There are so many iconic gems in the 90’s that are just not watched or appreciated enough.
Jacob’s Ladder is one of the really truly messed up war movies that is dripping with interesting themes that I fell like not enough people talk about. Well now with a new Bluray release I was able to revisit and re-appreciate how great it is.
Jacob’s Ladder follows the titular Jacob who was in the Vietnam war. It seems like something went wrong in Vietnam, and he got himself a knife wound in battle. The movie jumps around with a bunch of scenes before he went to war, while he was there, and after he came back. This is the biggest thing working against the movie, it can be really hard to follow at times not knowing when a scene is based.
The next hard part is it seems that Jacob is dealing with a whole lot of madness.
The people he seems to be in a relationship with changes, sometimes it appears to be dreams, sometimes it appears to be actual scenes jumping before and after the war. It isn’t an easy movie to follow at times, but it is really worth sitting back and just taking in what the movie presents. Trying to follow it too closely can be vague and all over the place, but as a whole as the movie starts to create a more clear narrative as Jacob figures out what is going on.
Then there is the ending. As the movie comes to its climax it lands with a fantastic solid twist ending. The challenge with these kinds of endings is that once you know it, well you know it. In this movie it definitely works in its favour for a rewatch, as other scenes start to make more sense, and the way the movie is structured makes heaps more sense. This is also helped by some fantastic acting from Tim Robbins to really help the movie stick the landing in some crazy scenes.
This Bluray includes a heap of features, old and new. From some interviews from the 90’s to some great new features looking into the themes of the movies. These are really interesting an insightful, but the two cut scenes are probably my favourite bit. It’s not an added 20 second conversation they cut, but one is a cracking really interesting scene that is absolutely bombastic. I genuinely have no idea if it would have made the movie better or worse, so as a bonus feature it is perfect.
Jacob’s Ladder may not be the best war movie, or the best psychological horror movie, but it is an excellent blend of the two. It may not be the easiest to follow at times, but it really benefits from multiple rewatches, which is perfect for a Blu-ray release.