Review of Twelve Monkeys (1995) by Tyler D — 31 May 2011

Terry Gilliam's sci fi masterpiece is one of the most intelligent, innovate and realistic films in the genre. The genre piece involves time travel, two to two different epochs in the past from the future.

The storytelling is non-linear and instead opts to distort and bend the way the story is told skilfully incorporating a bevy of different time sequences: flashbacks, dreams, memories, the present, the past, the future, and even a scene that is lifted out of Hitchcock's Vertigo. All serve to envelop the viewer into its disturbing cacophony of madness and futility. The tight editing helps ensure a slick pace that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Brad Pitt delivers perhaps his first great performance. Bruce Willis makes his mark and Madeleine Stowe looks and acts very well.

Gilliam's expert, overwhelming, and complex handling of what could have been a routine action/sci-fi film makes 12 Monkeys a compelling vision of a nightmarish, futuristic landscape. Its rich, well-thought out, intricate storyline along with bravura performances from the entire cast and its brooding, bleak cinematography make it a masterpiece of madness.