A one of a kind movie from a very special style of Director, David Lynch who has few peers in the art of cryptic indirect story telling. Wild at Heart is one of my favorite films of all time, it is incredibly quotable, stars one of my favorite actors (Nicolas Cage, reminder, favorite doesn't mean best). The movie is a wild ride scene to scene, start to finish with layers of meaning and mystique, David Lynch in typical style doesn't give anything away directly. All that said, it is highly enjoyable alone or with friends, it is both a somber reflection movie, and a great party movie, it is reality, or at least parallel to reality in that sense of open ended exploration of the emotional spectrum of reaction and content.
To start with, Wild at Heart is a romance movie in a very unconventional format, our heroes are generally bad people with lofty higher than life dreams and opinions of one another, and the crazed way Nick Cage presents himself gives the character of Sailor Ripley an incredibly unique style and movement: A presences that speaks for itself. The movie was adapted for film by Lynch himself from the book of the same name by Barry Gifford. I don't know how well the scenes, plot, emotions, or characters translate as I have never read the book, and perhaps if I did, it would demystify this movie and make it less meaningful.
Lynch himself talked about the book in interviews saying, "A certain amount of fear, as well as things to dream about." A statement loaded with unknowable ends, and yet also just presents how we all see the future. The quote presents a marvelous sense of invitation as well, the opening of a great mystery.
At its core, Wild at Heart is about the Future, the fearful uncertainty of it, and the promised fear that always comes with risking our dreams upon the future. Sailor is a prime example of machismo, American brashness and cultural violence. He has vigor, vitality, and vanity to spare. His love Lula as played by Laura Dern is no less bombastically bimbo and loyal. Both characters are genuine, human and real, while also being caricatures of the ideas of youthful invincibility, sex, and the sense of wanting a greater world and a greater future. They rush after that, calling everyone in their youth that there is something bigger and brighter out in the world for them, and everywhere they go, they find it lacking or feel the call all over again.
This movie is hard to talk about because of the layers of the human condition, the explorations of trauma shaping who we are, and how we learn by mistake and happenstance. It also has this motif of freedom or rather the belief of freedom, as Sailor often says, "This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom." Lynch is a very careful director, the reoccuring use of this line implies something, and to me, it presents that freedom isn't a real thing, it is an abstraction, it is a belief, a rallying call, and a symbol, but not tangible. Sailor has it because he has his jacket that shows his personal freedom, but it, like the society that is around him, his relationships, and every other binding that gives him less freedom is on top of him, it actually constrains him, makes it harder to act in a way of personal freedom.
This movie, like most of Lynch's work is incredibly dense and hard to parse through, hard to explain and present, but ultimately, unlike most of Lynch's work, it is a solid and entertaining adventure romance movie outside of the messaging, commentary, and ideas he weaved into the dream of his movie.
A thing this movie does, since it focuses so much on freedom, dreams, hope, and the future, it shows Lynch can shake off the title of cynic, of misanthrope, and genuinely say he likes humanity, loves mankind, and sees them for their flaws but still thinks they are deserving of a brighter future.
Overall: 10 out of 10, I don't just recommend this movie, I love this movie. It is one of my favorites of all time and I encourage you to watch it.
Spoiler Stuff One of the finest scenes to ever be put in film is in this movie, near the end of the movie. Sailor is surrounded by a group of punks and simply says, "What do you Faggots want?" Gets the heck beaten out of him, hits the ground, has a trippy dream sequence with the good witch from the Wizard of Oz, and then stands back up still surrounded by the guys who beat him and says, "And I want to apologize to you gentlemen for referring to you as homosexuals. I also want to thank you fellows. You've taught me a valuable lesson in life." Then without skipping a beat he goes from a normal, hushed speaking voice to loudly screaming "LULA!" As loud as he can.
It is a mind blowingly weird scene the first time I watched it, and the third. And now as I've seen this movie dozens of times, it still is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen.
To start with, Wild at Heart is a romance movie in a very unconventional format, our heroes are generally bad people with lofty higher than life dreams and opinions of one another, and the crazed way Nick Cage presents himself gives the character of Sailor Ripley an incredibly unique style and movement: A presences that speaks for itself. The movie was adapted for film by Lynch himself from the book of the same name by Barry Gifford. I don't know how well the scenes, plot, emotions, or characters translate as I have never read the book, and perhaps if I did, it would demystify this movie and make it less meaningful.
Lynch himself talked about the book in interviews saying, "A certain amount of fear, as well as things to dream about." A statement loaded with unknowable ends, and yet also just presents how we all see the future. The quote presents a marvelous sense of invitation as well, the opening of a great mystery.
At its core, Wild at Heart is about the Future, the fearful uncertainty of it, and the promised fear that always comes with risking our dreams upon the future. Sailor is a prime example of machismo, American brashness and cultural violence. He has vigor, vitality, and vanity to spare. His love Lula as played by Laura Dern is no less bombastically bimbo and loyal. Both characters are genuine, human and real, while also being caricatures of the ideas of youthful invincibility, sex, and the sense of wanting a greater world and a greater future. They rush after that, calling everyone in their youth that there is something bigger and brighter out in the world for them, and everywhere they go, they find it lacking or feel the call all over again.
This movie is hard to talk about because of the layers of the human condition, the explorations of trauma shaping who we are, and how we learn by mistake and happenstance. It also has this motif of freedom or rather the belief of freedom, as Sailor often says, "This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom." Lynch is a very careful director, the reoccuring use of this line implies something, and to me, it presents that freedom isn't a real thing, it is an abstraction, it is a belief, a rallying call, and a symbol, but not tangible. Sailor has it because he has his jacket that shows his personal freedom, but it, like the society that is around him, his relationships, and every other binding that gives him less freedom is on top of him, it actually constrains him, makes it harder to act in a way of personal freedom.
This movie, like most of Lynch's work is incredibly dense and hard to parse through, hard to explain and present, but ultimately, unlike most of Lynch's work, it is a solid and entertaining adventure romance movie outside of the messaging, commentary, and ideas he weaved into the dream of his movie.
A thing this movie does, since it focuses so much on freedom, dreams, hope, and the future, it shows Lynch can shake off the title of cynic, of misanthrope, and genuinely say he likes humanity, loves mankind, and sees them for their flaws but still thinks they are deserving of a brighter future.
Overall: 10 out of 10, I don't just recommend this movie, I love this movie. It is one of my favorites of all time and I encourage you to watch it.
Spoiler Stuff One of the finest scenes to ever be put in film is in this movie, near the end of the movie. Sailor is surrounded by a group of punks and simply says, "What do you Faggots want?" Gets the heck beaten out of him, hits the ground, has a trippy dream sequence with the good witch from the Wizard of Oz, and then stands back up still surrounded by the guys who beat him and says, "And I want to apologize to you gentlemen for referring to you as homosexuals. I also want to thank you fellows. You've taught me a valuable lesson in life." Then without skipping a beat he goes from a normal, hushed speaking voice to loudly screaming "LULA!" As loud as he can.
It is a mind blowingly weird scene the first time I watched it, and the third. And now as I've seen this movie dozens of times, it still is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen.