I watched Mulholland Drive and thought, what the hell? I watched Blue Velvet and thought, boring! I watched Eraserhead and thought, what the goddamn effing hell?
And then I watched this. It was one of the most moving, emotional movies I have ever seen. It reveals the duality of humanity, its evil and its goodness. I've never seen such a remarkable film. It totally restored my faith in David Lynch.
Mulholland Drive deserves a second viewing. I didn't like it at first, either, but once you see it again, it really makes sense. I absolutely LOVE Mulholland Drive!
shareYou should definitely try and watch Blue Velvet again. It is not boring at all! That's actually my favorite Lynch movie.
shareWhile I agree that Elephant Man was incredibly moving, you should give Mullholland and Blue Velvet second tries. Eraserhead...well let's face it, its not for everyone. But the other two were great, especially Blue Velvet, one of his best. I'd even go as far as to say its one of Hopper's best characters. I think my favorite was Lost Highway though, it had that kind of rock n' roll feel that appealed to me.
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You seem to be just justifying liking David Lynch here out of a need to. If you don't like his work that is more accurately Lynchian than maybe he isn't a director for you. I mean this is clearly the Oscar-Bait of Lynch's career not that it isn't worthy for at least Hurt's performance.
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Blue Velvet and Boring are two concepts that don't make any logical sense together. I'm having trouble processing the two ideas in the same sentence without a negative modifier.
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I liked Blue Velvet but you have to admit that it was pretty slow and some people used to constant action may find it boring in comparison.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
" two concepts that don't make any logical sense"
David Lynch makes his movies with dream logic, once you understand that, his films become superb.....
though i must admit, Elephant Man is my favourite of his films
Get off my tractor!!
Elephant Man is extremely Lynchian. Where it differs is not being free-form like most of his other films. Most of the camera work and audio editing is exactly the techniques he used in Eraserhead.
Honestly, it's the stuff that came after this that started to lose his unique approach to cinematography. Free-form or not, Elephant Man feels hundreds of times more Lynchian than Lost Highway or Wild at Heart.
The only film he's done since this that feels like his stamp is on it TBH is Rabbits.
"Elephant Man feels hundreds of times more Lynchian than Lost Highway".
That´s just nonsense. Films like Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr and Inland Empire are what Lynch is about. Elephant Man is largely an ordinary, commercial tearjerker in a period setting, a work for hire. Lynchian touches are there, but kept to minimum.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
You must not be familiar with his early work, then. Or just the general idea of what his cinematographic style was.
You will find none of it in his later works.
Firstly, even if his "early work" were so hugely different from the later output, it´d still be just that - early work that´s merely a prologue of his career, which does not define Lynch as a whole, as we´ve come to know him. Secondly, stuff like Eraserhead as well as Grandmother, Amputee & other early shorts have the same general sense of the abstract and the absurd that characterizes most of his other work, even if there are certain differences in aesthetic approach and what obsessions are more emphacized. It´s an inescapable fact that Elephant Man remains Lynch´s odd movie out, the least Lynchian one of the lot (Dune does offer competition).
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
What were you babbling about?
shareClearly the oscar bait of Lynch's career? LOL it was his second movie! It was made in 1980. That concept barely existed. Dumb comment.
shareThe concept of an Oscar baiting prestige picture has existed for as long as Oscars themselves have. And there's no reason why the director's second movie couldn't be an "Oscar bait" (not necessarily saying it was one in Lynch's case).
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan
After having seen The Elephant Man -- which completes my David Lynch film journey -- I must say his 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet remains his greatest achievement.
The truth is most people have a hard time accepting Lynch's work, but once in a while you'll find that almost anyone can appreciate at least one of his films. In my honest opinion, the majority of his films are masterpieces in their own right and few of them happen to be some of the greatest contributions to cinema.
The Elephant Man is David Lynch's most accessible film, and because of that I feel it's one of the main reasons the film was nominated by the ACADEMY - a place where the name "David Lynch" doesn't fit.
If Lynch had a different style and approach to film-making, I bet more people would recognized him as one phenomenal film-maker.
I think almost all of Lynch's movies are masterpieces. This is his most accessible (along with "The Straight Story") but that doesn't take anything away from it. While I do prefer his utterly bizarre work ("Lost Highway" being a favorite) this is a perfect film, too.
Abby: "Olivia, something terrible has happened."
