Comments on: Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

By: cjKennedy

cjKennedy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:14:45 +0000

I think I’m unwilling to forgive Fatal Attraction for its other half. If it was an undiscovered little number I caught on video, I might give it a free pass, but as popular as it was and as much as it became a part of popular culture for a while, it bugs me. Plus it was the beginning of a long stretch where I mostly hated Michael Douglas.

Unfaithful, I went into it expecting to hate it and pretty much got what I wanted. Wildly unfair, I know, but such are my irrational likes and dislikes.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:16:46 +0000

I’ll say it: I think Fatal Attraction is half of a terrific thriller and Unfaithful, while making little sense, works emotionally and has two terrific lead performances.

Otherwise, though, I’m not a major Lyne-head either.

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:55:43 +0000

Chuck: I was 17 when I saw Jacob’s Ladder and was also disturbed by it at times. In a theater with the THX sound you truly had nowhere to run. And it’s still scary. Your comment made me realize that Adrian Lyne and Bruce Joel Rubin were a good match for each other. This is the least obtuse of Lyne’s films, but it also has a power that was missing from Rubin’s directorial attempt My Life. Patricia: The concept is as old as Incident At Owl Creek and The Twilight Zone. And you’re right, Stay was one recent movie that tried to pull off the “it was all a dream” trick ending. Pat: I can’t remember ever waking up from a dream and being disappointed it wasn’t real. I think the filmmakers were suggesting that wherever Jacob ended up, he was with his son and in peace, but I can definitely see your point. However you choose to look at it, this is definitely a movie that hits you right in the gut. By the way, Gabe is a great name! Think of Peter Gabriel or Gabriel Byrne. Craig: Terrific comment. I have never found myself wanting to hold an Adrian Lyne film festival either, but we agree that this is a great film. In spite of the oppressive dread it summons, Tim Robbins does a great job grounding the movie, and Elizabeth Pena is simply ravishing.

By: cjKennedy

cjKennedy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:32:38 +0000

I love Jacob’s Ladder and it always shocks me that Adrian Lyne had anything to do with it. So much of the haunting imagery has stayed with me…the creepy faceless guys peering out of the subway from hell for example.

The way the movie slowly peels away at reality and replaces it with horror. The way it manages to resolve itself in an extremely satisfying way that makes sense and feels right when so often concepts like this paint themselves into a corner and disappoint.

Great review and thanks for reminding me I need to see this one again soon.

By: Piper

Piper — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:56:11 +0000

This film hurts me. One of the greatest terrors to me is to wake up one day and discover it was all a dream. And Tim Robbins is so meek throughout this film that it just adds to the pain you feel for him when the end is revealed. Add to this that his son Gabe (which is also my son’s name) was once dead but then comes back only to be discovered that it was not real and you have one painful, painful movie.

I have this movie in my basement and I have yet to watch it out of sheer fear. It’s like a breathing thing, stuck in a shelf that I do not dare touch.

By: Pat Evans

Pat Evans — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:19:11 +0000

The kicker concept was very new when this film was made but has been rather overused subsequently. Still, a more than memorable flick.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:18:26 +0000

I saw this picture when I was 11 years old. And haven’t seen it since. I need to revisit this one too, but I remember at the time being truly terrified by it, the notion of collapsable reality has always gotten to me anyway.

Lyne has made some terrible films that have had a negative influence on the scene, but he is a director of ability. Fatal Attraction has an absurd final third, but until then Lyne manipulates and builds and builds with masterful control, his Unfaithful seemed like an apology for Fatal Attraction’s end, I don’t whether it was or not obviously, but that’s what it felt like to me.

Jacob’s Ladder may have, in the long run, had more influence than people know, particularly on the anxious fantasias of the late 90s, early 2000s: Fight Club, Mulholland Dr., Vanilla Sky, The Sixth Sense, just to name a few.