Eraserhead

Rating:
Summary: Very Strange, But At Least It Has An Important Message.
Review: Many People Say They Don't Know What It Means. Well, I Do.
It's About Henry Spencer, a Normal Man In A Bizzare World, Then He Is Then Invited To His Girlfriend's House To Have Dinner With Her & Her Parent, Then He Is Told By Mary's Mother That Mary (His Girlfriend) Just Gave Birth To A Tiny But Weird Looking Baby. Mary's Mother Then Asks Poor Henry That In He Made Love With Mary (I Actually Think That Mary Was Raped By A Weird Mutant. I Won't Tell You The Rest, But The Moral Of This Movie Is: Stay Away & Don't Make Love Until Your Ready To!

Rating:
Summary: Truly defines the meaning of the word " surreal "
Review: Yeah that sort of word gets bandied around a lot. If something is just a little bit weird, it deemed " surreal "

This film however really is surreal and while I don't want to give anything away ( how can I? If I were to describe this you'd probably think I was a bit cuckoo ), it is brilliantly acted. I remember watching this the first time in a friend's house. I brought it over since I really wanted to see it and not some horrible Hollywood movie and all I can say is that when the film was finished and I went to the toilet, I looked at myself in the mirror and I was as white as a ghost. There was not one bit of colour in me. That's how bizarre and scary this film is.

However ( on a side note ) if you're looking for a similar film I would suggest getting Un Chien Andalou. Made in 1928 but equally as baffling and surreal. Watch both Un Chien Andalou and Eraserhead back to back and I guarantee you - it's not a pleasant experience

Rating:
Summary: Eraserhead-Alienation In the Modern world
Review: Eraserhead poses many questions for viewers but allows few answers. The setting reminds me of something out of a Charles Dickens novel/only darker.Perhaps one could say this is work somewhat like Dickens but with 21st century themes.
Some have viewed it as social commentary which may include: alienation of modern man in a dwindling post production economy or maybe the power man has over life and death through abortion. These are issues almost any young man/woman faces in the modern era. My favorite scene is the dance number where a young woman continues her routine despite a rather grotesque physical occurence. And of course there is the baby --that wondeful shrieking child. (I don't want to ruin this for anyone so I will say no more).
This is no date movie unless both parties are heavy into the art/philosophy/theme thing.
The use of B/W film is great-A masterpiece -- superb!!

tingfish

Rating:
Summary: "But what the hell do they know, I said?"
Review: If you're reading this, then you've seen this movie or are at least curious what all the hype is all 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. It is available at David Lynch's website for forty-five bucks plus shipping and handling. 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.

BTW - where is WILD AT HEART and LOST HIGHWAY for our DVD pleasure?

