Eraserhead (1977)

"Bleakly Bizarre"

This is not so much a story, as it is a celluloid experience. As an artist who is well versed in surrealism, I find it fascinating to watch. I first saw it on Much Music or MTV years ago, when it became a mainstay of Halloween Week films they ran. I am entranced by the images and camera angles, film contrasts, lighting, etc., not sitting there with a wet hanky following the sad story line. Would a sweet and sentimental story, filmed this way have been as effective? Of course not. It requires total wierdness from all aspects. Would Salvador Dali's work have been as effective with pancakes and whipped cream, banana splits and teddy bears floating about? Of course not. It is a masterpiece of horrific bizarreness, shot in such a way as to emphasize the negative. Another artist's movie--maybe not for mainstream. September 24, 2008

Bizarre and ugly

Not an easy movie to review. There's definitely symbolism here and, as most other Lynch films, it makes sense, even if only on some deeply subconscious level. Was it an interesting ride? Yes. But did I enjoy it? No. I didn't enjoy it not because I didn't "get it". I didn't enjoy it for the same reason I wouldn't enjoy looking at a car crash, or at a dead body in the morgue. Yes, I may stop and stare, just like scores of others, gripped by morbid fascination and compelled by my illogical, contradictory human nature. But I would not enjoy it. Some may say that movies this dark and disturbing are not to be enjoyed - and I will respectfully disagree. Shindler's List wasn't enjoyable to watch either; the enjoyment came not from the visual, but from the emotional fullfilment that the film brings the viewer. If you want a more relevant comparison, I would say see "City of Lost Children" - while it's also Bizarre with a capital B, there are nevertheless an original and imaginative plot, a rich world, and intriguing characters. There was none of the above in Eraserhead - at least, not in the traditional sense. If you want to see social commentary, deeper underlying meaning, and/or startling revelations, you probably will. But it's more possible that you'll see Eraserhead as nothing more than a collection of bizzare, disturbing, ugly images and sounds compiled to confuse and perturb the viewer. You might peruse the Internet to find frame by frame "guides" to this film - and that, to me, is an indication that no matter how original, Eraserhead is not true art. Hide it away and bring it back out a couple hundred years from now, and no one is going to understand it. True art does not need manuals or explanations, it speaks for itself. It survives the test of time. Eraserhead is not art; it is more like a nightmare - you know it's trying to tell you something, but you don't understand a thing, and you can't wait for it to end. July 27, 2008

Eraserhead - short review behind a million others

This should be very short, as most of the other reviewers have captured bits and pieces of this film's effect on watchers. I'm very glad to see many likening this to a dream sequence or experience. THAT is what I want to convey to anyone with a question about what it's like to watch it. Every time I sit through this movie, I end up feeling like I just woke from a nightmare... not just metaphorically, but like I am lying in bed and just awoke and was having a dream I didn't want to stay in, but didn't want to leave, either.

Another fan at my workplace will often come up to me and say "What ya know, Henry?"...

Don't show this to small children! June 13, 2008

"In Heaven Everything Is Fine."

This movie is what "WTF?" was invented for. When I first saw this film 25 years ago I was at the age and stage of my life in which I was willing to romanticize something just because it was odd. Someone might take a dump on fine dinnerware and I'd be inclined to consider it "edgy" or "Freudio-sculpturally brilliant." I don't have that kind of energy any longer and I see the world differently.

So it was with interest and forty-eight year old eyes and ears that I sat through my second viewing of Lynch's most famous art film.

And I liked it very much.

I still don't understand the movie (and I think people work too hard trying to impose meaning upon it), but it kept my interest and I loved Lynch's use of black and white, light, nightmare noises, dialogue. . . everything. This is the Twilight Zone on 'shrooms, a sort of "Lynch's Inferno" with an odd protagonist named Henry. Well, "protagonist" is too strong a word. More like a subject-victim moving through the sad experiment of his own existence, an experiment in which no one's in charge and everything is grinding to some sort of unknowable, nothingesqe end. Mr. X is an oddity; a little spash of congenial personality with his own quirks in an otherwise dark gray world. "The Woman Across The Hall" seemed to represent that which might remove us or distract us from our responsibilities/duties/things that bind us (the baby). Who knows? Oh, and this film might very well put people off on the whole "having kids" thing.

I may even watch it again sometime, if I live long enough. May 28, 2008

A shocking film you'll never be able to erase from your memory...

