I recently purchased this fine film on DVD but haven't watched it yet. I think I'll wait until I get a chance to watch it on Stone Groove's fine large screen TV. But I've seen it so many times that I don't need to refresh my memory at the movie's brilliance. Yet for some reason, this film is not really considered all that great. While I don't pretend that it is as good as Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, (Lynch's two best creations) I do think that it is unfairly derided solely on the basis that Wild At Heart is what he followed up both of those incredible projects with. I can understand that in 1990, critics might have been too harsh on Wild At Heart for that very reason. But fifteen years later, the film is still not really respected. But somehow the messes of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and especially Lost Highway are given free passes on some of the very criticisms that Wild At Heart received- namely artsy pretentiousness and being overly weird.
I say give Wild At Heart another chance. It gets better with each viewing. Let me count the ways in which this movie is amazing.
- It is much better than the book on which it was based on.
- The violence is truly frightening.
- The music is great. Koko Taylor's performance is scintillating.
- Harry Dean Stanton's kindness and patience leads straight to his downfall.
- The Elvis fixation and almost every line that Sailor Ripley (Nicholas Cage) utters is quotable.
- Diane Ladd freaking out.
- The Wizard of Oz references.
- Nicholas Cage's crazy ass dancing style in the clubs as well as in the desert. I loved it so much that I once tried it myself in the Arizona desert.
- Sherilyn Finn's last moments before dying as Sailor and Lulu stumble upon her car accident.
- The freaky voodoo shit.
- The old men in charge of the hotel in New Orleans.
- Making a porn, Texas style.
- Crispin Glover's one line cameo is perhaps the best moment in cinema history.
- Willem Dafoe's creepy sexual harassment/ seducing of Laura Dern.
- J.E. Freeman's evil hitman character explaining to Diane Ladd the best way to blow someone's brains out.
And I'll never forget seeing this for the first time with the late Terry Crummitt and quoting lines from this film with him for years afterward.
2 comments:
i'm sorry, but wasn't this one of my hannukah presents to you?
um, yeah, oops. my money and your money are the same thing so sometimes i get confused.
Post a Comment