I almost didn't watch this movie. I had read a review that was not kind. But my roommate at grad school recommended it, so I went ahead. I’m glad I did because I think this is a tremendously effective film.
The movie works for me because it is so much more than the “gimmick” or the reveal at the end. If that’s all there was to it, it would just have been a fading blip on my radar screen. Like a formula whodunit where, after you know the culprit, there’s not much replay value.
Jacob’s Ladder has a
lot of replay value.
Of course if you’ve seen the film you know that the entirety of the movie, save the very last scene, is a end-of-life scenario playing out in Jacob’s mind as he lays dying in Vietnam.
He never did make it back home. The whole film is an exercise in “what never happened.” Ironically, the “flashbacks” the movie shows of him injured back in Vietnam is the real time up until his death in the EVAC tent.
So, what to make of the meat of the movie? In my opinion, it is the attempts of a dying man to 1) come to terms with his life, and 2) try to make some sort of sense out of something so senseless.
I enjoyed watching the movie again and picking up on the “tells” and foreshadows director Lyne throws in. The first scene of Jacob on the subway shows him looking at a sign that says “Hell” in big red letters. He tries to exit the subway system, only to find all the exits blocked. If you note, all the exits (which lead upward toward light) have a sign next to them that says “Ecstasy.” So close and yet so far for Jacob.
There are many other interesting tidbits. The palm reader reads his lifeline and tell Jacob “according to this, you’re already dead.” And of course, after his Dantean descent into the hell of the hospital corridor (a scene that will forever stay with me), the “Doctor” tells him that the reason Jacob is there is because he, indeed, is already dead. It is a testament to the director that he is able to focus the viewer on Jacob’s insistence that he is very much alive and determined to stay that way, rather than tip the movie’s hand of what is really happening.
In my opinion, the character of his girlfriend Jezzie (actually, Jezebel) serves to keep him distracted from coming to his final peace. She vacillates from being supportive of him to being a part of his demonic torment. (Who can forget the demonic orgiastic coupling, and the scene where she transforms right in front of him?)
The character of Louie (the chiropractor) is wonderful. He is presented as a sort of Christ-figure (Jacob even describes him as “an angel.”). Louie is typically shown with light from behind and above, giving him that heavenly tint, and he is full of sage advice for poor Jacob. The “savior” aspect is made explicit when Louie literally picks through the hospital and rescues Jacob.
Louie’s final words to Jacob are the key to explaining why Jacob has been tormented by these demons. “The part of you that burns in Hell is the part of you that won’t let go of your life. Your memories; your attachments…If you’re frightened of dying, and you’re holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth.”
It was a nice touch having his dead son be the one to finally take him home at the end, so to speak.
You’ll notice that I haven’t said anything about the “drug experiment” part of the film, and the character of “The Chemist.” This is where I might have a different take on things as some other viewers. The way I see it,
there was no “Chemist” or drug testing at all. Jacob has just suffered a senseless mortal wound in a senseless situation in a senseless war. I believe this is his mind’s attempt to create a rationale. Remember, his conversation with The Chemist
never happened. It was all made up in his mind. He never gets back with his friends to compare notes. They are
not going through this with him. There is no government conspiracy.
Note that the story The Chemist tells him is not supported by the scene of Jacob’s stabbing. The Chemist tells of this superpowerful drug that causes men to attack and tear each other apart in a blind rage. But look at the stabbing scene. Jacob is disoriented, stumbling around in the jungle (possibly even coming back from taking a shit), he hears a noise, and his friend comes out of the bush and bayonettes him. Not in a blind rage, but in confusion and horror at what he has done. The friend looks scared and pathetic, and Jacob goes down with a puzzled look on his face. Puzzled at how something so horrible has happened with no rhyme or reason. There is no rage, no “ladder.”
That’s why I think Jacob’s mind creates the drug story. To try to rationalize. People always look for a “reason” for an unexpected death. Why did my child die? Why did my wife get cancer? Why did my baby have a birth defect? It must have been something the government did. Or society. Or God. These. Things. Don’t. Just. Happen.
But sometimes they just do. A simple case of mistaken identity and a nervous trigger finger in a confusing situation, and a life is taken. Jacob had a hell of a time accepting that, and his mind played it out in the only way it could in order to come to a final meaning or resolution.
That’s why the very very end of the movie leaves me a bit cold--where Lyne inserts a placard about Vietnam drug experiments or something. I don’t see the point in that. The movie can only be interpreted that there was never any drug “ladder” experiment at all, so that placard (to me) compromises the ending somewhat. (I just turn off the movie before that final text
)
Originally Posted by divemaster
Jacob’s Ladder Discussion
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