Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Rating: A

Dir: Adrian Lyne
Star: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven

[11] This bombed in the States, and I can see why. It must have been a shock to the audience, given Lyne’s past record of wimpokinky stuff (9 1/2 Weeks) and boiling rabbits (Fatal Attraction), to find their heads being fucked with quite so savagely. Videodrome or The Fourth Man seem influences, as a Vietnam vet suffers increasingly bizarre hallucinations and finds his world cracking at the seams. The visions are handled very well – perhaps too well, as ‘reality’ seems dull by comparison. But where is reality? The cause at first doesn’t seem to live up to the effects – then the plot twists for an n-th time and…well, let’s just say, I haven’t enjoyed a nose-bleed so much in ages.