Eraserhead (1978)

Simply Perfect

Just perfect...

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This was one of the worst viewing experiences of my life. Awful and pretentious under the guise of somehow being highbrow art. David Lynch's Uber weird just for the sake of being weird. He has no intention of entertaining the audience so do not watch this film if that's what you are seeking.

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.

David Lynch is a master of atmospherics & creepy. He's a legend. But, 'Eraserhead' is a disappointing film, that pushes the creepy button a bit too far. I was unimpressed.'Eraserhead' Synopsis: Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.'Eraserhead' is a tale of a man's creepy journey into parenthood. Lynch, a master, limps here, as his story comes across as half-baked & his dependency for creepy images & sounds, wore me out. Though regarded as a classic by many, I found 'Eraserhead' to be anything but memorable.The sole saving grace is Jack Nance. The Late/Great Actor portrays the protagonist on the verge of insanity with brilliance. On the whole, 'Eraserhead' is far from compelling.

A young David slaved over this film for three years and even ended up sleeping in the same bed as Henry for over a year. All of it was worth it though. Even directing legend (and friend of Lynch), Stanley Kubrick loved the film and made the cast of his masterpiece, The Shining, watch Eraserhead to get in the right frame of mind.No one knows what the film is actually about, and no one ever will. Although, Lynch has said that in all these years he still hasn't heard the correct interpretation. There's no point trying to explain the plot, because that's something you have to figure out for yourself. The film is an utter dreams-cape which combines unsettling industrial sounds with startling, surrealist black and white photography. A man with groovy hair walks around a possible Dystopian future and encounters a series of strange events. One involves a moving tiny roast chicken which spurts some sort of liquid out and another involves a seriously creepy chipmunk lady who sings in a radiator and also stamps on sperm. Eraserhead is one hell of a trip, and it's a trip which thoroughly exhilarated me.