A surreal masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2001)

Until fairly recently Terry Gilliam's 1995 movie might have been viewed as unduly apocalyptic and pessimistic. But post-September 11, the film's vision of Armageddon (and oblivion for most of us), followed, for those that remain, by a beleaguered existence in a soul-less society dominated by technology, seems less a nightmarish prophecy and more a sober forecast.

Bruce Willis delivers a powerful performance as James Cole, a violent convict, time-transported back from about 2030 to the 1990s, in order to discover the precise origins of a virus which destroyed most of the world's population in 1996. Because of the time-shifts, the inclusion of some dream sequences, and the complexity of Gilliam's vast and detailed sets, the narrative isn't easy to follow initially, but it falls into place as it progresses towards an enigmatic close. Among the more conventional aspects of the film are glamour and love interest provided by Madeleine Stowe as a psychiatrist, a road sequence when Cole goes on the run, and a suspenseful ending. The director even plays with us at one point, leaving us guessing about the action, à la Hitchcock.
But intertwined with this main plot are other themes, especially that of the confusion between madness and sanity in an increasingly insane world. Central here is Brad Pitt - pouring out words and pointing his fingers like daggers - as Jeffrey Goines, the disturbed son of a world-famous scientist (Christopher Plummer) who is developing the fateful virus (for reasons I didn't catch, but which are probably just as valid as the USA's development of anthrax spores). Who is more mad - Jeffrey or his acclaimed father? The issues of ecology, consumerism and the dominance of the media are also touched on. Among various religious themes and references, it is probably not too fanciful to identify Cole as a Christ-figure - with appropriate initials - sent down to save the world, but whose warnings are as little heeded as those of the original.
But despite the wealth of ideas in the movie, seeing it is above all an astonishing visual experience. Most of the images are bleak and disturbing - with little to choose between those set in the present day and those in the future - but they have a surreal beauty. The image of central Baltimore, deserted by humans, and taken over by animals is especially haunting.