The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2021: The Elephant Man (1980), directed by David Lynch

 

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune - "Elephant Talk" by King Crimson

       Not everyone makes that jump from the minors to the major leagues. Josh Trank was an indie darling after the release of his film Chronicle, Disney was ready to give him one of the keys to the Star Wars castle, but then he took his first step out of the gate and he fell into a fantastic hole, gone forever until last year when he showed up with that Capone movie no one talks about. Contrast that with the Russo Brothers, directors of those paintball episodes on Community, and parlayed that into smacking life-size action figures around at Marvel. The movie business, like all businesses, is shitty and terrible, and to succeed in it depends a lot on how well you handle yourself under extreme pressure from the waves of bullshit. Trank couldn’t handle it and the Russos could, and we can see the results.

       Then we have David Lynch. When he released his directorial debut Eraserhead in 1977 it quickly became one of the most successful independent films in the country, and big studios came calling, and yet it doesn’t feel like he ever stopped making indie films. The budgets grew larger of course, the actors more prestigious, he even tried his hand at a franchise, but David Lynch’s films always felt like David Lynch. He stuck to his guns, made the films he wanted to make (besides Dune I guess) and now he’s regarded as one of the great talents in American cinema, so all you young directors keep a stiff upper lip or whatever. So with only a few movies left to go before this blog closes its book on this icon of moving pictures, this year the Marathon is going to shine the spotlight on David Lynch’s big break. The film that proved Eraserhead wasn’t just a flash in the pan but the harbinger of a great talent. It’s still got weird stuff though, because hey, studios aren’t going to take that much of a risk.

       Released in 1980, The Elephant Man was written by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergen and David Lynch, directed by David Lynch and produced by Jonathan Sanger though Brooksfilms, based on “The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences” by Frederick Treves and “The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity” by Ashley Montagu. Anthony Hopkins plays Frederick Treves,, a young up-and-coming doctor taking in the local carnival when he comes across the greatest ‘freak’ of them all -- The Elephant Man, played by John Hurt, possessed of such serious physical deformities that it’s a miracle that he’s alive, as ironic as it might be to use that word in this case. Initially Treves is only interested in The Elephant Man, real name John Merrick, as a curiosity, something to trot out to his friends in the medical community as a example of how fucked up human anatomy can get, but as he spends time with Merrick he learns that this is not some abomination of nature, but a gentle, intelligent young man. Treves is touched by Merrick’s noble spirit, and as the story of the Elephant Man makes its way through the London media more people get to know John Merrick, and are changed in much the same way. Of course for all of those people who can see beyond Merrick’s appearance there are many who don’t, and they’ll do whatever it takes to see that last little spark of light within Merrick’s heart is snuffed out forever. Whether they will or not, however, remains to be seen.

       The Elephant Man occupies an interesting place in David Lynch’s development as a filmmaker. More strait-laced than Eraserhead before it, not as ‘compromised’ by outside voices as Dune supposedly was after it, Elephant Man is at this crossroads that ends up making it feel unique to the filmmaker’s canon. There are aspects of the film that are distinctly Lynchian; The editing on the dream sequences, there’s the repeated focus on industry, the use of overwhelming silence, all things that would return in later films, it feels less like a predecessor to Blue Velvet and more like a long-lost Universal Monster movie, with the unfortunate John Merrick feeling perfectly natural alongside Frankenstein’s Monster and the Phantom of the Opera. Which to me is a treat, as it’s not often that we Lynch be so straight-forward in his storytelling, and so when they do touch upon those more standard Lynchian moments they stand out all the more.

        It’s not often you see David Lynch doing period pieces either, although the steel-and-coal industrial hell that is Victorian London in this film is not far removed from the world of Eraserhead. We don’t get any big money scenic shots, in fact the film feels rather claustrophobic at times, but the scenes we do get are very well-crafted. It really does give the feeling of late 19th London, a character walks down a rain soaked street and you can almost smell the odor of human feces and rotting fish. The interiors look very good as well, sans Merrick’s bare bones room. Certainly an aspect of the film I wish we got even more of, but then I’ve always had a soft spot for that aesthetic.  

