Jacob’s Ladder

Released: 1990
Starring: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello
Director: Adrian Lyne
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Rated: R (UK – 15)

“The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer’s nightmare is that he isn’t dreaming.”

Halloween is finally descending upon us and with that the usual slew of horror-themed media storms the market.

Horror is one of my favorite genres of film. It’s something so diverse and personal to each of us. What may terrify me, you could find hilarious and vice versa. So since this is my first Halloween review I wanted to pick something personal and special, it could only be Jacob’s Ladder.

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins; Bull Durham, The Shawshank Redemption) is a Vietnam veteran. Returning home to New York, his new reality is being a postal worker and inhabiting a dingy apartment with his girlfriend, Jezebel (Elizabeth Pena; Batteries Not Included,  Down and Out in Beverly Hills). This is far better than the jungles of Saigon, but a nap on a subway leaves him questioning his sanity. The usual clientele litter the subway car, a sleeping homeless man, a strange old lady with a staring problem, all standard issue in a New York rail car. But, as Jacob wakes from a nightmare from his time in ‘Nam, the participants of the train ride seem slightly off. Something is totally amiss. The old woman stares at Jacob as he asks her if they passed Bergen Street station, her gaze lingering on him. Jacob, feeling the unease, wanders further through the rail car. An old, sleeping homeless man has a surprise under his coat, amazingly more horrifying than the usual surprises homeless people tend to have under their coats on public transport. Something is wriggling on the seat he has laid down on, and a brief glimpse of a leathery, fleshy tail leaves Jacob startled. Eventually, Jacob exits the train at his station, but all exits are blocked. Jacob eventually returns to his home, where he meets with his partner Jezzie who reassures him everything is fine.

At times you are lead to believe Jacob is suffering from PTSD, other parts of the film lead the viewer to believe with certainty that what’s going on isn’t just in his head as he is plagued by visions of strange beings. Demons from hell or is Jacob simply going mad?

More strange than the beings within Jacob’s Ladder is its inception. Penned in the middle of the 80’s by screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin after waking up from a dream he had on the New York subway, and a brief stint in a Buddhist temple in Tibet inspired Rubin to write a religious horror film.

Religion and horror, especially Catholicism, can go hand in hand. Most modern Christians don’t realize the blood, agony, and viscera of biblical imagery which seems to have gotten lost at the beginning of the century. Rubin’s original vision had the religion front and foremost and the horror added into the background, which would have made Jacob’s Ladder a pseudo-Christian channel Halloween romp.

Thankfully, Director Adrian Lyne (9½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal) fought tooth and nail to add more ambiguity to the imagery, some of which had been a cinematic first for its time. They took inspiration from the photographs of Joel Peter Witkin, especially his famous/infamous Man with No Legs,  alongside some more subtle influences like Diane Arbus, William Blake, Francais Bacon, and H.R. Giger to name a few. Some events, such as the thalidomide disaster, were also a major impact upon the design concepts.

All of the above is what made Jacob’s Ladder unique upon the market and possibly underappreciated. It’s unfortunate that its such an unsung film was not seen by many, but its influence has roots in all kinds of media including games, music, comics, and of course, film.

Tim Robbins’ performance takes center stage and for better or worse he plays it easy. On one hand, he uses Jacob’s paranoia and PTSD to great effect, constantly relaying a feeling of uncertainty, but on the other hand, Jacob always seems quiet and lacks a strong presence on the screen. Tom Hanks originally auditioned for the role but turned it down to star in Bonfire of the Vanities. Hanks would have brought that much-needed presence to the film.

Elizabeth Pena, Jacob’s love interest of the film, has a startling performance dipping between being a caring girlfriend and being a malicious, uncaring, cold person. She often steals the light away from Robbins. Jacob’s chiropractor, Danny Aiello (Ruby, Hudson Hawk), matches Pena’s level of performance perfectly, even though they are never in a scene together. Both are vying for Jacob’s soul in some way.

But what is a horror film without scares? Well, Jacob’s Ladder may be a bit high brow in its storytelling, but it is not past a good jump scare and they are expertly implemented. Coming from places you wouldn’t normally expect. Jacob’s Ladder plays with the idea of horror expectancy. Often scenes are set up perfectly for a jump out of your seat moment but instead hand you something somber and tragic.

The horror element doesn’t just stop at jump scares. Oh no. The masterwork of Jacob’s Ladder’s horror is simply in it’s framing. Creating a constant malicious environment to further drive the paranoia. A certain train scene at the very beginning has Jacob walking the tracks as a train screams past him. Jacob jumps to the ground narrowly avoiding the vehicle. He looks up only to see all the passengers staring back out the window at him like they knew he would be there. The scene itself is amazing. Why? Because you probably won’t realize it happened until either it has passed or when you rewatch it. The film is filled with little easter eggs concerning the plot and the scares throughout the film. What horror there is, will be a sweeping moment you may not even notice.

