Welcome to Oliver Harper’s Retrospectives & Reviews. Like us all at FTN, Oliver LOVES cinema, and like us he has passions that not everyone shares, but he feels obligated to put the word out. This week Oliver looks at 12 Monkeys – we’ll let him tell you the aims of these videos himself. Over to you, Oliver…
Every week FTN will be hosting videos looking back at classic films from the 80s and early 90s…
The videos will be a retrospective look back at a particular film covering all sides of the production and discussing how the film turned out. Many people on the net generally like to discuss films with a negative attitude and take joy in bashing films for comedic effect which does work but often many of the reviews aren’t researched well or films are taken out of context for the purpose of making a joke and I feel websites such as youtube have become over-saturated with these types of videos, I wanted to do something different.
“Often you come across films with no extras available on the DVD and you want to know more about it, so with some of the upcoming videos I will be discussing films that don’t get the respect they deserve or the ones that aren’t as bad as people think…
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
By 1995 Terry Gilliam was back directing in the Hollywood system and was working with the two of the biggest stars – Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Gilliam was a director for hire and had no involvement with the script like his prior films but wanted to maintain his style throughout. The story is set in the future where mankind was nearly wiped out by a virus and Bruce Willis’ character, James Cole, is sent back in time to find clues on how it happened and if he can find the virus in its purest form so the scientists in the future can create an antidote. Seems pretty straightforward. But no; in typical Terry Gilliam fashion, things begin to get confusing as you’re led down a path to believe that James Cole’s mental state is uncertain and the events of the future could all be in his head.
I take a look back at this classic and highlight many of the twists and turns that left many of its viewers confused by the end.
Oliver’s review:
Original Trailer:
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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