Twelve Monkeys

A Film Review by Roger Crow

Terry Gilliam has made many fine films over the years. For my money. he's one of the best directors in the world - a film-maker who has been cursed by some bad luck since he made his directorial debut with Monty Python and The Holy Grail in 1975.

Made for a few thousand quid, he and co-director Terry Jones proved they could make an hilarious comedy which looked like it cost ten times the budget.

Gilliam broke off to make Jabberwocky in 1977 and although not a huge commercial or critical success, it does boast some inventive visuals.

By 1981, he delivered a trilogy of movies which would span the dizzy heights of blockbuster (Time Bandits), the unchartered waters of a film-maker taking on Hollywood and winning (Brazil) and the glorious flop that was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

The hedonistic excesses of the Eighties were naturally followed by a worldwide recession and the feeling of redemption for over spending was never more apparent than in Hollywood. If one side of the coin was the absurdly expensive Munchausen, then Gilliam sought to make amends with The Fisher King.

That 1991 classic saw Gilliam back on blockbusting form as had been the case 10 years earlier. Surely his next big hit was just around the corner.

Er, not quite.

It was five years until Gilliam followed it up with one of the best films of the day.

Twelve Monkeys is a bleak, stunning take on Chris Marker's 1962 photo roman film, La Jetee. What's a photo roman? Basically a series of still photos presented in film form. David Peoples, one of the brains behind Blade Runner and Unforgiven had used that as a springboard for his screenplay co-written with wife Janet.

They developed a script about a convict from the future living in an underground society. Hired by a bunch of scientists to go back in time and discover the source of the virus which wiped out much of mankind, through some cock up in their calculations, he bounces around time periods like a silver ball bouncing off the bumpers of a pinball machine.

So basically it's a dirtier version of Back to the Futurem, but what makes this far more impressive is its mind bending script and three knockout performances from its cast.

Brad Pitt is superb as the manic rich man's son who takes doomed time traveller Cole (Bruce Willis) under his wing. The darkly glamorous Madeleine Stowe adds just the right degree of intelligent sexiness to make this a must for the film goer who likes their leading lady with brains and beauty.

The movie was made for a fraction of most films in 1996 but thanks to Gilliam's bizarre sense of aesthetics and some superb support from the likes of Jeffrey Beercroft, it looks like it cost a lot more than it did.

© 2002 Roger Crow

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