Rating: Summary: nothing like it Review: It is one of those movies were the images stick with you forever
Rating: Summary: Wonderfully bizarre! Review: One could describe the setting as grim - urban decay at its worst with a strongly interwoven theme of sterile sexuality. The droning soundtrack adds to the mood of claustrophobia. A spineless protagonist sporting an astonisghing hairstyle finds himself trapped in a world without logic, a land of dreams where anything can happen. Cooked chickens rhythmically spurt out blood at the dinner table, the Lady in the Radiator systematically squashes blobs of semen (life/) in her dance routine and an E.T. lookalike, mutant baby explodes on screen. Don't look for a conventional narrative. Rather the film represents an exploration of post-modernistic themes. Don't walk in with expectations. You'll find sexism, comedy, contradictions - anything is possible. This is not a simple film. Full marks to Eraserhead for its unconventional perspective.
Rating: Summary: Must have missed the point Review: I must have missed the point behind this movie...I'm not even sure what it was about. A lot of the time I was trying to decipher the confusing images on the screen, trying to figure out what they were supposed to be. I kept checking my watch wishing the damned thing would end. In the end, it seemed like nothing but an artsy-fartsy wank-a-thon. Can't understand why so many people think it's BRILLIANT.
Rating: Summary: "No bigger than your fist... and they're man-made!" Review: I can't add much more to the great things people have already said about this movie, but maybe, the more of us that rave about it, the sooner it will be released on DVD.This is, hands-down, my favorite movie. I've seen it at least a half-dozen times, and it still has the same effect on me. In addition to all the elements of the film that have already been stated in previous reviews, the surreal imagery is so captivating that it transports me to another place. The industrial sounds of steam and trains. That apartment building that seems to exist in the middle of a coal yard or something. When Henry leaves his building to walk anywhere, there is no sign of life, streets, people or anything... just barren industrial wasteland.The sounds are all so expertly varied so as not to turn into a drone, while conveying a consistent opressive quality. This film operates on so many levels... it tells a story, conveys real-world fears... we laugh at Henry for his weirdness and his misfortune, while deeply identifying with him as the "good guy" in a world that's even weirder than he is. All this is done with visual and sound imagery that is nothing short of artistic genius without being pretentious or overblown. This film is much too important to be unavailable.
Rating: Summary: Chilling Review: This is a film all about sin and guilt. David Lynch is at his surreal best here; the late John Nance brilliantly portrays Henry, a lonely man who finds himself in the situation of having to look after his ex-girlfriends' (extremely) premature "baby" - an appropriate symbol of his original sin. Henry tries to be a good father, but is increasingly drawn to a dancing girl in the radiator (who represents suicide). This is a very stunning work of art.
Rating: Summary: Disturbing Review: A very dark and extremely disturbing film, that is so unpleasant it is almost unwatchable. About a third of the people in the screening I attended walked out during the film. Only a macabre curiosity kept me there, but I have no intention of watching it again. Films this unpleasant are unnecessary.
Rating: Summary: Eraserhead Review: If only one film had to be chosen to show in film school, this would have to be on the top of the list. Eraserhead fills the screen with enough visual sexual puns to give Freud a nightmare in this offbeat David Lynch classic. It is an amazing banquet of tightly controlled images that bombard the senses. From the Man in the Planet's release and fruitless attempt to "pull back" to poor Henry's vain effort to shake off the responsibility that he's inadvertently stepped in, this film takes the viewer down a very different sort of rabbit hole. Alice definitely doesn't live here. The audience follows Henry into his forced marriage and watches him as he turns on the spit of his actions' consequence. This universal tale of a moment of pleasure and its inevitable outcome can make you squirm! Particularly potent is the dinner scene with Mary's parents where Henry learns that "there's a baby". From the moment Henry arrives the audience is bombarded with claustrophobic visual references to birth, responsibility for actions and to ultimately sexual desire turned rancid as Mrs. X in a feverish display attempts to seduce Henry's not-so-attractive personae. But it is Mr. X who gives us the male perspective with his soliloquy of building a life out of thin air as he describes putting in the pipes (to control everything) and then going numb from it. He fatefully points the way for Henry when he describes massaging his numb arm back from its dead state. And then, in a supreme act of irony, Mr. X hands Henry the knife, bidding him to do what he can't. But poor Henry's attention is riveted only on the near future as he hallucinates (or does he?) the chickens oozing afterbirth. In the end, the audience is left with hope, but not until Henry earns his "Horrible Henry" moniker. But it is the hope of irony. Does Henry pay? Or is he doomed and are we all? In heaven, everything is fine-or so we're led to believe. Greatness in film is in the creator, not the accounting office. Shot on a shoestring, Eraserhead transcends. Once cannot imagine the production to be any more lavish. This is a must-see for any serious film student. Its dark and quirky imagery and it's tightly controlled editing shows that real genius is not a substitute for meagbuck budgets.
Rating: Summary: eraserhead Review: Quite possibly the most thought provoking film of all time. I could watch this movie a thousand times to try to derive its full meaning. No film has or will ever capture my attention like this one has with its hidden plot and symbolism. (Unless of course David Lynch decides to return to his roots). I thought Twin Peaks was off beat until i saw Lost Highway. I thought Lost Highway was twisted and perfectly vague in its story telling, until i saw Eraserhead. Let's just say that Eraserhead makes Lost Highway seem like The Wizard of Oz.
Rating: Summary: In Heaven, Everything Is Fine Review: Anyone who is interested in the possibilities of film should see this astounding work, David Lynch's first, and in my opinion one of the all-time greats. It is the antithesis of the usual Hollywood experience where the viewer is usually spoon-fed a cliched, formulaic plot. In this case the film is what the viewer makes of it - I believe most, if not all of the "story" takes place in the protagonist's mind. Perhaps it's a glimpse into the mind of someone slowly going insane? Perhaps not. No matter - you actually have to think and decide for yourself. Eerie, haunting, unsettling and memorable, Eraserhead is nevertheless extremely funny in parts, which keeps the viewer off-guard. A unique experience and unlike any other film I have ever seen.
Rating: Summary: Kubrick's favorite film Review: I read the book Lynch on Lynch and in it David relays a story about how Stanley Kubrick invited some friends over in the late seventies to watch his "favorite film" and when the lights went down Eraserhead flickered up on the screen. Praise doesnt get much higher than that. For those interested in immersing themselves into a wholly realized artistic vision track down a copy of this bizarro. I love it!
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