{"id":3453,"date":"2024-06-17T16:18:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T20:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jappersandjanglers\/?p=3453"},"modified":"2024-06-17T16:18:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T20:18:27","slug":"saigon-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jappersandjanglers\/2024\/06\/saigon-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Saigon, New York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/a>

Jacob\u2019s Ladder
Source: Picryl<\/a>
Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I found Jacob\u2019s Ladder <\/em>(1990) when I was too young. I only knew that it was scary. To me, it had no plot. Some war of which I was dimly aware. A scene reminiscent of that cancelled episode of Pok\u00e9mon (1997-Present), the one that induced seizures. Jake (Tim Robbins) was unhappy. He was scared.<\/p>\n

Now, I know he is a PhD working at the Post Office. He discusses Meister Eckhart with his cherubic chiropractor. The job market has been so bad that I too considered serving in that noblest of public offices\u2014the USPS. I chopped Meister Eckhart out of my dissertation. I\u2019ve published on him before. I have not\u2014thank God\u2014fought in Vietnam, and the psychoses I have endured had nothing to do with paranoiac episodes of BZ exposure or the life beyond death.<\/p>\n

Still, I remained terrified. Jacob\u2019s Ladder <\/em>is the rare kind of movie that never lets up. New York is frightening, a gray, dilapidated wasteland of demons and government agents. Anyone who has wanted to leave a party will recognize the overstimulation\u2014if not the hallucinations\u2014Jake experiences during a shindig at a friend\u2019s apartment. Which version of reality is happening? Which is he making up to cope with zombified life? Is he a family man? Or is he dating a woman named Jezebel?<\/p>\n

The movie works so long as it keeps us in that paranoid state. It doesn\u2019t matter what\u2019s real and what\u2019s fake. What kept me invested was the constant stimulation\u2014the fear. Few films capture the degradation of a human psyche as well as Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Which is why the ending is such a shame. It descends into explanation\u2014the movies tell us what it all means, left with one explanation. In other words, everything hangs on a twist, a final confirmation of what has and what has not been real (though in reality all is invalidated). This felt doubly wrong. On the one hand, the film deals in atmosphere. What matters is how the character feels, how we feel. On the other, this decision reduces Jacob\u2019s Ladder <\/em>to a matter of plot. It ends on exactly the wrong note.<\/p>\n

Still, nothing can fully undo that first 90 minutes or so. The fear, the slowly building atmosphere of terror\u2014a 90s film about the 70s in the spirit of a 70s paranoid thriller. Jacob\u2019s Ladder <\/em>works, deserves to be remembered\u2014few movies capture the mounting terror of psychoses so well.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found Jacob\u2019s Ladder (1990) when I was too young. I only knew that it was scary. To me, it had no plot. Some war of which I was dimly aware. A scene reminiscent of that cancelled episode of Pok\u00e9mon (1997-Present), the one that induced seizures. Jake (Tim Robbins) was unhappy. He was scared. Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2640,"featured_media":3456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731],"tags":[4467,4473,4479,4476,1799,4470],"class_list":["post-3453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-jacobs-ladder","tag-psychological-horror","tag-psychosis","tag-tim-robbins","tag-trauma","tag-vietnam-war"],"yoast_head":"\nSaigon, New York<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The fear, the slowly building atmosphere of terror\u2014a 90s film about the 70s in the spirit of a 70s paranoid thriller. 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