Rating:
Summary: An Experience
Review: Many viewers of David Lynch's Eraserhead have exhausted all avenues of erudition to decipher the complex pandoras box of Lynch's debut film. I too, belonged to this cogitative elite. Many have tried to implicate the intimation of theosophical reference or cosmological theory or refutation of deities as the main focus of the picture. However, it occured to me sometime ago that Eraserhead is not that complicated. Not as much as Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive , but certainly there is a trick to it all. If you know even the most cavil of facts regarding Mr. Lynch, you probably are aware that he despises Philadelphia. Viewing the film with this in mind, I became somewhat inculcated with the situation that Lynch was in. In the duration of the five years in which Eraserhead was made, Lynch was living in a penurious and violent area of Philadelphia. He was also facing the arrival of his prodigy-his daughter (born with clubbed feet). It began to arise in my consciousness, that Henry is thrown into the forlorn world of Eraserhead by a malefic preternatural pater familias (a malevolent God). This being continually interjects elements into Henry's life to prolong his suffering. As Henry peers into the demarcating radiator, the only source of warmth in the film, death (in the form of the Lady in the Radiator) tries to convince Henry to commit suicide. Many have misconstrued the ending of the film as Henry murdering the baby. This is not so. Regardless, Henry dies in the process. Vilifying the control of the omnipotent being and evading the wretched world he has been rooted in. Henry gains solace from his tormenters by taking his own life. Read this however you would like. As Catholic allegory (though Lynch is Hindu), or whatever interpretation works for you. Either way, Eraserhead is the most profoundly beautiful and curious film of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing...
Review: Seeing as I am sixteen, I expect many reading this review will have little regard for it. However, I still find it imperative to write about my experience with this film. My first time watching Eraserhead, I had little conscious understanding of the symbolism and metaphorical aspects of this movie, as I had simply read the Christian decipherment of Eraserhead off the internet. Even with my flawed understanding of the film, I was taken away in it. At the end, as Henry embraced the Lady in the Radiator, I was torn between dismay, sympathy and happiness. Whether you're an English savant, or simply the average bloke with an interest in film does not matter. This film will reach out to you. If you pay attention and let the film take its affect on you, you will see its true masterpiece. I have finally deciphered, or at least made my own analysis of, the bulk of the movie. Anything that can make someone think that much, and trigger so many emotions is amazing. Eraserhead will make you question your life rather than the film itself. This film illustrates the vulnerability and helplessness of those with certain sicknesses, disorders or diseases. Eraserhead is about a man whose illness is actuated by reuniting with a lady who he previously had a sexual rendevouz with. However, one questions Henry and Mary even being two people; there are many similarities between both Mary's family and Henry, although the film only presents one concrete image of our "hero": a lonely individual with little hope. If one pays attention though, (s)he will notice the hills Henry walks in the beginning, ending in an inevitable descendence, the scene in which Mary cries uncontrollably while her father smiles maniacally, and the "baby" laughing while Henry, depressed, sits in a corner. The many distinct contrasts in this film lead me to believe Henry is, in fact, manic-depressive. However, other illnesses, diseases, or sicknesses could be argued as well; even an entirely different breakdown of the film could be argued. Regardless, in this man's case, his sickness drove him to suicide. All in all, Eraserhead is a depressing but none-the-less fascinating work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Some folks are better off becoming painters
Review: David Lynch is odd. Odd and he's very talented. Eraserhead is a jumbled mess of mixed visual metaphors and adolescent tripe. Poor Jack Nance. Jack could be the sweetest guy in the world. He was (briefly) my apartment manager during the making of Lynch's Dune. He appears as lost in Lynch's film as Lynch clearly is himself.

Is it art? Sure. Is it good art? It teeters on the fine line between dorky and cool. I can't say I recommend Eraserhead. There are moments that recall the absurdity of Dali (when he was still an important painter). Visually stunning but ultimately as vapid and empty as any amateur art project.

For those folks that are interested (Lyncheads all I'd guess), Eraserhead is available at David's website. It's somewhat expensive but the print looks great although the narrative is as murky as ever. Lynch is a very talented director when working with the right screenplay. This just doesn't happen to be the right one.

Rating:
Summary: Peas in the mashed potatoes
Review: Eraserhead is a remarkably eloquent expression of contemporary anomie. If you feel disoriented in our industrial society and feel detached from any of the truths deriving from nature and her processes, this is the movie for you. This movie is like spinning wildly in the middle of 125th street in NYC--you feel lost, sick, out of balance and there is nothing real, nothing natural around you, so that you cannot but wonder if your own thoughts are real or natural. This film goes well with Coppola's Koyanisqaatsi. Oh, one last thing: Believe it or not, the most bizarre scenes are those that Lynch edited out, including one where Henry opens a drawer in his bureau and finds only a mound of mashed potatoes with peas in it. who hasn't that happened to?

Rating:
Summary: Eraserhead availiable from David Lynch.com as of a few month
Review: It came out a few months ago, and man is it a sweet print. All original aspect ratio, all cleaned up frame by frame by david lynch himself...Hey Lynch, I hate corporations too, but by releasing them with a major label they will be fully accessible to the general public (such as the very fine Blue Velvet Special editon DVD and the Twin peaks first season DVD), and thus you only come off as a snobby elitist. Judging by the slick, masturbatory, desperate attempt to keep up with the hip, artsy film scenesters that was Mullholland Drive, I guess that comes as no surprise. But Lynch's Chodiosity will not ruin Eraserhead for me, even if it doesn't have the deleted scenes.

NOODLEZ 4 EVR

PEAS

ps. tha sound iz BUMP

Rating:
Summary: pencilneck
Review: A mess. Don't waste your time. Two of the most overrated film directors of all time are Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch--oh yeah, Hitchcock is another one.

Jack Nance did a nice turn in Bukowski's Barfly, though. Check it out.