       Of course when you have a movie called The Elephant Man audiences expect an Elephant Man, and David Lynch and designer Christopher Tucker deliver on that. I mentioned the similarity between Merrick and the old Universal monsters, but John Hurt is transformed in a way that Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney never were, I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you it’s him in the make-up if I didn’t know beforehand. As with Karloff before him though, it is really the strength of Hurt’s acting that brings this interpretation of John Merrick to life, drawing the audience in with only one eye and his voice. There’s also some great work here by Hannah Gordon (who plays Treves’ wife Ann), Freddie Jones (as the properly Lynchian freak show proprietor Mr. Bytes), and of course Anthony Hopkins as Fred Treves, but it is principally Hurt’s game to win, and he nails it.

       If there is a problem with the film then, it’s one of momentum. While the basic idea of Merrick going from being regarded as a subhuman creature to being favored by the Queen and all is solid, there’s no real drive to it. Merrick is understandably a passive character, so things just sort of happen around him.which ends up feeling like you’re waiting around for things to resolve themselves. The greatest source of drama in this drama film comes from Mr. Bytes, which ties into a subplot with the night guardsman of the hospital that the film largely takes place in, but even that seems to be over as soon as it begins. There’s not much in the way of character development beyond Merrick either; Plenty of characters go from hating Merrick to liking him, but the only one to be given significant focus is Treves, who is conflicted over his friendship with Merrick and his nagging doubts that he isn’t any different than Bytes in the end. Except that doesn’t really go anywhere? He’s upset over it in one scene but then never brings it up again, and he never really acts any different. The film makes a big deal about this mirroring the actual events of Merrick’s life and that’s fine, there’s no need to invent a love interest for the Elephant Man or something like that, but it does have this sedate quality that demands you fall into its pace more so than other drama films. Even other dramas by Lynch in this case, as The Straight Story has a similar energy level and yet because the film is predicated on the journey the audience doesn’t feel like it’s just waiting around for something to happen.

       That being said, I’m giving The Elephant Man the recommendation. It’s not the film I would choose to showcase David Lynch the auteur, but it’s a solid film and the performances, the make-up design, the cinematography, the music are all good. Moreover it’s a significant film, one that shows that Eraserhead wasn’t a fluke and that David Lynch was a director to watch out for, as long as he was given the tools and the opportunity to succeed. So if you’re in a chill mood this Halloween, maybe up for a good cry, or if you’re actually Karl Pilkington, you should pop in The Elephant Man and see how the night goes. You just might enjoy yourself.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2020: The Straight Story (1999), directed by David Lynch

 

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Arthritis Blues", by Ramblin' Jack Elliot

      Now we can’t revisit directors on this Marathon without bringing up David Lynch, and I mean why not? Of all the directors that frequent this blog, and because of my tendency to return to the well that’s quite a few, he’s one of if not the most successful one of the bunch. I mean when you kick off your feature film career with a cult hit like Eraserhead, and then follow it up with a mainstream hit like The Elephant Man then you’ve already done better than 70 percent of Hollywood. Of course there was a bit of a stumbling block in Dune, so-called in my opinion, but then Lynch struck gold with Blue Velvet, and again with Twin Peaks, which has since become the most enduring work of his entire film career. Again, he could have stopped right after that and still be considered one of the best filmmakers in the country, maybe get a head start on that whole transcendental meditation shit, but he kept on going all the way up to the mid 00’s, even getting another home run with Mulholland Drive before it was all over. Last year we covered Lynch’s first step into the 90s with Wild at Heart, a love story, a rock ‘n’ roll story, a crime thriller and something about the Wizard of Oz all wrapped up with a big Nicholas Cage looking bow to make sure it could never be mistaken for normal. This year, then, how about we see how David Lynch closed out the decade?

