It was a mistake
to watch this one right before my sister was scheduled to have her C-section.
Eraserhead is the very first
full-length film by David Lynch, master of surrealist cinema. It was also the
first I have seen of his, and I was not sufficiently prepared for how bizarre,
disorienting, and most of all disturbing the 1977 film would be. In the most
basic terms it is the story of a father's struggles with caring for his newborn
child, but that child also happens to be the most horrifying creature I have
ever seen come to life with practical effects. There is also a deformed lady
who lives in the radiator, a diseased man who pulls levers inside of a meteor,
and a decapitated head that is used to make pencil erasers.
The film is nonsensical when you try to
treat it as a narrative that follows normal logic, but as a cinematic
representation of a nightmare it is quite effective. I was unsure of whether or
not I liked it when I was watching it—there is a certain film-school student
level of pretentiousness to Eraserhead, as if Lynch is making things as
obtuse as he can, pretending they mean something, and then laughing at us when
we don’t understand his genius, or maybe I’m just dumb and this is all coming
from my frustration with not understanding everything. There is also no
doubting that Eraserhead is unpleasant to experience, which was, of
course, intentional. The music, an omnipresent drone of discordant industrial
noise, made sure I was never comfortable, even when the disturbing and
disorienting visuals took a break from messing with my brain, and the acting
work by Jack Nance and his supporting cast is so alien that it made me feel
like I was watching… well, aliens.
So did I like Eraserhead? The jury’s
still out. There is no doubt that it is an effective film, and it is one that I
have thought about a lot since I have watched it (compare that to Mufasa:
The Lion King, which I watched a day after and couldn’t tell you anything
about). The metaphors are strong, the visuals appropriately haunting, and the
filmmaking unquestionably solid. But like any nightmare I sure never wish to
experience it again.
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