Challenging and disturbing, a true masterpiece!

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2004)

James Cole is sitting in a prison in a distant future, his only change to get freed is to volunteer for a time travel test that will send him back to find the source of a virus that wiped out 5 billion people in 1996. However they send him too far, and he is arrested and send to an institute where he is defined as being insane, he makes a magic houdini escape. While being at the mental institute he meets two people that will have great effect on his "future" life.
2 days ago i saw Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, expecting a masterpiece from what appeared to be one of the more creative minds of Hollywood, i was very disappointed, but i saw the potential in the directing. Now i see Twelve Monkeys, and i must admit, this movie was very challenging, original and extremely unpredictable, it can be analyzed in many different directions, which is what i think is the strength of a true masterpiece, a movie that can have different meanings depending on how your mind is built. "A movie can have a different effect on you depending on when in your life you see it, and the state of your mind at the time" Something like that is said in this movie, and it defines the movie pretty well.
What makes this movie so damn great is the constant twists, you will find yourself guessing all the time, at times i felt very confused, at other times i thought i had everything in place, then a twist and you're lost again, this makes the movie a constant original and unpredictable experience, and the end, which can be interpretated in a large amount of different ways, is very powerfull and mind bending, which is really fantastic, this is a movie that will be looked back at in many years as an even greater masterpiece.
The directin is very firm, Terry Gilliam has his own style, which obviously includes many alternative camera angles, which gives the whole movie a feeling of being unreal and portraying a fantasy world, and i feel confident that if we asked him why he used this, there would be a deeper symbolizing meaning with them, i think they describe certain parts of the movie. This movie is a work of a true genius.
This movie would not have worked without Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis, each are they giving one of their great performances of their life. Especially Brad Pitt i admite for his role as a crazy lunatic in this movie, the way he portrays this semi psychopath is just so realistic and fantastic. Bruce Willis is the counterpart, also giving a performance as a rather mentally disturbed person (That is the way i felt he got portrayed), he does an amazing and convincing job, together these are bringing the movie the energy and soul it needs.
To sum it all up. They say you can talk about a true masterpiece forever, there will always be new things to discuss, there will never be anyone with a opinion and interpretation of the movie that is 100% identical, well i feel that this is one of those movies that can always be talked about, i would love to analyze this, as especially the ending is very powerfull and unique. But also the entire movie itself, there are many things that a lot will feel differently and understand differerently. Everyone will of course understand the movie the same way, but the deeper meaning of the movie, and the actual effect of the twist, that is what makes this movie so strong.
9/10