Product Description

Jacob a vietnam veteran cant help but wonder if hes already dead and if his dark existence is merely a hallucination. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/05/2006 Starring: Tim Robbins Mccauley Caulkin Run time: 116 minutes Rating: R Director: Adrian Lyne

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6177 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 1998-07-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) thinks he is going insane. Or worse. When his nightmares begin spilling into his waking hours, Jacob believes he is experiencing the aftereffects of a powerful drug tested on him during Vietnam. Or perhaps his posttraumatic stress disorder is worse than most. Whatever is happening to him, it is not good. Director Adrian Lyne sparks our interest and maintains high production values, but this confusing film chokes on its "surprise" ending. It owes much to Ambrose Bierce's haunting and more straightforward story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek." Written by Bruce Joel Rubin, who also explored the "other side" in Ghost and My Life, it ultimately feels like an exercise in self-indulgence. A spirited performance by Elizabeth Peña outshines Robbins, who is surprisingly lethargic. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

Was It A Flashback Or A Flashforward
"With fellow critics, I got involved in a conversation about the underlying reality of the film. Was it all a flashback - or a flash forward? What was real, and what was only in the hero's mind? Are even the apparently "real" sequences the product of his imagination?" Roger Ebert

My best friend urged me to view 'Jacob's Ladder' after we had discussed philosophies of life and death. I remembered reading about Jacob's Ladder from the Bible 'Jacob's vision in which he saw a stairway from earth to Heaven with angels descending and ascending.' Little did I realize that this film was the reality.

This film is not like anything I have ever seen. It is a viscerally frightening film that kept me on the edge of my seat. It opens with a scene in the Mekong Delta. Jacob Singer, as played by Tim Robbins and his squadron of soldiers are seen joking about human existence. Minutes later, all hell breaks loose, explosions, convulsions, and jerky hand-held camera movements. And, then we move to the subway where Jacob is reading Camus and frightening, exotic and dangerous events occur. Jacob works for the post office and this must be the anchor of his daily existence. Taking stock of Jacob's existence it seems. I sat right on the edge of my seat while viewing this film and feel this is an analogy for the film- right on the edge, between madness and sanity. Elizabeth Pena plays Jacob's girlfriend and is she the piece that holds sanity together? The film is really about coming to peace with one's life or death. What really happens during those last few moments of life? Once in your head, Jacob's Ladder is there for good.

Louis, Jacob's friend and doctor says it best: " Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."

Devils or Angels, which is it? Do we have a choice?

Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-16-08

The Secret Life of Words

Fatal Attraction (Paramount Directors Series)

Angels and Demons
Very impressive movie by Adrian Lyne, who apparently was involved on a very personal level, as unfortunately his other work isn't exactly world shattering, but this one makes up for it all. Although it wasn't exactly a maverick move in 1990 to make a Vietnam film, this is certainly one of the most interesting ones on the subject. This is maybe a bold statement in view of the company this movie is in concerning this subject matter, but I do think it not to be an exaggeration.
What makes this movie so special? It sheds light on America's involvement in the war from an angle that is not often seen: the use of its own soldiers for experiments in chemical warfare on the one hand (macro story) and the thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams of the future of a veteran (micro story) on the other hand, which is a dramatically very effective combination, that really pulls the viewer in, especially if the main protagonist is performed so magnificently as is being done here by a very young Tim Robbins.
What makes the movie even more special is the structure, that gives shape to the story, causing the viewer in, what we would now call "Donnie Darko", fashion to be hurled through space, time and seemingly parallel realities, dipped in a horror genre type nightmarish atmosphere, which is pretty disturbing. As in Donnie Darko the viewer is repeatedly misdirected and so I've seen on many occasions that various viewers were equally moved as well as confused while looking at the credits rolling by, all the while enjoying the beautiful soundtrack which the movie can boast as well.
One can think of at least three different interpretations concerning the title of the movie, the first one being an obvious reference to the main protagonist's name Jacob Singer, the other two requiring some bible knowledge and patience until watching a major plot change halfway through the movie, that I can't expand upon without giving away crucial plot points. But anyway, who is this mister Singer, apart from the fact that he in view of what I stated earlier obviously is in Vietnam? In the opening scene we see him deployed there with his comrades in arms, having a, what seems to be a relaxed, break before what Sarah Palin would call a "surge". a kind of chilling on the battlefield I suppose. Suddenly explosions all around and the sound of helicopter flyby's, either panicking the soldiers or making them sick and throw up. Jacob runs but soon is on the receiving end of a bayonet. End of movie ... nah, next thing we see him wake up in a subway car, ah, so it was all a dream of that period and the war turns out to have ended a number of years ago. After his return from Vietnam Jacob gave up on college as, so he explains, "... didn't want to think anymore after the war", and drives a mail van. Still a bit in a daze over his dream he looks around in the car and notices his fellow passengers, a homeless person sleeping it off and a woman who keeps staring at him with a penetrating look who he asks whether "Bergen Street" stop has come and gone or not. The woman just looks at him strangely and no answer is forthcoming. As luck would have it the next stop turns out to be just the one he needed. As he's getting out and passes the homeless person, in a flash Singer sees a kind of wormlike creature quickly pulling back inside the man's coat. Quite disturbed by this he gets off the subway.
Next unpleasant surprise is the fact that the exit of the station is locked off and he will have to cross the track to try and get out on the other side. As he's walking across a new train is approaching but as it is unclear which track it's going to switch to, Singer is in a tough spot. At the last possible instant he leaps and the subway car passes him at a hair's breadth. As the train flashes by, in the cars we see a radiant white light and vague human shapes standing at the windows all looking out with at its end an unrecognizable figure which stares at Singer as the train disappears into the dark.
The atmosphere in this very strong opening is typical for the rest of the movie and we see how Jacob's life spirals down in an increasingly threatening and frightening way, with intermediate flashbacks to Vietnam as we see what happened to Jacob after the bayonet encounter. He loses his grip on reality more and more and has increasing difficulty in separating the real from imagination, past and present. A phone call from fellow veteran friend who desperately wants to see him and in the subsequent meeting turns out to suffer from the same type of experiences Singer is having. This starts off a series of discoveries into a dark affair, connected to their time in Vietnam.
There's a number of fascinating characters in this movie, first and foremost Jacob's chiropractor Louis, magnificently performed by Danny Aiello.
Naturally there's a whole lot more to this movie but that I wish for the viewer to discover. I've seen this movie many times with different people and each time it strikes me how much it moves them without fail.

First Rate Thriller
From start to finish, JACOB'S LADDER is a brilliant thriller. I love movies with reference to the Vietnam War. This one has it. When the movie starts, you're just certain the movie is going one way and ends up going another. This is one of first movies in the tradition of SIXTH SENSE or WHAT LIES BENEATH. Although quite different movies, still psychological thrillers nonetheless. Great flick especially for the price. Very much deservant of a multi-disc special edition maybe when it hits the big 2-0. One thing I noticed was how OLIVER STONISH it was. I kept thinking it was Stone, but it 's not. Regardless, it's directed perfectly and by the end of it you are like, oh, that explains that. (or something to that degree)

Please see this underrated film. I'm so angry I had not seen it until now.