12 monkeys

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Movie
German title 12 monkeys
Original title Twelve Monkeys
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 131 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Terry Gilliam
script David Webb Peoples ,
Janet Peoples
production Charles Roven
music Paul Buckmaster
camera Roger Pratt
cut Mick Audsley
occupation
synchronization

12 Monkeys (AKA Twelve Monkeys ) is a science fiction film by Terry Gilliam from the year 1995 . The script was based on the French short film Am Rande des Rollfelds ( La Jetée , 1962) by Chris Marker , which in turn is inspired by the Hitchcock classic Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead . According to its own information, Gilliam first saw Am Rande des Rollfelds at the premiere of 12 Monkeys when it was shown as a supporting film. For both Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt , the film marked an important step towards being perceived as a character actor in artistically demanding works.

action

The plot of the film will begin in 2035. A virus - pandemic in the years 1996 and 1997 are over five billion people died, only about one percent of humanity has survived the disaster. The survivors have withdrawn underground, where they live in miserable circumstances, isolated from the outside world. Scientists are trying to learn more about the virus through “volunteer” missions.

James Cole is one such volunteer. He is considered a dangerous criminal and is imprisoned. After he has taken samples from the surface of the earth undamaged, he is offered a pardon if he finds the original virus and the originator (s) of the virus by traveling back in time to 1996. Cole's personality also includes the fact that he has suffered from flashbacks since childhood : in his dreams he repeatedly sees fragments of a shootout in an airport building.

As part of his mission, Cole found himself - by a mistake by the scientists - initially in 1990. There, because of his statements about his origins and the impending pandemic, he was declared mentally ill without further ado and put in a psychiatric clinic , where he was put on strong psychotropic drugs and could barely think clearly. In the institution he meets Jeffrey Goines, who is actually mentally ill.

In order to leave his clients a message on a voicemailbox in 2035, he asks for a call. Finally his request is heard; the telephone number known to him turns out to be not yet valid. However, due to a mix-up, Cole is brought back to the present of the year 2035. There he can plausibly declare that he is not responsible for the mistake, and the scientists then give him a second chance to travel to 1996.

However, on his second journey through time, Cole ends up in the middle of the trench warfare of the First World War due to another mistake by the scientists . There he is wounded in the leg by a bullet. After all, he will be transferred directly to 1996 - without a renewed stay in 2035.

After his arrival, Cole meets Jeffrey Goines again, who is no longer under psychiatric treatment. He notes that Goines is a leader in the Army Group of the 12 Monkeys . Cole, who came across evidence of the 12 Monkeys as early as 2035 , now believes the group is responsible for the virus pandemic because Goines' father, a well-known scientist, runs a virological research facility. Cole believes Jeffrey Goines was able to gain access to the virus strains in this way, and also fears that he inadvertently gave him the idea of ​​exterminating humanity in 1990.

Cole kidnaps psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly, who already met him in 1990 in the mental hospital and therefore considers him mentally deranged. The doctor removes the bullet that has stuck in his leg since his trip to the time of the First World War. Despite the best efforts, Cole cannot initially convince her that the virus disaster he predicted will actually happen. Suffering from psychological stress, Cole now begins to doubt his message himself.

During the psychiatrist's kidnapping, the media dealt with the case of a missing boy, among other things. Cole tells the psychiatrist that he remembers this incident from his childhood. At that time, he felt fear for the first time through this story - but afterwards it turned out that the boy had just hidden in a stable for fun.

Cole also visits Jeffrey Goines' father, the virologist, to get the original virus from him. His request fails. Subsequently, Cole is brought back to the year 2035 against his will by his clients.

Back in 2035, Cole is now convinced of his mental illness himself and no longer takes the scientists who deal with him seriously. However, he can convince them to send it back to 1996 by pretending to want to bring back the original virus. In reality, however, he only wants to escape from the unpleasant world of 2035, to be in 1996 - at the side of Dr. Railly - getting treated for his mental illness.

In the meantime, the psychiatrist has had the bullet removed from Cole's leg examined with the result that it actually dates from the First World War. She also discovers his picture in a teaching text about a case of mental illness on the front lines of the First World War. When the news reports about the boy who was wanted in the well but hidden in a barn and Cole's version is proven to be true, Dr. Railly convinced of its story. After arriving back in 1996, Cole plans to voluntarily arrest himself and seek treatment for his alleged insanity. When he was Dr. Seeking Railly, she tries to stop him. She explains to him that his story, even if no one has believed him yet, is true.