Released in 1999, The Straight Story written by John Roach and Mary Sweeney, directed by David Lynch and distributed through Buena Vista Pictures, which indeed makes this a Disney movie made by the same guy who did Blue Velvet. Richard Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, a 73 year old man living in the sleepy town of Laurens, Iowa with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek). Alvin is getting up there in years; He can’t see too well, he can’t move too well and his penchant for sausages and cigars probably isn’t helping either. When he gets the call that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a stroke however, he decides that come hell or high water that he’s going to see Lyle again. So he buys some supplies, hitches up a wagon to his lawnmower and sets off on his journey. It’s a long way from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, especially if you’re only going about 2 miles an hour, but Alvin wants to make the journey under his own power, and that’s exactly what he’s gonna do. Based on a true story, or at least a Straight one.

Where do Lynch’s interests lie, as a filmmaker? What is his style? Most people I think, myself included in earlier reviews, would mention something like dreams or the concept of schmaltzy sentimentalism hiding the true dark, gruesome world that we know. Kyle Machlachlan and Laura Dern’s storybook romance derailed by a severed ear in a field, Laura Palmer’s murder revealing the complex web of sin in this small Northwest town, and so on and on. An inference perhaps, but perhaps even Lynch felt like he was getting too deep into the weeds in that regard, as The Straight Story is the most unapologetically sentimental movie of his career. There are moments of darkness and Lynchian surrealism sure, the Deer Lady scene comes to mind, but the film isn’t mired in it as other Lynch films are. They inform the characters as memories and regrets, but the characters are still human, and in the world that Lynch here has created humans are essentially good. It’s a refreshingly calm, sincerely humanist film from a director whose previous attempts at portraying such things often come across as parodical or satirical, whether that is his intention or not.

Much of that has to do with the titular Alvin Straight, played by Richard Farnsworth. Not since your grandpa have you seen a man who embodies gentle warmth and wisdom like Alvin Straight here, the pinnacle of Lynch’s fascination with the Midwest, so even the simplest of tasks gain an increased importance. What will he do if the lawnmower breaks? What will he do if he runs out of food? Hell, how’s he gonna walk? When you’ve got a movie that’s driven by one character you’ve got to make sure that one person can handle it, and I think Farnsworth manages to pull that off.

If you go into David Lynch movies expecting all that crazy stuff however, you’re probably going to be disappointed in The Straight Story. In fact not much stuff happens at all, dark or otherwise, until you count past regrets and the ever present fear of death . Some traveling, some talking, and plenty of montage shots of harvesters set to Angelo Badalamenti’s folk-inspired score. For those who need action in their movies The Straight Story will be nigh on intolerable, but if you’re in the mood to chill out and just take in the mellow atmosphere then I think you’ll be able to get into this film pretty well.

Not the best review in the world, but The Straight Story gets the recommendation. While David Lynch would get back to the weird stuff with his last two theatrical films, The Straight Story manages to invoke Lynch’s style while at the same time feeling unlike anything he had ever done before. A simple story, simple characters, going in a straight line towards a simple goal. Unflinchingly, unapologetically, and it makes for perhaps the most out-and-out enjoyable film that Lynch has made.that has been covered on this blog. Maybe not something you want to break out at a Halloween party, but I think if you’re feeling out of it or stressed out about the world around you (for whatever reason) this might help even you out a bit. I’m just sorry I’m too stressed to give it its due diligence as a reviewer.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2019: Wild at Heart (1990), directed by David Lynch

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Love Me Tender", by Elvis Presley

       Sometimes you just get into those kinds of moods, you know? You get a sudden urge to eat salty foods or watch ice hockey, and the feelings won’t subside until you bite the bullet and do the thing. So it is with me and the films of one Mr. David Lynch, guru of transcendental meditation and all around weird guy. It’s been a while since we last saw him, Blue Velvet in Marathon ‘17 to be precise, and I knew from the moment I was crafting this year’s list that he needed to make an appearance. The question was, what film to go for? The Elephant Man? Inland Empire? A ‘proper’ review of Eraserhead after all these years? I mean it’s not like we’re spoiled for choice, Lynch’s career isn’t defined by a Hitchcockian work ethic, but a choice still has to be made. What to choose, what to choose…?

