For much of the Blind Spot Series, I won’t have much choice in how I watch the selections. Given how old the titles are, and their ready availability on dvd/blu-ray, most of these old favorites will be watched from the comfort of my couch, accompanied by very few friends (if any). But if I’m lucky, in watching some of these films, I’ll get a little bit more atmosphere and tone…like a crowded theatre…or a midnight showing…or in the case of WILD AT HEART, both.

The trickiest thing about watching old movies is context. The next trickiest thing is context, and after that, context again. Lack of context can sometimes make it difficult for us to see what all the fuss was about when sitting down to watch a film so long after its release. That inability to see the attraction, can actually lead to full-on aversion. What’s more, context is of the utmost importance when one is approaching the work of director David Lynch.

The man’s work is eccentric at best, and fuckin’ nuts at its worst. My experience with him thus far has been limited (read: MULHOLLAND DRIVE and BLUE VELVET), but each film I’ve seen has left me both amused and confused.

In case you’ve never seen it, WILD AT HEART is the story of Lula and Sailor (Laura Dern and Nic Cage). The film opens at some high society party where Sailor beats a man to death in self-defense. He is sentenced to prison for manslaughter, and when he is released, Lula is waiting for him. Unbeknownst to both of them, Sailor’s would-be assailant was sent by Lula’s mother Marietta (Diane Ladd). Knowing how much her mother disapproves of the renewed relationship, Lula and Sailor head out on the road to California. Of course, mama Marietta isn’t going to take her daughter’s defiance lying down, and decides to dispatch a bounty hunter or two to bring her back.

In some ways, films like this make me believe that Nic Cage has come full-circle in his career. He started out fully off the handle, acting not only with his rubber face and crazy eyes, but with every part of his body working as hard and fast as it could. Whether that meant dancing, running, falling, fighting, or screwing – he would do it all as if his life depended on it. The thing is that when he was perfecting this technique, I was a bit too young to appreciate it. When I arrived at the Cage Party, he was doing a more subdued version while bumbling his way through PG comedies and pretending to be a Michael Bay action star. So when he started taking roles that required him to be a bit loony, fans like me thought he was off his nut. Turns out, it’s just him getting back to his roots…like when Prince stopped referring to himself as a squiggly symbol.

So when you take the classic Cage, and have Lynch let him off the leash, what you get is one twisted, twitchy, take-no-prisoners film. One with a lot of violence, a lot of sex, and a lot of oddity in between. I never would have got the full effect of this had I watched it on my own in the bright light of day. No, what I needed to get the full effect was to take my spot in a fairly packed cinema late on a Saturday, with much of the crowd primed for cult lunacy. We grinned, we guffawed, we laughed like crazy, and the film achieved its desired effect.

Instead of trying to understand the craziness, like I did when I watched my very first Lynch film, I just went with it and took it for a laugh. I didn’t question why Marietta’s face was covered in lipstick. I didn’t question why Cousin Dell liked to put roaches in his gitch. I didn’t question the reason for all the crazy Wizard of Oz references. Nor did I question Lula steering the pillow-talk conversation towards how Sailor reminds her of her father – though a friend of mine did. Mid-film. To much laughter from the crowd.

Oddly though, for all the laughs this film provides, there are also many moments that feel so very…icky. Take for instance a scene in the late-going when Lula is alone in her hotel room and Sailor is off taking care of the car. Johnny Peru – played with supreme slime by Willem Dafoe – comes knocking on her door, and suddenly everything seems to be taking a turn. If this stretch of the film is its crossing of the river to hell, then this would likely be the moment where we feel like the boatman is about to pitch us over the side. The moment continues on, with Peru sexually intimidating Lula down to a trembling mess – and right at the moment when we think he’s going to get really nasty, he laughs it off with a joke and leaves. It’s hard to articulate why, but that almost feels worse than the expected payoff.

What I’m left wondering, is how this film played to the unsuspecting crowds upon its release. I can only imagine how critics took it, and how an unsuspecting public must have reacted. Between the moments of squealing guitars, the high amount of sex and violence, there’s no way the public at large “got it”. Hell, we’re talking about a film that has the pure cheek to play a highly dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship and cast a real-life mother and daughter in the roles!

