Jacob’s Ladder (1990) A Retrospective
“But if you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth”
As a somewhat child of the 1980’s and voracious collector of VHS cassette tapes when the family budget finally stretched to buying a video cassette player (ask your grandparents, kids) Jacob’s Ladder was one of the first films I ever rented from my local video store (and way before the behemoth popularity of BlockBuster ever came into existence) so I’ve loved this film for almost the entirety of my film watching life. There are films, of which Jacob’s Ladder is naturally one, that through the course of your life you’ll gush with praise over should the film, the marquee star, the early cameo roles of actors and actresses before they reached their zenith in popularity or indeed the central themes of the film, crop up in tangential conversation. You may not have seen that particular film for years, decades even, and I’ve written previously that whenever Christian Bale’s performance in The Machinist has dropped its way into conversation over the years my stock answer has always been that I adore his skeletal portrayal of a man over the edge of madness in an extremely difficult to watch film yet, until recently, I hadn’t watched it for nearly two decades. But the mere mention of Tim Robbins or psychologically disturbing horror films or films connected to the Vietnam War and Jacob’s Ladder springs to mind almost instantly and again, like The Machinist, until a few days ago I hadn’t watched this utterly compelling film for well over a quarter of a century.
According to the witches and wizards at Wikipedia, Jacob’s Ladder was only moderately successful on release 35 years ago but has since garnered a cult following (I’m clearly a devoted member of such a cult) and has since crossed over into the gaming world to influence the Silent Hill franchise of games (which I played when I was a gamer but have no real recollection of its influences) as well as spawning a remake in 2019 I haven’t seen. Written by Bruce Rubin and directed by Adrian Lyne (his 5th film of a 42 year career of 9 total films, Jacob’s Ladder nestles brilliantly in the middle of a 5 film stretch between 1983 and 1993 containing classics such as Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal) and whilst keeping spoilers to a minimum I continue to see this film as a horrific ghost story of someone caught in a purgatorial hell and limbo between worlds whose freedom of spirit has been extinguished by the horrors of war. A casualty of war. A casualty of experimentation. The best and brightest thrown to the winds of geopolitical domination and in today’s rather crude vernacular, just another disaster capitalism statistic in the forever war that fuels the gods and monsters who control the chessboard of global power.
Tim Robbins (4 years on from Top Gun and 4 years before The Shawshank Redemption and The Hudsucker Proxy) is just outstanding in the central role of the “Professor” and titular Jacob, driven by a need for justice and driven over the edge by the demons of his past that he just can’t shake. Elizabeth Peña is superb in her career high role (before her sad death in 2014 at the age of just 55) as Jacob’s free spirited girlfriend, confidant and rock for the storm raging all around him, and whilst Danny Aiello (Once Upon a Time in America), Eriq La Salle (ER) and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) all provide notable supporting roles, it’s also worth noting that a certain Macaulay Culkin, although uncredited, provides a wonderful if brief supporting role in the same year his life changed forever when he was left Home Alone.
35 years has not dimmed the impact of this incredible film one iota and whilst I recommend it to you, here’s a brief dissection of the first 13 minutes of the film as well as the closing statement.
The opening 13 minutes:
Following a brief smattering of production credits (including “Carolco” and boy did you know you were in for a gem of a film in the 1990’s when they were involved!) we fade almost immediately into “JACOB’S LADDER” in a blood red font against a black background and quickly to two helicopters over Vietnam airdropping supplies to the troops on the ground against an ominous and stormy looking evening sky. We cut to beautiful reflections of the helicopters as seen in the river below to our first close-in shots of the troops on the ground: wordless, dog tired, weary, dirty and barely fully visible through a low lying mist and back to the two helicopters now framed against a full sun and a blood red sunset. As we continue following the helicopters, the first stirrings of Maurice Jarre’s quietly beautiful piano musical score accompanies the continuing opening credits as we return to the troops on the ground once more with still barely a word shared among a tired and weary group before we cut back to a single helicopter landing, the departure of a fresh set of troops and “Mekong Delta, 6th October, 1971”.
