Wild At Heart (help a Lynch virgin out)

[Never_Scurred]

After years of ducking and dodging the work of David Lynch (with the exception of Dune and the Wild Palms series), I gave the Wild At Heart dvd a spin. Some years ago, an ex gave it to me, but until this afternoon, I never bothered to even take it out of the shrinkwrap. Well....i'm glad I did.
I remember hearing about this movie when I was younger, but I never bothered with it cause I was is the midst of my kungfu/HK bullet ballet/japanime phase and I could not stand anything with Nicholas Cage in it not called Raising Arizona. Furthermore, even though i've heard people wax poetically about David's talent as a director, i've never felt motivated to give his stuff a try.
As for Wild At Heart, man, this flick is crazier than I thought. I mean, any movie that opens like this one did is bound to be good. I'm especially loving the over-the-top musical cues, the dialogue (particularly whenever someone asks Sailor about his jacket, somehow its pretty funny when I hear it), and the randon, yet mundane weirdness throughout. Its as if he just puts all these little strange touches everywhere and treats them as if they aren't there. Are all of Lynch's films like this?
Someone pop my cherry and put me on to some of his essential work. I'm at work right now and I haven't finished WAH yet (i'm at the part where Sailor and his girl are introduced to that crazy old man who talks about his dog), does it get better from there?

[szycag]

You haven't gotten to the best line in that movie yet.
Wild at Heart wasn't one of my favorites by him though. Nearly all of the David Lynch films go nowhere as far as logic is concerned; in the ones I like at least, it gets scary and macabre trying to put together the images you are presented. Wild at Heart seems more like David Lynch's take on Americana or something, some kind of road movie, and it's more just peculiar and weird than any of that. It was based on some romance novel that I haven't read as well.

I was going to put these in a numbered list and rate them but I'll just list them off with the more important stuff to know about them. Here are what I consider his best films:
Eraserhead (His first film, B&W, done while he was a student. Got him a lot of attention, George Lucas wanted him to direct Return of the Jedi after seeing this? Which I still can't believe, but I've read that multiple places. + OMG the Alien Baby. You could definitely start here.)
Blue Velvet (Dennis Hopper is a fucking crazy pervert, this one is pretty watchable for most people but still really disturbing, I'd recommend it to most people if they've only seen Twin Peaks)
Mulholland Drive (This film is just beautiful, for the longest time it was my favorite. Even if you hate it, there's lesbian sex with the two stars so you can claim you watched it for that. I could say start here first, but Eraserhead is just as good.)
Inland Empire (Came right after Mulholland Drive, shot straight to Digital Video instead of film, is also primarily about acting like Mulholland was. Is THREE HOURS long. This movie is fucked the fuck up, trying to watch any of his films after this one would be like playing the first DonPachi after playing Futari Ultra, there's just no coming back. If you ever wanted to feel like you were losing your fucking mind, this. I suppose it's my favorite now, but it just goes so over the deep end.)

_________
Some other stuff:
Elephant Man: (This is a good film although not indicative of where Lynch would go once he became known for his style nowadays. Still it's a great movie which nodded a lot to the cinematography of Citizen Kane. When people call him a hack you can point at this movie and be like well he's obviously very talented he just wants to do his own thing ultimately)
The Straight Story: (Lynch makes a family picture about some guy who rides a lawnmower for like 500 miles or something to go see his friend, based on a true story I think. Got a lot of critical acclaim but it's mostly a picture about getting old. Worth seeing but I don't know if I can recommend it. I was too ADD to take in a lot of the slow dialogue.)
Lost Highway: (Awesome soundtrack! But this one didn't really grab me like others. Mulholland Drive seemed like a more approachable study of disembodied personality conflicts. Been meaning to watch it again, maybe with one of those "guides" so I know what's going on.)

There's some other stuff I'm forgetting maybe, if you want just ask about it.

