers up my spine. Yes, his acting is brilliant, the way he managed to do, but I really struggled with watching him, and a couple of times, had to look away from the screen.

The 'romance' between James & Kathryn didn't ring true for me. It happens all of a sudden - considering she hated him to begin with - and just seems totally unbelievable.

The different things that are explored in the movie, really got my brain buzzing, and I found it difficult to switch off after watching it - but I was still thinking about Brad's character too. Time travel is heavily the focus of the movie, and it's paradoxes - James kept seeing things in the future and the past, and I couldn't work out whether he was projecting these images or what. It also touches upon the subject of mental illness, reality, animal rights, and the technological advances which could bring about the end of the world.

There's always different things to watch out for during the movie, and I never found myself bored at any point, despite the running time of two hours. I did end up working out the ending, but thankfully not too soon. Cos that just would have been disappointing!

I really did enjoy watching this film, although needed something a bit light hearted to watch after it. The standout thing for me was Brad Pitt. I definitely came away from the film, thinking about his performance. And for the girls, we get to see Bruce Willis naked! From behind! A highlight of the movie. August 24, 2008

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