Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

 Jacob’s Ladder 

Starring- Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Macauley Culkin, Jason Alexander and Danny Aiello

Director- Adrian Lyne 

This film, whilst undoubtedly good, is about as comfortable to watch as lying on a bed of rusty nails… then the nails come alive and scratch your face. I watched most of it through my fingers then was almost too scared to visit the bathroom once the film was completed. Yes I feel a bit silly saying that. It’s a must for every film fan, but I wouldn’t watch it with granny. 

Jacob Singer is a man wrestling through life with PTSD following his release from active service in Vietnam. We witness a harrowing scene with human mutilation, blood and bullets flying in all directions. When Jacob returns to the USA we see him struggling to come to terms with his condition, no doubt multiplied by the death of his son (Macauley Culkin) from his first marriage. He begins to see strange things and collapses on more than one occasion. His girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña) tries to help but she becomes increasingly freaked out by Jacob’s behaviour. All the while, Jacob is trying in vain to piece back together his shattered life and to get to the bottom of what really happened in Vietnam. 

This would however just be scratching the surface. If we dig deeper we realise that Jacob’s Ladder is about the horror of war- a horror that could last far longer than just when the final bullets are fired. Jacob himself is reeling from his own experience of PTSD and we are given no end point to this. 

For reasons explained in the film’s conclusion, we are led to ask what this film is. Is it a flashback? Could it even be a flash forward from before he joined the Army? Or are we swirling our fingers into the murky depths of a dystopian reality which is impossible to work out. I began to ask questions related to self- who are we? Jacob slips in and out of various dimensions- we believe his reality to be when he’s with Jezzie, but we also see him with his ex wife Sarah and his three sons. Each dimension could be the real reality and the opposite the dream world. He seems to feel physical and mental pain in both dimensions too. 

I’d urge film fans to watch Jacob’s Ladder as there are plenty of points to think about but be warned you may well feel very uncomfortable throughout the film- this is what it wants you to do