Eraserhead

If you're reading this, then you've seen this movie or are at least curious what all the hype is about?

The late Stanley Kubrick, the only major filmmaker Lynch has cited as a direct cinematic influence, believed that ERASERHEAD was one of the most perfect "cinematic experiences" created to date. This movie has enjoyed success on the midnight movie circuit for years, particularly in NYC where it ran almost every night for something like five years straight. I've seen it on big and little screens in three different states. Insofar as interpretations are concerned, I've long since tossed all that out the window. In terms of rational comprehension, ERASERHEAD is the fabled big fish that remains brilliantly elusive of any attempts to capture it.

This movie gets better, and more humorous, every time I watch it: in my opinion ERASERHEAD is the cinematic experience that comes the closest to capturing "dream logic", next to the equally brilliant WAKING LIFE. If you ever get the chance, watch ERASERHEAD in a movie theater with a great sound system you will understand why Stanley Kubrick was moved enough to make his statement. It's like experiencing someone else's dream the ultimate act of voyeurism? As if I was granted audience to a demonstration of delicate brain surgery, and catching glimpses of the patient's face throughout the operation (particularly the opening scene). It creates such a visceral landscape with its dark, peculiar selections of image and sound, that it seems to be constantly reminding you that the "soul" is helplessly sloshing around somewhere inside an organic bag of blood, bone, hair follicles, industrial shrapnel, dirt piles and antique radiators; a terrifying and beautiful delineation of a living creature suddenly made aware of its own being (birth imagery abounding). It is a perfect symphony of sound and image, amazing work for a first time feature film director! I've seen this movie placed in the HORROR section at local video stores; it's better suited for the COMEDY section, I fear. The movie was created on the AFI campus in California; production beginning his last year there, and continuing on for several more years in secret. Not for everyone, but certainly worth a peek.

I own a copy of ERASERHEAD on DVD, finally. Remastered sound and image, includes a few extras the standout is a "stylized" interview with Lynch about the making of the film, the characters involved and anecdotes.

WHEN will they re-release this masterpiece on video and DVD? This film is purest Lynch. It isn't a movie, it's an experiance. David Lynch himself said that he didn't so much think of Eraserhead, than feel it. Never have I heard a more true statement. 'Eraserhead' is Atmosphere with a capital A, and contains some truly unnerving moments that come straight out of our darkest nightmares. David Lynch is a true artist. To watch Eraserhead is to be totally absorbed into another world; Henry and his bizarre hairdo; the gentle yet strangely disturbing Lady in the Radiator; and last but not least, the hideous 'Baby,' a truly grotesque little monster who is more terrifying than any other man-made creature in motion picture history. (Lynch has refused to say how he created the Baby....IF he made it, that is. CREEEEEEEEEEEEPYYYYY! ) There is an unrelenting sense of menace and fear throughout all the proceedings. Some may huff and dismiss 'Eraserhead' as an 'artsy-fartsy' flick intended for the smallest film cults. 'Eraserhead' is not cult; it's timeless. If only Lynch would create another film of this magnitude and purity. Maybe he still will.I look forward to the re-release of this ignored classic with great anticipation.

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David Lynch's surreal masterpiece ERASERHEAD, is in my humble opinion the most personal 90 minutes of celluloid ever created. As with many of his other films, theories abound about this "nightmare on film," and it seems people have more fun dissecting (no pun intended) the imagery and symbols than actually watching the film. It's certainly not enjoyable to watch, or entertaining by any stretch of the imagination, but it is compelling, engrossing, and disturbing. A true film "experience." There's never been anything like it from anyone else, or Lynch himself for that matter, and more likely than not we'll never see anything like it again. At it's most simplistic it's Lynch's fears and horror concerning "family" and "industrialism" taken to the nth degree. Most people describe it as post-apocolyptic, but it's truly modern/contemporary, just dark and unfamiliar to most. But again, like with many of Lynch's films--especially the recent MULHOLLAND DRIVE--you'd have to be David Lynch to fully understand everything that takes place or is shown, and that's what makes his movies so intriguing. Are his films weird and mysterious on purpose, or is this all normal to him? Of course none of us can ever know. Let's hope the rumors are true and that this will finally be available in the very near future.

