What I’m watching: a science fiction classic and a rather inexplicable cult film.

On Blu-ray: Twelve Monkeys

Terry Gilliam has always been a very intriguing director, but one sometimes who has been too self-indulgent for his own good. “Twelve Monkeys,” though, is one of his best. It was not only praised by critics, but made money when it was released in 1995.

The film holds up well and has several standout performances from Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt.  

The film opens in the year 2035 and humans have been pretty much eradicated from the planet thanks to a virus that was released in 1996. The few humans who are left live underground and scientists there have perfected a time travel process. Their goal is to send a person back to 1996 to gather information about the virus from which they can develop a cure.

Willis is James Cole, an inmate who volunteers for the time travel. He is accidently sent back to 1990 where his story and behavior lands him in a mental hospital. One doctor, Dr. Kathryn Railly (Stowe) finds something about his story interesting and compelling as does one of the fellow patients Jeffrey Goines (Pitt).

Cole is called back to 2035 by the scientists who question him and then send him back in time again only this time the mistake they make is to bring him to 1917.  He’s called back again only to return to 1996 to try to find out if a group of terrorists known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys is responsible for the development of the virus.

This time when he encounters Railly again he abducts her. During their time together, Railly did some research work and concluded that there may be something to Cole’s story as astonishing as it sounds.

As Cole is sent back and forth in time, he begins to suffer from a psychic disconnect, part of which is fueled by a memory he had as a child of seeing a man shot while running through the airport.

Like all of Gilliam’s films there is a very strong visual style with superb art direction. In 2035 we encounter a society that seems to have been put together by building on what they can find from the past. It’s like living in a bleak junkyard.

The year 1996 is seen as just as harsh with its urban decay and a mental hospital that appears to be out of the early part of the 20th Century.

In an interview Gilliam said, “Cole has been thrust from another world into ours and he’s confronted by the confusion we live in, which most people somehow accept as normal. So he appears abnormal, and what’s happening around him seems random and weird. Is he mad or are we?”

Like all Blu-ray restorations from Arrow Video, there are plenty of extras including a feature-length documentary on the making of this film.

“Twelve Monkeys” is a film well worth revisiting.

On Blu-ray: Deadbeat at Dawn

Perhaps the most over-used term in film criticism is “cult movie.” The phrase really doesn’t address whether or not a film has some sort of artistic value, but simply that there is a non-mainstream audience that has embraced it.

There are certainly plenty of “cult” movies I’ve enjoyed and several of which are actually valid films. “Deadbeat at Dawn,” however, is a crudely made, simple revenge film with a back-story more interesting than the film itself.     

Director, writer, producer and star Jim Van Bebber was a college student who used a student loan intended to pay for a year at school to make this film in the mid-1980s.

The plot, such as it is, involves the former leader of a street gang in Dayton, OH, seeking revenge on a rival gang whose members killed his girl friend.

That’s about it.

The film’s two most interesting points is the grinding urban decay of every setting in the production, as well as the lengthy fight scene at the film’s conclusion, which is actually well staged.   

Performances are overwrought and at the high school dramatics level. Production values are rock bottom. Special effects involve copious amounts of screen blood.

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be seeing in this film – what are the elements that have inspired such adoration? They eluded me.

Then again, I have no idea why directors such as Herschell Gordon Lewis, Andy Milligan or Jess Franco inspire such devotion from their fans.

As usual Arrow Video has included many extras including a documentary on Van Bebber.