       So I just went with the one with Nic Cage in it.

       Our story begins in Cape Fear, somewhere on the border between North and South Carolina. Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern) are just about the most prototypical of young lovers that you’re ever gonna see, a fact which infuriates Lula’s mother Marietta Fortune, so much so that she hires someone to try and kill him. It fails, although Sailor ends up in prison a few months for manslaughter, and when the release date finally rolls around he and Lula ditch Cape Fear and hit the road for sunny California, the land of hopes and dreams. Marietta Fortune takes that about as well as she did before, only this time she goes to a man named Marcellus Santos, a man intimately connected with both Lula and Sailor’s past and one with varied, dangerous connections. Will Sailor and Lula’s love managed to withstand the machinations of Lula’s mother and Marcellus Santos, or will the yellow brick road lead them down the path to ruin? And yes, that is a Wizard of Oz reference, one of approximately 5 hundred you’ll be hearing when you watch this movie.

       With critical darling Blue Velvet still only a couple years old, and Twin Peaks taking the television world by storm, Lynch was arguably at the peak of his popularity in 1990, and it shows in Wild Heart’s production. Not only do we have Angelo Badalamenti working his magic on the score, but the movie feels absolutely stuffed with talent, both new and old additions to the world of Lynch. Nic Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Zabriskie, Jack Nance, and that’s just a portion of the folks in the opening credits. It’s like Lynch had suddenly received a big fat inheritance from a deceased relative and this was the result of the subsequent shopping spree. 

       Ironically though, aside from Dune, Wild at Heart might be the least Lynchian Lynch that I’ve covered so far. Sure, you’ve got the blending of the old and the modern, bizarre cast of characters that speaking nonsense, the veneer of placidity that masks the grimy, horrific truth that are staples of many Lynch works, but not presented quite the same way. In films such as Lost Highway, the main character’s dialogue could damn near fit on one sheet of paper; In Wild at Heart it feels as if there’s almost constant dialogue, Sailor and Lula can’t seem to exist in each other’s company without delving into each other’s most innermost thoughts. Rather than the long, pregnant pauses of Mulholland Dr., Wild at Heart is a wild (natch) beast; Scenes will suddenly explode with energy, music blaring, what have you, we constantly cut away from scenes for flashbacks and such, about every other one actually being relevant to the story. It’s a different kind of Lynch behind the camera here, or at least it feels like it, and this Lynch likes to play things fast and loose.

       Angelo Badalamenti returns to music duty this time around as I said, and in many ways it’s just as eclectic as the film itself. From the smokey, smooth jazz straight out of Twin Peaks to death metal in the blink of an eye, with some stops at big band, blues, garage rock and folk along the way. All stuff that I enjoy by the way, so even if it does get a bit herky-jerky it’s probably one of my favorite soundtracks for a David Lynch film so far. 

       I’m not sure how I feel about Wild at Heart though, if I’m being honest. Sometimes it feels like a continuation of Blue Velvet, where the innocent ‘dream world’ our characters attempt to exist in is intruded upon by the ‘real world’, with Sailor and Lula’s constant references to the Wizard of Oz (a story which ultimately reveals itself to be a dream) being the obvious nod to that. Other times it feels like some kind of ketamine-laced fairy tale, complete with evil mother figure, as our protagonists take the archetypal journey, face the archetypal trials and learn the archetypal lessons in hallucinatory and dissociative ways. Which on paper sounds fine, but in execution it can come off as tone deaf in areas that he should and has treated seriously, and bizarrely gooy in others, not in the way we’ve come to expect.It’s almost as if Wild at Heart was an attempt by Lynch to create his own Raising Arizona and the styles just do not mesh well together.

       Of course a lot of people were sold just on the fact that the words ‘Nic Cage’ and ‘David Lynch’ were in the same sentence, and yes, if you ever wanted to see the star of National Treasure belting out Elvis Presley songs then this is the movie of your dreams. Other than that it’s actually a rather mellow performance from him, perhaps because he’s working next to amazing actors like Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe that he doesn’t need to take things off the rails. Still, listening to the guy from Con Air talking in an exaggerated Elvis drawl for 2 hours is something you need to see to believe.

