Just watched "Jacob's Ladder." Freaked me out, man.

This is a movie about a vietnam vet who comes back to a nasty, funky 1970s New York. Despite having a super-hot girlfriend to soothe the pain, he's tormented by freakish demoniac-themed visions and visitations as he makes his way through his daily life. Spoiler alert: It will creep you out hardcore.



I saw it mentioned on ATS in another thread in passing a few days ago so I thought I'd check it out. It's full of freakish mutations and nightmare beings, but maybe the most powerful thing about it is the way it evokes the gray, drizzly dispair of somebody struggling with inner darkness in a grimy world that just doesn't give a &$%#. There is a twist at the end, but even without caring much about the plot, I found it poweful in terms of the general atmosphere and mental picture it evokes.





I recommend it highly. Here's the official trailer and a clip of one particularly nightmarish scene:

I saw it when it came out in the theater. The twist at the end kind of disappointed me. I felt robbed of my 6 bucks or whatever it cost back then. I was expecting something a lot more like a fiendish govt plot instead of it being the hallucination of a soldier dying on the battlefield after being subjected to an experimental drug.

reply to post by butcherguy


$6 bucks? Wow this movie must have came out way back in the 70's then,

Thanks for the review, I think ill pass on it.

Originally posted by calnorak
reply to post by butcherguy

 

$6 bucks? Wow this movie must have came out way back in the 70's then,

Thanks for the review, I think ill pass on it.

It was released in 1990.
Just to check, because of my own curiosity, I googled average movie ticket price for 1990. I was surprised, it was $4.23.
I guess there's been some inflation.

Sometime in the mid 90's Showtime played a directors cut with 20 min of deleted scenes added back. I have been looking for a copy of it forever, but no luck.

Here is an interesting read on the drug in the movie was based on.
BZ: 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate

Not as crazy as the movie portrays, but nothing nice either.

reply to post by Novaroc
A friend that was in the US Army in the late 1970's told me that he was familiar with the effects of BZ. He says that he was at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Ft. Dietrich, but I can't verify his history regarding those places. I can verify that he was stationed at Ft. Meyer in Virginia, which is located relatively close to those places.
He claims to have witnessed subjects under the effects of BZ. He said they were basically pacified and were either sitting or stumbling around. He said that if used on a battlefield, the BZ would convert combatants into 'tripping' fools that could easily be taken into custody.

Originally posted by butcherguy
I saw it when it came out in the theater. The twist at the end kind of disappointed me.

It was specifically the end that made the movie. Think about it for a minute. It could explain all the life after death go to the tunnel visions of demons thing.....

reply to post by Mamatus

It was an interesting twist, but for me it was anticlimactic.
I was hoping that the weird stuff in the middle was the real story.

reply to post by calnorak


I dont think the movie was made in the 70's. You can almost always tell when a movie was made in the early to mid 90's. Plus, Tim Robbins looks a little older in this movie than he did one of his movies called Howard the Duck (made in 1986), in that movie he looked really young.

Anyways, just watched the trailer and it looks really good. If im able to get my hands on it im sure i'll like it.

Yeah, great movie. I agree the best thing about it isn't the plot, its more the general atmosphere. It's always dark, raining...the director does a great job bringing that depressing feeling to light.

And yeah, the girlfriend....Elizabeth Peña at the height of her powers...mmmm. Yeah. Good stuff.

The movie was definitely made in the early 90s, I remember quite clearly when it came out. Must be set in the 70s tho, because he had returned from Vietnam.

jacob's ladder i have recently watched it's having a good theme. AIong with that i would like to watch heart of dixie online .