Of course, I couldn’t stop without mentioning the gurney scene, if you have seen it then you know why it is brilliant, if you haven’t, well that gurney takes Jacob Singer to hell in a way you will have never seen before. Before the release of the film, the original cut of Jacob’s Ladder had far more moments similar to the gurney scene. Unfortunately, they unsettled the test audiences too much, making the film harder to sit through (Ya, I know a horror film being unsettling why ever would you want that?). A LOT of material was left on the cutting room floor. Some of the material removed belonged on the floor, it was absolutely criminal to remove other scenes that contained such tasty mind-melting horror. Thankfully, some of the scenes are on the DVD re-release (but not the Blu-Ray). I know an edition exists with all the bonus material, but the one I purchased for this review didn’t have any bonus material and had about 10-12 minutes cut from the film. So if you are intent on watching this, get the DVD with all the cool extras and not the diluted, impotent Blu-Ray.

You may have heard the phrase, “greater than the sum of its parts”, meaning that something not so great turns out to be a lot better than expected, If you told ten people “Hey, check out this horror movie directed by the guy who made Flashdance,” maybe one person would watch it. But, if you instead said “Hey, watch this underrated classic, that went on to inspire the likes of Silent Hill, Donnie Darko, The Machinist, and Identity to name a few,” I would guarantee more would pop it into their player. Jacob’s Ladder began with a formula for disaster, but with a certain clarity of vision on behalf of the director, he made his magnum opus. A risque horror film that seems like it could never be made today, but it is. A remake is planned to land this time next year. I don’t hold out hope that it will be as good or better, but I would have said the same thing had I heard who was behind the original back then.

It isn’t for everyone. Jacob’s Ladder has its own faults besides Tim Robbin’s lethargy acting. Throughout the film, there is a very confusing plot intended to be ambiguous, but almost deliberately too dense on things like timelines and conspiracy. It tries in vain to explain these things but comes across more like justifying itself.  If anything has aged in this film, it would be the plot. Specifically concerning the conspiracy theory which driven monologues to seem to show the film’s age. The film was dedicated to veterans who were taken advantage of and used as guinea pigs during the Vietnam War, supporting the plot points containing the conspiracy theories. Which seem to have no real bearing on Jacob’s journey and if omitted would lend clarity to the plot.

Boiling the issues down, its laurels rest on the ambiguity of the plot, which is welcomed but unfortunately overused. At any given time there are at least three different plot lines running *SPOILER WARNING* a government test caused Jacob and his friends to turn on each other in Saigon, Jacob is in some form of limbo or hell, or Jacob is hallucinating *SPOILERS END HERE*. Yes, these do add to the paranoia of the film where we are to feel how Jacob does. However, if they had chosen just one plot strand to follow we would still be paranoid and frightened, but we would have had an easier time following what is happening. Don’t interpret that as a bad plot. Jacob’s Ladder’s plot is indeed good and begs for a second viewing. Upon which, you can see more foreshadowing to his eventual revelation and Jacob’s story is wrapped up nicely by the end. The other plot threads just lead in circles with the film just continuing to is conclusion while these plots fall over themselves.

Jacob’s Ladder is without a doubt an amazing work of art and a stunning horror film. This Halloween, experience something different. A horror film about loss, tragedy, and the nature of mortality.

Rating:

Thomas C:

Further viewing: The Machinist, almost in some manners a spiritual successor to Jacob’s Ladder, starring Christian Bale in his most challenging role, it shares the paranoid feeling and some plot details but further refined for this film.

Further reading: Batman: Arkham Asylum a serious house on serious earth by Grant Morrison, I know you read this and said “What? a Batman book?” well yes I did because nothing quite has the aesthetic vibe and feel of Jacob’s Ladder than Grant Morrison’s tale of the Dark Knights worst nightmare with imagery by Dave McKean to make an unsettling genuinely scary comic book with art so messed up it will stay in the dark recesses of your mind right beside Jacob’s Ladder.

Further Playing: Silent Hill 2, well if you played it, you know why it is here, if you haven’t you should have it is the game that said “hey, let’s tell a very adult story and shake up the foundations of video games forever” and Team Silent did a lot of inspiration came from Jacob’s Ladder so much so  that if there wasn’t a Jacob’s Ladder there would never be a Silent Hill. so just play it.

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