2/9/20 Twelve Monkeys

Post date: Feb 2, 2020 3:54:17 PM

"Twelve Monkeys" starts on earth where the surface has no human life and wild animals roam free. A global virus has wiped out most of man kind and the rest are hiding underground. A convict names James Cole is recruited to stop the virus. It is interesting to note that the guy who is the savior has the initials JC.Cole is going to be send back in time to stop the virus from happening. He was chosen because he has a mind strong enough to handle living in multiple time lines. This is a key part of the movie. At one point he ends up in an asylum and starts to question his own sanity. As he says, he prefers to be insane rather than most of humanity is destroyed.

The film is directed by Terry Gilliam who created the dystopian movie "Brazil". "Brazil" was almost not released because of Gilliam's fight with the studio. One of his next movie "The Adventure of Baron Munchausen" suffered major problems and almost destroyed him as a director. At this point, Gilliam pulled back and did a simple redemption movie called the "The Fisher King" This was received well by the studio and the main stream public and saved his reputation. However, it is one of Gilliam's least favorite movies. After this he was hired to direct "Twelve Monkey". Even though he didn't write it, it feels like a Gilliam movie. There is a perfect reference to "Vertigo". I always wondered whose inspiration that was.

The film was written by David Webb Peoples who also wrote "Blade Runner" and "unforgiven". Both of these movies are well regarded but not for their screenplays. I figured that he was inspired by the Chris Marker short "La Jette" which the story was based. I saw this short in eleventh grade film class. I found it to be one of the most inspiring movies. In the era where movies has to be shot and edited on film, movie making was difficult for an amateur. The main medium was super-8 and it was expensive especially to add sync sound. "La Jette" told a compelling story with a voice over and only still photographs. It was an example of what you could do with limited resources.