Saw it like a dozen times at the rep cinemas back in the day -- it's a freakin' cryptic masterpiece!

A crowd pleasing blockbuster, just like El Topo.

Eraserhead. No, I don't buy it. Not at all. Sorry, Mr. Lynch. I prefer when you make real movies and stuff.

Tsk, tsk... such a linear view of reality...

Wow, where do I even begin...

I should preface by saying this is my first taste of David Lynch - I figured I should start at the beginning. I knew it would be weird, but I was not expecting this. I like weird movies, but this makes Donnie Darko look like Titanic. Incredibly, incredibly over-the-top in its weirdness. Perhaps a few years ago, this would have bothered me, but I made a conscious effort to watch this film as a film student, not as a movie fan. Although I could easily criticize it for its nonsensical plot and exceptional artiness, I am choosing not to. Why? I really don't know.

Right from the opening frame, the film grabbed me with its uniqueness. The single credit, in formal font, displaying "David Lynch Presents", made it seem more like a dinner invitation than the opening to a film. The opening sequence, right up until the first shot of the factory, is such a weird way to open the picture, and yet, it works. The first line isn't said until, what, fifteen minutes in? But the film never lost my interest or caused me to turn it off - I was mesmerized. Right from the get-go, the film's unique style is reinforced, with the odd white noise present in the background, the long lingering camera shots, and the lead character's incredibly wacky hair style (which, as you can tell, I'm oddly fond of).

The film soon becomes an exercise in trying the audience's patience. Increasingly strange and disturbing scenes interrupt long, slow, awkward moments, but it all seems to fit together. The dinner scene, the mutant baby, the lady in the radiator, the man in the planet - everything is exceptionally weird, but it just seems to work. My personal favourite sequence is a nightmarish scene from where the title is derived - Henry's decapitated head is used as the source for pencil eraser. When it ends, there's no sense of dissatisfaction, but you really don't know what to think. For some, I suppose it could be viewed as overtly indulgent, but I quite liked it.

Jack Nance gives a surprisingly good performance, given the fact that the film was shot over five years; his crazy hair aside, he manages to portray both sadness and anger in equal amounts. The shadowy lighting and stark direction suit the film perfectly, and the strange characters are all realized very well. The grey, smoke-filled, almost (some would say definite) post-apocalyptic environment is pulled off excellently and the disgusting mutant baby is just that: disgusting. It really is an experience to watch it; I wish I could do so at one of its infamous midnight showings. Still, I really have to sleep on it; it's not an easy film to grade.

WTF

Pretty much.

The rest of the crowd seemed into it.

Not much to say - it's disgusting and mesmerizing and fucking surreal.

In heaven, everything is fine...

Hmmmmmm

I actually thought it was more straight-forward and decipherable than I was expecting coming in, I thought I'd be totally lost by the end of it here. What I interpreted: Henry is depressed and alone, his premature baby's crys are torturing him, his wife is no longer there, and he has constant nightmares about his mortality and while awake imagines things like the baby as uglier than they are. At the end after seeing the mistress with someone else, he finally cracks and kills the baby and then himself, and meets cheek girl in heaven, where everything is better like she promised. That's my theory anyways. I actually thought it was a pretty dark and depressing tale... Definitley in a good way though.

You can tell it's a debut for Lynch, he's not the clinical expert that he is in Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and as a result I think this isn't as good as those two (Though that's hardly an insult... those are probably two of the best movies I've seen), but his direction and lighting is still fabulously original and striking here. Nance's performance is pretty underrated, he doesn't say much, but his facial expressions are aces.

I wouldn't say it's an all out masterpiece like the other two films I mentioned from him, but yes, very good movie and a must watch for any film nut.

4.5/5

funny you say this. I took my friend, a fan of El Topo, to see Eraserhead this past weekend, and she did not like it, not even a bit.

Dump her.

I will erase her head

[/kypade]

This, I think, is one of the best films of all time, an impeccable cinematic achievement.

is this Argos, fan of Children of Paradise, or the other Argos?

I think the other.

The other one, of course.

I agree.

I always thought the effects and sound were incredibly impressive considering the technology and cash Lynch had in hand.

Lynch already did something like that involving his talking head, a phone call and a brief bit of old footage on the DVD. It's good because he's a great raconteur, but he'll never do an extensive making of.

a good pro-family movie

93/100, A