Eraserhead

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Coming up on the 40th anniversary, so I thought I'd give it a shot. No actually because of my wife's work schedule and the fact that we have 192 dogs, I do not sleep at night anymore, I just skip around various movie channels until morning appears and I pretend to be "awake".

Huh.

Well.

No filmmaker in history evokes "dream state" like Lynch, and it's for the better that it's done without irony. There is no realization waiting at the end that ohhhh it was all a dream state. No, you know that going in. All of his movies are dream states, often lacking shape, form, and certainly narrative. And no, it's not done in the service of some realization at the end that ohh, it was a metaphor for this or that. There is no such relief here. It's gonna be dream-state from start to finish, and you're on your own.

I am glad he exists, and does this. I am also glad nobody else does. One is enough.

Mulholland Drive is my favorite Lynch movie. It still is. But all of the seeds that sprouted in that explosion of brilliance are all here, and more. The "stage performances" in each of the films echo each other, and while MD's version is one of my favorite things ever put to film, the one in this movie is no less memorable.

Anyway. What's it all about? Do I cop out and tell you it's what you make of it? What you think it is? Ehh, better not. I felt it was a nightmarish representation of the bewilderment of the common man. He often has a wife he doesn't recognize, a baby he doesn't know how it got there (figuratively speaking), a feeling of complete unbelonging in his own life.

Could be way off. Perhaps it is what you make of it.

It's certainly not boring. It's certainly fascinating. It certainly has the most uncomfortable, bizarre, hilarious family dinner scene in movie history.

The sound design is beyond brilliant. I'm sure many people consider this the worst movie of all time, but that's not fair, because the sounds, and the atmosphere they create and the horrific environment they create are beyond reproach.

I give this movie four stars. I would (and might) watch it again in a second.

I hold no hope for understanding it any better the second time.

[Flack]

The first time I ever heard of Eraserhead was at a guy's house that I used to trade Commodore 64 games with many years ago. This guy was four or five years older than I was and in the mid-80s I went over to his house and he had two posters in his room, one for the Rocky Horror Picture Show and one for Eraserhead. He showed me VHS bootlegs of both movies, although we did not watch either film. I got the impression that these were both "underground" cult films.

Fast forward to the late 90s. While driving through the city I ran across a movie rental place called D.V.D. (Digital Video Depot). It was one of the first places around here I found that rented DVDs, but they also had VHS tapes. I went in and the place was like an indie movie house. That place was where I discovered Troma films (I had heard of some of the films, but didn't know about Troma, the company). D.V.D. was the first place I remember having an anime section. It was just an odd, quirky little place. I think the first time I went there I rented Suspiria, Zombi, and maybe Sgt. Kabukiman. Anyway, this place also had an Eraserhead poster, and I ended up renting the movie (on VHS) from there. I'm pretty sure I made a copy of it but I don't think I watched all of it. It was just too weird. I didn't get it. I wasn't ready for it.

Fast forward to the mid-00's. I had spent years buying/collecting/hoarding DVDs. My collection had ballooned from a hundred to maybe 500 or 600 original DVDs and over 1,000 DVD-Rs of Netflix-ripped rentals. If it was a throwaway film or something without any extras I would either download it or rent and copy it, but the stuff I really wanted sitting on my shelf, I would buy. When Eraserhead finally came out on DVD I bought it because of its reputation. I still hadn't seen the film in its entirety.

I tried watching the film a couple of times and didn't get very far. It's a weird film, a jarring film, one you have to be in the mood to watch.

I went on a trip for work in 2007 or so. On those trips I would often grab a stack of DVDs to watch in my hotel room. I can't remember what city I was in, or why I was there, or anything else about the trip other than I opened my laptop, popped in Eraserhead, and pressed play.

And, something clicked. It was the combination of a couple of drinks from a hotel bar, the depression of being on the road again, the wisps of cold air blowing in around the window-mounted air conditioner, and occasional knocks and raps on the wall from other people in the hotel... it all just clicked at how utterly depressing life is -- not my life specifically but just life in general, the whole process of going through the motions, of going to a job you may not love or just repeating the same actions day after day. Whatever it was, in that moment, I connected to that film. For 90 minutes I sat glued to the screen. Before tht viewing I had never been able to sink my brain into the film's deeper meaning. Once you get past the literal images on the screen, it's fairly profound.

I spent the next few months digging up everything I could about the film, starting with the extras on the disc including the two hour talk by Lynch about the film.

[youtube][/youtube]

I've tried watching the film a few since then and I find I am never in in the mood or a dark enough place to fully embrace it again.

[pinback]

This has been an excellent thread.

[Flack]

Most of Lynch's work, I feel, you have to be "in the mood" to enjoy. I don't even know that "neutral" is a good enough mental state to start watching one. I started watching Lost Highway once, got lost, and turned it off. I revisited it a few years later and while "loved it" might not be the right word, I at least appreciated it. Someday I'd like to wade into the whole Twin Peaks thing. I haven't seen the film or the TV show yet.

