Review of "Twelve Monkeys"

Re-watched after several years...I thought I'd have more time to focus on the look of it, because I wouldn't need to follow the rather confusing plot so carefully. But in fact I'd forgotten a lot of the plot, and could follow it more carefully. Even so I sort of missed the significance of one of the plot twists, and Ruth had to explain it to me.

This is probably one of the best films that Terry Gilliam has ever made (probably Bruce Willis's best film ever too). The look of it is great (I noticed in the credits that the design of the interrogation room is based on the work of American architect Lebbeus Woods, who I had never heard of. There is a lot of 'ruin porn' - not only in the future-set scenes, which are supposed to be after an apocalyptic disaster, but also in the scenes set in the 1990s.

Unlike in some other Gilliam movies, there are proper characters, with proper relationships between them, and a well-developed story with pace that stays the length of the film. Surprising that it wasn't based on a book, but instead was a sort of homage to La Jetée, a short (28 minute) French film that miraculously manages to cover much of the same plot within the time constraint.

Watched in the middle floor at Springhill, via an informal streaming site rather than my usual informal distribution network.