Jacob's Ladder [Region 1]

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.

I knew that this was based on the silent hill pc game, what I did not know was how good it was. A good film you need to watch it to understand it.

Jacob's Ladder is a hallucinogenic psychological thriller that made myself hallucinate. Another film that has garnered cult status over the years, more so for its unique nightmarish flashback narrative structure. I honestly had to sit in silence for a good ten minutes and attempt to string some words together to surmise this film. Simply put: "A confusing mystery of confusing confusion". *sigh*...I'm going to need my notebook next time. Jacob is wounded during the Vietnam war, years later he starts to see hallucinations and experience depressing flashbacks which leads him to investigate the sudden mental visions. I mean...how do I even collate adjectives and superlatives to create a review for this? It's so bizarrely executed that it left me questioning if this was a hidden masterpiece or just difficult for the sake of melting the brains of the audience. Currently, I sit in the middle. It's an intriguing perspective into a heightened mind during a visceral heart-pumping experience such as the Vietnam War, where secret experiments with hallucinogens were utilised as a means to increase aggression. That aside, the primary appeal to this thriller is the intricate narrative structure. Is it real? Fabricated? Nostalgic memories or malicious nightmares? The careful construct of the plot will leave you questioning every scene up until its conclusion (which still left me scratching my head occasionally). It's rapid pacing, consistently blending ghostly fantasies with reality, which certainly needs to be adjusted to. The constant transitions between flashbacks is jarring, particularly for the first half, but stick with it and all will be answered. Robbins gives yet another exceptional performance as a man undergoing psychological delusions. My main negative is the fact it was so...how to put it..."in your face", that actually I cannot remember the majority of scenes. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, you don't remember slotting each piece in but you do acknowledge the final product. Jacob's Ladder is just that, an absurdly hallucinogenic jigsaw puzzle that definitely needs to be revisited again.

Jacob Cracker is a Vietnamese window cleaner without a care in the world, or so he thought...... Based on the early Simon Weston novel, 'Jacob's Ladder' is a comedy from the late sixties starring Edward Seagrove & Madison Bentley. Our hero Jacob is a mild mannered self employed window cleaner who cycles around his home town of Caesar in search of work accompanied by his faithful dog Fetch. One fateful day Jacob discovers his bicycle, dog & ladder have been stolen from his yard & all comedic hell breaks loose! In his quest to find his treasured possessions Jacob encounters many strange & interesting characters including Mrs Jones the one legged psychic & Beef Cake Charlie the hilarious vicar with a passion for onion soup! One of my favourite scenes involves the local prostitute Mary Queens who meets Jacob in the towns hospital where they proceed to have all kinds of Tom Foolery with a rusty wheelchair & six pairs of surgical gloves! Truly the the most magical moment of the film & one that has to be seen to be believed! I won't spoil the ending to this classic sixties ladder/dog buddy epic but I will just say it brings the house down when viewed by myself & friends - to those that HAVE seen it - can dogs really DO that!!?? In the wonderful world of 'Jacobs Ladder' it seems they can! Highly recommended.

Five Star Hugely Underrated Classic that was maybe too clever for what people wanted at the time,so it slipped under the Radar but has now become the Stone Cold Classic it deserves to be and oooh that ending. Avoid the Terrible Remake

This is one of my favourite movies ever. A wonderful combination of thought-provoking and scary. It manages to do all this whilst dealing with some surprisingly deep meditations on life and death. I never like raving about a movie as it inevitably leads to disappointment, so if you want a thinking person’s thriller/horror movie, then I would certainly recommend. I just love the scene in the operating room though. The surgeon’s deadpan tone is spot on.

This is one of my all time fave horror films. Whilst not a slasher its horror is served through the eyes of the title character as he journeys through the film with strange visions and distortions on his reality and also through the PTSD he suffers as a result of vietnam which keeps flashing the audience back to certain times and places. It is a journey for the audience too and whilst the film has been labelled by some as nonsensical (friends of mine) and hard to follow because it is a strange trip to take. I wont spoil it but there are characters in the film that do give us an answer as to what the film means. Jacobs doctor also lets us in on what may or may not be happening as he plays the much needed light in all this darkness. The imagery is very disturbing and shocked me to the point of sleeplessness when I first saw this and it plays on you not wanting to see. I always say that the "shakey demon" fx which means monsters and people moving in an impossible fast way was first used here before House on haunted hill. Very scary. Thrilling and emotional joyride.

