Eraserhead (1978)

I went to go study film in the University of Miami and attended their Film Club for a short period. They wanted the club to choose a movie to be played for the next meeting. I remember writing down "Empire of the Sun", as it not only was a classic war epic made by the great Steven Spielberg, but featured Christian Bale in his first ever starring role as a 13 year old kid when Christopher Nolan's Batman had recently been released. It seemed appropriate. The club chose Eraserhead. I watched in complete horror for what felt like 5 hours of just complete nonsensical story telling and randomly inserted clips that reeked of "deeper meaning" that just wasn't there. I remember looking over at the other members watching it with fascination and wondering if they were just faking it to gain approval with their enlightened kin-folk, because only a lowly commoner like me could not appreciate watching torture for an hour and a half. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility, as I had done the same thing as a teenager when attending functions for my high school's drama class. I know now my hypothesis has been proven. With the introduction of modern art, there have been hilarious examples of "art" that is so bad it has been sat on, thrown away by janitors and in numerous hilarious examples people leaving behind mundane objects on purpose, only to have people appreciating them as art. People want to be special. What better way to be special than to pretend to "get" something that no-one else can, except a select, privileged few? That is the entire essence of Eraserhead.

Here's my take on this incredibly disturbing delight of a film.The film is an aural and visual depiction of Henry's nightmarish mental struggle with the idea of abortion -- of "erasing" the mistake of his and Mary's baby. A few examples:The lady in the radiator represents abortion/an abortionist. The first time she appears, she's "cajolingly" standing on fetuses/sperm/babies (they're all the same in the symbolism of the film, I belive) while there's the sucking sound of the abortion procedure going on in the background. More evidence of that is that she's both repugnant and beautiful, like the idea of a abortion to Henry.More evidence is the scene in which Henry finally touches her. She's been "wooing" him throughout the film with the idea of an abortion with her sweet smile and her song about heaven, and when he finally touches her (accepts the idea of abortion) he's released from the dark, troubling place depicted so well in the film (worry, fear, guilt over the pregnancy) into pure light. Not only that, after he touches her/accepts the idea of an abortion, you hear the suction used in the abortion procedure once again, and see what looks like a fetus, umbilical cord and placenta being sucked away across the stage. BTW, I believe the little chickens are Mary's sexuality: They're tiny and underdeveloped, and when Henry sticks his phallic fork into one, it bleeds, like breaking the hymen. Mary's mum's reaction to the bleeding chicken and her announcement that Mary's had a baby straight afterwards make perfect sense, if that's the case. So does Henry's amazement that the baby's already at the hospital!If you agree with me, or anyone else, or not about what it all means, it doesn't really matter" This film succeeds in creating its own incredibly engaging "dream" world (emphasis on the word "dream" because that's precisely what the film is depicting: Henry's dream) even without a thought about what it might all mean. That's quite an achievement!

I think that Eraserhead is what no movie should be. That is because this movie revolves around two things: Its heavy usage of pretentious symbolism and its imagery being mostly gore. This movie has nothing more to offer than seeing disturbing imagery while listening to jarring noises. I saw many people say its about the experience, but honestly if I want a 1,5 h long experience about gore images, I can also watch a documentary about the holocaust, or some other cruel part of our history. In this case I actually learn something and care about what is happening, because it happened to real people. This movie doesn't manage to make me feel anything, other than being bored and a little disgusted. I don't know if the movie is supposed to make me feel anything but I think there are only 2 reasons to watch a movie: 1.to feel some kind of emotion. Can be anything, fear from a horror movie, sadness from a drama, excitement from an action movie. I guess that is the main reason why people watch and enjoy movies. The other reason which I personally think is more important is to watch movies to learn something. By that I don't only mean actual knowledge. Learning new perspectives of looking at things, new ideas that may be meaningless in actual life, but keep you awake at night. Now you might say that's what "Eraserhead" is trying to do, but like all Lynches movies and like all of these, "over the top" symbolic movies are their messages too hidden behind symbols. Sometimes it's even not clear if the movie even has a meaning behind its symbols, something the writer actual intended. You know you don't learn something new by interpreting symbols, you only learn what you already know, because YOU yourself are interpreting what is going on. That is my biggest concern about Symbolism. Sometimes it can be quiet interesting to have symbolism in your story. It can make the experience feel unique because it depends on the viewer. But I think that only works if you have a story line as a base to begin with, something to care about. There are some movies, like Eraserhead where this isnt the case.So does "Eraserhead" at least have a meaning behind its images? I don't really know. While watching the movie it seemed to me that with including all this gore he wanted to portrait life as being this inherit ugly things, or if you turn it on its head, that being creeped out is something irrational because it is normal and all around us, because there are a few scenes that show rather unusual, probably even disgusting scenes and all the character react as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He shows events that may occur in anyone's life at some point. Mostly events that can be very unnerving, such as a dinner with your partner's parents while finding out that said partner is pregnant. Or later in the movie it portraits the many sleepless nights a young couple must endure after having a baby and the psychological stress this inflicts onto a person. The movie takes those realistic scenes and sets it in a world full of strange and creepy occurrences. For example, the meal they eat at the dinner is a moving half sized chicken that spills blood constantly, or the baby the story focuses later on is some sort of alien looking creature. But I don't really see that message portrayed at the end with all the overload of gore and the main protagonist's reaction to all of it, which makes me unsure what this movie was all about.Now I watched a few of Lynches other movies. For example "Lost Highway", which is equally meaningless, but at least had some nice cinematography, a few interesting lines of dialogue and something you might even call a story. Eraserhead however had none of it and was a very disappointing watch.

Good thing newly-weds don't see this surreal gem, otherwise we'd be seriously under-populated. Just who is that cosmic welder who turns out squirming sperm that keep turning up in strange places, like a marital bed. And what about that squid-like thing wrapped in swaddling clothes, a mutant of a mutant.Then there's that strange form of birth control—a sweet puffy-cheeked blonde who loves to sing while stomping on the wiggle warts. No wonder Henry goes around in a deadpan daze. And what about his classy neighborhood. It's an industrial heck, noisy enough to turn brains to mush, with more ugly metal than a junk yard, and enough gloom to rival a black hole. Good thing our puffy-cheek blonde promises a better place somewhere above, like heaven. But please, I shudder to think of Lynch's land beyond the Pearly Gates. Of course, all this is seen through a glass very, very darkly. Meanwhile, I'll break out my DVD when some literal-minded obsessive needs a dose of compelling imagination, like Lynch's.