Cole is torn, but in the end he decides not to go back to the year 2035 and a life underground. Since a homeless man told him that he too had been sent back and that his teeth had been equipped with a kind of direction finding device by the scientists in 2035, he pulled his molars himself.

Cole and Dr. Railly are now trying to stop the group of 12 Monkeys together . Since both are no longer sure what is reality and what is not, Dr. Railly calls the voicemail box number given by Cole. There, however, it only reaches the answering machine of a carpet cleaning company. Convinced that the story couldn't be true after all, she tells of the army of the 12 Monkeys for fun . But it is precisely through this answering machine that Dr. Railly's message to the year 2035. The scientists played it to Cole there at the time. When Cole was now Dr. When Railly auditions the exact text of the message, this is definitive proof that Cole's story of his journey through time is true and that the announced pandemic will soon become a reality.

Fatalistically , both surrender to their fate and want to travel one last time to the sea, which Cole has never seen with his own eyes. They get Cole new clothes, wigs, and a fake mustache. The changing takes place in a cinema that is currently showing Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo . On the way to the airport, the two of them stand in a long traffic jam because wild animals are blocking the traffic. You can see what the Army of the 12 Monkeys was all about, namely the liberation of the zoo animals. This group had no intention of spreading viruses. You have been on the wrong track all along.

Upon entering the airport, Cole recognizes the building from his dreams. He calls the answering machine number again and tries to clear up the error with the 12 monkeys . He says that he doesn't want to come back to 2035. A little later, however, he meets one of his cellmates from the year 2035. He hands him a gun and informs him that based on Cole's phone recording, he was sent to kill "the woman" (presumably Dr. Railly). Cole should still carry out his assignment. When he is about to ask who to shoot, Dr. Railly moved away, meanwhile in Dr. Peters, the apparently insane assistant to Jeffrey Goines' father, recognized the real cause of the disaster. Dr. Peters wants to visit all the big cities in the world to set the virus there. Cole tries to stop him, but fails and is shot dead by airport security as he pursues the fanatic with gun drawn. Dr. Meanwhile, Peters has already released the first sample of the virus unnoticed during the inspection and thus irreversibly set the coming catastrophe in motion. Cole dies in the arms of Dr. Railly, watched by young Cole, who now - without knowing it - watches his own future death. Dr. Railly recognizes him and gives him a smile.

When Dr. Peters gets on the plane, next to him is one of the scientists from the future who sent Cole to 1996. She starts a conversation with him and introduces herself as an insurance agent. The film leaves open how the encounter between her and Dr. Peters goes out and for what purpose it is done.

Film music

The sound designer in charge of Twelve Monkeys was Paul Buckmaster .

There are three levels of music. The first is the actual film music composed by Buckmaster, which is predominantly conventional, unspectacular "mood" music. Stylistically, this music level is based on expressionism / neoclassicism of the 1920s to 1950s. The theme of the solo violin creates a leitmotif in the Cole's flashbacks, which finally accompanies Cole's death as an extended elegy.

The second level is formed by the “source” music, which in principle belongs to the ambient noise. So when Cole arrives at the mental hospital, when Jeffrey Goines explains the rules to him, the cartoon sounds of the hospital TV are played and underline the madness of Brad Pitt's over-the-top character in this scene. With “source” music, the futility of Coles and Railley's hope of escape and ultimately also of a love affair is expressed when the corresponding scene in the cinema is accompanied by the music from Hitchcock's “Vertigo” from the cinema speakers instead of “real” film music becomes.

The third level is the title music of the film. It is completely autonomous without reference to content and was chosen intuitively by Gilliam. “Introduction” from Suite Punta del Este by Astor Piazzolla is a tango which, in addition to the title music, is also the leitmotif of the Army of the 12 Monkeys and Jeffrey Goines. This music stands out stylistically and with the timbre of the bandoneon and at first glance appears completely unsuitable to represent the threat that Goines poses. In a sense, she represents Cole's wrong track, on which the viewer is also set.

synchronization

The German-language dubbing of the film was done at Interopa Film GmbH in Berlin. The author of the dialogue book was Theodor Dopheide , who also worked as a dialogue director.