By this stage, I can only surmise that people must have been forewarned where all things Lynch are concerned. This is a man whose most accessible film by then was BLUE VELVET – which is still so. damned. weird. If patrons and critics went into the film wanting everything to fit into a box, they were in for a shock, and likely pissed off. However, if that particular type of crowd went in late on a Saturday night looking for cinematic rock & roll, the movie just played.

The question I’m left with is that of intent. Perhaps Lynch has always been out to amuse only himself, and he isn’t interested in colouring inside the lines. Or perhaps WILD AT HEART truly is twisted and sick, and it’s just been set into the right cult framing as time has passed. Whatever the answer, this much is clear to me – the strength of first time viewers of the film is in their numbers. Alone they will be angered into a confused  before this film. Together though, they will laugh at this boogieman, and see that they have no reason to be afraid of its craziness.

One last thing – Did I mention that this post is a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?

I intend to post my entries on the final Tuesday of every month. If you are participating, drop me an email (ryanatthematineedotca) when your post is up and I’ll make sure to link to your entry.

Here’s the round-up for February (so far)…

Dave Voigt watched CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

Allison the Nerd Vampire watched PRIMER

Dan Heaton is still watching these in bunches; I’ll highlight his take on THE RED SHOES

Courtney Small watched THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES

Bob “I am a rare and precious snowflake” Turnbull watched two films (again), SWING TIME and YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

Steve Honeywell watched THE 400 BLOWS

Max watched SIXTEEN CANDLES

James echoed my Lynch experience by watching BLUE VELVET

Jandy watched THE VIRGIN SPRING

23 Replies to “Blindsided by WILD AT HEART”

  1. I’m slightly disappointed at no mention of the ending musical number??? Next I will pull out the wonderful #ryaniswrong tag to enjoy this one.

    Maybe my frustration came from making the common mistake (as you mention) of taking the film seriously (as it was the first in my then Marathon of Lynch films) and watching alone in a dark room baffled by the redding of the mother’s face, the scowl of Dafoe and the oddity of Laura Dern & Nic Cage’s romance.

    This move failed for me (as do most of Lynch’s work)…

    My favs of Lynch are ONLY: Blue Velvet, Lost Highway & The Elephant Man.

    1. Spoilers dude, spoilers!

      Jokes aside, if I got into mentioning every little detail that amused me about this film – as the closing song did – I’d be hammering out another thousand words. The payoff of the ‘Texas-style porno’ had me in stitches.

      Next time you and the boys get-together, give this another look. I wager it’d play better.

      PS – No love for MULHOLLAND DRIVE?

  2. I haven’t taken the time to watch a David Lynch film yet. What is the most accessible film he has made? I don’t think I’m ready to just jump into Blue Velvet.

    If I could see all the movies on my list in a midnight showing that would be awesome. I’m kind of jealous that you got to see this film in a crowded audience.

    3. I put this question to my friend Kurt who’s a pretty big fan of Lynch, and here’s what he said…

      I think the best entrance points are either TWIN PEAKS or BLUE VELVET. From there on to ERASERHEAD, MULHOLLAND DR., THE LOST HIGHWAY or WILD AT HEART.

      The most accessible is THE STRAIGHT STORY, but it is hardly representative of his work. Hardcore Lynch nuts would then move along to INLAND EMPIRE and DUNE. Super Nerdy fanboys would then move to oddities like DUMBLAND, HOTEL, ON THE AIR, his INTERVIEW PROJECT documentary bits, and his RABBIT shorts (or his musical album CRAZY CLOWN TIME). Futher esoterica is the documentary David Wants to Fly which portrays the director in a less than flattering light via his Transcendental Meditation passions or his archived daily weather reports for L.A. on his website (these are awesome and hilarious by the way).

      It’s bee so long since I have seen THE ELEPHANT MAN that I can hardly comment.

