Terry Gilliam's other masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2005)

Terry Gilliam excels at portraying a world gone mad. That much is clear from a single viewing of either 12 Monkeys or Brazil. What 12 Monkeys has that Brazil does not is a little more experience and expertise. By contrasting the maddest kind of future with an equally mad past, Gilliam creates a nightmarish science fiction world where contrast is the meat in one very odd sandwich. For Gilliam, it is one of many masterpieces. For lead actors Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, it was the turning point in careers of varying prestige. Although Pitt had yet to truly make a splash as the darker half of a strange personality in Fight Club, Willis had literally turned portraying the vulnerable, less than superhuman hero into an art form some seven years previous in Die Hard. Both have since gone onto bigger, although not necessarily better, things. Willis is asking the sky for a fourth Die Hard film, and Pitt made no less than twenty million dollars for his most recent film. Neither of them could have achieved that without this film.
What makes 12 Monkeys especially stand out in their careers is that it refuses to follow a conventional storyline. While it does have the tragic heroine thing all through the main story, it evolves in a manner rarely seen in Hollywood. Madeleine Stowe proves herself in a role that must have taken quite a toll on her physically and emotionally. Her disbelief at the start of the film and her growing sense of belief in Willis' story towards the end is very palpable. Brad Pitt manages to feign a kind of insanity in a very convincing manner. The moment where he feigns being cross-eyed as he enters a room is frightening. But the real star of this show is the story, which links together fragments from alternating periods of both the past (our past, that is) and the future in a manner that gives the film a great sense of economy. There is nothing redundant in 12 Monkeys, just a plot that leaves the viewer gobsmacked at the end.
If there is a weakness in 12 Monkeys, it is in the scenes of the future. Borrowing heavily from the playbook he used in Brazil, Gilliam builds a future where scientists coerce cooperation from prisoners, often by drowning them in visual and audio stimulus. I doubt that Gilliam's intent was to paint scientists as a cruel, evil mob. Perhaps he tried to contrast the scientists with Stowe's compassionate doctor, but the Monty Python-style acting of the future scientists does get on the nerves. Christopher Meloni sticks his head in as a police lieutenant who delivers one of the best gags in the film. It is the one that, in fact, makes a convert out of Stowe's character. This way of linking the past with the future as her character spraypaints a message onto a wall as Pitt spouts out a theory about how she could know what he is up to becomes one of the classic moments in cinema. I will not speak of the film's ending, but when you see it, you will be amazed by the continuity links. This is one tightly put-together film.
Paul Buckmaster creates an original, timeless score that punctuates the wild mood swings Willis' character endures. As Willis acts out the questioning of his own sanity, a desire to be what he calls "well", and eventually his acceptance of a patently impossible situation, Buckmaster's score delivers a suitably downbeat punctuation. The music is part of what makes the misery of the situation so tangible. As Willis recites the last half of Stowe's message to the future, the music turns the action into a ghost story. The real kicker is the string and accordion theme when the army of the Twelve Monkeys appears perfectly conveys the sheer nuttiness of its leader. Many of the people who have changed our world, for better or worse, were very much mentally divergent, as the film puts it. Einstein, for example, is believed to have been a sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome. Pitt's character, a real sod by the name of Jeffrey Goines, will never be as loved as Einstein, but Pitt does manage to inject some Einsteinian quirks into the character. In spite of the fact that 1996 is now the past, the scenario depicted seems more believable than ever.
I gave 12 Monkeys a nine out of ten. I am still in two minds as to whether it or Brazil is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece. Either way, it is worthy of watching at least once. If you enjoy science fiction without the need for an uplifting message, then this film has a good chance with you.