A Commentary : Twelve Monkeys

A Commentary : The Twelve Monkeys

They don't come much better than this. Terry Gilliam's film is magnificent. I love fantasy, and sci-fi fantasy involving time travel is just up my street. All the time we are left wondering however is this in fact the delusion of mental patient Bruce Willis. Starting in 2035, where a virus has wiped out 99% of the world's population we flit back to 1990 (which is an error apparently) and then to 1996 (which is not) when we are to believe this virus was first unleashed on an unsuspecting public. The secret army of the Twelve Monkeys has Brad Pitt as a significant member, who is also portrayed as mentally ill in a very convincing way by Pitt. The man shows he can act in a tirade of mad behaviour. Christopher Plummer, who plays his scientist father and has access to these viruses, has a low key part however, and all the drama is centred on Pitt, Willis and Madeleine Stowe. A touching romance develops between Willis and Stowe by the end of the movie but getting there is no doddle. Their adventures are frightening and hairy and at times quite riveting.

The intellectual make-up of the film is at once satisfying and deep. The main satire being on a very prosaic public who can never believe in fantasy (in this case time travel) or ever show any imagination. We must be prepared to be laughed at if we are to dream and maybe see hidden truths. If no one has this imagination, this belief, how can we ever be more than dull dummies? Everyone scoffs at a fantasist but it is the fantasist that can break new ground, grasp at mysteries not solved, make wild guesses that just might point to the truth. I believe in fantasy, I believe in the power of fantasy, I will stand up for anyone of like mind.

At the end of the film the young boy Willis sees himself shot as an older man. Maybe this is all the psychosis of a disturbed mind. Whatever we decide to believe it is of no real import in the end for this film is about the enjoyment of the fantastic and the incredible. Whether we are seeing the depiction of a delusion or are meant to take the time travel literally, it does not matter really, for it is all fantasy and you can believe what you want to believe. The atmosphere of the film is cleverly futuristic at times and sometimes it is sinister. This is a well made film which pushes all the right buttons. It reaches an excellence we need to see more of. Whenever filmmakers go into the realms of psychology and fantasy in Hollywood we are onto a winner.

Shifting, sliding between madness and sanity, reality and delusion, present, past and future time, this film is a maelstrom of high drama, tension and exciting fantasy. While the feel of the landscape may be bleak and colorless, the intellectual terrain is a kaleidoscopic rainbow.