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Eraserhead by David Lynch
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DVD detailsActor: Allen Joseph, Charlotte Stewart, Jack Nance, Jeanne Bates, Judith Anna Roberts Director: David Lynch Brand: Ryko Distribution DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.77:1 Running Time: 89 minutes DVD Release Date: 2006-01-10 Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Absurda/ Subversive
DVD Reviews of EraserheadDVD Review: even after all the single stars Summary: 5 StarsThe idea that all of you "single star" raters, if thats what you can be called, are saying that this film has no artistic value or redeeming qualities is flatout ridiculous. You're all missing the point. Wether you saw the film earlier today, or twenty years ago (as I've noted most of you have) you all seem to have something to say about it. What you don't realize is That that is the point, wether art makes you happy or upsets you, it's done it's job. The task real film artists set for themselves is AFFECTING people, good or bad, it doesn't matter. As long as the film makes you think or feel something then the film-maker has succeeded. It would be more upsetting if you saw it and had felt nothing and said nothing. Personally, I think that the fact that the film has made so many of you uncomfortable rather than leave you with the feeling of complacency that most modern films do would give Mr. Lynch an extreme sense of satisfaction. The effect of art is not the point, as long as it just HAS one, it remains art. I recommend this movie to everyone who enjoys stepping out of their element for ninety minutes or so, don't be afraid ! you're only in your living room ! for the rest of you, click the back button on your browser, I'm pretty sure I saw beautician and the beast on sale, that should leave you smiling and stupid.
DVD Review: "Bleakly Bizarre" Summary: 5 StarsThis 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.
DVD Review: Bizarre and ugly Summary: 2 StarsNot 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.
DVD Review: Eraserhead - short review behind a million others Summary: 5 StarsThis 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!
DVD Review: "In Heaven Everything Is Fine." Summary: 4 StarsThis 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.
Description of EraserheadIs it a nightmare or an actual view of a post-apocalyptic world? Set in an industrial town in which giant machines are constantly working spewing smoke and making noise that is inescapable Henry Spencer lives in a building that like all the others appears to be abandoned. The lights flicker on and off he has bowls of water in his dresser drawers and for his only diversion he watches and listens to the Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven. Henry has a girlfriend Mary X who has frequent spastic fits. Mary gives birth to Henry's child a frightening looking mutant which leads to the injection of all sorts of sexual imagery into the depressive and chaotic mix.System Requirements:Running Time 89 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?HORROR Rating:?UNRATED UPC:?858334001039 Manufacturer No:?400103 This is where is the Lynchian nightmare began. Though he may have redefined surrealistic cinema in the 1980s and forever altered the face of television in the 90s, for many hardcore fans it is this infamous feature film debut that is David Lynch's crowning achievement. Many words have been used to describe Eraserhead (weird, bizarre, frustrating, enlightening, significant, unwatchable, meaningless, and momentous), but there is no denying it is completely unforgettable. As a surreal work of art, Eraserhead easily holds it own next to the works as Bu?uel, Cocteau, and Dali. And like many surrealistic works, there is no clear answer on what Eraserhead "means." But, if you are trying to find a simple, linear, plot in Eraserhead, you are clearly missing the point. For Eraserhead is not simply a movie to view, but a true cinematic experience, like jumping into someone's nightmare and seeing it from their perspective. Whether you see it as a meditation on the terror of being a new parent, the suffocating feeling of living in an increasingly vapid, industrial wasteland, or a nightmare about the fear of loneliness, the film easily holds up to multiple viewings. And since this film is a dark visual ride and a supreme aural achievement, this long awaited, new transfer is an absolute blessing for David Lynch fans who will finally get to see, hear and experience Eraserhead clearly on DVD. Bizarre experiment? Surrealistic nightmare? Or a meaningless cult film? You be the judge. --Rob Bracco
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