I was fascinated by Lynch in my teen years. Mostly because his movies are incredibly weird and creepy. Now, not that big of a fan. It's too artistic. I go to the theater for entertainment, maybe some thought provoking conversation. Lynch tends to deliver something you'd study in an art class. Guess I'm just not dedicated enough.
There's no doubt Eraserhead is David Lynch. I could have picked it out in the first minute without knowing. It's got the ambient, tense soundtrack. Strange scenes with no easily discernible or logical meaning. Exaggerated noises. Remarkably strange people wth inexplicable behavior. Long unnecessary pauses and tension in everyday conversations. If you can say one thing about Lynch, it's that he's got a style.
I suppose there is a story here. Man and woman make mistake (sex), mutant baby is born, creates lots of problems for man, leading to man killing mutant baby. Can't say I blame him after seeing the mutant baby. Probably because it looks like an alien fetus. I don't know if there's something deeper going on. I'm skeptical that Lynch ever has some deeper meaning to his madness, other than he may be trying to show me his twisted view on life. Or he's on drugs. But I've never been big on themes not pertaining to a plot. I'm not good with the abstract. It's just how my mind works.
Not to say I'm anti-symbolism, but I'm against watching a movie where people's actions lack any form of logic, reason, or realism. It's fine if you have one or two characters who are a little eccentric, but every character in Lynch's more obscure movies is too eccentric. They do things I've never seen done in real life. Like the mother starting to make out with Eraserhead (as I shall call him) in front of her daughter, who's just had his baby. Maybe I need to be on something to understand it.
There's a long list of things I don't understand. The dude with the gears at the beginning and end. The bleeding chickens. The grandma being made to stir a salad. The moon face woman. Eraserhead having his head fall off, found by a boy, then taken to a pencil factory. I'm not even sure I'm remembering the scenes correctly. It's like I was hit by a modern art mack truck.
If your main interest is freaky visuals and unnerving ambient noise, Lynch is your man. There are little bright spots in the madness, like Eraserhead's strange facial expressions. The strange father who's inexplicably more upbeat than anyone else. The bed randomly turning into a hot tub while he bangs the hot neighbor.
The movie is better suited to be looped at a modern art museum than it is for a theater. I respect the idea of using the medium of film as art, I'm just not interested in watching it.
I don't know how to fairly grade this movie. On the one hand, I think Lynch did exactly what he wanted, so that deserves at least a good rating, even if I don't like the results. On the other hand, I have no interest in seeing it again and would not recommend it to anyone I know.
First Viewing: 2+2+2+2+1 = 9