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| Jack
Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Mr. X (Allen Joseph): Well
Henry, what do you know?
Henry Spencer (Jack Nance): Oh, I don't know much of anything.
A dream of dark and troubling things.
 In
an industry that thrives on the continuous regestation of its own
imagery, few things are as rare as a successful director who is
at the same time an artist with a vision that is fully an uncompromisingly
his own. David Lynch is such a director: a filmmaker whose every
work transports you into a fully realized world that may be strange,
scary, wistful, funny or deeply unsettling, but that's unlike anything
you've experienced before. Completely ignoring every possible rule
of classical narrative filmmaking even in his most generally accessible
(and commercially successful) films, Lynch instead tends to follow
a dream logic. But unlike most experimental directors who attempt
similar work, Lynch's vision is so specific, his worlds so convincing
and his ideas so captivating that he only very rarely loses his
stranglehold on the viewer. His unique combination of nerve-jangling
creepiness and down-home sense of humor plays a key part in this.
Of course, there are still many who wouldn't touch a David Lynch
film with a ten-foot pole. And indeed, most of his films not only
require the viewer to let go of any preconceived notions of what
film is, and be taken along on an experiential ride that can be
difficult to watch at times. For non-fans, Eraserhead has
all the reasons for staying away from this particular director:
it's a nearly plotless nightmare in which a bizarre-looking nobody
in an unspecified but vastly detailed industrial city environment
must somehow deal with the clearly non-human baby that he is said
to have fathered. Meanwhile, he is terrorized by various sorts of
gruesome and grotesque visions, finally culminating in an experience
that explains the title. It's the midnigh movie par excellence,
and is recommended only for those with a strong stomach, a brave
sense of humor and a passion for true cinema. But for those who
can handle the fact that Eraserhead is a filmic nightmare
that's creepy, funny and unlike anything you've ever seen, it's
a brilliantly visualized comedy of terrors that continues to defy
its age and still stands among its unique director's finest work. |
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A pan-and-scan fullscreen DVD is available
for Region 2 in the UK and for Region 4, without any extras. David
Lynch owns the American domestic distribution rights to the film
himself, and has released the definitive DVD edition of Eraserhead
himself, available only through his store at DavidLynch.com.
This Region 1 version served as the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.85:1. Lynch himself put
his debut feature through a painstaking six-month restoration process
during which each individual frame was cleaned up and fully restored
to mirror the filmmaker's intentions. The result is nothing short
of breathtaking, especially to viewers used to seeing the film in
battered 16mm prints or washed-out VHS tapes drawn from a poor master.
Detail is abundant and precise throughout, bringing into view for
the first time on home video the incredible level of detail that
went into every element of the production design, and the masterful
organic quality of the disconcertingly gorgeous cinematography.
The soundtrack has also been fully restored in order to minimize
any flaws resulting from the technical process. The booklet lists
the soundtrack format as PCM uncompressed stereo, but the track
on the disc is actually a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix (most likely a last-minute
change due to lack of disc space). It's still a hugely impressive
audio presentation that decodes very well using a ProLogic receiver.
Bass is much stronger than is usually the case with 2.0 audio mixes,
and although surround effects are naturally absent, the highly detailed
front soundstage is still highly immersive.
David Lynch has reputation as a
difficult, 'weird' director who refuses to discuss his work on-camera
and makes all sorts of outlandish demands (like the absence of chapter
stops on DVDs of his films) from his distributors. His feeling that
films should not be explained but experienced by each viewer from
his or her own perspective has led to a general reluctance on the
director's part to participate in any but the technical aspects
of DVD productions of his films so far.
 For
the DVD of Eraserhead, however, Lynch has created a 90-minute
documentary - fittingly called 'Stories' - in which
he covers every conceivable aspect of the film's background and
production. The documentary consists of little else besides Lynch
talking, while his memories are illustrated by stills and some rare
on-set footage shot during production, but it's amazingly engrossing
from start to finish. Lynch is an outstanding storyteller with an
unpretentious, folksy attitude and a real gift for recounting his
memories of this extraordinary film project. He speaks generously
and graciously about his collaborators on the film, and at one point
even calls his key assistant Catherine Coulson (well-known among
Twin Peaks fans for her role as the Log Lady) on the speaker phone.
(His impromptu yelling out of questions hilariously brings to mind
his own small role as deaf FBI Chief Gordon Cole in the same series.)
The documentary's form may be unusual, but it's a highly appropriate
and definitive supplement that makes any other extras pretty much
irrelevant. (Deleted footage from the film is discussed within it,
but has unfortunately all been lost.) The incredible trailer
is also included, in anamorphic widescreen. The
menu screens, animated and designed in the style of Lynch's website,
start off with a simple calibration test to make sure the viewer's
monitor isn't set too brightly. Animation options are overlaid
on
a short scene that was cut from the final film playing in the background,
accompanied by industrial ambient sound. It takes a little while
for navigation
options to appear, but its presentation is simple, elegant and
uncluttered. As with most David Lynch films on DVD, there are
no chapter stops
in the film.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
April 29, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Eraserhead.
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