       A magic realist road trip crime thriller romance movie. Even now I’m still not sure what to make of it, but I guess if it’s still got me thinking about it now then that’s a good sign. Wild at Heart gets the recommendation from me, for better or worse you can always count on David Lynch to provide a unique cinematic experience. Grab your favorite snakeskin jacket and a bowl of popcorn and treat yourself to a weird Halloween.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2014: Mulholland Drive (2001), directed by David Lynch

     

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Hollywood Nights", by Bob Seger

     Way back in the Time Bandits section, I mentioned that a lot of directors try to be quirky and weird, but very few prove it in their work. Terry Gilliam is one such fellow, and David Lynch is definitely another. Painter, musician, practitioner of transcendental meditation, David Lynch has blazed a trail of success in spite of the often strange, surrealistic quality of his films. From cult nightmare Eraserhead to science-fiction epic Dune and the wildly popular crime thriller TV series Twin Peaks, there is no mistaking the unique look and feel of a David Lynch project, that persistent tension that hangs in every scene, the sense of discomfort. What better way to spend the scariest day of the year than by being really uncomfortable.

      Trying to explain the story of Mulholland Drive is like explain the plot of every other David Lynch movie: pointless. The cause and effect in Lynch movies are muddled, scenes and characters arrive, disappear and change form constantly, and plot points are often unresolved. Like a dream, really. What I will say is that the film opens with a beautiful woman (Laura Harring) who is involved in a mysterious car crash on Mulholland Drive in Hollywood, California. Miraculously she survives, but now suffers from...amnesia! (#futuramareference) Ms. Amnesia decides to hide out in an apartment, which just so happens to be the new home of Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), who has arrived in Hollywood to become famous actress. Becoming fast friends, the two women decide to investigate Ms. Amnesia (now known as Rita) and her accident, to attain some clues as to her identity. Throw in some sex, murder, lies, revenge, and mysteries, cover it up with a bit of sand and take a lot of cough syrup and you got yourself.

      So yeah, David Lynch films, like those of Godzilla, are very hit-or-miss kinds of affairs. You either ride along with along with the weirdness or get consumed by it. If you’re a fan of surrealism, or if you’ve seen a Lynch film before, then you’ll know what to expect, and there’s plenty of things about Mulholland Drive to like (people who have seen it before know what parts I’m talking about). For the uninitiated, this is often considered one of his better films, so if you’re going to start anywhere it might as well be here. If you’re looking to take a trip through your psyche this Halloween, consider taking a ride down to Mulholland Drive.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2017 - Blue Velvet (1986), directed by David Lynch

So that does it for another Marathon. Maybe even the last one, depending on how this net neutrality thing ends up going. Either way, I'd like to thank everyone out there for reading, whether you were a new visitor or a regular fan it means a lot to know that I'm not just screaming into the void. Leave a comment, spread the word, do whatever you'd like, and I'll try and get more content out more regularly. See ya space cowboys.  

The Trailer
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The Appropriate Tune: "Blue Velvet", by Bobby Vinton

     As of this writing, third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks (commonly titled as The Return) has come and gone, possibly closing the book on one of the strangest and most wonderful experiments in television history. When it appeared on television screens in the early 90s there was nothing really like it, serialized storytelling, surrealist filmmaking techniques, a level of sexuality and violence that seemed more suited to HBO than ABC, and it completely rewrote the book on what could be done in the medium. Sure it only lasted two seasons, and the season without Lynch at the helm is spotty at best, but it’s influence on TV cannot be overstated. Without Twin Peaks there would be no X-Files, no Lost or American Horror Story or Legion or Fargo (although give the Coens some credit), or likely any of these weird shows that we all love so much. All because Twin Peaks, a series predicated on the fact that David Lynch really wanted to make fun of soap operas, opened the door.

