review by oswald hobbes
Wild at Heart 1990
Rewatched May 03, 2012
oswald hobbes’s review:
There's a reason this is every Frenchman's favorite Lynch - the characters, maybe or maybe not aware that they are in an art film, pull their car over at random intervals to jump out and spastically dance to generic thrash metal, and have long, unselfconscious discussions about how much they like smoking cigarettes and fucking each other. Pretty easy to follow, and Lynch's pop culture signifiers - Elvis, The Wizard Of Oz, fucking FIRE - are familiar and (more importantly) ripe for Lynchification. Cage is a dynamo; the way he spits "What do you faggots want?" at a crucial moment is the real "national treasure." Am I right?
Should also mention Jack Nance's brief, mesmerizing scene. That guy.
Oh hey, speaking of 'Wild at Heart' irabrooker.com/2011/11/15/interview-with-author-and-poet-barry-gifford/
I'm never sure whether to recommend reading the book. It has a very different vibe - much more laconic and laid-back, and not much really happens. I think I liked it, and it does make Lynch's vision for the story all the more nightmarish. At the very least, it's short.
Also, "My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from The Wizard of Oz!"
Boy, I didn't even know there was a book. I guess it's also sort of based on THE FUGITIVE KIND, which was based on a Tennessee Williams play that Alan & Diane Ladd did in the sixties. You ever hear about all that?
I did not. It makes a lot of sense that there would be other source material, as the book is downright chaste compared to the film.
Barry Gifford's poetry, by the way, is exceptional, and I'm not a guy who reads poetry on the regular.