I can barely remember the first time I watched TWELVE
MONKEYS. I remember enjoying it and thinking it was an interesting film but it
wasn’t something that I felt the need to revisit any time soon. It’s odd how
there are movies that you watch at one period in your life and see it one way
but when watched later feel like a completely different film. This time around
I totally enjoyed the film and the performances, appreciating them far more
than I did the first time.
Bruce Willis is James Cole, a prisoner in a bleak future
where most of humanity has been wiped out by a virus years prior. What is left
is gathered beneath the surface where animals have now reclaimed what was left.
In the hopes of preventing the devastation that took place scientists are sending
agents back in time to gather information in the hopes of pinpointing exactly
when the release of the virus took place. Cole is one of those agents, a
prisoner with a complete pardon set in place should he succeed.
But the process of time travel isn’t quite as precise as
they would hope it to be. His first foray into the past lands him 6 years
earlier than intended. Found on the streets he’s arrested and taken to a mental
institution for examination. His violent outburst result in his being given
meds to calm him down. His memories are scrambled and while he has some idea of
what he has to do the combination of that and the drugs he’s been given make
things cloudy at best.
Cole becomes the patient of Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe)
who feels like she’s met him before. Once in the ward’s open room he meets
Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a completely insane patient who befriends him. The
son of a wealthy geneticist, Goines raves on about various items and tells Cole
he’ll help him escape. He follows through on his promise but Cole is caught and
locked in a cell. When they return to talk to him he has vanished. In reality
he’s returned to the future.
Cole is sent back once again and bounces around time, first
to WWI and then to where he needs to be in 1996. He finds Railly, kidnaps her
and then learns that Jeffrey is now out of the hospital and working for his
father. More investigating leads the couple to an anarchist group who once
worked with Jeffrey and they direct him towards his father.
As they travel in search of clues Railly begins to believe
Cole’s story. Even more so when a news item he knew the results of comes true.
Hoping to find him once more Railly returns to the small group where she finds
Cole once more returned from the future, now convinced he was hallucinating.
She assures him he wasn’t and the two then set off to complete his mission.
This movie works on so many levels and feels clear and
complicated at the same time in various parts of the film. Is Cole merely
suffering from delusions or is he really from the future sent back in time to
help avert the greatest catastrophe known to man? And if he is who he claims,
how does one go about recruiting others like Railly to help him find the
information he needs?
Director Terry Gilliam is a master when it comes to all
things mechanical in appearance, something noted in his films from THE FISHER
KIND to BRAZIL. He applies that look here as well when it comes to scientists
in the future and how they handle their subjects. The film definitely has that
Gilliam feel and look about it. What is amazing about his films is how he can
take such convoluted stories and make them accessible to the normal everyday
viewer. In addition to that he makes them entertaining as well.
The performances here offer each actor at the top of their
game. Willis has portrayed the chisel jawed hero in the past but here he’s
vulnerable on several levels. He has no money, no weapon and his mind isn’t
quite what it needs to be to accomplish his task. Willis plays the role in such
a way that you feel sympathy more than anything for his character. Stowe does a
great job as well presenting a character who thinks she knows it all suddenly
discovering that what she thought she knew could be completely off the mark.
But of the three leads it is Pitt who shines the brightest here. The tics,
twitches and phraseology he uses as Goines are unique to him and he comes off
as completely believable when it comes to being insane. Why he wasn’t an Oscar
winner is beyond me.
If you’ve seen the film before but forgotten it then by all
means this is the best way to see it again or to check it out for the first
time for that matter. Arrow Video is releasing the film in a beautiful new 4K
scan of the original negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Terry
Gilliam. In addition to that they’ve once more shown why they are leading the
way in the release of classic films like this with plenty of extras to enjoy.
Those extras include an audio commentary track by Gilliam and producer Charles
Roven, THE HAMSTER FACTORY AND OTHER TALES OF THE TWELVE MONKEYS a feature
length making of documentary by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, an extensive image
gallery, the theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and
newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin and for the first pressing only an
illustrated collectors booklet featuring new writing on the film by Nathan
Rabin and archive material.
Some of you may tire of hearing me rave about Arrow Video
but the fact is they are among the best out there at releasing movies in
superior formats like this. Along with Vinegar Syndrome and Severin they are
saving movies from obscurity as well as hits that have been forgotten and
offering them in such a way that they can be enjoyed as if they were new
releases between the excellent restorations they’ve done as well as the extras
they include. As long as they continue to release films like this you’ll hear
me continue to sing their praises. At present that means get used to it because
they have a ton of great stuff in the pipeline.
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