Jacob's Ladder opens with a brutal combat scene in Vietnam, and kicks off from there without any significant drop in intensity. While there is action, and some arresting and haunting imagery (which was very unique at the time, but may be considered tame by today's standards) the film leaves plenty of space for individual interpretation and discussion of themes and imagery. Jacob Singer is a haunted Vietnam veteran trying to live a normal life as a postal worker, but becomes increasingly erratic due to hallucinations and visions of demons. Is it all in his head or is something more sinister going on? While the film was released in 1990, it elicits and encourages thoughts about life, death, philosophy, religion among other things. A second viewing may be required to pick up on subtle themes and imagery. Critically solid, but maybe not so much commercially - this is not standard Hollywood fare. From a quality perspective, I watched this on blu-ray and the quality is average. There is certainly a degree of grain in the movie, and lacks the polished finish of modern movies. Despite this, I actually thought it enhanced the overall impact of the film. Jacob Singer's life and story is nowhere near polished, and the run down, gritty and squalid set pieces and locations only positively impact the overall quality of the blu-ray disc.

Jacob's Ladder ist nach wie vor ein Großartiger Film. Wobei es mir bei dem Film so geht wie bei Angel Heart. Um diese Filme richtig zu Genießen muss man in der richtigen Stimmung sein, dann ist es Großartig. Jacob's Ladder ist kein Film für zwischendurch, dafür ist der Film zu Umfangreich und die Handlung zu Komplex. Um den Film richtig zu genießen muss man bei der Sache sein, konzentriert sein, aber das lohnt sich auf jeden Fall. Die Besetzung ist verdammt gut, besonders Tim Robbins ist da hervor zu heben. Da ich kein 4K habe kann ich nur die Standard Blu-ray bewerten, und die hat ein hervorragendes Bild und einen klaren sehr guten Ton. Alles in allem sind 5 Sterne 🌟 absolut verdient.

１９９０年頃の作品ですが、永らくDVDが発売されませんでした。 日本版はすでに絶版でしたのでこれを買いました。 キャッチコピーに”現実なのか？妄想なのか？”といった感じのものがあったと思います。 その言葉通りの展開の映画です。 でも、ラストシーンと監督の一文ですべてが分かると思います。 ベトナム戦争を題材にしたものですが、それ以上の事前の情報を入れないほうが楽しめると思います。 そして、心に何かが残る作品です。 この海外版のDVD（Region 1)は、Subtitleにはスペイン語しか収録されていません。 自分はネット接続のPCでClosed Caption（英語）が使えたのでそれで見ました。 画像はDVDの標準的な品質のもので古さは感じません。 レンタル屋でこれを置いてあるところはまず無いと思いますの買いました。

This is one of the most underrated movies ever, and that is why I am taking the time to give a short review. I have watched over a thousand films and this is in the top 100. I adore the acting, the direction, set design, and most of all the wonderful script. Loving care was given to this film by Adrian Lyne and written by Bruce Joel Rubin; you can see this love in the beautiful opening shots of vietnam to the masterful effects and cinematography; each actor exists firmly in our reality, despite the creepy script. They all need each other, and the direction for each involving scene is quite immersive and satisfying. The soundtrack is very pretty but sombre and sad at times. Nothing ever shows a hint of any weakness. The TIME review in particular is so far up its own bum that I am angry at the fact this film is so mistreated by these 'professionals'. As if it is more cliche than something like Saving Private Ryan, for all its astounding splendor, the actual movie wasn't even that well tied together. This movie is tied very tight with resounding themes about dream, angels, demons, and what war means for the living and the dead. You will find that for every weakness you look for in this movie, a strength outshines it by tenfold. I cannot say enough about the acting, FROM EVERYBODY, and how this 1990 movie just doesn't feel dated, at all, and you would almost expect that from a supernatural thriller of this type. It just proves that 'they' are not making movies like this anymore in Hollywood's non Indie scene. Anyway, despite my overwhelming hatred for petty and contrived reviewers, don't listen to the bad ones, they mean nothing. The NY Times and Roger Ebert have fair and balanced reviews of this film, scoring around 90 on the Metacritic. Read them, but watch the movie first. A true American Classic. The Bluray is fair to good. A good amount of detail is kept for this release. It's grainy and the bitrate is stuck around an average of 20, which is adequate but barely, and this allows for decent peaks but an image that definitely is softer. It's certainly never sounded or looked better. The film is five bucks on sale and you should do yourself a favor and get it.

L'unica pecca è che manca qualsivoglia sottotitolo, per il resto è assurdo, adesso capisco perché da sta roba è nato Silent Hill (il 2, per lo meno).

This is a great horror movie based on the novel of Stephen King !