Also Wild Palms isn't Lynch. Lynch did Twin Peaks though, which influenced that show a lot (says Wikipedia, I had never heard of it. Now I want to see it.)

[CMoon]

Lynch was my first introduction to experimental film. I think Wild at Heart is actually my favorite--captures a lot of what Lynch is really good at without being as indulgent as some of his other works. Hard to say a film that involves beating a guy's head open, and blasting another's off with a shot gun is somehow less heavy than some of his other works, but all in all it's the film I can come back to regularly and still enjoy it.

Don't forget Twin Peaks by the way. I think that series ruined Blue Velvet for me, since Blue Velvet is very much the same idea but I think carried out to less success. That said, Twin Peaks definitely gets way out of control. Once Lynch left the production in other peoples' hands they did everything they could to turn it into terrible TV schlock, but Lynch reappears now and then and does wonderful things for the program. Not for everyone, but definitely some of my favorite Lynch moments spread throughout the 30 some hours of the series.

[Never_Scurred]

I thought he was involved with Wild Palms . My work network won't connect to imdb so i'll have to wait 'til I get home to check.

You know what?
Now that I think about it, is it safe to say that Natural Born Killers and True Romance took some influence from Wild At Heart?
Watching the first half of WAH, I kept thinking to myself, "hmm, this scene feels awfully familiar."
Then again, knowing QT, I would not be surprised if that was indeed the case.

As far as Twin Peaks is concerned, i'm gonna have to go and dig up the series when I have some time. Is it really worth all the hype? I recall people gushing over this show when it was on the air back in the day. Then again, I was a shorty so all that stuff was well over my head. Right now, I have Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive in my queue.

Also, what do you think of Lynch's take on Dune? Considering his style, was his interpretation expected?

[szycag]

Lynch kinda disowned Dune because he didn't get final cut on it. I couldn't finish it because I could just see how they were busting his balls when he was trying to do his own thing with it. I think I want to read the book before I ever try to watch that all the way through anyways. Yes, I haven't read Dune. I bought the book as well. I will do this very soon.

Wild at Heart is a good film, and I should probably watch it again. I thought about it more, and there was some great stuff in there. I wasn't totally dissing it. My favorite scene is the one with Crispin Glover making sandwiches in the middle of the night and they're all disproportionate and just a huge mess. For me personally, with those four I listed, I like them because they are all these fully realized cinematic nightmares full of dream logic. Wild at Heart is more of just a fever dream, but still a good ride.

[Joe T.]

Like Szycag said, I'd definitely check out Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Inland Empire.

Personally, Blue Velvet is my favorite. It might be a bit of middle ground between Lynch's more commercial stuff and movies like Eraserhead. However, it's still pretty bizarre and at times hilarious. Laura Dern looks really hot in it too.

As far as Dune goes, I still really enjoyed it despite it's flaws and controversy. The Harkonnens were great.

[CMoon]

As far as Twin Peaks is concerned, i'm gonna have to go and dig up the series when I have some time. Is it really worth all the hype?

Calling TP hyped now seems strange to me. That's a very small minority of people praising it to high heaven. Most people gave up on the program.

Basically season 1 was very highly praised because it was all under tight control by Lynch. Season two is super-inconsistent with some of the best stuff but also points you want to throw your remote control at the TV. Three serious problems kept cropping up: 1) Lynch was not in direct control of a lot of the episodes, 2) meaningless plot-lines for all the characters had to be created to give the actors air-time and 3) the writers basically improved a good chunk of it. While season 1 had had a pretty nice mix of drama and weirdness, season 2 tended to veer out of control every episode with some being complete TV crap and others being far too weird for what the broadcasters wanted. It lost a ton of followship and was quickly cancelled, but not before Lynch pulled off a two hour conclusion as dark and surreal as Eraserhead.

