The Student Room Group

David Lynch Is The Most Overrated Person Ever

I've seen Lost Highway and Mulholland Driver before, didn't like either. This week I saw Eraserhead and Elephant Man. Saw Twin Peaks a while ago.

Weird, since I hate every single thing the guy does. Eraserhead is truly the worst film I have ever seen. David Lynch makes the most unentertaining films ever. They're slow, pretentious, absurd for the sake of being absurd. He's a modern day Ed Wood - except he's loved by all. I bet if one of his stars died mid-film, he WOULD get someone else to play the role, and he'd make them look obviously different too, just to show off more 'craziness'. And people would be like "woow, thats so mindblowing, the same being - but TWO physical manifestations".

Of course if you look close enough into his work you'll find deeper meanings - but that's ALL they are. There isn't any 'top' level - it's all metaphor but with no logical coherence. You could read enough into Plan 9 to make it seem like an interesting observation of the 'human condition'. People seem to think that just because they don't understand it, it must mean that it's really deep, and therefore it must be good, intelligent cinema.

What's most worrying to me, is that I'm forming a hatred to all people who like his work, and specifically Eraserhead. If I met a pretty lady and she wanted to sleep with me, and then told me she liked Eraserhead, I would LEAVE. Damn straight.

If I had enough money I would make a film about a talking two-headed zebra, who does a variety of bizarre things, give a title like 'Epiphany of Regret' and sit back as all the people make up their own interpretations and give me lots of money.
Reply 1
Interesting. David Lynch has done other films you know, like Dune for instance, a very good film in my opinion.
Reply 2
ive never even heard of david lynch...
Reply 3
You're allowed to your own opinions but David Lynch's films are quite diverse:
Ok there's the obvious, extremely weird Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Eraserhead is just sick, I agree but to me, it's quite representative of a nightmare: it shows typical incoherent things that you might dream. At least that's how I interpreted the film.

But Elephant Man is a totally heartfelt movie: how can you not like it? It's probably one of my favourite films.
The Straight Story is another heartfelt, simple movie he's done.

I was obsessed with Twin Peaks. It's probably one of the best series to ever come out of the US. People don't make TV like that, where the storylines are almost as good as a film: Millennium and the X-Files were decent but maybe not as great as Twin Peaks.
Reply 4
Mulholland Drive is my favourite film ever, it does make sense on 2 levels and very satisfying they are when it clicks too.

I found it extremely hard to sit through Eraserhead without fidgeting though
Reply 5
I think it's a bit harsh to say that he's " a modern day Ed Wood". Nothing can ever be as terrible as 'The Bride and the Beast'. Agreeably some of his films have their weaknesses but I've never met a person who doesn't love Blue Velvet, or The Elephant Man.

As for Twin Peaks, I ]always preferred Wild Palms.

I'm probably completely biased though, since Lynch cast Brad Dourif (yum!) in a two of his movies (Dune and Blue Velvet).
The only Lynch film I've seen is Mulholland Drive. I have to say I didn't enjoy watching it, but when I looked it up on the internet and found out what it was actually about, I appreciated it a lot more. I would have to rewatch it again to determine wether I actually like the film, but based on that first viewing, I would have to agree that although his film was very well thought out and had a lot going on in it, it isn't enough to class him as a great director. He deserves his "king of weird" title though, but that doesn't necessarily mean his films are enjoyable.
Reply 7
http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=87179&hl=

:confused:

Redwolf_Eddy are you kiddo over at rllmuk?
I missed Twin Peaks on tv, but my older brother was a huge fan and recorded every episode, I didn't understand the fascination until I saw Sherilyn Fenn for the first time. Somebody tagged her 'Five feet of Heaven and a pony tail', possibly Lynch. No better face on the planet. Nice sweaters too...

As for Lynch, v.erratic obv. sometimes piss poor - Velvet, Mulholland, Eraser, sometimes great - Elephant, Peaks, Wild at Heart (not mentioned yet?), hilarious death - shotgun and stocking. :biggrin:

But Sherilyn... :wink: