# David Lynch movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831 "2004-04-24T19:31:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Improbability](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Improbability](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improbability)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/21 "2005-04-18T16:28:34Z")
Wow. It takes me a while to reply to threads, clearly. I have been absent for far too long. I haven’t seen Eraserhead, no, but I do believe I have it somewhere in the house. Thanks for the tip! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/22 "2005-04-18T16:53:34Z")
I’m not the deepest guy in the world, so I would be tempted to call _Eraserhead_ pure unalloyed, affected, film-school-student drek, but there’s something about it that keeps me coming back. The nightmarish quality of the film, including the constant sonic undertones. I gather it’s a movie more to be experienced than watched. However, I _know_ there’s a lot to the film that I just haven’t gotten. Any help? Or do you just have to be stoned to truly appreciate it? ---
**Author:** ![Improbability](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Improbability](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improbability)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/23 "2005-04-18T16:56:14Z")
I think that’s the over-arching problem with Lynch; there’s always much more to any of his films than we (read: or perhaps just me) could hope to understand. They tend to get more accessible with increased viewing but they generally still elude me. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/24 "2005-04-18T17:23:59Z")
> [@The Tooth](#): > > I don’t know about Lost Highway, as it’s sitting on my coffee table waiting to be watched tonight. But I’m sort of at a loss as how someone could look at Wild At Heart, Blue Velvet, or Mulholland drive and say “there’s nothing in these films”. Mulholland Drive? Once you get to the end, you let out a big “ah ha!” at how all the real-life events in the last half hour were all translated by Diane into her dream that was the first two. . Actually, the reason Mulholland drive’s last half hour is so bizarre is because it was supposed to the the pilot to a series, which never got made. Lynch realized he had to bring it to some sort of conclusion, and changed the last half hour drastically. ---
**Author:** ![Improbability](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Improbability](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improbability)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/25 "2005-04-18T17:34:54Z")
This would actually help to explain a lot of it. That said, Mulholland Drive was one of the more easily understandable ones, I found. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/26 "2005-04-18T17:50:55Z")
I love David Lynch, and I say that even though I don’t love all his movies, and can understand why a lot of people have zero interest in his work. As a conventional story-teller, he’s not that great, although _The Elephant Man_ certainly fits that bill. Let’s remember he followed that up with _Dune_, quite possibly the scariest of all Lynch movies if for no other reason than it featured both Sting and a weird cat. (I’m sort of joking and sort of serious about that, that cat was demented and I still get creeped out thinking about it.) I think he’s fantastic at creating a mood, although it’s almost always the same mood, the David Lynch mood. I like that he plays around a lot with perception, sort of creating an overlay of a character’s feelings and impressions piled on top of reality, or what passes for reality in his films. Visually, I find his films generally pretty interesting, even the ones I don’t care for, but what really hammers it home for me is the sound. All those squeaky sounds from the Eraserhead baby? Yikes! Maybe he missed his calling and should have done radio plays. The biggest draw for me is that there isn’t one hard and fast answer to “what is it about?” for most of his movies, and it’s my impression that is very intentional (as **Raygun99** already pointed out). I like films as party games – sitting around with everyone throwing in their two cents about what was going on. One of our favorite aspects of this is trying to figure out why a particular scene is so creepy – sometimes it’s not obvious and you can have a lot of fun picking it apart to figure out why it strikes a nerve. Creamed corn is not intrinsically scary, so why is it scary in _Fire Walk With Me_? But, if that’s not your cup of tea, I can completely see why Lynch’s movies are not for you. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/27 "2005-04-18T20:06:19Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > The point of David Lynch movies is not so much to understand the plot as it is to follow the emotional line – most of his experimental films work on dream logic, which inherently do not conform to narratives. I’ve never had any trouble following them on first viewing, however, I wouldn’t claim there’s any one reading of a Lynch film (as I think Lynch himself would agree). The salon-esque breakdowns of what such-and-such means in Mullholland Drive, for instance, are a mistake in my eyes, as these really are ‘what do **you** think it means?’ movies. I certainly wouldn’t want every film to be like his, but I enjoy almost all of them. Exactly. Anyone who says they figured out Mulholland Drive is fooling themselves. And no one can say “You just don’t understand it”, because there is no understanding it, and just giving up and enjoying the movie is what you need to do. Also, have you noticed what a master Lynch is with sound? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/28 "2005-04-18T21:11:34Z")
I think it’s entirely possible to appreciate Lynch as a visual artist without actually liking (or understanding) his work. We got into this discussion some years ago in a film studies class I took in college, when we watched _Eraserhead_ and Salvador Dali’s _Un Chien Andalou_ (which I probably spelled wrong). Heated discussions about what _Eraserhead_ was about, and quite frankly, I also found it to be art-school “look how weirdly cool I am” drek. Lots of people in the class were absolutely certain that Lynch was making a pointed commentary on “society” but none were able to articulate precisely what that point might be. The whole thing left me with the impression that _Eraserhead_ did have a point - and it was to make art students look stupid trying to look smart. I kinda liked _Blue Velvet_ for its character vignettes and its “look” but found nothing terribly interesting in the story. Don’t think I’ve seen anything else of his, except for bits of Twin Peaks. Oh, no - on re-read, I see that _The Elephant Man_ was his - again, a film I liked visually, but I’ve seen the story told better. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/29 "2005-04-18T21:19:46Z")