     David Lynch is certainly no stranger to the blog, in fact I believe he’s overtaken David Cronenberg for most films that I’ve covered. The very first Halloween list on this site, before the Marathon even, featured Eraserhead among its ranks, and since then Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Dune has joined it. Twin Peaks S3 dropped so I knew I was going to cover another of his films and I had already seen his Twin Peaks film Fire Walk With Me, so which one would work? The Elephant Man, Lynch’s studio debut? Inland Empire, his final feature film? A proper writeup of Eraserhead? No, after having my mind blown in the aftermath of Twin Peaks, there was only one film that felt right. A movie that would become the thematic template for David Lynch’s filmography from that day forward. It’s time for a little bit of that Blue Velvet.

     After his father suffers a medical emergency while watering his idyllic suburban lawn, young Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle Maclachlan moves back to his idyllic suburban hometown of Lumberton to take over his father’s hardware store. It’s a rough situation, going back to a town that all your friends have left behind, which suddenly takes a turn for the bizarre when he discovers a severed human ear while walking in an abandoned field. He delivers the ear to the police of course, but when he tries to learn more about the circumstances of the case, he is barred by police protocol (this is kind of their wheelhouse after all). So he decides to team up with Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), daughter of the detective working on the case and potential love interest, and start up an investigation of their own. If they were a few years younger, you’d think this was some kind of Stand By Me spinoff.

     Anyway, the clues seem to lead to a woman named Dorothy Vallens, a lounge singer at a local bar called The Slow Club. Jeffrey, riding high on his little detective kick starts taking greater and greater risks to learn more about Dorothy, until eventually he’s resorted to hiding in her closet. Voyeurism has its disadvantages however, as it is in that closet that Jeffrey discovers the terrible truth: The ear belongs to Dorothy’s husband who, along with their son, has been kidnapped by a criminal known as Frank, a violent, drug-addicted psychopath that has been using Dorothy’s family as blackmail to entrap her into horrific sex slavery. Jeff’s a good guy, he wants to help, but as he get involved with Dorothy he finds himself drawn farther away from idyllic Lumberton into a world he doesn’t recognize. A world of corruption and misery, where reason breaks down and the differences between pain and pleasure become indistinguishable. The world of Blue Velvet, and there doesn’t seem to be a way out.

     One of the major themes of Eraserhead was the disconnected, dehumanizing atmosphere that modern post industrial urban society can have on people, and two films later Lynch would revisit that idea and transform that disconnect into a full-blown dichtomy. At first glance Lumberton seems too good to be true, a saccharine-sweet depiction of suburbia straight out of Leave It to Beaver, and yet it is clearly an illusion. A dream that we make up in order to distract us from the real world, which quite often ends up becoming a nightmare. Situations seem unreal, people behave oddly and irrationally, and we as the audience are forced to confront things that we might not want to, much like Jeffrey does as he sinks deeper in Frank’s world. Lynch would double down on this in later works, but Blue Velvet is really the film that defined who David Lynch was as a creator and filmmaker.

     As I’ve said the film is about contrasts, the one between the Lumberton that we believe in and the one that really exists, and the most visceral is that difference between Jeffrey’s relationship with Sandy and the one with Dorothy. With Sandy, Jeffrey is the cooler older man. Their relationship plays out about as sweetly and naively as an old Archie comic, kisses, dates, the whole nine yards. With Dorothy, Jeffrey is the inexperienced one, both in sexuality and worldview. While their relationship is more intimate, it isn’t one of love. Dorothy has been so abused that it is ingrained in her psyche and Jeffrey, while he wants to help her, is completely out of his depth on how, and ends up becoming drawn into the conflict with Frank. When the two worlds eventually collide, as they do in Lynch films, there is chaos. The two worlds, Frank and Jeffrey, Sandy and Dorothy, cannot coexist. They all just fall apart.

