Godspeed, John Stamos:
To everyone who watched Eraserhead with me:
I've been thinking about it since we've watched it, and i've got to say, regardless of any of our personal feelings on this film, or avant garde films in general, Eraserhead must be respected for what it is. It's easy for us to blow it off as art house bull shit, but the fact is that this film was made in 1977; when it was released the BeeGees had the number one album in the country.
Despite this, David Lynch was a guy that said "Fuck every piece of film conventionalism ever. Fuck plot, fuck characters, fuck reality in general. I'm going to make a movie that's creepy, weird, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." And for that, i have to give him credit.
We got sort of the short end of the Eraserhead stick simply in that we're seeing it so late. We can look at this now and not see anything too exciting, but that's only because we've seen it all before. It's easy to forget that, though Eraserhead uses a lot of horror standards, it actually invented them. Take, for example, the way it skips frames, creating a jumpy sort of effect. That's used in a large amount of modern horror movies (as well as tv shows, music videos, etc.). And i say modern because only now is the industry catching up to that idea. In that respect, Eraserhead was literally thirty years ahead of its time.
There are plenty more elements i could name, such as the organ-like props that appear throughout the film, the surreal old fashioned music, or simply the grainy black and white and bizarre lighting. These are things we see all the time now, but you have to imagine what it'd be like to see that for the first time. How strange that style of film would seem, or that creepy music that you can find in any horror movie today, or those ugly intestines that just about every sci-fi movie includes in at least one scene now. Nobody remembers the first time they've seen anything commonplace; it's difficult to think what seeing something so completely alien would have been like. And i'm sorry i missed out on that.
Perhaps there was even more going on there than arbitrary creepiness. The mundanity of Henry's life, the struggle with his wife and new born child, the disappointment in his lover post-affair; these are things that really happen, that people can relate to. They're just hidden in ugly images and minimalist dialogue.
Anyway, the point is this: when i was watching it i didn't think i'd ever be able to sit through it again. But the reason i fell in love with the independent film was because nothing about it can be taken at face value. There's always more going on than you originally pick up on, and i've realized Eraserhead deserves a few more viewings.
P.S. I've been accepted into Oakland University, and i dig that.
I've been thinking about it since we've watched it, and i've got to say, regardless of any of our personal feelings on this film, or avant garde films in general, Eraserhead must be respected for what it is. It's easy for us to blow it off as art house bull shit, but the fact is that this film was made in 1977; when it was released the BeeGees had the number one album in the country.
Despite this, David Lynch was a guy that said "Fuck every piece of film conventionalism ever. Fuck plot, fuck characters, fuck reality in general. I'm going to make a movie that's creepy, weird, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." And for that, i have to give him credit.
We got sort of the short end of the Eraserhead stick simply in that we're seeing it so late. We can look at this now and not see anything too exciting, but that's only because we've seen it all before. It's easy to forget that, though Eraserhead uses a lot of horror standards, it actually invented them. Take, for example, the way it skips frames, creating a jumpy sort of effect. That's used in a large amount of modern horror movies (as well as tv shows, music videos, etc.). And i say modern because only now is the industry catching up to that idea. In that respect, Eraserhead was literally thirty years ahead of its time.
There are plenty more elements i could name, such as the organ-like props that appear throughout the film, the surreal old fashioned music, or simply the grainy black and white and bizarre lighting. These are things we see all the time now, but you have to imagine what it'd be like to see that for the first time. How strange that style of film would seem, or that creepy music that you can find in any horror movie today, or those ugly intestines that just about every sci-fi movie includes in at least one scene now. Nobody remembers the first time they've seen anything commonplace; it's difficult to think what seeing something so completely alien would have been like. And i'm sorry i missed out on that.
Perhaps there was even more going on there than arbitrary creepiness. The mundanity of Henry's life, the struggle with his wife and new born child, the disappointment in his lover post-affair; these are things that really happen, that people can relate to. They're just hidden in ugly images and minimalist dialogue.
Anyway, the point is this: when i was watching it i didn't think i'd ever be able to sit through it again. But the reason i fell in love with the independent film was because nothing about it can be taken at face value. There's always more going on than you originally pick up on, and i've realized Eraserhead deserves a few more viewings.
P.S. I've been accepted into Oakland University, and i dig that.