role actor Voice actor
James Cole Bruce Willis Manfred Lehmann
Kathryn Railly, psychiatrist Madeleine Stowe Liane Rudolph
Jeffrey Goines Brad Pitt Tobias Master
Dr. Leland Goines, father of Jeffrey Goines Christopher Plummer Klaus Piontek
Dr. Peters, employee of Dr. Goines David Morse Klaus-Dieter Klebsch
Jose, Cole's cell neighbor in 2035 Jon Seda Michael Iwannek
Homeless person / "The Voice" in 2035 Michael chance Klaus Jepsen
Jones, Insurance Agent / Astrophysicist in 2035 Carol Florence Bettina Schön
Tiny, nurse in the mental hospital Vernon Campbell Raimund Krone

criticism

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

“Staged as a kind of apocalyptic feverish dream full of allusions, but few concrete references. Interest in the labyrinthine story is more stifled than encouraged by the eccentricity of the visual design. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Monumental, almost hypnotic canvas painting. Exciting in the truest sense. "

- Cinema (03/1996)

“As in ' Brazil ' (1985), Terry Gilliam (' Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ' ) develops a disturbing and visually opulent future scenario that magnifies the problems of the present in a fantastic way. For the script, Janet and David Peoples (Oscar nomination for ' Merciless ') were inspired by Chris Marker's short film ' La Jetée ' ('62). "

- TV movie

Awards

Book about the film

In 1995 the paperback edition of "12 Monkeys", written by Elizabeth Hand, was published by Harper Prism in the USA. In Germany, Goldmann Verlag published Regina Winter's translation in 1996.

Television series

The American television broadcaster Syfy commissioned a series adaptation of the film in 2014 , which has been broadcast since January 2015. After SyFy commissioned the production of a pilot in August 2013 , the screenplay of which was written by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett , production began in November 2013. In April 2014, Syfy ordered a twelve-episode first season. Like the film, the series is produced by Universal Television and Atlas Entertainment ; The writers and executive producers are Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett. The lead role in 12 Monkeys takes Aaron Stanford , additional roles of Amanda Schull , Noah Bean and Kirk Acevedo played.

Trivia

  • 12 Monkeys started in German cinemas on March 21, 1996. It was seen by over 2 million viewers, making it 16th among the most popular films in Germany in 1996 (source FFA annual hit lists-1996). Internationally, 12 Monkeys Terry Gilliams is the most successful work to date. The worldwide box office profit was USD 168.8 million. The film was seen by a total of 2,140,180 visitors in Germany.
  • The film was the first DVD to be released on the European market in 1997.
  • While escaping from the asylum, James runs past a security guard who is reading the American magazine Weekly World News . The issue in his hand appeared in the reality June 23, 1992 in the USA and carries the fictional headline " Bat Child found in cave " ( " bat cave discovered in child "). The Bat Boy character was invented by WWN editor Dick Kulpa, and the issue with the headline was the second best-selling in the magazine's history. From the Bat-Boy headline, Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming developed the off-Broadway musical Bat Boy in 1997 .
  • Terry Gilliam, himself a cartoonist, proves himself to be a lover of classic cartoons in some background scenes . The scene in which Bruce Willis first meets Brad Pitt in the insane asylum shows excerpts from three animated films by Tex Avery : Who Killed Who? (1943), Swing Shift Cinderella (1945) and Little Tinker (1948). At the movie scene in the motel, a cartoon with Woody Woodpecker is on TV in the land of the dinosaurs.
  • As part of the film program of the world art exhibition Documenta 12 in 2007, Am Rande des Rollfelds (La Jetée) and Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead were shown together again.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for 12 Monkeys . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2005 (PDF; test number: 74 807 V / DVD / UMD).
  2. ↑ Reputation is everything . Interview by Bert Rebhandl with Terry Gilliam on January 8, 2007. taz.de (accessed February 26, 2008).
  3. ↑ Ulrich Reuter : Twelve Monkeys In: Peter Moormann (Hrsg.): Klassiker der Filmmusik. Reclams Universal Library No. 18621. Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-018621-3 , pp. 283-285
  4. ↑ Synchronous database : 12 Monkeys. In: German synchronous card index . Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on February 25, 2020
  6. ↑ a b [2] at Metacritic , accessed on February 25, 2020
  7. ↑ 12 Monkeys in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ↑ 12 Monkeys. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 3, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ^ Rating of the editorial team of TV Spielfilm .
  10. ↑ Twelve Monkeys. In: Goodreads. Retrieved June 13, 2016 .
  11. ↑ 12 Monkeys. In: Goodreads. Retrieved June 13, 2016 .
  12. ↑ a b Nellie Andreeva: '12 Monkeys' Picked Up To Series At Syfy. In: deadline.com . April 4, 2014, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  13. ^ Lynette Rice: SyFy orders '12 Monkeys' pilot. In: ew.com . August 26, 2013, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  14. ↑ 12 Monkeys on chartsurfer.de, accessed on December 13, 2017.
  15. ↑ Trivia. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved February 25, 2020 .