     Much like Crash, Blue Velvet is a very sexually-charged film, but unlike Cronenberg Lynch doesn’t really go for eroticism. There is sex in the film, yes, there is nudity, but it always contrasted by this underlying foundation of violence and misery. When Jeffrey and Dorothy are in bed together and she begs him to strike her, it’s not played as some sort of fetish game. This is, in context, real, and rather than possible satisfaction you just feel miserable. This isn’t David Lynch’s only instance of using sex in this manner, one need only look at the history of Laura Palmer, but he really strives to make things as tragic and uncomfortable as they can get in Blue Velvet. If you’re someone who’s been a victim of sexual violence, I’d seriously advise caution before trying this one out.

     If you love Twin Peaks, and it’s one of my favorite TV shows of all time so you know I do, then it’s almost a requirement to try out Blue Velvet. It’s got Kyle Maclachlan as a goody two-shoes crime solver, it’s got Laura Dern, it’s got an Angelo Badalamenti score (his first ever collaboration with Lynch, in fact), all it needs is Bob poking out from behind a counch and you’d think it was a prequel. If you don’t love Twin Peaks but love disturbing psycho-sexual crime thrillers, then this might also be the film for you. Either way if you go for Blue Velvet this Halloween is definitely going to be a wild ride, which hopefully won’t leave you beaten up along the side of the highway. Remember to keep an eye out for robins, and -

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!   

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2015: Dune (1984), directed by David Lynch

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Spice Up Your Life", by Spice Girls

     The word epic gets thrown around a lot these days. often by people who don’t really understand what the word actually means. ‘These french fries are epic!’, they might say, or ‘That new Taylor Swift sure was epic!’. This is, however, incorrect. Epic, or an epic as you might say, carries much more weight than some synonym for the word cool. When something is truly epic, the very earth beneath our feet changes, armies of thousands clash against each other, the sky roars with thunder at the love, the honor, the betrayal which we as the audience behold as the story plays out. The Iliad and the Odyssey were epics. Der Ring des Nibelungen was an epic. La Morte d'Arthur was an epic. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was an epic. Dune, Frank Herbert’s sci-fi treatise on religion, ecology, philosophy and science is also an epic, and in 1984, after Alejandro Jodorowsky’s grand vision for a film adaptation fell through (check out the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune for more info on that), movie producer/robber baron Dino de Laurentiis brought in then hot young maverick director David Lynch (known at that point for his critically acclaimed 1980 film The Elephant Man) to try and salvage the project. The movie, unfortunately, was a money sink as well as a commercial failure, and Lynch vowed never to do anything nearly as coherent ever again. One of the most famous science-fiction stories of all time, forever associated with a 3 out of 5.

     We’re still going to talk about it though.

     Even attempting to summarize the events of Dune is a bit of a trial, but I will try to do the minimum to the best of my abilities. In the year 10,191, mankind has expanded into a vast galactic corporate state known as the CHOAM, or Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles, which is ruled by the Emperor Shaddam IV and the Great Houses, as well as the Spacing Guild (a private organization who hold the monopoly on FTL travel) and the Bene Gesserit (a sisterhood who have managed to clandestinely position themselves in various positions of influence through their unique powers of perception and persuasion). Although CHOAM is spread out over hundreds of worlds, the most important planet of them all is the desert world Arrakis, colloquially known as Dune. It is on this harsh world of Dune, where water is so scarce that the people (known as the Fremen) have to wear devices known as ‘still suits’ to save and reclaim the moisture exuded by the body and gargantuan beasts known as sandworms stalk the vast seas of sand, that melange (otherwise known as spice) is located. In fact, it is the only place in the known universe where melange exists, and it is the restorative, psychotropic and psychoactive properties of that spice which makes FTL travel possible. Without spice, CHOAM could not exist, and as such is easily the most valuable product on any world. It also makes your eyes

     Within the Great Houses, there are two which are locked in a blood feud, the dastardly Harkonnens of Geidi Prime (led by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) and the relatively noble Atreides of Caladan (led by Duke Leto). The Harkonnens, as we learn at the start of the book and the movie, have formulated a plot to assassinate Leto and wipe out the Atreides once and for all. By relinquishing their own claim on Arrakis, they push the Emperor to call upon Leto to take it over, which appears to be an obvious ploy given its tremendous value. Expecting an attack from a Harkonnen assassin, Leto and his staff would never expect the killer to come from a trusted adviser, something which they couldn’t plan for no matter how many guards they have. Leto would die, the House of Atreides destroyed, and the Harkonnen would then have free reign over the mining operations of Dune and all the power and influence that control of the spice trade provides. It is destined to be.