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This review pertains only to this particular edition. If you want commentary on the film, there are many fine reviews elsewhere.

This is called a "Limited Edition 2 Disc Gift Box" and you're probably wondering (as I did) what exactly this means and if it's worth the $75 list price. Here's what you get: two 8" by 8" heavy cardboard boxes containing one DVD each, along with a square booklet. Each box has an outer sleeve (one for Eraserhead, one for The Short Films of David Lynch), and both boxes have a larger sleeve that holds both. These sleeves aren't quite like DVD slipcases they're much more flimsy and cheap. The 8x8 boxes are about an inch thick, but are basically empty. The DVD is, of course, very thin and the booklet is 20 pages. I have no idea why they are so thick, unless they're supposed to be like 16mm film boxes or something.

The booklets are a bit like scrapbooks. They are mostly pictures of varying quality along with a page talking about the DVD transfer. All-in-all, it has about five or ten minutes worth of interest there's just not much there to see.

The DVDs are exactly the same as the individual releases. You get the same edition with the same special features.

Ultimately, you'll need to determine the value of this set for yourself. I see no reason to own it. You can buy both Eraserhead and the Short Films for $40 or less. The booklets are nothing special and the packaging isn't great either. It's not like the films get the "criterion" treatment or anything like that. The individual releases are pretty nice already, and at less than half the price of this set, I'd recommend buying them separately. I'm pretty disappointed with this actually.

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Existentialist philosophers like Derrida and Heidegger talked about a repeated theme, that humans have been "thrown" into a world where the most absurd things can happen, and that humans must create meaning (if there is any at all) from the absurdity and react to it, if possible. "Eraserhead," David Lynch's first feature-length film, explores this notion to its absolute extreme. Many other Lynch films deal with the idea of ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances, but in "Eraserhead" it is the overriding concept of the entire movie, and one that Lynch has teased to its grisly, beautiful perfection.

Set in a retro-future reminiscent of Lang's "Metropolis" or the worst parts of the Victorian era mingled with a post-nuclear environment, "Eraserhead" follows the perpetually-frizzy-haired Henry Spencer as he learns that his girlfriend is pregnant and is forced to marry her at her parent's request (at a dinner where the roast chickens splay themselves suggestively on the dinner table, no less). Henry wears a look of almost constant bewilderment at having been put in this position, but it is nothing compared with the outlandishness of the rest of the movie. Henry's apartment building appears to be abandoned, and the lights flicker on and off uncontrollably, while the woman across the hall gives him phone messages from a payphone, and the woman who lives in his radiator tells him (in song) that "In heaven, everything is fine." When Henry and Mary pick the baby up from the hospital, he discovers that, whatever it IS, it most certainly is NOT human.

Lynch has always concerned himself with bipolar contrasts, and "Eraserhead" is no exception. While Henry pines for Heaven, it is unclear whether he is living in Hell, or simply a world gone horribly wrong. For all the repeated imagery of copulation, reproduction, and birth, coupled with violence, it could be either, although it is clear that everything that happens is within the realm of possibility, making the latter more probable. The film is interspersed with postmodern artistic scenes evoking violence, life, and death, and there is little conventional "plot" to speak of simply Henry reacting to the increasingly absurd, which he never gets used to nor ever fully accepts.

So what is Lynch trying to do or say? I have my suspicions, but to talk about "meaning" before the experience would ruin the whole thing. Let's put it this way: just as Henry sits there slack-jawed and glassy-eyed at what's going on around him, so too is the audience supposed to do the same it may be one of the best tricks any artist has ever played on his viewers.

All in all, "Eraserhead" will not be to everyone's tastes. In fact, I doubt it would even appeal to those who liked other Lynch movies such as "Mulholland Drive" or "Blue Velvet." It is much more an art film, but you're the kind of person who goes to movies to escape, you might want to pass on "Eraserhead." If you like to think, especially on the existential level, see what you can make of it.

Final Grade: A