12 MONKEYS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This is a complex and disturbing
science fiction story that will not be to most
people's taste. Mixing time travel and
schizophrenia in a film that is much too often
painful to watch. 12 MONKEYS is by turns violent,
revolting, contrived, and intelligent. This is a
film that is good without being recommendable.
Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4). A plot description of
"La Jetee" follows in a spoiler section. Be warned
that it could be a spoiler for either film.
The virus attack that started in December of 1996 has killed all but a small remnant of civilization who live in 2035 in underground hi-tech steel bunkers. In the bunker under Philadelphia it is like living in a prison for everyone but prisoners. Convicted criminals are kept caged in steel boxes and moved in and out by cranes when they are chosen to "volunteer" for hazardous tasks. Prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) is picked to volunteer to collect biological samples on the surface. This mission leads to a more important mission, being sent back in time to 1996 to collect fresh virus samples. Instead, through miscalculation, he ends in 1990 where he is almost immediately thrown into a mental institution. His doctor is psychologist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), an expert in of all things, prophecy. He is put under the mentorship of a hyperkinetic schizoid Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) whose most harmless delusions are of being the son of a famous man.
12 MONKEYS is a film of great flaws and of at least moderate virtues. There are far too many places where the film wanders far beyond the realm of believability. In one scene Railly goes visiting dangerous and unstable men in prison wearing a provocative short skirt. Admittedly the character had not planned for this at the beginning of the evening, but it is unlikely she would do it, even so. Some of the coincidences that move the plot along are incredibly contrived. This is a film that even for strong science fiction film fans will be one that is better to have seen than to be seeing. Director Terry Gillium made BRAZIL a downbeat film to watch, but at least one with its whimsical side. For this film he has removed just about all the charm and created a nightmarish past and present, and an especially bleak future. His images grate like steel claws scratching on a blackboard. The entire film is an assault on the emotions and the senses. For example, this is just the film for all those people who have been waiting years to see Bruce Willis drool, bleed, spit, and eat spiders. That is just the kind of film it is. Much of the story takes place in mental institutions or alleys of homeless schizophrenics. There is little that is uplifting or exciting about the film, though there are some intriguing science fictional ideas, particularly about causality and time travel. There are several nice ironic time travel paradoxes. The screenplay is provided by David Peoples (who co-authored BLADERUNNER) and Janet Peoples. Rarely does a film bear a credit for being inspired by another film, but 12 MONKEYS is inspired by Chris Marker's 29-minute film "La Jetee," which originally ran on a double bill with ALPHAVILLE.
Willis and Pitt each give disturbing performances. Willis is not a great actor, but he is better than he often appears. And this film certainly gives him more opportunity than most of his action films to create a character. Mostly this film gives him an opportunity to show bewilderment. Brad Pitt has been getting some attention for his wildly gesticulating mental patient. He is adequately strange, but nothing world-class. Madeleine plays someone considerably more normal than the two male leads and as a result has a much less flashy role. She is much harder to notice by contrast, proving than in an insane world a sane person appears not insane but only unmemorable.
12 MONKEYS is a pretentious and self-indulgent piece of oppressive and cheerless filmmaking, but for mavens of time travel stories it delivers the goods. I rate it a low +2 on the -4 to 4 scale.
Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...
"La Jetee" is a short film made up almost entirely of still photos. The following is a synopsis:
It is a post-holocaust Paris in which survivors live underground. The underpinnings of reality and causality have been blown away. H is haunted by the image of a woman's face that he cannot get out of his mind. It becomes an obsession. Because it has weakened his hold on the present, a scientist thinks that he can actually send H traveling in time (similar to SOMEWHERE IN TIME). H goes back in time to an incident in his past where he thinks he may have seen the woman on a jetty. Something bad (I forget what) happens while he is on the jetty, and he is killed. The last thing he sees before his death is the image of a woman's face, the same image that brought him to his death.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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