12 Monkeys (Collector's Edition)
by Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe, Terry Gilliam
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Jon Seda, Joseph Melito, Madeleine StoweDirector: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe, Terry Gilliam
Writer: Keith Fulton
Writer: Louis Pepe
Writer: Chris Marker
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Writer: Janet Peoples
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-03-31
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of 12 Monkeys (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Terry Gilliam: Post-modern Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
This is perhaps the most misunderstood romantic movie of all times.
Or maybe mine is just a very particular interpretation of it.
Like _Brazil_, another masterpiece, _12 Monkeys_ deals with an ill-starred love affair in a setting so dense with ideas it is very difficult to see the tree in such a forest. The themes touched are many: ecology and ecoterrorism; viruses and apocalypse; the Cassandra complex; time travel; madness and awareness; consumerism; etc. But in this forest of themes, sometimes so dense as to be mind boggling, the central element is what two people feel for each other.
We're hinted at the nature of the central theme by recurring bits along the movie: the dream, the persecution scenes (Cole and Dr. Railly spend their time together on the run), the way they both become aware of each other, the spy who finally tells Cole he wants her, and above all the scene in the movie theatre where _Vertigo_ is playing.
_Vertigo_, a Hitchcock masterpiece, also deals with an ill-starred romance and, just like _Brazil_ and _12 Monkeys_, the reasons why it can't be are unsurmountable: in _Vertigo_, Johnny-O falls for a woman who has taken the personality of another woman already dead, so the love-object does not really exist; in _Brazil_, the omnipotent state is between Sam and Jill; in _12 Monkeys_, the inetability of destiny is interposed between James and Kathryn.
Also, like in _Vertigo_, both characters develop true romance while going in the car. The acting by Willis when he listens to music for perhaps the first time, when he breathes in the air without germs, when he sees the beautiful skies and shining light of day, is, in my opinion, superb. All these things we take for granted, just like love, are denied to this social outcast in that moribund future.
The scene outside the movie theater had me in tears. Here they are, kissing for the first and last time, and he looks at Kathryn and says: "in my dream... it was you... always."
Dystopias usually exist to warn people of the dangers in the present and how they might affect the future. "1984" and "Brave New World" are typical examples. Books tend to focus on the more brainy side of it, but in the end it is the individual who matters. And nothing is more proper to the free person than her or his feelings.
The dystopic vision in _Brazil_ or _12 Monkeys_ is senseless. A giant apparatus that exists for no purpose, except perhaps to make the lives of most people empty but acceptable. Love breaks that: it is the ultimate meaning-giver. That such love is impossible gives the people taking part in it the character of heroes in a greek tragedy--they know nothing can be done, they know what they're doing is foolish, but they do it the same because it is who they are in their most intimate recesses of their soul.
James Cole is given a final choice: he kills or Kathryn is killed. He's not told who he's supposed to shoot, but we can infer it is himself. His duty is to die, so he can be a hero. So he runs to meet destiny, and we're left with the pieces of a circular time where these two people are condemned to meeting again and again, always towards the same despairing, inevitable end.
This is a very dense movie open to many interpretations. As usual, Gilliam is insightful, smart, and does not say everything in order to make you think your alternate and very personal version. The DVD is very good, with an excellent documentary ("The Hamster Effect") that touches on topics that won't be unfamiliar to many of us. The acting is first rate, with Brad Pitt giving an amazing performance, similarly for Willis and Stowe.
_12 Monkeys_ is a demanding, literate movie that will be better appreciated by those who love a good dose of thought in their books and movies.
Summary of 12 Monkeys (Collector's Edition)
Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée (which is included on the DVD Short 2: Dreams), 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. --Jeff ShannonSimilar DVD Movies
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