| | | The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer's nightmare is that he isn't dreaming.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Spanish, Subtitled, Digitally Mastered, Dolby Surround Sound
Jacob, a Vietnam veteran plagued with demonic visions, can't help but wonder if he's going insane, or if there's some evil force trying to control him. Or worse, could he already be dead, and is this dark existence merely a hallucination?
"Brooding, often effective tale..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
Adrian Lyne's JACOB'S LADDER moves in time and space between Vietnam and New York with hallucinatory force. Something bad happened on the Mekong Delta, on October 6, 1971, and it is still affecting war veteran Jacob (Tim Robbins) in Brooklyn as he attempts to live a normal life with coworker and girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña). Louis (Danny Aiello), an understanding chiropractor, tries to help him cope with his nightmarish visions--some of which occur at night, while others intrude into his daily life. When Jacob gets a call from Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who was with him in Vietnam, it seems that Jacob is not alone in his visions. The film offers impressive and compelling performances by Peña, Aiello (no ordinary chiropractor), and Ving Rhames and Eriq La Salle (the latter of ER) as Jacob's comrades from Vietnam. Macaulay Culkin appears uncredited as Jacob's young son, Gabe. Director Lyne also guides an unerring interpretation of Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay in Robbins's powerfully restless, searingly searching performance as Jacob; brilliant editing additionally rounds out this engrossing, disturbing film. JACOB'S LADDER is a jolting experience that is not easily forgotten.
Plot Summary
Vietnam War veteran Jacob Singer, now at home in New York City, teeters on the edge of psychological collapse as he nurses the emotional scars of his combat experience, and feelings of guilt surrounding personal tragedies in his stateside family life. However, when he begins suffering from intense, hellish hallucinations and near-accidents, he questions whether his torment is actually in his mind, or the result of clandestine experiments performed on Army grunts such as himself. A complex, twisted story that wrings rich performances from its leads, leaving the viewer exhausted and mystified, yet completely involved every step of the way.
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| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Artisan |
| Release Date: 8/22/2006 |
| Running Time: 116 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1990 | | Catalog ID: 60458 | | UPC: 00012236045809 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...A slick, riveting, viscerally scary film....Played with disarming ease and sharp, frightening urgency by [Robbins]..." 11/02/1990 p.C12Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
This movie left me reeling with turmoil and confusion, with feelings of sadness and despair. Those are the notes it strives for... It evokes a paranoid-schizophrenic state as effectively as any film I have ever seen... a thoroughly painful and depressing experience--but, it must be said, one that has been powerfully written, directed and acted. - Roger Ebert
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