Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14847 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Jacob's Ladder, 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 after-effects of a powerful drug tested on him during Vietnam. Or perhaps his post-traumatic stress disorder is worse than most. Whatever is happening to him, it's 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 short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek. Written by Bruce Joel Rubin, who also explored the "other side" in Ghost and My Life, Jacob's Ladder ultimately feels like an exercise in self-indulgence. A spirited performance by Elizabeth Peña outshines Robbins, who is surprisingly lethargic. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Adrian Lyne's JACOB'S LADDER moves in time and space between Vietnam and New York with hallucinatory force. Something bad happened on the Mekong Delta, on October 6, 1971, and it is still affecting war veteran Jacob (Tim Robbins) in Brooklyn as he attempts to live a normal life with coworker and girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena). Louis (Danny Aiello), an understanding chiropractor, tries to help him cope with his nightmarish visions--some of which occur at night, while others intrude into his daily life. When Jacob gets a call from Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who was with him in Vietnam, it seems that Jacob is not alone in his visions. The film offers impressive and compelling performances by Pena, Aiello (no ordinary chiropractor), and Ving Rhames and Eriq La Salle (the latter of ER) as Jacob's comrades from Vietnam. Macaulay Culkin appears uncredited as Jacob's young son, Gabe. Director Lyne also guides an unerring interpretation of Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay in Robbins's powerfully restless, searingly searching performance as Jacob; brilliant editing additionally rounds out this engrossing, disturbing film. JACOB'S LADDER is a jolting experience that is not easily forgotten.

Customer Reviews

Tim Robbins at his best
Reviewing this movie is a difficult task for it's very easy to spoil the movie for the reader, due to its nature. Therefore, I will try to focus my comments on the technical side rather than on the story.

Tim Robbins delivers a unique performance as Jacob (perhaps only comparable in his career to The Shawshank Redemption where he, however, needs to share the credit with Morgan Freeman), a Vietnam warrior who gets seriously wounded in combat and finds himself in a desperate struggle for life. And between life and death, heaven or hell, where does Jacob belong? That's something Jacob will have to find out for himself and that'll be the fight of his life.

Robbins is absolutely irreprehensible from start to end, and the rest of the cast includes other somewhat well known names like Eriq La Salle, Elisabeth Peña, Macaulay Culkin on one of his first roles (yeah, the Home Alone kid!) and even Jason Alexander from Seinfeld. The film is filled with symbolic meaning and that's one of its strenghts. Director Adrian Lyne did a really great job on that front as he was able to capture all that meaning, treating it well and presenting it to the reader in the most fascinating and yet subtle way. Not only that, this includes perhaps the very finest psychological horror I've ever seen (or should I say felt?) in my life.

This is perhaps one of the most underrated movies out there, but you know what? I think that adds something almost mystical to it. Get it on your DVD/Video player and see for yourself.

5 stars. No less.

best of its genre, glory of non-linear and fragmented storytelling
Definitely a cult classic of its genre. Magnum opus of Adrian Lyne. But, I must warn that "Jacob's Ladder" is not for everyone, ideally suited for mature, patient, intelligent and attentive viewers because, as being difficult to follow and hard to digest, it is not an easy pill to swallow. It gets more and more cracked and convoluted at every turn, but ultimately so much rewarding if you could sit through from beginning to end.

The plot is multi-layered, segueing from alternate "realities" to the odd bouts of hallucinations. First layer is Jacob's lurid experience in Vietnam, a sinister battle in Mekong Delta, where his guts were pierced by a deadly bayonet thrust by an unseen assailant; Then, his post-Nam NYC life comes with flashbacks showing the days with his girlfriend Jezzie, who is compelled to cope with his intermittent psychotic episodes and gradual mental degeneration; Suddenly, we cut to his pre-Nam days during which he lives happily with his ex-wife and kids. At one point he is visited by his dead son, and haunted by his death scene.

These phantasmagoric trips occur between the pre-Nam/post-Nam worlds and the viewer gets overwhelmingly baffled whether which of these worlds were real and which were fantasy. And in all these worlds, he incessantly struggles to battle his inner demons seeming ubiquitous everywhere in "outside" world. Is he slipping into insanity; are all these mess a result of being doped by a mind-altering drug, making the soldiers hyper-violent war machines during the battle; is there a conspiracy by government to silence him; is he alive or is he dead. What a mishmash... You would be bombarded with lots of such questions, and some red herrings throughout the film.

In terms of technical aspects; masterful camerawork (virtually no computer-generated FX), bland color saturation, unconventional camera angles and ingenious direction by Lyne combine with all these blurred elements to create a haunting picture.

