12 Monkeys (1995)

 

The plot of 12 Monkeys seems to be designed intentionally to confuse viewers. It’s a puzzle to be solved, but the film includes a lot of misleading details that lead us down wrong pathways of thinking about what’s happening (or, to be more precise, what’s happened). There’s even a dream (memory?) that recurs through the story that seems to change with each appearance. Bruce Willis’s James Cole is a prisoner in the year 2035 who “volunteers” to go outside to a post-apocalyptic world and retrieve specimens and information. Most of the earth’s humans have died from a virus outbreak in 1996, and the remaining inhabitants are far underground. On the surface, animals now roam freely, and Cole encounters a bear, a lion, and of course, cockroaches when he’s above ground, proving that the old adage about how cockroaches can survive even cataclysmic events. Cole is “chosen” by a group of scientists to go back in time to find the virus in the lab where it was created and retrieve its code before it mutates and is then released. Even his travels to the past have false or misdirected starts; he winds up in 1990 rather than 1996, and on another occasion, he goes all the way back to World War I. Given his ramblings about how he’s from the future and that everyone is going to die, it’s unsurprising that he winds up in a mental hospital where he meets Madeline Stowe’s psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and fellow patient Jeffrey Goines (played with uncharacteristic wildness by Brad Pitt). Each of them contributes to Cole’s attempts to discover the location of the virus’s creation. Cole kidnaps Dr. Railly, and against all logic, she slowly beings to accept his story of why and how he’s travelled back to 1990 and then 1996. There’s even a hint of a romantic connection between the two, which raises the question of why films mistreat women in roles like this. Stowe is playing a talented psychiatrist, yet she is abducted, assaulted, and almost raped. Why does all of this have to happen to her, and how does these actions truly further the plot? She isn’t even respected by the men with whom she works; Frank Gorshin’s Dr. Fletcher accuses her—without merit—of being “defensive” when she tries to explain why she initially attempted to treat Cole in the way that she did. (That’s right, the Riddler from the Batman TV show plays a misogynist psychiatrist in this film; that’s how bizarre it is as times. The movie also features a young and quite beautiful Chris Meloni as a police lieutenant.) Pitt’s character also misleads the viewer, making us think that his self-styled “Army of 12 Monkeys” might have been involved in the mutation and/or dissemination of the fatal virus. Pitt was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, but his performance fits into the Hollywood stereotypes of mental illness and even the stereotypes of fanatical activists. What’s even more puzzling is why 12 Monkeys was nominated for Best Costume Design when it’s most intriguing outfit is sort of a cross between a protective plastic bubble and a Michelin Man costume; everything else is pretty much lab coats and pajamas and contemporary garb. Even the futuristic costumes are just layers of dark clothes, nothing especially insightful. 12 Monkeys could have been easily nominated for its production design instead. The room where Willis’s Cole is interrogated—with is elevated chair and floating interrogation machine and overstuffed barrier separating the scientists from their subjects—is masterfully done. The film also features some dazzling camera work at times and sharp editing; the images of the zoo animals running wild through the streets of Philadelphia are among my favorites. And, even though it does feature some moments of great tension and suspense, at least this film wasn’t nominated for best screenplay.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Brad Pitt) and Best Costume Design