Really, the show is something of a mess. Either you become a fan of it and endure and/or skip the really bad stuff (most notably the James subplot in season 2--although there are other massive offenders), or you'll probably be disappointed. Regardless, some of Lynch's best work is in here, and I dearly love a lot of what went well for the show, but I can understand people wanting to avoid it.

Fortunately it's out in a single DVD box...maybe you can watch it on netflix?

There's also a movie (Fire Walk With Me), which attempted to wrap up some of the loose ends (even though it is a prequel.) Unfortunately it misses the mark a bit and just ends up being rather slow moving and heavy (like Lost Highway.)

[szycag]

I still haven't braved through Season 2. I even watched Fire Walk with Me before finishing all of the show properly... I thought that was the "conclusion" you were talking about initially. At least the first one or two Season 2 episodes are great, I love the Tall Man visitor. From there it gets kinda silly, like that kid from the meals on wheels or whatever who has Laura's diary... I kinda lost interest there. I've got some time now, I should just watch the show to the end... I didn't realize Lynch had any big moments after the first season and the pilot.

CMoon have you ever listened to "Substrata" by Biosphere? It samples the tall man as well as Major Briggs' big monologue to his son. One of the best ambient music albums out there, but I didn't realize it sampled the show until I started watching some Season 2.

By the way, I don't know if they've been edited in any way or not but you can watch Twin Peaks on cbs.com for free, if you're into sitting at your computer to watch stuff. The only thing is you should watch the pilot first, which had a totally different licensing agreement than the rest of the show, so it's not on cbs.com. Since it's mostly a bunch of legal yellow tape surrounding it anyways, I wouldn't feel too bad doing the arr-matey for it. DON'T get the European pilot though, which was edited to be it's own standalone piece, I guess if the show didn't take off or something, anyways it reveals some things obviously since it wraps up the story so don't watch it.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Another 1990s art film to check out is "The Doom Generation". Pretty trippy with all the subliminal $6.66 references shoiwn throughout the film. Film director Gregg Araki of the TDG film gave actress Rose McGowan her first starring role with this particular film. The longer uncut & unrated version of TDG is the one to watch (compared to the shorter {and tamer} rated R version of the same name which runs for a mere hour and fifteen minutes tops).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[louisg]

Mulholland Drive and the first season of Twin Peaks are good

[szycag]

ahahahaha this dude said the doom generation
is that the movie with skinny puppy in it?
AHAHAHAHAHA

[Never_Scurred]

Another 1990s art film to check out is "The Doom Generation". Pretty trippy with all the subliminal $6.66 references shoiwn throughout the film. Film director Gregg Araki of the TDG film gave actress Rose McGowan her first starring role with this particular film. The longer uncut & unrated version of TDG is the one to watch (compared to the shorter {and tamer} rated R version of the same name which runs for a mere hour and fifteen minutes tops).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I've already got it in my collection. Cool movie for its time (back in my "shock value", anti-hollywood, indie movie geek days), but virtually unwatchable nowadays. I do adore Araki's other films, Nowhere (its on my top ten favorite films of all time list) and Mysterious Skin. His other work, I can't stand.

ahahahaha this dude said the doom generation
is that the movie with the dude eating his own wank sauce in it?
AHAHAHAHAHA

[Never_Scurred]

By the way, I don't know if they've been edited in any way or not but you can watch Twin Peaks on cbs.com for free, if you're into sitting at your computer to watch stuff. The only thing is you should watch the pilot first, which had a totally different licensing agreement than the rest of the show, so it's not on cbs.com. Since it's mostly a bunch of legal yellow tape surrounding it anyways, I wouldn't feel too bad doing the arr-matey for it. DON'T get the European pilot though, which was edited to be it's own standalone piece, I guess if the show didn't take off or something, anyways it reveals some things obviously since it wraps up the story so don't watch it.

Thanks for the tips, bruh. Much appreciated.