With the supplies dropped and fresh troops on the ground, we return to the battle hardened troops seen in the earliest frames of the film as a joint is passed around the tired company of soldiers and many minutes into a quiet beginning to the film, the first words are uttered and “Strong shit, man!” as the group are roused into a continuing joke at the expense of a returning “Jacob Singer” (Tim Robbins) as he emerges from yet another shit in the jungle! Immediately monikered as “The Professor”, Jacob has only smiles and a smattering of return jokes for the motley crew in his company now enjoying the pleasure of the joint being passed liberally between them. Although Jacob doesn’t partake, the earlier quietness of the company has been quickly replaced by a jovial and lively atmosphere until panic ensues among the platoon as someone exclaims loudly “We got movement in the tree line” and rapidly rising to their collective feet, the platoon, sensing the danger of attack, are now on high alert. A lone voice cries out “Fuck, something’s wrong” as another soldier collapses, screaming for help. Jacob screams for a medic as a fellow soldier convulses violently on the floor, blood spurting from his mouth and from the utter quiet of a tired and weary platoon to the temporary high and excitement of a joint being passed between them, we now have a full scale panic among the men, soldiers collapsing to the floor in convulsions, and seemingly no enemy in the tree line or anywhere else.
From calm to an outright storm.
Was there any movement in the tree line?
Are they under attack?
What on earth is happening?
As a soldier now spins around and around violently, Jacob continues to scream for a medic for the convulsing soldier as a mortar shell explodes nearby the platoon’s basecamp. We cut to a soldier violently vomiting as a dizzying, full scale fire fight now ensues. The company soldiers who aren’t being sick or violently convulsing on the floor now begin firing in all directions, but who are they firing at and where is the enemy? More mortar shells explode near the camp as the soldiers continue firing randomly in all directions at the jungle surrounding them. Jacob, still screaming for a medic, tries to help his convulsing comrade as another soldier is seen simply sitting and staring into space as the carnage unfolds all around him.
We cut to a helicopter above now firing rapidly on the fire fight in the jungle below as a further and particularly gruesome cut now shows a soldier screaming in agony as the bottom half of his leg has been ripped through with shrapnel and a barely attached, bloody mess. The lone soldier last seen sitting and staring into space is now crying uncontrollably as a single explosion destroys the platoon’s basecamp in a fiery inferno as we cut back once more to the lone and now crying soldier, his and the platoon’s basecamp now a burning mess, thick black smoke arcing into the Vietnam sky. Barely any gunshots now, the panicked fire fight over, Jacob is now seen alone in the jungle as he makes his way warily through the dense undergrowth. Out of nowhere, he is stabbed deep in the stomach by the bayonet of an unseen attacker…
Shaken awake by his nightmares of war, we now find Jacob in a dirty and dingy New York subway train late at night. A postman now, he had fallen asleep on his return journey home whilst reading a book and now awake, he places his glasses on the bridge of his nose to focus on the advertisements to his left: “New York may be a crazy town, but you’ll never die of boredom. Enjoy!” and “HELL. That’s what life can be doing drugs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Help is available, day or night. Call the Drug Hotline 246 9300”. Following a deep sigh, he drops his book before picking it up from a dirty and rubbish strewn floor before changing carriages and immediately asking an elderly passenger, and seemingly the only passenger in the carriage, if they’ve passed Bergen Street Station. He fell asleep he explains with a wry smile and doesn’t know or recognise where he is but despite repeating his request and asking the elderly lady again, she doesn’t so much ignore him as look right through him without answering his simple question or even acknowledging him. As the lights inside the carriage continually turn off and back on again, he now spots a homeless man and second person in the carriage huddling beneath a blanket as the train slows toward a station. Approaching the exit doors, he looks closer at the figure beneath the blanket only to see the movement of a coiled snake-like creature (or something horribly worse) crawling between the homeless man’s legs.
Disembarking at Bergen Street Station, Jacob is the only passenger to do so and after trying to leave from the two exits on his side of the platform is frustrated to see that both are padlocked shut for the night. Returning to the platform, his eyes are drawn to the illuminated exit signs on the other side of the track and after warily checking to see that the track is clear and no trains arriving or departing in any direction, steps onto the track. Immediately stepping in a deep rain puddle as a rat scurries quickly past his now wet boots, we rapidly cut back and forth between Jacob and the jangling of trackside lights on the tunnel walls and on both sides of the platform as a train nears the station. But from which direction? Frantically searching for the coming train, when Jacob does spot the speeding train coming towards him he’s frozen as to which direction to dive for cover before leaping to the side of the tracks, narrowly avoiding being hit. As he lays prone on his side watching the train flying past him, several ghostly, wraith-like figures appear in nearly every window of the train as one appears to wave at him from the very back window as the train now speeds into the distance…
The final statement:
“It was reported that the hallucinogenic drug BZ was used in experiments on soldiers during the Vietnam War. The Pentagon denied the story”
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon
I reviewed the remake here
https://fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com/p/jacobs-ladder
It's terrible in odd and unfamiliar ways.