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ERASERHEAD Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jack Fisk
Many films are subject to interpretation. There is no truer example than David Lynch's first feature film, Eraserhead. In a time that brought to the cinematic world Dawn of the Dead, Halloween and The Hills Have Eyes, Eraserhead stands out on its own as one of the most bizarre films of all time. Filmed in atmospheric black and white and created on a small budget, Lynch's Eraserhead takes on the feeling of a strange, unsettling nightmare. Images such as deformed people, undead poultry and semi-epileptic people going into wild rages are not easily forgotten and stay with the viewer for days. After years of being out of print and unavailable, Korean DVD studio CJ Entertainment has released a Region 0 version that has caught the attention of many fans.
Henry Spencer is a man who lives amongst the ruins of a past-its-prime, industrial, urban neighborhood. The landscape is harsh, cluttered with abandoned buildings, gravel, dirt and junk. ONly the sounds of machinery and trains can be heard. Henry, an unemployed printer who lives a simple, yet seemingly troubled life, gets a phone call from Mary X, a woman with whom he had once had relations. He is invited to have dinner with Mary's family. When Henry arrives, he is greeted by some of the strangest people anyone would want to meet. After a disturbingly surreal dinner sequence, it is revealed that Henry is the father to Mary's illegitimate, "premature" baby. However, it is deformed and resembles some sort of alien life form.
Mary moves in with Henry, and both attempt to live a "normal" family life together. Mary leaves out of frustration from the whole situation while Henry finds himself sinking into an unreal vortex of unreality..... Lynch went on to direct films such as Dune, The Elephant Man, Wild At Heart and the oddball television series, Twin Peaks. All of his films have, at least to some degree, a strange atmosphere to them comparable to Eraserhead. Deformity is a theme that pervades Lynch's films. Many regard his films as works of high art. Available as part of an expensive and not-so-easily attained boxed set, Eraserhead remains a difficult film to find. CJ Entertainment's import is the cheaper, although not necessarily better, alternative for the casual fan. It seems that this import has been mastered from a VHS source. Presented 1.33:1, the image is very blocky and artifacted, and has a very low contrast level. The low contrast produces an image that is too bright, leaving the blacks to appear murky gray. Dropped/Skipped frames is another evident problem, leading to a jerky appearance.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround sound track is decent. It is strong and relatively clear. Among the extras is a text biography/filmography on David Lynch and the theatrical trailer for Eraserhead. Just under a minute long, the trailer is nothing more than an effective montage off the stranger shots from the movie set to the sound of a rolling train. The trailer is in surprisingly good shape - nearly as good as the feature itself. The DVD packaging indicates that there are removable Korean subtitles. However, testing the disc on two DVD player models and two DVD-equipped computers, the subtitles were unaccessible.
A highly sought-after film with a very evasive availability is now able to be found at a decent price. The official version of Eraserhead is available through David Lynch's website for a high price, and requires a paid membership to that site in order to purchase the DVD. Although Lynch's own DVD has been restored and mastered from the original negative materials, the viewer may opt to attain the cheaper version by CJ Entertainment. |
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