Jacob's Ladder

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Jacob’s Mind Jacobs’s Ladder is a 1990 psychological horror film about a troubled Vietnam War veteran trying to deal with post-war life. Throughout the movie Jacob Singer, played by Tim Robbins, has a difficult time being able to differentiate between real life and what’s just happening in his mind. The viewer has a hard time telling the difference as well, due to the fact that the director, Adrian Lyne, chose a choppy narrative style filled with flashbacks and flash-forward’s to tell Jacob’s story. Although the choppy narrative style chosen by the director confuses its viewers as to what is real and what is only in Jacob’s head, it is the best way to tell Jacob’s story. The film makes you think about what is really happening and what is only in Jacob’s mind, therefore the narrative style itself could be a representation for what’s happening inside Jacob’s head. It also educates the viewer about Jacob’s life before the war, which explains why Jacob acts the way he does now. The choppy narrative style of the film does a great job in drawing the viewers in. The quick flashes of graphic scenes not only capture the viewers attention, they also make the viewers feel emotions such as worry, fear, or even compassion for Jacob. The movie’s opening scene is of Jacob and his fellow soldiers being attacked during the Vietnam War. After watching his army buddies being ripped to pieces the scene ends with Jacob being stabbed. As he is about to die the scene ends and it flashes to another scene of him waking up on a New York subway. The film continues like this throughout, jumping from scene to scene, from flashbacks to made up events in Jacob’s head. Being able to tell the difference between reality and Jacob’s hallucinations gets more difficult as the film progresses. The way this movie was filmed could be a representation of Jacob’s unstable mind. What the audience

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