Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

12 Monkeys Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 20, 2018

It’s almost amusing in a way to hear Terry Gilliam biographer Ian Christie refer in a supplement on this Blu-ray to 12 Monkeys as one of Gilliam’s “most normal” films. That of course is a relative statement, and given Gilliam’s penchant for stylistic hyperbole, perhaps one that is best accepted with a grain (or two) of salt. As I mentioned in the relatively recent Tideland Blu-ray review, Gilliam’s excesses are often so pervasive that emotion can sometimes get buried, but it’s interesting to note that for whatever intellectual consternations 12 Monkeys may engender (and there are plenty, at least in my personal estimation), this is one Gilliam film that really seems to speak as directly to the heart as it does to the head. That may be at least in part due to the fact that the film is so intentionally discursive, especially in its first hour or so, that many viewers’ logical minds will have been almost automatically short circuited by the odd, disjunctive and deliberately askew way the story unfolds. 12 Monkeys received a Blu-ray release by Universal back in the relatively early days of the high definition format, but Arrow is back now with a new version that includes a couple of the supplements Universal’s release had, along with some new “goodies” to entice consumers on the fence.

For those needing a detailed map of the labyrinthine ins and outs of 12 Monkeys' often incredibly dense plot, I happily refer to you the 12 Monkeys Blu-ray review my colleague Ken Brown provided for the now long ago Universal Blu-ray release. The bulk of the rest of this review will focus on audio and visual quality, along with the supplemental material Arrow is including with this release.

12 Monkeys Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

12 Monkeys is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

Twelve Monkeys was exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with stereo and 5.1 sound. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director at EFilm, Burbank. The film was graded and restored at Silver Salt Restoration, London. Grading was supervised and approved by Terry Gilliam. The stereo and 5.1 mixes were remasterd by NBC Universal.

Ken wasn't overly excited about the video presentation of the old Universal release, but I highly recommend those interested read Ken's 12 Monkeys Blu-ray review for some cogent comments on Gilliam's stylistic choices, which include everything from diffusion filters to high contrast along with other "bells and whistles", all of which can add to a perception of softness or lack of detail, even if the transfer is "accurate". While Arrow's verbiage above kind of oddly lacks their usual boilerplate "thousands of instances of dirt, debris and other damage were removed" (etc., etc.), one of the biggest differences some fans of the film will notice with this new presentation is the near absence of the kind of pervasive (if minor) damage Ken noted in his review of the Universal version. I also noticed no edge enhancement, another bugaboo that Ken found problematic in the Universal version. As I typically try to do when I review a re- release, I've tried to come close to aping at least a few of the screenshots in Ken's review so that those interested can do a side by side comparison. To my eyes the Arrow version looks just slightly darker than the Universal version, though high contrast moments like those seen in screenshot 2 of this review and screenshot 18 of Ken's review understandably don't reveal this difference quite as much. Still, even in the high contrast sequences and throughout the rest of the presentation, the grain field in the Arrow version is arguably a bit more noticeable, and (again to my eyes) generally a bit more finely resolved than on the Universal version, though compression here can still occasionally be just a bit wobbly at times. There are still some at times wide variabilities in clarity and detail levels, but my perception is that all of these are source related, and that many if not all of them are due to Gilliam's "futzing" with filming techniques. Those expecting "razor sharp" levels of detail are probably going to be at least partially let down by this presentation, but in my estimation it pretty easily tops the Universal release in virtually every area we try to assess in these reviews.

12 Monkeys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The addition of a stereo track may or may not be welcomed by some fans of the film, but the LPCM 2.0 audio on this release is at times interestingly divergent from the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, at least in terms of some of the prioritization of dialogue, which is arguably more consistently forward in the mix in the stereo version. The surround track sounded to my ears largely similar if not absolutely identical to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the Universal release. There's still the occasionally intermittent engagement of the surround channels that Ken alludes to in his review, but there's the same forceful LFE and at times nice placement of effects and score in the side and rear channels. As Ken mentioned in his review, there are some odd "Gilliam-esque" mixing choices in the surround track, where seemingly important elements like dialogue are at least slightly buried in the cacophony of other effects this typically (for Gilliam) soundtrack offers.

12 Monkeys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: Supplements listed below with an asterisk (*) were previously released on the Universal Blu-ray release of this title, and some more information on them can be gleaned from the 12 Monkeys Blu-ray review by my colleague Ken Brown.

• *Commentary by Terry Gilliam and Charles Roven


• *The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys (1080p; 1:27:34) is a great archival piece by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe which documents the production of the film and includes a ton of fascinating behind the scenes material.


• The Film Exchange with Terry Gilliam (1080i; 23:50) is an engaging interview of Gilliam conducted by Jonathan Romney at the 1996 London Film Festival.


• Appreciation by Ian Christie (1080p; 16:11) offers the thoughts of Christie, who wrote Gilliam on Gilliam.


• Twelve Monkeys Archive (1080p; 39:32) is an image gallery.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:26)

Arrow's typically well done insert booklet is even more impressive than usual, a good deal thicker than they can be at times, with some good writing (including more by Ian Christie).

12 Monkeys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As I've mentioned in other reviews of Gilliam films I've personally written, I tend to be a huge fan of Gilliam even when I'm kind of rolling my eyes (and/or ears, if ears can be rolled) at some of his stylistic excesses. Ken gave 12 Monkeys a sterling 5.0 as a film, but even as a diehard (hey, Willis is in this, isn't he?) fan of 12 Monkeys, I'm still not sure it's an unqualified masterpiece. That said, it comes pretty darned close a lot of the time, and Arrow has once again stepped up to the plate and provided a release with solid technical merits and some appealing supplements. Highly recommended.