Eraserhead - WTF?

[Duer 157099]

I just noticed this on my cable box, and thought I'd try again to view it. Every attempt has failed. I have never seen the ending.

I know so many people call it some sort of work of genius, but I swear to god, all I get is one big WTF.

WTF???????

[edbermac]

1. It plays better if you're stoned.

:smoke:

[caseymoz]

2. It's a very challenging movie to watch.

It's not that I didn't like it, I did. I just can't make myself watch it again to figure it out completely. I have to say, I've thought back to the imagery and scenes in Eraserhead many times over the years, which shows that it is a powerful movie. One friend told me that David Lynch was living in a warehouse when made this movie. Another friend in academia told me that it was a throwback to the films in Wiemar Germany in the 1920s. Since those film-makers were probably impoverished and living in warehouses too, I think both those anecdotes support each other.

I should see it again, so I'm doing this all from memory. The guy at the lever who starts the loud machine is the Devil, I have little doubt. His appearance suggests to me that he's running Hell and the story that takes place is the hell that he runs. His punishment from God is not a Hell with a lake of fire, but an industrialized Hell. Eraserhead, Henry that is, resists coming into it, but the machine forces him.

What I got out of it is: the setting in an industrial ruin, where the characters are damaged by pollution (well, the environment looks polluted), poverty and dreary, proletarian lives to the point where they are almost numb to their torture. Nothing works right, and the light flickering in already minimal light seems to signify instability, like the whole world suffers the same damage as the characters.

Then you have "Eraserhead" that is, Henry, who seems somehow wealthy. He has stature above everybody else, gets a vacation, wears a suit, seems to be an outsider to the ghetto he's in, but he is monstrous. His suit, the sign of his class, looks ridiculous. He seems to be a being built upon damage, or a product of perversity, and like the other characters, he's unaware.

And-- he has that hairdo: so important to the film that it's named after it. That could be a halo, that could be flames, that could be horns. You really shouldn't see this film and not think this isn't important.

After the birth of the horrifying child, and his wife deserts them, Henry then has to raise it. Or does he? It seems that his only purpose was to father that child, and he can't leave it. Feeling abandoned, I take it, he looks at a decapitated picture of what has to be his mother.

Then we're treated to a series of dreams which are for the meaning of the film, like the seals are for the Apocalypse. He keeps on waking up from another one. I remember these: he sees the woman singing "In heaven everything is fine . . ." It seems to me that she's his mother, who lies to him, of course, knowing nothing of heaven. There's one horrible part where his "sperm" has crawled out and has grown in his bed, actually trying to abandon him, but the most horrifying I remember was his head being made into a pencil eraser. To me, this shows, that he has become dispensable, to "the boss" and can now be used as recycled waste. Alternately, it could mean that he has faced his own insignificance, that his hairdo, a sign of power, was all just something minor. Either way, a dream like that feels awful, like a night terror.

And after he has faced that, then he is allowed to be with his mother.

That is what I got out of it. My memory might be as muddy as the film itself.

BTW, David Lynch has never revealed just what that "baby" was. Rumor is that he even had the cameraman blindfold himself when it was brought on the set so that HE wouldn't know exactly what it was. I've heard conjectures that it was either made from a shelled tortoise to a calf fetus. Either way, a film this low budget didn't have a way of making a special effect that good. I'm afraid Lynch might be guilty of animal torture.

[Duer 157099]

3. I forced myself to go finish watching it

(not that it really helped, lol)

I think I might agree with you about the animal torture. The very first scene with the "baby" was just too realistic (oh god, now I'm going to go have to watch it *again* to make sure that impression was correct... ewwwww) with the sputtering -- and I agree about the budget and special effects. Ewww. Ewww.

My first real Lynch exposure (that I paid attention to anyway) was Twin Peaks, which I loved. Boy he doesn't stray far from his roots does he? lol yikes

The first time I saw this, I took those "things" to represent sperm, but tonight when I saw it, instead it appeared to me a brain and spinal cord (or at least the medulla and spinal cord, or reptilian brain). And I had thought the guy pulling the levers was supposed to be God -- but not the good God people like to believe in, a more realistic God (or the devil for that matter).

I fear that I will have to watch this again multiple times before I begin to appreciate it, sigh...