[CMoon]

I still haven't braved through Season 2. I even watched Fire Walk with Me before finishing all of the show properly... I thought that was the "conclusion" you were talking about initially. At least the first one or two Season 2 episodes are great, I love the Tall Man visitor. From there it gets kinda silly, like that kid from the meals on wheels or whatever who has Laura's diary... I kinda lost interest there. I've got some time now, I should just watch the show to the end... I didn't realize Lynch had any big moments after the first season and the pilot.

Just a few things about season 2 (and TP in general):

You figure out right away (at least I did) which characters always have go-nowhere plots. For instance, outside of the first 3 episodes or so (of season 1!) there is no storyline with James or Shelly that is important. The shut-in with the diary plot is another example of this. Absolute waste of time. Every plot with Nadine is a waste of time. There are a few other characters, but if I could make a TP edit removing most of their plotlines, the show would be dramatically improved.

I agree there are too many stupid/silly tv antics in season 2, however: The conclusion of the first story arc (and the episodes leading up to it) are some of the best in the series. The plot that runs through the second half of season 2 with Ben Horne is really great. Some of the best moments with Major Briggs and Bobby are also in season 2--and they're more or less priceless. The build up and confrontation of 'evil' via the black lodge is very cool. Yes, Lynch tries to capture some of this in FWWM, but it isn't as effective.

As said above, the show desperately needs to be abridged--and I mean hours would end up being edited out of it. There are huge amounts of throw-away plotlines, but IMO some of the parts that work are among Lynch's best.

[CMoon]

CMoon have you ever listened to "Substrata" by Biosphere?

No I haven't, but I've heard several bands try to pick up on the Twin Peaks vibe. Stars of the Lid had an album dedicated to TP and it definitely had some of that mood.

[Skykid]

I don't think Wild at Heart is one of Lynch's best. I'm big on Blue Velvet and the Elephant Man (and of course Twin Peaks.

I could not stand anything with Nicholas Cage in it not called Raising Arizona.

I still feel the same way.

[antron]

As said above, the show desperately needs to be abridged--and I mean hours would end up being edited out of it. There are huge amounts of throw-away plotlines, but IMO some of the parts that work are among Lynch's best.

I don't think he directed much of season 2.

from IMDB:

Series Directed by
David Lynch (6 episodes, 1990-1991)
Lesli Linka Glatter (4 episodes, 1990-1991)
Caleb Deschanel (3 episodes, 1990-1991)
Duwayne Dunham (3 episodes, 1990-1991)
Tim Hunter (3 episodes, 1990-1991)
Todd Holland (2 episodes, 1990-1991)
Tina Rathborne (2 episodes, 1990)

edit, I see you already pointed this out in your first post

Another vote for Blue Velvet. Think Agent Cooper in High School.

[Koa Zo]

I'm a big fan of the Straight Story.
I find it amazing that Disney financed Lynch to do a film for them!
The film really shows the beauty of Iowa. Definitely a slow pace (that of a riding lawn mower) but a dreamy film that touched my heart.

It might be worth mentioning that David Lynch may have been a mentor to Eli Roth while filming Cabin Fever. I don't know his exact involvement though.

[Joe T.]

Speaking of David Lynch. As you may know he's really into transcendental meditation. You know who else is? Walter Day. In fact, Lynch recently held a T.M. conference in Fairfield, Iowa: Home of Twin Galaxies (and the Maharishi School of Enlightenment). Coincidence?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I recall watching David Lynch's 1984 Dune film on the big screen. The lady at the ticket booth gave me one of those Dune film term glossary papers since it was quite complex if you hadn't read the book prior to watching the film. The incredible details on the stage sets, the lavish costumes, and props are insane...so much eye candy that the camera wouldn't capture on film anyways.

Yeah, Laura Dern was hot in that Wild At Heart film indeed portrayed as a platinum blond. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[antron]

I recall watching David Lynch's 1984 Dune film on the big screen. The lady at the ticket booth gave me one of those Dune film term glossary papers since it was quite complex if you hadn't read the book prior to watching the film. The incredible details on the stage sets, the lavish costumes, and props are insane...so much eye candy that the camera wouldn't capture on film anyways.

so why the F$%& did it RAIN at the end!? has anyone seen the Alan Smithee cut? does it rain in it?

