Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Very well executed

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I remember when I first saw this movie. My mind was totally blown. I thought it was the most original film I'd ever seen. Then I saw Carnival of Souls, and that's when my opinion of the film sank considerably. Let me first say what's good about Jacob's Ladder before I give my critique. The film was visually stunning and filled with haunting, unforgettable imagery. I hadn't seen it in literally 20 years before watching it again recently, yet still remembered many of them as clear as yesterday. I'm not sure, but I also believe this was the movie that also invented the "demon" special effect (of the rapidly moving head coupled with goblin sound effects). So, based on the visuals, it gets points from me. As for the story and concept, this is where the movie falters. Jacob's Ladder is basically just a Carnival of Souls retread with better direction, splashy visuals and a better budget. However, it's in many ways the weaker film. The reason why is that Carnival of Souls never lied to the audience but this film did.Some people might say, "No fair! What's the difference between what Carnival of Souls did and what Jacob's Ladder did?" Well, the difference is that if Carnival of Souls lied, it lied by omission. To put it another way, it let you assume what happened after the first scene. With Jacob's Ladder, it's a completely different story. It says point blank that it's a horror mystery about a Vietnam Vet who has terrible hallucinations and flashbacks because he's the victim of some kind of conspiracy. Then, when it solves the mystery of the conspiracy, it says in the last scene. "Psyche! There was never a conspiracy at all! He was dying the entire time!" This is what I mean by the movie lying. It sets you up for one story, then pulls the rug out from under you and says, "That story? Forget it. This is the real story."The movie even cheated to make the audience think that everything that happened to Jacob after he was stabbed in Vietnam was rooted in reality. There are many times when we are shown scenes from the other characters' perspectives when Jacob isn't around. For example, there's a scene in which the members of Jacob's unit are staring at each other after one of them hangs up on him. There's another scene of Jezzie secretly burning photographs behind Jacob's back. The problem with these scenes is that because they happen outside of Jacob's awareness, it misleads the audience into thinking that the "conspiracy" plot is really happening. Because of the misleading plot, all of Jacob's Ladder between the moment Jacob gets stabbed and the moment he dies is nothing more than a red herring. Because it's a red herring, it's inconsequential. It's so inconsequential that if someone only watched the first ten minutes of the movie in which Jacob is shown being bayoneted and the last three minutes in which he dies, that person wouldn't be missing anything in the way of character development or plot because that's all the movie boils down to--a guy dying from his wounds. All the stuff in between is irrelevant.So, all in all, Jacob's Ladder merits a 6/10. It's well directed and visually arresting but it's a lot more unoriginal than people give it credit for (again: see Carnival of Soul). Plus, it uses deception to pull off its twist.

The first time I saw this movie I was lost, I had no clue whatsoever what was happening to Jacob. Second time around I tried harder to wrap my mind around everything that was happening and going on, still nothing at all. One of my supervisors at work was a veteran, he had asked me if I had ever read the book, "The Five Fingers", we hadn't discussed this movie at all. By the time I got to the end of the book I had come to realize it was about a military hallucinogenic drug. It hit me then, that strange movie I had never seemed to understand or get at all, the movie about this military soldier going through these strange experiments, "Jacob's Ladder" ! Want to understand this movie, put this into the google search: Jacob's Ladder military hallucinogenic drug

"Jacobs Ladder" (1990) is a dramatic horror mystery told from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran named Jacob Singer, played by Tim Robbins, as he tries to navigate his life through the physical representation of his inner demons. This film is freakishly well put together and keeps the viewer guessing how it will conclude through all of Jacob's dissociation. He lives with his girlfriend Jezzie, played by Elizabeth Peña, who tries to help him cope with life and the loss of his son Gabe, played by Macaulay Culkin. This film practices the art of multi-story sequencing in that Jacob has several stories within his main story which I truly appreciate. It forces the viewer to pay attention so as not to miss pertinent information.For a film made in the early 90s, Adrian Lyne did a marvelous job with the pacing. Still there were some areas that dragged on or could have been omitted all together. However, I feel back then the audience needed those moments for the emotional connection to Jacob. The point of this film can be taken in more than one way, but the strongest of those is shedding light on what the U.S. government did to their own soldiers. Though the payoff was very expected, due to the trailer, it was still sadly fulfilling. This film was on my bucket list for a long time and now having viewed it, I am happy I did. I recommend this film to all who enjoy films that have a purpose and force you to think but skip the trailer.

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam War veteran, works as a post office clerk despite having a PhD. His time in the army still haunts his daily life. And slowly it starts to become possible that this might hold true quite literally.Jacob's Ladder shines as a movie because of its sheer style and atmosphere. Its cinematography and set designs have that 80s urban grit to them, but the style overall leans more towards psychological horror and those things that lurk in the dark places of the world than is normal for the 80s. We quite quickly realize that Singer is suffering from visions, which makes us question all the events that follow and have happened before. But not in a bad way. Part of the unease and the horror is the unknown, the unreliability.The film is also shot really well. The urban grit works well mixed with visuals of horror. The dark alleys, the poorly lit apartments and the dirty rays of light permeate everything. One of the themes of the film is Hell on Earth, and we really get that. Obviously the flashbacks to war are horrendous and hellish, but even those scenes where Singer simply walks around in his crumbling city make us realize that he just exchanged one life of torment for another.One real problem I have with this film are the horror elements. They're visually impressive, but lack that spark otherwise. They're used sparingly, sometimes too much so, and we never quite get that gut punch required to make their presence in the film warranted. The same with the ending. Beautifully shot, but doesn't deliver on the story- level.Nevertheless, it's a great watch for all fans of mystery horror. Its imagery is top notch, its atmosphere is amazing and it will definitely feed your nightmares for a few nights to come.