Product Description

Is it a nightmare or an actual view of a post-apocalyptic world? Set in an industrial town in which giant machines are constantly working, spewing smoke, and making noise that is inescapable, Henry Spencer lives in a building that, like all the others, appears to be abandoned. The lights flicker on and off, he has bowls of water in his dresser drawers, and for his only diversion he watches and listens to the Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven. Henry has a girlfriend, Mary X, who has frequent spastic fits. Mary gives birth to Henry's child, a frightening looking mutant, which leads to the injection of all sorts of sexual imagery into the depressive and chaotic mix.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4954 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-01-10
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
This is where is the Lynchian nightmare began. Though he may have redefined surrealistic cinema in the 1980s and forever altered the face of television in the 90s, for many hardcore fans it is this infamous feature film debut that is David Lynch's crowning achievement. Many words have been used to describe Eraserhead (weird, bizarre, frustrating, enlightening, significant, unwatchable, meaningless, and momentous), but there is no denying it is completely unforgettable. As a surreal work of art, Eraserhead easily holds it own next to the works as Buñuel, Cocteau, and Dali. And like many surrealistic works, there is no clear answer on what Eraserhead "means." But, if you are trying to find a simple, linear, plot in Eraserhead, you are clearly missing the point. For Eraserhead is not simply a movie to view, but a true cinematic experience, like jumping into someone's nightmare and seeing it from their perspective. Whether you see it as a meditation on the terror of being a new parent, the suffocating feeling of living in an increasingly vapid, industrial wasteland, or a nightmare about the fear of loneliness, the film easily holds up to multiple viewings. And since this film is a dark visual ride and a supreme aural achievement, this long awaited, new transfer is an absolute blessing for David Lynch fans who will finally get to see, hear and experience Eraserhead clearly on DVD. Bizarre experiment? Surrealistic nightmare? Or a meaningless cult film? You be the judge. --Rob Bracco

Customer Reviews

A shocking film you'll never be able to erase from your memory...
Shortly after finishing `Eraserhead' I told my wife that I feel like a different person. The film, strange as it is, is one of the most incredibly complete films I have ever seen. It is truly a film about vision and mood and director David Lynch creates the perfect mood for his fantastic vision. There is so much debate about the meaning of this film and I think that is what will essentially immortalize the film as one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever filmed. David Lynch has stated that he has yet to read an interpretation of the film that matches his thoughts upon penning it (he even claims that he cannot remember writing the script) and I feel that he will take the films meaning to his grave. I personally hope he does, for if I knew what to think of this movie then maybe I'd stop thinking about it. The mere fact that I have no idea what this movie is meant to mean moves me to consider it over and over and over again.

The film, shot in vignettes of strange dream sequences and nightmarish realities, follows Henry Spencer (I just love the hair) as he embarks on fatherhood. You see Henry and his girlfriend Mary haven't spoken in some time. He wrongly draws the conclusion that she has severed things with him when in actuality she has been giving birth to their child. She breaks this news to him over dinner with her eccentric parents. Forced to marry her, Henry soon finds his apartment filled with the dreadful screams of their new baby who just so happens to be a reptilian monster. When Mary cannot take the stress of motherhood she returns to her parent's home, leaving Henry to care for the creature alone.

This is really the best way to describe the plot, although the film veers off into Henry's head to create subplots and storylines that deserve our examination. There is the strangely deformed woman who lives in the radiator who sings to Henry and appears to bring him some comfort. There is the beautiful woman who lives across the hall who apparently has feelings for Henry and eventually works her way into his bedroom. There is the `Man in the Planet' and the repeated appearance of umbilical cords that all lead me to my personal conclusion of the films message.

David Lynch has claimed that this film is about all the fears and anxieties he faced in Philadelphia while attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In all honestly this helps boast my interpretation. I feel that `Eraserhead' is Lynch's answer to mans ingrown fear of commitment. Henry would rather consider his relationship over than pick up the phone and call Mary. The depiction of the baby as a monster seems to draw on mans fear of fatherhood; the biggest and most important commitment one can make. There is a scene where the lady in the radiator, while singing and dancing, squashes falling umbilical cords with her feet, to me symbolizing the need for man to sever the cord and be independent and free. The advances of the beautiful neighbor also impress mans desire for freedom, casting aside the restraints of marriage for a fling. The man in the planet could serve to represent many things, but looking at his appearance and demeanor I lean towards the idea that this man represents mans disinterest in physical labor; work. Henry himself is on vacation from his own job as a printer.

Then again, I firmly believe that this interpretation is wrong; it cannot be this simple.

There is a pivotal scene within `Eraserhead' where Henry's head is used to create eraserheads for pencils. This scene is obviously where the films name is derived from, but it is also the scene that baffles me the most. It could be an obvious stab at the fact that our brains retain information, thus we can use them to erase what we don't like, but I don't think that `obvious' works in any sense for this movie. This scene is probably the scene that, if identified, would reveal Lynch's thoughts on this film and it's moral.

