- Messages
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12 Monkeys (1995)
Last time I rewatched ‘12 Monkeys’ I was getting a little tired of Brad Pitt’s zany and shallow performance but this time any deficiencies from him were easily eclipsed by enjoying the controlled, complex, multi-layered, subtle, shifting turn from a never-better Bruce Willis. The story was even better, viewing it from a post real pandemic perspective. I’d somehow never twigged before that the "insurance" lady briefly seen on the plane at the end was one of the scientists from the future, demonstrating that Cole had completed his mission, however unintentionally. A more conventional way to do this story might have been to restrict the viewer's perspective and so make Cole's sanity ambiguous for us but Terry Gilliam goes the more interesting route of making it clear that he is not mad but having him doubt his own sanity by having his multiple planes of experience closely mirrored by production design and camera angles. It’s a shame that Gilliam has never had the stars align as well as they did here, a critical win and a box-office smash without ever feeling like a compromise of his eccentric visual style, wild ideas and macabre humour.
Last time I rewatched ‘12 Monkeys’ I was getting a little tired of Brad Pitt’s zany and shallow performance but this time any deficiencies from him were easily eclipsed by enjoying the controlled, complex, multi-layered, subtle, shifting turn from a never-better Bruce Willis. The story was even better, viewing it from a post real pandemic perspective. I’d somehow never twigged before that the "insurance" lady briefly seen on the plane at the end was one of the scientists from the future, demonstrating that Cole had completed his mission, however unintentionally. A more conventional way to do this story might have been to restrict the viewer's perspective and so make Cole's sanity ambiguous for us but Terry Gilliam goes the more interesting route of making it clear that he is not mad but having him doubt his own sanity by having his multiple planes of experience closely mirrored by production design and camera angles. It’s a shame that Gilliam has never had the stars align as well as they did here, a critical win and a box-office smash without ever feeling like a compromise of his eccentric visual style, wild ideas and macabre humour.