     Meanwhile, Paul Atreides, son of the Duke Leto and his royal concubine Jessica (of the Bene Gesserit), has reached the ripe old age of 15, tempered with all the Bene Gesserit teaching and Mentat (basically clairvoyant assassins/advisors) training that his family and friends can provide. He also might be the Kwisatz Haderach, the Bene Gesserit messianic figure that is meant to lead the empire into a new Golden Age, if those prophetic dreams and the gom jabbar is anything to go by. He may not want to accept the responsibility thrust upon him (and really, what heroic protagonist does?), but once his dad kicks the bucket, it will be up to him to learn the ways of the mysterious Fremen, destroy the Harkonnens, avenge his father and reclaim the throne of Arrakis once and for all. When you control the flow of spice you control the Universe, and Paul is going to own the whole damn thing.

     If you might have guessed from just that bit of exposition, this is the biggest problem with Dune: So much shit to keep track of that none of it ever really makes sense. Frank Herbert did a fantastic job of creating an entire universe, with its own unique societies and religions and political systems, and when you can sit down with the novel and absorb it at your own pace, it’s great. Expecting an audience, most of which have likely never even heard of Dune or read the book, to take it all in is unlikely at best. There is just too much floating around for an audience to keep track of, too many ideas that lose context in the transition from text to physical performance. Even with a 2+ hour run time, which I imagine wasn’t too common with sci-fi films back then, it seems like they’re both skipping out on large chunks of the story and getting way too much information thrown at your face. Unless you’re somewhat familiar with the Dune novel, which I was before watching, it’s likely the average viewer would find it a confusing, interminable slog. Which is probably why we never saw a Dune franchise pop up after this one came to theaters.

     On the other hand, aside from the original Star Wars films, I don’t think there has ever been another science fiction movie that looks quite as impressive as Dune. The sense of scale here is just absolutely fantastic; when you see a sandworm rising from the earth, it really feels like you’re seeing a creature the size of an ocean liner moving about, and when you look at the deserts of Arrakis, it really seems like this endless, stormy wasteland..The set design, costume design, character design, special effects so reminiscent of own own world yet so utterly alien at the same time. Fantastic. I don’t know how much that were holdovers from Jodorowsky’s work and how much of it was Lynch’s (the creepy worm monster that leads the Spacing Guild certainly brings to mind the infamous baby from Eraserhead) but props either way. Dune may have been a money sink, but unlike The Island of Dr. Moreau (check out the previous entry for Lost Soul), the money was put to good. The whole movie is just beautifully, magnificently extravagant in every way, and I love it for that. Almost enough to forgive it for all it’s problems story-wise, especially with Patrick ‘Jean-Luc Picard’ Stewart in the cast. I guess an debate could be made on big movies that expect too much from the audience, like Dune, versus big movies that don’t make the audience think at all, like Avengers or Jurassic World, but I’m not going to start it. I’m just in this for the spice, man.

     This might be a bit difficult to categorize for your typical Halloween movie watchers, as people expecting a sci-fi movie might be getting more than they bargained for, and people interested in David Lynch’s filmography might be disappointed to find something a bit ‘standard Hollywood’ compared to his later, more surrealistic films. However, if you don’t mind doing a bit of reading, and I’d say it’s worth reading at least the Frank Herbert Dune novels, or you’re the kind of person who likes to ride out the weirdness in movies, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t recommend it for this Halloween. Unless you’re not a fan of Sting’s bulge, in which case I’m afraid you’re pretty much out of luck.

Lost Highway (1997), directed by David Lynch

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