{"id":1325,"date":"2024-07-25T21:33:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:57:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:57:48","slug":"jacobs-ladder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/25\/jacobs-ladder\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob\u2019s Ladder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some strong graphic violence and disturbing images, nudity, sexual content, language, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Adrian Lyne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Maurice Jarre \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Jeffrey L. Kimball\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 2, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, Macaulay Culkin (uncredited), Eriq LaSalle, Ving Rhames, Brian Tarantina, Anthony Alessandro, Brent Hinkley, S. Epatha Merkerson, Suzanne Shepherd, Doug Barron, Bryan Larkin, B.J. Donaldson, Gloria Irizarry, Evan O\u2019Meara, Kyle Gass, Lewis Black.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $26.1M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0By way of putting the recent awful remake out of my mind, I decided to rewatch the original Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong>, one of my all-time favorite horror films (second to Stanley Kubrick\u2019s The Shining). It is, in a word, brilliant. I\u2019ve seen it a few times in the nearly 30 years it\u2019s been around and I notice something new each time. It\u2019s so layered in meaning and symbolism that I expect to find more new things in the 30 years to come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction), Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> is the kind of film that\u2019s subject to debate and open to interpretation. There is NOTHING straightforward about this picture. A general plot synopsis might read like this: a traumatized Vietnam vet experiences hallucinations that might be related to secret drug experimentation conducted by the government on soldiers. That isn\u2019t even a tenth of the picture. There\u2019s so much more going on. Yes, Jacob Singer (Robbins, Bull Durham) is experiencing hallucinations after his discharge from the Army. Yes, something terrible happened over there but what? He\u2019s not sure; all he knows is that he\u2019s trapped in some kind of Kafka-esque nightmare with faceless people\/demons trying to kill him. He finds some measure of comfort in his girlfriend Jezebel (Pena, La Bamba) who he moved in with after leaving his wife and two sons. He\u2019s still grieving for the young son, Gabriel (Culkin, Home Alone), that died before he went to Vietnam. He\u2019d like to get to the bottom of what\u2019s ailing him but he\u2019s stopped at every turn by the cruel hand of fate (or something else).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, here\u2019s the deal. I don\u2019t want to ruin Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> for the few who haven\u2019t seen it. At the same time, I\u2019d like to help my readers gain a better understanding of it. I thought about it and here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do. First, I\u2019m going to give you a quote from 14th<\/sup> century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (heard twice in the movie) that\u2019s as apt an explanation as any. It goes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re frightened of dying and you\u2019re holding on, you\u2019ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you\u2019ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve just given you is a key to unlock the mystery of Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong>. Next, I\u2019d like to point out some of the influences on the movie and its visuals.<\/p>\n

– When riding the subway at the beginning, Jacob is shown holding a copy of The Stranger, a novel by French philosopher Albert Camus. In it, the protagonist is awaiting his death by execution, unwillingly at first, only finding peace when he accepts it.<\/p>\n

– The title Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> refers to the Biblical character Jacob and a dream he had of a ladder ascending to Heaven. Notice all the images of stairs and elevators.<\/p>\n

– The members of Jacob\u2019s family have Biblical names as well. His wife (Kalember, Fletch Lives) is Sarah, his two surviving sons are Jedidiah and Eli. His late son is named for the archangel Gabriel, the messenger of God.<\/p>\n

– In the Bible, Jezebel is a temptress, liar and schemer. She promoted idol worship, specifically Baal when he was in the underworld. In the movie, it\u2019s she who tries to make Jacob forget about his previous life as a family man by seducing him and burning old photos- i.e. memories.<\/p>\n

– The paintings of Francis Bacon, the \u201cScreaming Pope\u201d ones in particular, heavily influenced certain visuals- i.e. the speedy shaking heads. Deformed people\/demons seen throughout evoke artist H.R. Giger and photographers Diane Arbus and Joel-Peter Witkin.<\/p>\n

– Who\u2019s familiar with the Ambrose Bierce short story \u201cAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge\u201d? In it, a condemned man escapes the hangman\u2019s noose and makes his way home. Just as he\u2019s about to embrace his wife, it\u2019s revealed to be an illusion he experienced in the final seconds of his life. This might actually be more telling than the Meister Eckhart quote.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think I\u2019ve given you plenty to mull over. There is much, MUCH more that can be taken away from Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> but I\u2019ll leave them to you to pick out. Let\u2019s talk about the movie in critical terms. I LOVE IT! The mind-blowing screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost) is a big part of it. The gritty cinematography by Jeffrey L. Kimball is a strong asset. He perfectly captures the look and essence of dirty, 70s-era New York and uses it to great effect. Maurice Jarre\u2019s score is both haunting and mournful. All of the film\u2019s special effects were filmed in camera and without the aid of computers. They\u2019re AWSEOME without being grandiose. Most importantly, it\u2019s scary. There was one scene, I won\u2019t say which, that made me scream out loud in the theater. The people sitting in front of me thought I had a heart attack.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Robbins is terrific as Jacob Singer, a man trying to hold on to a reality that might not be real. His performance is grounded in reality even as he coasts into frightening fantasy. Pena is also great as his lover, a woman with dimensions Jacob couldn\u2019t even begin to imagine. They have great chemistry together. Danny Aiello (Do the Right Thing) delivers a wonderful performance as a sympathetic chiropractor; his cherubic appearance serves him well here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I didn\u2019t expect from Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> was to be as moved as I was this time. Jacob\u2019s relationship with Gabriel and the tremendous grief he feels over losing him form the emotional core of the film. Their final scene together brought me to tears. I wasn\u2019t ready for that. Am I getting overly emotional in my old age?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Having watched the original Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/strong> again, I\u2019m reminded how powerful a medium film truly is. This movie is scary and touching. It brims with paranoia and deep philosophical issues. There are just so many layers to it. I LOVE a film that puts my brain to work. In this case, it\u2019s doing overtime.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob\u2019s Ladder (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some strong graphic violence and disturbing images, nudity, sexual content, language, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Adrian Lyne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Maurice Jarre \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Jeffrey L. Kimball\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 2, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Jacobs-Ladder-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}