Jacob's Ladder

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Eputha Merkkersom</B></div> <div> <B>Receptionist.Suzanne Shepherd</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Critique</U></B><B>: Extremely well made. It keeps you thinking right up to the end, and that is something that can be said about very few movies. Unfortunately, any whiff of the topic "Vietnam" and seven out of eight viewers will quite understandably move along to the next aisle. The remarkable thing is that the scenes "over there" are quite watchable, and generally brief, flashback-phenomena. The film is, however, difficult to watch. It is a puzzle, which is generally a good thing, but the hopelessness that besets the viewer just becomes grueling. The viewer distances himself from Jake's plight. The war is still hard for us to process even now. In addition, rehashing its injustices has been done so many times, we are anaesthetised. The interest in the movie comes from the fact that Tim Robbins really is likeable (more so than in a number of his films) as is his girl friend (or whatever), Jesse. McCaulay Culkin is thankfully just a walk on and thus doesn't mar things much. The "demons" and images intrigue, but they tire us out as well. The probability that they are unreal leads us after a while to discount everything. A film needs to locate a reality somewhere or the audience will just lose interest.</B></div> <div> <B><U>Motto</U></B><B>: "What burns in hell is the memories--that which holds you to the Earth." Meister Ekhardt (German Mystic Poet(Dates)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Plot Summary</U></B><B>: MeKong Delta. Oct. 6, 1971. It appears a bad batch of drugs combines with a gruesome battle scene. Jacob "the professor" is separated from his platoon and receives a bayonette wound. Switch to a New York subway, and now he's wearing the uniform of the New York postal service--it appears his days as a professor of philosophy were a victim of the war. However, on the subway, something really isn't right with that bum--is that a snake crawling around? He soon finds a simple thjing like getting out of the Bergen St. station is no easy task. He decides to cross the tracks and is almost struck by a train. Jake makes it home, and later awakens from another flashback dream. Jake finds a picture of Gabe, who died before he left for Vietnam, and is reduced to tears. His ninny girlfriend burns his photographs - fruitlessly wishing to save him from the pain of his past. Jake has more flashbacks and hallucinations. He goes to the Veterans Hospital wanting to see his psychiatrist. He has another odd run in with the receptionnist, and then hears Dr. Carlson had been blown up in a car. Jake insists that demons are after him to any who will listen. A fortune teller tells him according to his life line he's already dead. Hmm. As the party progresses, Jake beginbs coming apart, to Jesse's mortification. Jake begins to burn up and he is emersed in an icy tub. He awakens to find it was all a dream and he's back with Sarah. Don't bet on it. When Jake revives, things get pretty strained with Jesse. Paul Gruninger, a Nam buddy, calls. He says he's going to hell and that "they're" coming after him. Jake admits this sounds familiar. They agree it's traceable to what happened "that night". As Paul turns the ignition to his car, it becomes clear there is a conspiracy afoot. At the wake, the survivors realize that the same thing happened to Carlson. They go to a lawyer who takes depositions. Next thing we know, however, the lawyer, and the others, won't touch it. Jake gets a call from Michael Newman from a chemical warfare unit in '68. Jake is told the "ladder" was to tap into the soldiers' anger--make them tougher. Jake returns to his old home--contra Eckhardt, and finds Gabe who leads him up. Naturally, it is claimed that "BZ" was used in Vietnam--denied by the Pentagon.</B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>