And then there’s Lynch’s daughter, whose first name I can’t remember, but _Boxing Helena_ I just can’t forget… And Julian Sands is so sexy when he’s playing a raving psychotic. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/30 "2005-04-18T21:37:30Z")
Jennifer. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/31 "2005-04-18T21:46:25Z")
_Eraserhead_ usually tops the lists of “Recommend Some Weird Ass Movies”. I bought the gen-u-wine official version from Lynch’s website. I don’t WANT to know what it’s about (even though I’ve read numerous synopses and interpretations and can understand what it means). It’s all mood and weirdness. Lynch was on Letterman a couple of years ago and he strikes me as just a totally weird dude. He definitely has his own “vision” and I don’t think he cares if anyone, including his diehard fans, “gets” his movies. I haven’t seen all of his movies. Most of them just don’t interest me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/32 "2005-04-19T04:30:43Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Actually, the reason Mulholland drive’s last half hour is so bizarre is because it was supposed to the the pilot to a series, which never got made. Lynch realized he had to bring it to some sort of conclusion, and changed the last half hour drastically. But he made it all fit together. I found it quite enjoyable. I posted in this thread long ago, before the board went pay-for-play. I’ve long since seen **Lost Highway** now, and I’ve decided I didn’t quite follow it. There wasn’t enough of a correlation between the reality and the fantasy for me to put the whole thing together and come up with “a ha!” the way I could with **Mulholland Drive**. Fine performances all around, though. I didn’t get it, but I did enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/33 "2005-04-19T05:18:51Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > To me, Lynch is the Picasso of filmmakers. Like Picasso, he is more well-known for strange art than for more normal renditions, but The Elephant Man and The Straight Story show that Lynch has superb ability as a regular storyteller much as Picasso’s studies and sketches demonstrate his mastery of that particular artform. I couldn’t agree more. Very few people, if any (myself included), are able to discern exactly what Picasso was trying to convey in any particular work. Bit and pieces maybe, or perhaps a general idea (such as the horror of war as illustrated by Guernica), but by and large, interpretations of Picasso’s work are as widely varied as the number of observers. What is unquestionable, however, is his genius and the fact that, understand it or not, when we look at Picasso’s work, we are looking at the work of a master. The same with Lynch. I’ve only seen Mulholland Drive and was as flummoxed by it as anyone, but the incredible talent that lay behind it is unquestionable. I ultimately decided that the best way to enjoy the film was just to soak up the beauty of the scene that was before me at the moment and not try to assemble the various elements into a cohesive whole. All in all, I look at Lynch the filmmaker in much the same way as I do Picasso the artist or Gertrude Stein the writer. You may not understand what they’re saying, but you can still revel in that which you can understand, because even that much is superb. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/34 "2005-04-19T05:28:56Z")
I’ve only seen Mulholland Drive, but I didn’t have the trouble that a lot of my friends had in figuring out what was going on. I liked it, especially since these two chicks _totally do it!_ ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/35 "2005-04-19T05:37:34Z")
Yeah! Not to mention Naomi Watts’ chops as an actress. Dayum! That was the first thing I’d seen her in and she just blew me away. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/36 "2005-04-19T06:09:25Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > Yeah! Not to mention Naomi Watts’ chops as an actress. Dayum! That was the first thing I’d seen her in and she just blew me away. Heheh, ya. I appreciated her ‘acting skills’ in MD, that’s what I appreciated… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/37 "2005-04-19T06:37:40Z")
Heh, heh, heh…see, that’s what I mean. Has sweet, school-girl innocence followed by worldly hotness ever been played so convincingly by any one actress before? ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/38 "2005-04-19T06:56:52Z")
For me, understanding the work of Lynch is an ongoing process. I dealt with _Lost Highway_ for months, before I thought I had resolved its meaning. But a few years later I tossed those theories out in lieu of new ones (“psychogenic fugue” is a key term Lynch has discussed regarding _Lost Highway_.) What has helped me get closer to understanding Lynch’s aims (at least the ones he himself understands) are books and documentaries (primarily the book _Lynch on Lynch_, a series of interviews by Chris Rodley – a revised edition has just come out), and the documentary _Pretty as a Picture_. But I feel that just “getting” a Lynch film is beyond the point. If you want to see a film you can just “get” right away, you can watch a disposable romantic comedy or something. Generally, a Lynch film is a great exploration of the art of filmmaking. Lynch films are a great example of how films are not any other kind of art, how they are immersive, complicated, multisensory. [LynchNet](http://www.lynchnet.com/) used to be helpful before it became less functional with ongoing promises to relaunch. There’s also Lynch’s own site [DavidLynch.com](http://www.davidlynch.com) but it’s more art than explanation. One of my favorite quotes by Lynch, to paraphrase, regarding filmmaking, “Mystery is good, confusion is bad”. Lynch strives to create mystery, but not confusion. A bad (or apathetic, or disinterested) filmmaker wouldn’t know the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Rainbowthief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Rainbowthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rainbowthief)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/39 "2005-04-19T08:16:51Z")
I love Lynch, especially \*\*Eraserhead \*\* and **Lost Highway** , which, IMHO, is his best movie ever. I never could figure out what was going on until I heard Lynch explain it in a documentary (which is rare–he almost _never_ explains his movies). I wish he wasn’t so dead against director commentaries because I’d love to hear him talk about his films. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831/40 "2005-04-19T10:21:31Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > Heh, heh, heh…see, that’s what I mean. Has sweet, school-girl innocence followed by worldly hotness ever been played so convincingly by any one actress before? Good point. Count me in the ‘I have no idea WTF Lynch movies are about, but I enjoy the dickens out of them’ camp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-lynch-movies/241831.md?page=3)