I am insane and this is my reality

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2015)

This was one of my favourite films growing up. I like films by Terry Gilliam as they always seem a bit left field and odd but strangely beautiful and "12 Monkeys" is no exception. Gilliam has made a full feature length film based on Chris Marker's French short "La Jetée", keeping the heart felt messages but also bringing in more Sci-Fi bonkers in a down beat, engaging and beautifully created 129 minutes. It studies the subjectivity of memories and their effect on perceptions of reality; it also looks at the way the interference of technology is creating a decline in modern civilisations communicating with each other. In "La Jetée" characters are haunted by visions of their own death, similarly James Cole (Bruce Willis' character in '12 Monkeys') has a constructed memory of his death which flashes onto screen as much as random monkeys do as the film plays out.
In the distant future of 1996 (well, actually the past now in reality as I write this from 2015) a virus wipes out most of the world's population leaving only 1% of humanity hiding underground by 2035. James Cole (Bruce "Die Hard" Willis) is a convict who is volunteered to go back in time to 1996 to try and gather information about the man-made virus. All that is known are rumours that the "Army of the Twelve Monkeys" released it as a political statement to the world. Unfortunately the almost steam punk-esque era that Cole comes from things still go inevitably wrong with technology; instead of being sent to 1996 Cole is sent to 1990 where he is found, captured and eventually put into a lunatic asylum where he meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad "Fight Club" Pitt), the wealthy offspring of biological chemical engineer. Cole also meets Dr Kathryn Railly (Madeline "Last of the Mohicans" Stowe) who tries to help him to understand that his future 'visions' are all part of a psychosis. As events unfold James is taken/sucked back to his own time/reality to explain his findings but soon gets sent back to 1996 to continue, again meeting Railly and Goines. More events unfold and slowly Railly starts asking herself if what she has advised so far as a psychosis is actually real for Cole, she wonders if Cole is actually telling the truth. The film goes on and Cole, ever the detective, slowly works out who the "Army of the Twelve Monkeys" are and what their involvement actually was in bringing the population of humanity down by 5 billion people. Has he found out in time to do something about it or is he destined to fail forever more? I really don't want to spoil the ending too much as this is a masterpiece of 90's film and I can't recommend it highly enough, all I'll say is that while the ending answers a lot of questions it also creates some questions for the audience to mull over as they watch the end credits roll.
Rather than concentrating on a glossy clean film Gilliam chooses to explore some of the dirtier aspects of events; time travel for example - it refreshing to see Cole suffering time travel fatigue and stress because of having to deal with different realities in different times. Contrary to what audiences have been taught of time travel in other films in Gilliam's film it's clunky and almost D-I-Y. Likewise the sanatorium that Cole finds himself in with Goines - rather than it being a structured and tidy institute Gilliam has portrayed it literally as a mad house where some of the inmates actually stand out as pivotal characters – miles apart from the stereotypical portrays Hollywood tends to put on institutions.
Paul Buckmaster's musical score is haunting and creepy while not making itself too obscure and distant. The Peoples (David and Janet Peoples) behind the script have woven a memorising narrative which makes the audience as nauseous from time travel and staying attached to the narrative of the film as much as it does for Cole.
There is a clever use of film reference within the movie which should jump out to all film fans and ties into the question of Cole's life and the question of whether he is trapped in a time loop paradox. There are virtual pats on the back and nod's to Alfred Hitchcock films, filming techniques and even his choice of casting (being practically recreated towards the end of the film). As mentioned Chris Marker's "La Jetée" gets a nod too in particularly when Cole and Railly are at the all-day theatre assessing their predicament. The Marx brothers get a virtual nod as does an episode of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon labelled "Time Tunnel", even Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective" gets a virtual nod from Gilliam in a film which has some small parallels to "Blade Runner" too. FTR - keep an ear open for Bruce Willis saying "All I see are dead people" - I forgot this line was in the film but watching it again years later this line made me laugh due to it's obvious parallel to "the Sixth Sense" :D
For fear of going over the character limit I'll sign of by saying any good film fan should watch or have already watched this.