Wild At Heart (1990) : Off to See the Wizard [Mike’s review]
Today on Cage Club we’re goin’ somewhere over the rainbow with “Wild At Heart” by David Lynch. I have not seen this one yet so I was very excited to get the DVD out of the wrapper and into the BluRay player. I like Lynch’s work because he can be artistic without coming across as pretentious, at least to me. His films can be cryptic and full of symbolism like Mulholland Drive, or restrained and simple like The Straight Story. I believe he knows what he is doing even if it doesn’t seem like it at times and he definitely wants to challenge the audience with his work. Sounds like someone I know named Nic Cage. I suppose it was only a matter of time before serendipity brought these two artists together for what turned out to become one of my newest favorite movies! It’s nice to see Cage out of mainstream exile and back from his trip abroad to make “Time To Kill”. This is certainly a much more high profile gig as Lynch is piping hot at the moment coming off Blue Velvet and going into Twin Peaks. This is prime Lynch directing the return of Cage in a love story from hell, count me in!
Nic Cage plays Sailor Ripley, who talks and acts like Elvis Presley. He’s super cool with the girl to match by the name of Lula, a sexed up she devil. In the opening scene, Sailor is accused of trying to have sex with Lula’s mother and attacked with a knife so Sailor proceeds to beat the man to death, bashing his head into the ground so brains could spill out. After Sailor is released form prison for manslaughter, the two star crossed lovers skip town for California and the misadventures of the road. Meanwhile, Lula’s mother hires a Private Detective named Johnny to find the kids, and a hitman named Marcelles Santos to kill Sailor once he’s found. Sailor and Lula dance and screw their brains out while pondering the facts of life until they breakdown in Texas. Lula discovers she is pregnant and Sailor has to figure out a way to provide for his family to be so he hooks up with a local psychopath named Bobby Peru to do a robbery. Bobby has the worst teeth in film history that I have seen so far making him double creepy without even trying. Turns out Bobby was hired by Santos to kill Sailor for Lula’s Mother! Sailor is double crossed, but a cop blows away Bobby Peru when the robbery goes south. Sailor goes to prison again, this time for five years, a much loner bid. When he’s released Lula picks him up again, this time with their son Pace who Sailor meets for the first time. Neither Lula or Sailor seem to be comfortable around each other anymore as the magic in their relationship may have fizzled out during their time apart. Sailor decides to leave Lula and his Son citing that he’s not man enough to provide for them. Lula doesn’t care and may feel that all you need is love. Sailor quickly changes his mind with the help of a Street Gang and Glenda the Good Witch Of The North from “The Wizard of OZ”, who teach Sailor not to turn away from love. Love is tricky because while it can make you feel great it also makes you feel terrible. Sailor runs through traffic to reunite with Lula and sings “Love Me Tender” which he swore he’d only sing to his wife one day, so I take it they are engaged. I’m being fairly vague with this plot description because I truly don’t want to spoil the moments within certain scenes if you haven’t seen this movie yet. If you have seen this movie I hope you are compelled to watch it again.
This is a very bi-polar film, the emotional context of a scene can switch on a dime then back again. There is a good example in the opening sequence that sets up the film language for the rest of the film. The scene opens with the jazz standard “In The Mood” playing as people leave a nice venue, but when Sailor is attacked and the scene becomes violent the music also changes into heavy thrash metal guitar to enhance the drastic tonal shift. The movie is doing this a lot and not just with the music. There is a very disturbing scene towards the end of the movie when Bobby Peru is toying with Lula. It starts comical and innocent but quickly becomes scary and threatening to the point of completely disturbing. Then, at the very end of the scene it jumps back into comedy. It’s like getting emotional whiplash and really gave me a sense of confusion and panic that I think helps to understand the characters world view better. It’s like the movie is saying at any moment something unexpected can happen so in this world you gotta be on your toes. This reality is gonzo and I wondered if maybe the Earth is a bit off it’s axis or the planet was spinning slower than it should causing everyone act so nuts.
There is just way too much going on in this movie to include everything in a single blog post, but the one theme that the movie demands I bring up is it’s parallels to the 1939 classic “The Wizard of OZ”. The movie is referenced all throughout Wild At Heart, from spoken dialog to visual cues. Maybe the references are to help establish how different reality is compared to the dream world of Wizard of Oz. Maybe it’s to illustrate sharp contrast between the way we would like life to be as opposed to the way it actually is. Or maybe the characters grew up watching the movie and they like it a whole lot. In any case, there is nowhere over any rainbow to escape from in the real word. Some more OZ references; the mother dressed as a witch riding a broomstick, Lula clicking her red heels together wishes there’s no place like home, Sailor saying they are headed to the Emerald City, Some one that is presumably the mother watches parts of the movie through a crystal ball, A strange old man talking about his dog that may or not be named TOTO, Sailor hallucinating Glenda the Good With at the end of the movie when he is knocked out cold… and that’s just what I could recall from memory. Rest assured it’s just the tip of the iceberg. I go in-depth as to direct character parallels in the podcast episode but here is a glimpse of some notes I took half way through the movie.
Wow, Wild At Heart. This movie became an instant favorite of mine. I Loved just about everything about this movie from the acting to the costumes to the music…. ALL of it. Lynch may have gone overboard with the Wizard of OZ references but it still works for me. It works nice as a movie reference everyone can “get” as a basis of comparison to the story being told. Heck, even Steve Rodgers knows Wizard of OZ. Nic Cage as Sailor is channeling Elvis Presley and not merely doing an impersonation. He so completely embodies “E” for me that by the time he sings to Lula for the first time I already consider this one of Nic cage’s best all time performances. I wish someday Lynch and Cage get to collaborate again but if they don’t I’m so happy we at least got this one amazing movie.
A Word About INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY No1. : The Dream of the Broken Hearted
This is a short stage production done around the same time as Wild At Heart and features a cameo by Cage and Laura Dern who played Sailor and Lula. In the intro to the play, Cage and Dern ( looking and sounding like Sailor and Lula ) break up over the phone. The ensuing play is meant to depict the nightmarish dreamscape of a broken hearted woman, presumably Lula after Sailor has left her. It can almost be taken as a 40 min alternate ending to Wild At Heart but it’s not really. There is a woman suspended by wires for most of the play that I took to be some version of Glenda, me still having OZ on the brain from Wild At Heart. She floats and sings of the broken hearted while other acrobats contort around the stage to the off beat musical soundscape by Angelo Badalamenti with lyrics by Julee Cruise. It’s not easy to follow what happens but I guess it’s not the point. The point is to get an emotional reaction from the combination of sights and sounds, oftentimes alternating from pleasant to not so pleasant. There is the lovely floating woman but at one point she flies too close to the electrical wires in the industrial landscape of the scenery and gets fried. She falls to the ground but reforms as some type of hulking cow devil creature. I think the opening number is a car crash in reverse slow motion. There’s a part where the little person from Twin Peaks saws a log of wood for a while then drags a light bulb across the stage. It’s strange and out there and I don’t typically watch this type of performance art but I can appreciate it for what it is. I actually enjoyed the music and it’s really outside the realm of what I normally listen to on a daily basis. This is available to watch for free in You Tube if you get the urge.
That will finally conclude this Cage Club post ! Next up we have Firebirds with Tommy Lee Jones. According to the DVD box, If you like TOP GUN you will like this too. I can’t wait to takes to the sky in some air to air chopper combat next time on Cage Club.
Mike
@the_mikestir
