Jacob's Ladder | | Cast : | Tim Robbins | | Director : | Adrian Lyne | | Studio : | Artisan Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 02, 1990 | | DVD Released Date : | August 21, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | Very Profound Movie About Accepting Your Past | Content
 | It's a very moving movie that's more than just about Vietnam. It's a movie about accepting the past and letting go.
Throughout the movie Jacob Singer, a Vietnam veteran, played greatly by Tim Robbins, one of my favorite actors, suffers from a series of horrifying nightmares. He sees demons everywhere: horrifying creatures with tails, horns, and faceless heads. He is nearly run over by a train and sees these faceless heads looking at him through every window and by a car. He also sees repeated visions of a night in Vietnam he has trouble remembering.
The movie shifts from these nightmare visions to the real world in which he lives with his girlfriend, a post office worker, to one vision in which he still lives with his wife and son who died in an accident.
As he's able to accept the truth of what happened in Vietnam and what happened to his son he, as his angelic doctor Louis tells him, is able to see the demons as angels helping him to let go of his life.
It's a great movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 25, 2005 | | Summary | "Jacob's Ladder" -- unsatsfied w.theatrical | Content
| What I want is the original director's cut -- not the one released in theaters and on cable -- that includes ALL of the footage that was intended -- the scenes that were deleted for being too "draining," etc. This is the ONLY way the film should be seen and the only cut that makes sense. When THIS cut is available I'll buy it in an instant. THAT is a masterwork. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 22, 2005 | | Summary | Challenging and Ethereal, You will Never Forget It | Content
| Jacob Singer finds himself confused and unfulfilled, a mail carrier who drifts through 1970's Manhatten like a soul struggling in Purgatory. His wife, job and friends are pleasant enough but unfulfilling in a certain way he can't quite put his finger on. His memories of the past, including his tour of duty in Vietnam, are hazy at best, and his attempts at resolving that past are confronted with hostility by those who now inhabit his life.
Like a dream, which, upon awaking, reorganizes itself into some sort of cohesive storyline and logical progression -- Jacob's Ladder will befuddle those who look for chronology and answers. I have seen some call the ending a "surprise" but it is the most obvious explanation upon repeated viewings. Watch this movie with no prejudice. Then, watch it again. If you enjoy the biggest issues of life: death, love, loss, confusion, regret, and the ecstacy of closure - you will be immersed in them for days after viewing this movie.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 02, 2005 | | Summary | life passing before your eyes | Content
| Jacob's Ladder is a skillfull multi- layered film and a believable one. While watching it, I couldn't help but think about the Buddhist philosophy that says after someone passes, be kind, say good things because the person who passed is confused- they do not know they are dead. So, here you have a perfectly blue -collar Tim Robbins, a postal clerk, who, after having been to Viet Nam, begins to have horrific flashbacks. He doesn't understand what he is seeing or feeling, but begins to believe that while in Viet Nam, he and his unit might have been human guinea pigs for government drug testing. He contacts his old war buddies, and there is a moment when you exhale, thinking that he's found the root of his problems, but suddenly, his hallucinations become constant and even more terrifying, until he's living in two different worlds and realities. They say that when you die your life passes in front of your eyes- you wonder which one here, he slips in and out of each reality, Elizabeth Pena, is his wife in an average NY apartment, now it is a blonde and he seems to live in the suburbs. The one constant is Danny Aiello, the chiropractor, who, alone in this movie brings him relief from his pain- his angel. This movie makes me cry- while terrifying, it has an intensely sad, but spiritual undertone and you really feel the pain and desperation the character is going through. It is the story of a man who won't let go, whether because of fear or confusion- a man who has lost his son, and is freed by the little boy who is no longer afraid, who teaches him how to climb Jacob's Ladder. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | Very entertaining, but sort of confusing | Content
| I thought Jacob's Ladder was an awesome movie, but i didn't get some of it. Was he dead the whole time and the life he was living throught the movie imaginary? But other than that it is a really good movie. Go out and rent it. |
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