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I know what you mean.
I've been trying to get into Lynch for a while. It started a while back when my mom started to encourage me to look into Cronenberg (leading me to go see Cosmopolis). Somehow I kept getting him and Lynch confused (it doesn't help that they're both named David and specialize in making weird movies) so I started looking into both. Unfortunately, both are very elusive, and out of Cronenberg I've only been able to get The Fly and Videodrome.
Looking into Lynch was even more difficult. The two I spent most of my time trying to find were The Elephant Man and Eraserhead, as I was under the impression that those were his big ones, and I haven't been able to find either one anywhere. I ended up having to watch The Elephant Man on iTunes for a school project, but it was worth it.
The first Lynch film I actually found was Mulholland Drive, which I bought. I remember putting it on expecting it to be a straight forward noir-ish mystery about a woman trying to figure out who the heck she was. An hour in and I still had no idea what was going on, and next thing I knew, lesbian sex and mind-boggling weirdness was suddenly being thrown at me. I wasn't sure what to think.
Still, for some weird reason, I ended up at HMV again that week, and I suddenly felt hungry for more. I found a copy of Blue Velvet and next thing I knew I was thinking to myself "One way or another I am getting that movie and there is no way I'm walking out of this mall without it". I did, and I watched it, and it wasn't quite as weird as I expected. From the description I'd personally expected almost an Eyes Wide Shut-type of story, about a guy getting caught up in some really weird mind-boggling stuff (think something along the lines of the cult scene from that movie), so you can imagine I was a bit surprised by the whole "gas-addicted, sex-crazed Dennis Hopper" thing the movie had going on, but it was still a pretty decent movie and I really couldn't see much fault in it.
I finally saw this movie a few days ago, and I gotta admit I was rather surprised. A Lynch film that isn't totally weird? Okay, sure it's not the only one of his films to have a comprehensible plot (Blue Velvet and The Straight Story being other such examples), but it was surprisingly easy to follow for the most part, even with the handful of bizarre moments (the surrealist dream sequences for instance, as well as the opening and closing scenes).
I did recently strike it rich and find copies of Lost Highway and Inland Empire, so hopefully I'll get around to seeing those eventually. I might even watch one tonight (I'm still recovering from watching John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy last night, as in the entire thing back to back).
If Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris got into a fight, Clint Eastwood would probably win.
I would categorize this with Lynch's The Straight Story, which was another heartwarming film he made. Both films had their darkness moments and peculiarities that were typical of Lynch, but very good. And yes, even a technically strong man like myself was sad at the end of both movies
As the last poster noted, I guess we've come a long way. The Elephant Man was an easily accessible movie in the 1980's and shown frequently on HBO or at your local video store, but seeing Eraserhead was a HUGE challenge back then. It had never been on TV. And video copies of the movie were extremely rare (only place I found it at was a record store at "The Drag" in Austin, Texas) and I was lucky enough to get a used VHS of it at an out of the way video store about 1986. Nowadays, just go to youtube or Netflix and BOOM, you're there!
I'm with ya on Blue Velvet. Waaaaay overrated.
But Mulholland Drive is one of my absolute favorites.
Eraserhead is a trip. Not so much a movie as it is an experiment in absurdity.
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Please OP, I beg you to go back and watch Eraserhead again. It was the first film of Lynch I saw nearly 30 years ago and it instantly became my favourite film of all time. Every film he has made since makes references to this some way or other, and all (with the exception of Inland Empire) is more conventional to some degree or other too. It genuinely broke new ground in the way it fused various genres to create a completely new one e.g. how many horror films (which this was classed as at the time) contain so much humour (unless we think of the Hammer Horror films (although I'm not sure how much of the humour in those comes from how kitsch and ridiculous they look now). Many people, including critics and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Gasper Noe put this film in their top 10 of all time. How many other directors can say that their debut film launched a new type of cinema? But mainly watch it for the black humour and the most original soundtrack ever as it also basically created the musical genre know as industrial. How many directors can also claim that as well? Proof David Lynch isn't insane lies here with Eraserhead. In fact, it's proof he's the greatest living director and he proved it with his debut film.
shareProof David Lynch Isn't Insane
this can be said about ANYTHING. A creative mind will transform a piece of paper to something amazing, and have fun watching blank screen for 20 mins or observing malevich's square. Doesn't mean jack.
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