The acting in `Eraserhead' is flawless when you consider the type of film this is. Jack Nance gives one of my favorite male performances as Henry Spencer. His nervousness is key to creating the mood that Lynch establishes with the film, and if he had dropped the ball then the film would have sunk. Charlotte Stewart is insanely effective as Mary, but it's Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates that really make the most of their small roles. The dinner scene alone is one of the most memorable scenes in the film when it comes to performances, and Bates steals that whole scene with her domineering mother. Her performance is yet another reason I fall towards the whole `commitment' theory, her character truly proving to be the horrendous wifely stereotype of dominance. Joseph is great as Mr. X, Mary's father. His performance is manic and commanding. Judith Roberts is leering and Laurel Near is entrancing, both actresses embodying their performances magnificently.

Lynch is the true star here though, delivering a rich and fulfilling film that is unlike anything else you've ever seen. The films rich black and white delivery, not to mention the machinelike score, completely engulf the film and add layers to the feeling, the mood, the structure and construction of this flawless film.

Sure, no one may really know what it all means, but half the brilliance in `Eraserhead' is that very fact. It is a blessed unknown, a riddle that one must try to crack fully aware that they never will. Lynch has created a masterpiece, a creative gem that will serve as one of a kind; a film never to be repeated. `Eraserhead', whether you want to admit it or not, may very well be the greatest film of all time. Like poet Charles Bukowski stated, after `Eraserhead' there is nothing; "starting with `Eraserhead' we sit here, click, click, click - nothing."

How very true.

Pathetic
I first rented Eraserhead back in the early eighties on the recommendation of someone. Later that year I visited him in the asylum but didn't bother asking why (he considered this movie worth watching). I just assumed it had something to do with bad acid. Nevertheless in the late eighties I rented it again determined that there must be something to this movie I wasn't appreciating. In the late nineties my girlfriend threw it into our basket for an all night viewing of the worst movies ever made. It was last on the list and we had mercifully passed out in each other's arms before even plugging it in the machine. Somewhere around 2001 it showed up on television. I turned it off and went to bed.

There is something unique about Eraserhead in that no matter what category or classification you put it, no matter what angle you view it from and no matter what you compare it to... it stinks! It really is the product of a pathetically sick mind that should be occupied with anything but writing or producing movies. Perhaps flipping burgers is more up David Lynch's alley but please... don't let it be at a restaurant in my city!

Rating this movie a zero it would be much too lenient. Total junk!

Let me explain my rating...
...I think this is an effective film, as it apparently sets out to disturb, and it does, in spades. Don't get me wrong, I like weird movies, weird stories, weird music, et cetera, but this is just so nebulous, and Lynch himself has said it is such a personal film, no reviewer, regardless of who they are, will ever accurately sum it up. But it left me with a strange, uncomfortable feeling. It was unpleasant, but I think that was the intent; to have some kind of lingering effect on the viewer. Detractors say it's trash, and nothing but, while fans say it's a masterpiece. To say it's both, sounds like fence-straddling, even though that's what it really is. Both. It's intentionally bad, to the point where any attempts to "improve" on it, would completely destroy it.

So much of this movie just seems so pointless, one wonders why they are sitting through it. It really does seem like a long, terrible dream. But the strangeness of it all is done with such conviction, and the fact that the people involved stayed with it from beginning to end, literally for years, until completion, is commendable. Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.

Really, though, how do you hold a film like this up to any standard, when, it being possibly the most bizarre film ever made, has no standard to be measured against? Two recommendations are appropriate to the uninitiated, though: Do not watch this if you are the least bit tired, as the slow pacing and constant rumbling sound in the score, WILL lull you to sleep, however disturbing the images and events on screen are to you. This happened to me, I was tired when I first watched it, and had to scan back to the last part I remembered seeing. The other: if you are a woman expecting a baby, it might not be a good idea to sit through this, which becomes apperent upon viewing. A newborn requires your UNCONDITIONAL love and care, no matter what it is. Pregnancy hormones make a woman a volcano of mood swings, and uh, well...

Some things are just too odd to size up, like the woman in the radiator. This is obviously a dream-within-a-dream concept, and she is, despite her pleasant nature, repulsive. Some say frightening; "...in Heaven, everything is fine..."

The character portrayed by Jack Nance, as the film unfolds, it turns out, is an upstanding man, marrying the woman he impregnated, despite the train-wreck that is her gene pool, and stays with their offspring, but the character in the film I had the most sympathy for, isn't even portrayed by a human being. This newborn "baby," is a complete innocent, and doomed to live in this state of being until (spoiler) Henry (Nance) tries to put the poor little creature out of her (his?) misery.

In a nutshell, this film is a sequence of images, events and sounds, which disturb and unhinge. It's not funny enough to be a comedy, and it's not scary enough to be horror. I guess it is a classic "Art Film," and the fact that it still gets attention many years later says something. But what, I just don't know.