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

19. A little googling convinced me (no pix, don't worry)

that whatever it was, it was (1) nothing of the turtle/tortoise family; and (2) some kind of fetal mammal. It appeared to have hooves.

[kedrys]

4. i saw it in college nine million years ago

And I haven't recovered from it. My brain mercifully blanked out 99% of it.

[kaiden]

5. For sex education classes, it should be required viewing in middle school.

hahahahaha.

[Orrex]

6. Here's the perfect gift for anyone freaked out or confused by the film:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19373788

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Most disturbing movie ever.

I saw it years ago, when it first came out in theatres. Got completely creeped out. Definitely, WTF? :scared:

[caseymoz]

9. I think you're wrong about that.

"Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer" was more disturbing, and I wonder why it was ever made. "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom" is light years beyond "Eraserhead" in being disturbing. "Salo" was a amalgam of Marquis de Sade's book, "120 days of Sodom" and Dante's "Inferno" set in the final 120 days of Mussolini's Italy. The result is a film so revolting and horrifying that if you're not traumatized by the end, you were probably a psychopath to begin with.

[Duer 157099]

13. Guess I'll have to find Salo

Henry didn't really disturb me as much as it probably should have.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. "Henry" was so creepy because of the

utterly convincing (maybe real :scared:) flat affect of the actors portraying Lucas and Toole.

As much as I love David Lynch's work I've never seen Eraserhead. Gotta get around to that one of these days

[sammythecat]

17. Good little review there.

"Henry" was definitely one disturbing movie. Like some kind of weird illegal porn.

[mitchum]

20. I like the "communion scene" where Lucas and Toole are having the fish sandwiches...

and drinks in the car.
Every little thing in the movie adds to its overall creepiness

[sammythecat]

18. Good lord.

"The result is a film so revolting and horrifying that if you're not traumatized by the end, you were probably a psychopath to begin with." Sounds like a terrific date movie.

[mitchum]

21. Not just a date movie, but kids will like "Salo" also

Hey, they have to learn about this stuff eventually

[mitchum]

23. One of the things that adds to the unease of "Salo" is the tension between form and content...

the movie is undoubtedly exquisitely directed while the actions are depraved.
It not only questions man's "possibilities", but also the possibilities of art.

[TheManInTheMac]

28. "Henry..." is very disturbing...

...and I won't even consider watching "Salo." Did you know that they belive the director was murdered for making that movie ("Salo," not "Henry...")?

[graywarrior]

8. Even if you never see the entire thing, it's a movie that stays with you forever

It is truly a WTF experience.

[Richardo]

11. I was actually pissed off when it ended.

I guess David Lynch would count that as a win, but I was just pissed off. It STILL pisses me off.

[Duer 157099]

12. That's funny. I was RELIEVED when it ended

You know what movie ending pissed me off? No Country For Old Men. That one pissed me off!

This one, just pure relief that it was over.

[Richardo]

10. That's the best, most concise review I've ever seen.

Kudos!

[Patsy Stone]

14. Here's my story:

One night in college, my (not yet) husband and I rented Eraserhead and put it in the VCR in the common room. About 25 minutes in or so, about the time the dialog begins, we looked at each other, shook our heads, and I got up to eject the movie. There were about 12 people in there when we started the film, and there was no one left when I looked around. I have never made it past that point in the film. Not even to this day.

[sammythecat]

15. Gave it a try a long time ago.

I don't remember anything about it except that I didn't finish it.

[mitchum]

22. The lead actor Jack Nance had a pretty sad and sordid existence...

lifelong bitter alcoholic
found out his wife (Jerry Van Dyke's daughter) was hooking to support her cocaine habit
wife called him on location and then committed suicide
Nance died from injuries he received in a fight outside a doughnut shop

a tragic life

[Orrex]

25. If all that weren't bad enough, he was in Meatballs 4 with Corey Feldman!

Seriously, I knew that his life was less than rosy, but I had no idea that it was so extreme. How sad!

[Captain Hilts]

27. Oh, my. I didn't know that. David Lynch is from Alex. VA. Hammond High school grad. nt

[Orrex]

24. whoops-delete!

[Captain Hilts]

26. I saw it as a 99 cent late show in Norfolk, VA in '76. Vacuum cleaner soundtrack. Weird.

Next, try Liquid Sky.