  3. I really need to revisit this film again, been far to long since I last watched it. I recall really enjoying this film despite having no real clue of what Lynch is going for. I had a similar “just go with it and laugh” reaction to the film. Having said that, Wild at Heart is nowhere near as confusing as Lost Highway. Now that film is an odd mess.

    2. Funny, I seem to remember being confused by MULHOLLAND DRIVE pretty sufficiently the first time I watched it. I wonder what it is about Lynch that disinterested him about non-kooky storytelling…probably that everybody else does it.

      I didn’t mention it, but you’re right – “just go with it” is easily the best note I could offer for this film.

  4. Ryan, thanks for the link to the Red Shoes post. I was going to e-mail it over today and you were too quick!

    I saw Wild at Heart for the first time last summer and really enjoyed it. I didn’t know much about it beyond Cage and Dern, so it was a big surprise, especially the pure insanity of a lot of it. I loved how Lynch just went for it and took chances, even if they all didn’t work. Cage is the perfect actor for that style, as he’ll try pretty much anything.

    1. I’m quick like that. Expect a comment before too long.

      I actually went into WILD pretty damned blind; I only knew about the jacket quote and only actually realized it was Lynch day-of. The crowd and their enthusiasm was what really illuminated me for this watch.

      That and shaking my head laughing at Crispin Glover

    1. Dear God No!!! There were times I felt guilty enough for seeing what I was seeing in the company of others – I couldn’t imagine what would be running through my head with Mom next to me.

      However, I’d wager that you have the beginnings of a very amusing blog post there. Make it happen!

  6. I saw Wild at Heart long before I got around to Blue Velvet, and I’d concur that Wild at Heart is just off the rails lunacy, while Blue Velvet is trying to tuck the crazy stuff back under the rug.

    The first Lynch film I saw, though, was The Elephant Man, and I had no idea who David Lynch was. Nobody did, really. It’s a great film in its own right, though it’s based on a very famous play. Lynch didn’t really mess with the material, in my opinion. Curious about that, and about his experience on Dune. Clearly, he may have taken some directing jobs just for the money, or to achieve some foothold in Hollywood. Or did he?

    1. Hee Hee… I can see that comment in the trailer for the movie now:

      “BLUE VELVET tries to tuck it back” – James McNally

      I haven’t seen ELEPHANT MAN yet, and as much as I’m looking forward to it, I couldn’t begin to start getting into the mindset of David Lynch and his career ambitions.

  7. I LOVE Wild at Heart. One of the things Kurt and I share. (Our taste in quirky films often doesn’t line up; this time it does.) I’m always baffled by the amount of hate it gets. It’s an over-the-top, whacked out good time. But then, like you, both times I’ve seen it, it was in a theatre packed with eager viewers. That does make a huge difference with a film like this.

    1. Crazy the way that can happen isn’t it – the difference a crowd can make. I think (as someone already mentioned) it’s just that Lynch isn’t for everybody; When some get presented with this type of delightful oddity, they don’t know what to make of it.

      Funny you mention Kurt, since I find his taste and mine either lines up perfectly or widely differs – not much in between. The guy’s a great friend though!

  8. a) I told you this in person but I’ll do it again because I’ll probably never end up writing about it in my own space. Despite the incoherent fuctory that is Wild At Heart it’s probably the only movie of his – or any movie ever – that simultaneously conveys all emotions of funnysexyscary, mostly thanks to Laura Dern’s performance. Even in his better work, he can only manage to convey one of those three tones, or compartmentalizes them from one scene to another.

    b) Gitch?

    1. I was going to counter with MULHOLLAND DRIVE, but remembered that it doesn’t really do the “funny” part of “funnysexyscary”

      And yes…”gitch”…you never use that term for underwear?

      1. Gitch yeah! I played drums in a band called The Gitch Band in my late teens. We used to tape a pair of y-fronts (another great term) to the bass drum so that every time I hit the pedal, the gitch, uh, sort of bulged. Good times.

      2. Oh MULHOLLAND DRIVE is funny but most of the time it’s just funny looking. Either way I will never think of break-ins the same way again.

        Also, I thought “gitch” meant what was inside the underwear.

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