Shortly after finishing `Eraserhead' I told my wife that I feel like a different person. The film, strange as it is, is one of the most incredibly complete films I have ever seen. It is truly a film about vision and mood and director David Lynch creates the perfect mood for his fantastic vision. There is so much debate about the meaning of this film and I think that is what will essentially immortalize the film as one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever filmed. David Lynch has stated that he has yet to read an interpretation of the film that matches his thoughts upon penning it (he even claims that he cannot remember writing the script) and I feel that he will take the films meaning to his grave. I personally hope he does, for if I knew what to think of this movie then maybe I'd stop thinking about it. The mere fact that I have no idea what this movie is meant to mean moves me to consider it over and over and over again.

The film, shot in vignettes of strange dream sequences and nightmarish realities, follows Henry Spencer (I just love the hair) as he embarks on fatherhood. You see Henry and his girlfriend Mary haven't spoken in some time. He wrongly draws the conclusion that she has severed things with him when in actuality she has been giving birth to their child. She breaks this news to him over dinner with her eccentric parents. Forced to marry her, Henry soon finds his apartment filled with the dreadful screams of their new baby who just so happens to be a reptilian monster. When Mary cannot take the stress of motherhood she returns to her parent's home, leaving Henry to care for the creature alone.

This is really the best way to describe the plot, although the film veers off into Henry's head to create subplots and storylines that deserve our examination. There is the strangely deformed woman who lives in the radiator who sings to Henry and appears to bring him some comfort. There is the beautiful woman who lives across the hall who apparently has feelings for Henry and eventually works her way into his bedroom. There is the `Man in the Planet' and the repeated appearance of umbilical cords that all lead me to my personal conclusion of the films message.

David Lynch has claimed that this film is about all the fears and anxieties he faced in Philadelphia while attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In all honestly this helps boast my interpretation. I feel that `Eraserhead' is Lynch's answer to mans ingrown fear of commitment. Henry would rather consider his relationship over than pick up the phone and call Mary. The depiction of the baby as a monster seems to draw on mans fear of fatherhood; the biggest and most important commitment one can make. There is a scene where the lady in the radiator, while singing and dancing, squashes falling umbilical cords with her feet, to me symbolizing the need for man to sever the cord and be independent and free. The advances of the beautiful neighbor also impress mans desire for freedom, casting aside the restraints of marriage for a fling. The man in the planet could serve to represent many things, but looking at his appearance and demeanor I lean towards the idea that this man represents mans disinterest in physical labor; work. Henry himself is on vacation from his own job as a printer.

Then again, I firmly believe that this interpretation is wrong; it cannot be this simple.

There is a pivotal scene within `Eraserhead' where Henry's head is used to create eraserheads for pencils. This scene is obviously where the films name is derived from, but it is also the scene that baffles me the most. It could be an obvious stab at the fact that our brains retain information, thus we can use them to erase what we don't like, but I don't think that `obvious' works in any sense for this movie. This scene is probably the scene that, if identified, would reveal Lynch's thoughts on this film and it's moral.

The acting in `Eraserhead' is flawless when you consider the type of film this is. Jack Nance gives one of my favorite male performances as Henry Spencer. His nervousness is key to creating the mood that Lynch establishes with the film, and if he had dropped the ball then the film would have sunk. Charlotte Stewart is insanely effective as Mary, but it's Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates that really make the most of their small roles. The dinner scene alone is one of the most memorable scenes in the film when it comes to performances, and Bates steals that whole scene with her domineering mother. Her performance is yet another reason I fall towards the whole `commitment' theory, her character truly proving to be the horrendous wifely stereotype of dominance. Joseph is great as Mr. X, Mary's father. His performance is manic and commanding. Judith Roberts is leering and Laurel Near is entrancing, both actresses embodying their performances magnificently.

Lynch is the true star here though, delivering a rich and fulfilling film that is unlike anything else you've ever seen. The films rich black and white delivery, not to mention the machinelike score, completely engulf the film and add layers to the feeling, the mood, the structure and construction of this flawless film.

Sure, no one may really know what it all means, but half the brilliance in `Eraserhead' is that very fact. It is a blessed unknown, a riddle that one must try to crack fully aware that they never will. Lynch has created a masterpiece, a creative gem that will serve as one of a kind; a film never to be repeated. `Eraserhead', whether you want to admit it or not, may very well be the greatest film of all time. Like poet Charles Bukowski stated, after `Eraserhead' there is nothing; "starting with `Eraserhead' we sit here, click, click, click - nothing."

How very true. May 12, 2008

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