[Never_Scurred]

I recall watching David Lynch's 1984 Dune film on the big screen. The lady at the ticket booth gave me one of those Dune film term glossary papers since it was quite complex if you hadn't read the book prior to watching the film. The incredible details on the stage sets, the lavish costumes, and props are insane...so much eye candy that the camera wouldn't capture on film anyways.

so why the F$%& did it RAIN at the end!? has anyone seen the Alan Smithee cut? does it rain in it?

I don't remember any rain (well, I haven't seen Dune in years, and even then, making to the end took multiple attempts)

[antron]

I recall watching David Lynch's 1984 Dune film on the big screen. The lady at the ticket booth gave me one of those Dune film term glossary papers since it was quite complex if you hadn't read the book prior to watching the film. The incredible details on the stage sets, the lavish costumes, and props are insane...so much eye candy that the camera wouldn't capture on film anyways.

so why the F$%& did it RAIN at the end!? has anyone seen the Alan Smithee cut? does it rain in it?

I don't remember any rain (well, I haven't seen Dune in years, and even then, making to the end took multiple attempts)

it did, and according to the book that is exactly what you don't want to happen. water is poison to the worms.

and has anyone watched Rabbits? WTF

[Never_Scurred]

Okay, finished Wild At Heart.
This movie kicked fucking ass, though the ending kinda let me down.
Why didn't y'all warn me about Willem Dafoe's ol' crazy ass?

On to Blue Velvet........

[CMoon]

I don't think he directed much of season 2.

Well, keep in mind that season 2 has three times as many episodes as season 1. Virtually all of the good ones (which amount to more than season 1) have Lynch on the set and involved in the production in some way. Given he actually shows up as a character in some of those episodes should make it pretty apparent. I don't know if he is always listed as director.

Man, I think I am the only one who does not dig Blue Velvet; I consider it just OK. I think if I saw it before Twin Peaks I might feel different, but really believe everything done well in BV is done better in TP, but that's just my humble opinion. Certainly room for both; just not a film I'd recommend first unless you're looking for a very accessible first film.

[professor ganson]

I saw Wild at Heart in the theater when it came out, back in college, and it was a pretty intense experience, but I loved it. My favorites, by far, are Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks. These are some of my very favorites all-time.

[CMoon]

My dog barks some.

[MX7]

Another 1990s art film to check out is "The Doom Generation". Pretty trippy with all the subliminal $6.66 references shoiwn throughout the film. Film director Gregg Araki of the TDG film gave actress Rose McGowan her first starring role with this particular film. The longer uncut & unrated version of TDG is the one to watch (compared to the shorter {and tamer} rated R version of the same name which runs for a mere hour and fifteen minutes tops).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I adore this film, and Araki films in general. Probably the only film to rival Godard's Week End in terms of pure cerebral celluloid nihilism.

[Enhasa]

Wild at Heart is really good, but I like most of Lynch's other stuff more. His short films are great too. Ranking his films for no reason:

Inland Empire
Mulholland Drive
The Straight Story (highly underrated)
The Elephant Man
Eraserhead
Lost Highway
Wild at Heart
Blue Velvet
Dune
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me


I like em all besides the last two I guess. And it's not really that I think it sucks, just I don't really like it. Dune is the most unfaithful shit ever, which is creative and nice except I think Dune (the whole series until Frank Herbert's death, not just the first book) deserves better. (Not the miniseries either, that mostly blew.) Why couldn't Lynch have gotten LOTR to fuck around with or some boring shit like that?

[szycag]

even if you don't like Lynch watch this. this is one of his few comedy pieces, heh. jean luc godard was one of the writers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWcKJKf0FRQ