Although the ending seems to be dark and ambiguous, I think the film proves to be intellectually and logically complete. If you see this movie merely as a hapless man's ordeal on physical world, you have missed the main point and I recommend to watch again: look beyond the visuals, don't think the events on a linear time scale and pay a strict attention (especially talkings of Jacob's chiropractor, Dr. Louis) to the hints scattered throughout the movie.

[warning: spoilers ahead]

Actually, "Jacob's Ladder" presents an ALLEGORY for PURGATORY. Jacob is in purgatory all along. His hallucinations and trips between alternate "worlds" represent that his soul is searching some kind of "ladder" heavenwards, but nowhere to go except remaining in purgatory until he is forced to set himself free of all emotional attachments on "physical world" and to reconcile himself with his past. Therefore, the ending is all about final PURIFICATION of his SOUL on the brink of death after his guts were pierced by a bayonet thrust in Mekong Delta. Remember that Jacob's chiropractor, as well as his spiritual adviser, Dr. Louis (actually he's an ANGEL) incessantly tells him "his demons might be his angels", but Jacob sees only demons because his soul refuses to let go of his life. On the other hand, accepting his fate will reveal them to be angels cleansing his soul of emotions (towards his beloved ones) that he no longer needs to enter the kingdom of heaven. As we see on the final scene, Jacob is ascending the ladder (situated between heaven and earth) in his house towards a very bright light, actually ascending into heaven with his dead son. That's all...

Really mind-blowing and haunting. But not for casual movie-goers. Watch it alone in the dark....

***** Living A Nightmare *****
Jacob's Ladder open's with New York postal worker Jacob Singer waking on a subway train having just experienced a nightmare flashback to his time in Vietnam. Upset and confused he tries to ask his fellow passengers if he has missed his stop but as he passes them he sees flashes of tails and horns in the uncommunicative people whom he approaches for help. Exiting the train he finds the stairs to the subway locked and on crossing the tracks he narrowly misses being hit by a train coming in the other direction and whilst lying on the track he witnesses yet more disturbing images as the train passes by. Unsure whether these images are real or as a result of some form of post traumatic stress disorder from his time in 'Nam, he struggles to keep his grip on sanity as his life becomes a nightmare, with his days punctuated by visions of demons, his first wife and his dead son. His life begins to unravel and the line between reality and delusion becomes ever more fragile.

This is, in my opinion, by far and away Adrian Lyne's best movie, which may surprise some people given the fact his CV includes big box office hits such as 9 ½ Weeks, Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction. His direction is subtle, considered, well-paced and as near as you'll get to perfect. The cinematography is also excellent and the use of special effects are relatively understated but effective, which is something that can rarely be said since the advent of CGI. As for Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay no praise is too high. It is intelligent, intricate and complex and it keeps you guessing until the end. In fact there is so much in this movie that second time around you'll find yourself picking up clues that you missed first time around and appreciate the cleverness and different levels of the story even more. Tim Robbins is excellent as Jacob, whom he succeeds in making a very sympathetic and vulnerable character, whose life literally becomes a nightmare. The supporting cast is excellent too with Elizabeth Pena (La Bamba, Rush Hour etc) and Danny Aiello (Leon, Do The Right Thing) in particular putting in notable performances. Jacob's Ladder also features supporting performances from Matt Craven (The Life of David Gale), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Eriq La Salle (ER).

I first saw Jacob's Ladder at the cinema when it first opened back in 1990. I had read an article about it in a magazine, which was complete with disturbing still photographs from the movie. The article was intriguing in that it said that the screenplay, written by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost) had been doing the rounds in Hollywood for several years but that although everybody agreed it was an excellent screenplay it had been considered unfilmable until Director Adrian Lyne got hold of it. On the day before seeing 'Jacobs Ladder', for the first time, a review in the now defunct British newspaper 'Today' described it as a five star classic and I still remember watching it in the cinema on its opening night, transfixed by the story and disturbed by the images, whilst jumping out of my seat a few times. I have loved this movie ever since and have loaned out my old VHS copy many times since then but what still surprises me is that so few people seem to know this movie or have seen this movie, which to me seems like a crime.

Perhaps Jacobs Ladder's lack of box office success can be put down to it often being classified as a horror movie, which is to do it an enormous disservice. Sure there are elements of Jacob's Ladder that can be compared to the horror genre but it is so much more than that. Complex, downbeat but also spiritually uplifting it was perhaps too intelligent and too disturbing to achieve a mass appeal. However, it still amazes me and saddens me that real dross such as Vanilla Sky has many people waxing lyrical when something as good, sorry excellent as this slips by relatively unnoticed. Jacob's Ladder I would suggest is a superior forerunner to movies such as Vanilla Sky and even The Sixth Sense and I highly recommend it!