When I read David Lynch died a few days ago- I wept like a baby. A world without him? His perspective! I’m still in denial. Serious movie buffs know what I’m talking about. Lynch’s reach and scope is grandiose. Colossal. The man cast a wide net and caught some big fuckin’ fish (the ideas!). His movies permeated American culture in mysterious ways that often feel quite subversive. His work was indisputably radical. Those films are radical visons of American life and they have enriched generations (certainly mine). The Lynch movies have been there from the beginning. The Elephant Man (1980) on Channel Z when I was 6 years old. Blue Velvet (1986), man. BLUE VELVET; those of us who’ve seen this 1st masterwork (he’s made 3 masterpieces)- what modern American movie would be better to experience- with fresh eyes- as if you’d never seen or heard of it before- than Blue Velvet? I saw his 2nd masterpiece- Wild At Heart (1990)- in the theatre when I was 16. It absolutely blew my head off. Lynch hit you from angles you couldn’t and wouldn’t imagine. Arguably- no one had seen anything remotely like Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart when they initially surfaced. Wild at Heart; with its Wizard of Oz framing- Elvis nods- Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru- and that seductive atmosphere of determined romance forever contending with nightmarish villainy. As wonderful as Nic Cage has been in so many films- has he ever really been better than he was in Wild At Heart? And sexy. Lynch movies are ridiculously sexy.
His specialty was measuring the darkness and the light- never shunning one for the other. The Robins chirp- love aches to roam freely- beauty is right there- but you must face the squiggly worms, the sadomasochistic nature of mankind- and fear- as well. What other modern American director has been more imaginative, inventive and impossible to imitate? The sweetness always dealing with the threat of evil/banality. The insistent singular artistry. The hideous walking hand in hand with the ethereal. Lynch plainly showed us the ugly side of being alive and how it must be reckoned with (all those sublime shots of characters weaving in and out of darkness- see Lost Highway (1997) for perfect examples). No other film artist has more succinctly demonstrated cinema is largely about tapping into dream states. His other masterpiece; Mulholland Drive (2001). A movie that solicits pure awe. I could write about it endlessly. After spending years in Los Angeles- I can definitely say- it’s the best movie ever made about Hollywood (Lynch would tell me I’m wrong- he’d say Sunset Boulevard (1950)).
Lost Highway (1997)!- the best modern film noir you can watch. It grows on me more and more with each passing year. Then there’s The Straight Story (1999). The Lynch movie that doesn’t seem like it should be a Lynch movie- but still feels like a Lynch movie. No bells or whistles on this one- just an old guy on a tractor travelling to see his dying brother- pure substance and joy. In his later career- Lynch made videos, music, paintings, various art-pieces- and the labyrinth that is Inland Empire (2008). Side-note- I saw Lynch twice when I lived in Hollywood. Once; directing Empire on Hollywood Boulevard with Laura Dern- and another time; sitting in a chair on a corner (Hollywood) with a cow! He was petitioning for Dern to get an Oscar nomination for Inland Empire.
The last time I saw The Elephant Man- I was convinced it was the finest motion picture ever made about being an “outsider.” His Twin Peaks’ series- both iterations- also vintage Lynch. The movie- Twin Peaks; Fire Walk with Me (1992)- is a Beethoven symphony painted by Salvador Dali- with Ingmar Bergman sprinkled here and there (Mulholland Drive is undoubtedly a sly nod to Bergman’s Persona (1966)). In 2017- his short- What did Jack do?- caught the attention of younger generations. In this wholly original gem- a gumshoe detective-like Lynch interrogates a nervous, love-struck monkey. Another of Lynch’s strengths- getting your mind way out of the box- so he could excavate your desires, phobias, neurotic leanings and rattle your very soul. The movies he made are digs. Much like Terrence Malick- Lynch’s talent was a kind of celluloid shovel digging for gold in the viewer. He understood cinema is a sensual experience. When it functions best- it blazes across your senses (think of all the shots of fire in Lynch movies)- and it guides you with music, photography, acting, editing, production design and directing. All of these- functioning at peak levels in Lynch’s work. One of the things that always struck and inspired me about his directing- how in the Hell did he get those amazing performances out of all of those wonderful actresses? Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, Sissy Spacek, Sheryl Lee, Diane Ladd, Naomi Watts and Patricia Arquette. The females in Lynch movies- mammoth acting splayed across gorgeous templates. Thunderous displays of angst and longing. Lynch movies also utilize comic elements- think Crispin Glover in Wild At Heart, all the lawmen in Lynch movies, Robert Loggia’s hilarious turn in Lost Highway- and Kyle MacLachlan- an excellent comic actor.
More than any director of recent years- Lynch’s legacy should rightfully be cemented. It doesn’t seem possible for another Lynch to ever appear. A once-in-a-lifetime artist. He was simply too original- too fearless- too determined- and too damn interesting- to have anyone follow in his foot steps. Unique is the word. More than that- he showed all of us who love making and watching movies- he showed us our time is well-spent mining the depths of humanity’s neglected zones. Go deep and hard. Mean it. And when you hit the treasure points- photograph, dramatize and shape those heavy chunks of feeling into something that vibrates with energy, passion- and if you’re lucky- reverb. There’s the Transcendental Meditation he worked so hard to raise awareness for (he founded an institution dedicated to the practice)- his work as an actor- always fascinating (see his role in Lucky (2017)). There are other countless cameos he did over the years- always adding something to the proceedings just by showing up. A rare human this man was.
Enjoy the other side, Maestro. We have the movies. And his other art-work. I could go on and on about Lynch. I’ll stop here- as I am now going to watch one of his magnificent movies.