I find most of Lynch's films to be unreviewable. When I used to write a lot of movie reviews my goal was to let readers know if they were going to like a film based on acting and special effects and plot and actors and whatnot. How do you do that with a film that doesn't have a traditional narrative? Eraserhead, Mullholland Drive, Lost Highway... these films are as much what you bring to them as they are about the films. How can you review something that's as much about you as it is about the movie?

For anyone who's never seen Eraserhead, I recommend you wait until around midnight and fix yourself a couple of drinks first -- something depressing; maybe a stiff gin. Then pull your chair as close as you can stand to your giant television, lean forward, and immerse yourself in this bizarre world.

[sara736]

I watched "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" a couple of days ago and that's a rough one to review. In it, a thirteen-year-old Jodie Foster kills her mother, tries to avoid getting raped by the town molester, kills her landlord, and has a nude scene with a 15-year-old boy. Good times. Oh and she kills the molester eventually too.

[Flack]

That's one I reviewed for this year's Halloween movie marathon:

http://www.robohara.com/?p=7307

It's definitely one that haunts you the day after you watch it.

Back to Lynch for a moment -- I recently watched the Twin Peaks movie. I kept waiting for things to make sense. Nothing made sense. It wasn't until after I had watched it that I figured out this was a prequel and a sequel to the television series. I thought it came first! I guess I'll go back and watch the TV show now, hah.

[maria14]

the whole process of going through the motions, of going to a job you may not love or just repeating the same actions day after day. Whatever it was, in that moment, I connected to that film. For 90 minutes I sat glued to the screen. Before tht viewing I had never been able to sink my brain into the film's deeper meaning. Once you get past the literal images on the screen, it's fairly profound. something clicked. It was the combination of a couple of drinks from a hotel bar, the depression of being on the road again, the wisps of cold air blowing in around the window-mounted air conditioner, and occasional knocks and raps on the wall from other people in the hotel... it all just clicked at how utterly depressing life is -- not my life specifically but just life in general,.,,,

[Jizaboz]

Cool movie and all but..

it all just clicked at how utterly depressing life is -- not my life specifically but just life in general,.,,,

Who the fuck really needs a reminder of this shit?

[maria14]

the whole process of going through the motions, of going to a job you may not love or just repeating the same actions day after day. Whatever it was, in that moment, I connected to that film. For 90 minutes I sat glued to the screen. Before tht viewing I had never been able to sink my brain into the film's deeper meaning. Once you get past the literal images on the screen, it's fairly profound. something clicked. It was the combination of a couple of drinks from a hotel bar, the depression of being on the road again, the wisps of cold air blowing in around the window-mounted air conditioner, and occasional knocks and raps on the wall from other people in the hotel... it all just clicked at how utterly depressing life is -- not my life specifically but just life in general,.,,,

[Tdarcos]

Coming up on the 40th anniversary, so I thought I'd give it a shot. No actually because of my wife's work schedule and the fact that we have 192 dogs, I do not sleep at night anymore, I just skip around various movie channels until morning appears and I pretend to be "awake".

Sounds like you don't need to watch a movie called "EraseYourHead," you need to watch one called "EraseYourDogs."

[Flack]

Every now and then there is a response so great that it needs to be posted, even if it's a response to something that was posted 15 months ago.

Yours wasn't that response, but keep trying, dummy.

[Jizaboz]

I'm sorry. I'll try harder next time.

(Surely you don't mean any of the Tdarcos immaculate posts)

[Flack]

I watched Mulholland Drive this morning because, well, you know. I thought I had seen it before it I don't think so and how could you forget. I watched it as part of a double feature this morning with Eraserhead (which I've seen many times) and I think I'll watch Lost Highway after lunch. It's Lynchian Friday.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I hope those fake bot girls are doing well.

[Casual Observer]

I hope those fake bot girls are doing well.

You still getting those? They've found my cell phone and started texting me.

[pinback]

I banged 'em.

[AArdvark]

I read the plot on Wikipedia and this movie sounds wayyyy out there. Would anyone put it on the same metaphorical shelf as Naked Lunch or Natural Born Killers?

THE
SURREAL FEEL
AARDVARK

[AArdvark]

This is all I got, sorry....

[Jizaboz]

Lynch’s old art films were insane. I was a huge Twin Peaks fan. My mom introduced me to it and I missed the last episode because we went to Seaworld until many years later.

To me I could tell lynch was a lucid dreamer and would combine things he learned in the dream world with real life shit. Lots of metaphors too.

In the Fire Walk with Me film one of many favorite parts involved the cc cam and David Bowies character appearing. “He’s not supposed to be here, Agent Cooper!” fucking spine chilling if you are starting to get it.