Twelve Monkeys

Directed by Terry Gilliam

Released January 1996

Viewed (for this particular writing) August 15, 2010

Bruce Willis stars as James Cole who is a prisoner in the future. In said future, humanity has been devastated by disease and lives underground. Those who have imprisoned Cole have decided to send him into the past to try to get information about the virus that has wiped out humanity. Of course, going into the past is never an easy thing, and it is further exacerbated by Cole’s violent disposition. When he does go back, he is written up as crazy, and he is institutionalized. While in the nuthouse, he comes across—if not an ally, then an open ear in Dr. Railly (Madeline Stowe). Through highways and byways, he goes back and forth through time, falls in love with Railly, and eventually refuses to go back to the future.

My description doesn’t do the movie justice, but Twelve Monkeys was made during the late 90s when unexpected plot twists and unpredictability were all the rage. This started after The Usual Suspects, a movie that Twelve Monkeys was released about six months after. Roger Ebert most adequately defines the plot-twist rage by calling it the “Kayser Soze Syndrome.” In his review of Fight Club, he specifically defined it, as follows: “a lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Söze syndrome.”

Needless to say, most of the movies that fell under the Keyser Söze syndrome were garbage (or at least, not noteworthy), Fight Club included. However, Twelve Monkeys did not fall under that category. In fact, it’s probably unfair to group Twelve Monkeys in the Keyser Söze syndrome category. The Usual Suspects happened to be the first of the redefined-reality movie that were released, but there were a number of redefined-reality movies released around that time (Seven is another that comes to mind) that were very good. Besides, iti  is highly unlikely that Twelve Monkeys, which once again was only released six months after The Usual Suspects, was even aware of Keyser Söze.

The first well-done aspect of Twelve Monkeys concerned way the time sequences were juggled. Also, Bruce Willis, as per usual, did a solid job as James Cole (more on that later), as did Brad Pitt as Jeffery, a loony Cole meets in the mental hospital that is the son of a leading biochemist. Brad Pitt is an interesting actor. A lot of people give him a bad rap because A) he’s extremely good looking and B) he’s surrounded by so much drama that it detracts from his movies. This isn’t to say Brad Pitt is a great actor, but in the right role—usually a lunatic or a somewhat stupid person—Pitt shines. For example, he was superb in Seven, Inglourious Basterds, as well as his dinky little role in True Romance.

Then there is Willis, who also tends to be outshined by the drama that surrounds him and the issue that he’s kind of goofy. One might also have to stretch the definition of “great” to call Willis a great actor. On the other hand, what is a “great” actor. Sean Penn is supposedly a “great actor,” yet all of the movies he makes are painfully average, mediocre, safe, innocuous, Academy Award-winning garbage. Meanwhile, Willis has an impressive resume: Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Nobody’s Fool. Did his involvement in any of those projects makes him “great?” It’s impossible to say, but he does have an impressive oeuvre.

A couple of negatives about Twelve Monkeys­­—the love interest part of it was contrived and secondary. Maybe the real problem was that the movie didn’t take the time to fully develop it. It was necessary for the ending, but it needed more time to develop. Also, at times towards the end, some of Madeline Stowe’s parts were unnecessarily comedic. It would have been better off played straight.

Twelve Monkeys leaves the viewer with the paradox that Stowe’s character notes in relation to her work—the Cassandra Complex, based on the Greek mythological character Cassandra, who is given the gift of prophesy by Apollo. However, Apollo also makes sure that nobody believes her. In the end, who are the nutcases? After all, the people who are ruining the world are considered respectable, while often, the people who react against the ruiners are considered nutty. Cole is trapped with a vision that nobody believes, stuck between two worlds, one of which he loves but which considers him insane, and one of which he despises and in which he is imprisoned.