While I talk frequently about directors on this website, there's one I rarely talk about here, and that’s David Lynch.
Now, it’s not that Lynch, who recently passed, was not one of the greatest directors who ever lived. He definitely was. In fact, aside from the great Stanley Kubrick, Lynch might be my all-time favorite director. However, the thing is, when I discuss directors here, it’s usually in comparison to other filmmakers, and, quite simply, there was no other filmmaker like David Lynch.
Sure, other directors have been compared to him, as any time a filmmaker makes a creepy, dreamlike story, it's often considered “Lynchian.” Such is the case for the A24 gem, Under the Silver Lake. Or, one of my favorite Takashi Miike movies, Gozu, which has the Lynchian stamp all over it. That said, no matter how similar other movies might have been to his films, there could still only be one David Lynch, and these projects prove it.
Eraserhead
Trying to explain Eraserhead to somebody who’s never seen a Lynch film before is like trying to explain my carpal tunnel to somebody who has never experienced burning pain shooting up and down their arms. In other words, it’s possible, but you have some work to do.
So, I’ll do my best for the uninitiated. Eraserhead is about a man with a weird haircut named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) who lives in an industrial hellscape, and gets his girlfriend pregnant. There’s also a woman with a bubbling face living in his radiator simply named…The Woman in the Radiator. Why is she there? I don’t know, but she’s creepy as hell.
Anyway, the couple have their baby, but it turns out to be a LIZARD CREATURE, and it won’t stop crying!
Did you get all that? No? Well, I didn’t even mention the dinner scene where Spencer cuts into a chicken and it starts squirming and bleeding, or the bizarre dream he has where his head pops off when the Lady in the Radiator sings.
I mean, honestly, what IS this movie? It was Lynch’s first feature-length film, and it's still perplexing audiences, even today.
Which is just one reason why there will never be another David Lynch. A movie like this would have ended most directors' careers, but he made the most surreal independent movie ever, and it endeared him to millions. Who does that? David Lynch, which is why he'll be so incredibly missed.
Dune
Another director I’ve talked about on this site is Denis Villeneuve. And, even though Villeneuve has made several great films, I think it’s safe to say that most people know him best for his two Dune movies.
While I can't take anything from him for making an accessible version of the “unfilmable” Frank Herbert novel, I will say that I admire Lynch’s version a little bit more. That’s only because as somebody who read the book, I feel like his better encapsulates the overall “weirdness” of the novel more than Villeneuve’s adaptation.
Don’t get me wrong. Villeneuve went weird when he had to. However, I think Lynch’s movie packs more punch in condensing this sprawling story into one film.
The story of warring families over the sand planet, Arrakis, our hero, Paul Atreides, might just be the messiah…or not. It’s never made clear. He also falls in love with one of the inhabitants of the planet, drinks some psychedelic water, and rides a sandworm. So, it’s like the book…but maybe not as weird, which is a little surprising, given its director.
But, that’s the thing. Lynch himself didn’t like the movie. In fact, both fans of the novel as well as the director's fans often disapprove of it. That said, only Lynch could make a movie adaptation this weird. Yes, Villeneuve’s Dune is probably “better,” but without Lynch’s bizarre adaptation, would we even have anything to compare it to?
Twin Peaks
Even as a kid I could tell you that Lynch changed television. Twin Peaks was all anybody talked about back in 1990, and even my beloved The Simpsons riffed on the popular show.
It would take me until my 30s to actually watch it for myself, and it’s even better than I could have ever imagined. The story of the murder of a homecoming queen, Twin Peaks is one part mystery, one part horror story, and about a million parts fever dream.
The characters are great, but what’s even more interesting is the town of Twin Peaks itself. The show lasted for two seasons, and by the end of it, you don’t know what to believe…and that’s because Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger.
Thankfully, it returned for a third season on Showtime in 2017, which added even more mysteries, but also tied up some loose ends.
There's also a prequel film called Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which is about the last few days before Laura Palmer’s death. It didn’t get the best reviews at the time–probably because it has a different tone from the show–but it’s now considered one of Lynch’s best movies.
All of this is to say, for all the people who haven’t watched Lynch’s movies, Twin Peaks, as odd as it is, is probably one of his most accessible projects, which is really saying something since nobody else could make a series as weird as this.
The Straight Story
Not all of Lynch's movies were rated-R. The Elephant Man was PG, and Dune was PG-13.
That said, I'm quite confident that only a director like Lynch could make a hard R movie like Blue Velvet or Lost Highway, and then also a G movie like The Straight Story. And for Disney, no less!
This biographical drama is about a man named Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) who drives his lawn mower across states to see his brother who recently suffered a stroke.
Like the clever title suggests, the story is pretty straightforward. It's just an old dude riding his tractor. However, most of this film's strengths lie in its beautiful scenery and its easy-going pacing.
It may seem like a multitude of directors could have done this movie, could they also have directed Inland Empire, or Wild at Heart?
No. The answer is no. The Straight Story proves that Lynch could tell a, well, straight story. He just didn't feel like it. Except on rare occasions, that is.
Mulholland Drive
Lastly, I want to close on my favorite Lynch movie, Mulholland Drive.
This is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen in my entire life. In fact, it’s so scary that it landed on our list of the 50 best horror movies of all time. Truly chilling stuff.
However, a lot of people will tell you that it is not a horror movie. They'll tell you that it's a thriller/mystery. And, why not? The story concerns an amnesiac (Laura Elena Harring) and a woman seeking to be an actress (Naomi Watts) trying to help regain the amnesiac’s memory.
That said, just like some of the scariest moments I've ever seen were in Twin Peaks, the same could be said about Mulholland Drive, which arguably has the greatest jump scare in cinema history.
This might be why Lynch can never be matched. He can make a highly regarded, and surreal masterpiece like Mulholland Drive, but it can also contain one of the greatest jump scares of all time. Because that was just who Lynch was.
Always enigmatic, constantly engaging, and brilliant in every way. I was just describing Mulholland Drive, but those comments could easily double for David Lynch himself.
The landscape of cinema will never be the same without him.
