Movie Review -- Jacob's Ladder

The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer's nightmare is that he isn't dreaming.

---Tagline from the movie.




It can hurt to try so hard to understand. This is what the main character, Jacob Singer, is dealing with. The viewer will be feeling the same way straining to understand and to see what is happening. This film does make sense in the end after some surprising twists, so have heart. You may be asking yourself if you are seeing Singer, a traumatized Vietnam vet, alive and not so well, or in Hell.

Suddenly, one day the path from the subway exit Singer normally takes to his home is chained off preventing him from moving up the steps and home. No one else at the station and large rats are swimming in the pools on the tracks. This movie screams Dante. How could this be? This is a tour of what Hell, or Purgatory could be. Singer never leaves this world, but seems to get glimpses of the overlap that leave the viewer guessing. What world is Singer really in? Could all of these angels and demons be in the world around us even now?

The use of elusive images adds to the slip through your fingers and past your vision mood of the film. The viewer is never really are quite sure about what we are seeing and all the while looking directly at "it." It makes one see what going crazy can be like. Perhaps this is the monster only seen out of the corner or the eye or felt under the bed but never dare peeked at. Is it... was it... really there? Is it still there? This movie is filled with frightening shadows and reflections, although sprinkled with just enough humor to give hope. People who help are bathed in natural light seeming faintly angelic in quality but looking not so different from us. Could that nurse have small horns underneath her hat?

This movie circles the theme of earthly attachment... hanging on to what we hope is real or what we desire. The Singer character that is inside of you will scream "IS THIS REAL? Am I alive or dead?!" Singer begins to jump from one reality to another. Is he a professor with a Ph.D. or someone who left his family to live with another woman and work for the postal service. Is he still with his beloved wife and family or living with the very sexy Jezzie?

Jacob fears he is losing his mind or his life as his reality seems to be in flux. Demons come from anywhere and Jacobs begins a descent perhaps into his own mind. His mind is what he seems to be losing but who can be sure? He does find some assistance from an unconventional healer. This healer is also a friend who comforts him with these words, which is the major theme of the movie:

Eckhart* saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.


If you have the DVD, and you still don't understand the film, the documentary on the disc can be really helpful. I see this movie got mixed reviews. It can be difficult to watch for those very sensitive to violence, but it does not have violence without a point to the story. This movie is filed under "horror."

The director mentions in the documentary interview that a few people were helped in their dying process by watching this film. I read a few comments by people that found the film nothing short of depressing. I enjoyed the film because of how it made me think about the subject of attachment. It is certainly not for everyone and cannot be termed "a pleasant experience." I recommend the film for its view of what attachment might be like.




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*Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327) Dominican monk and profound thinker of the Middle Ages.

Link to information and sermons of Meister Eckhart:
http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermons_-_Meister_Eckhart