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June 10, 2011
5. Inland Empire (2006)
The ultimate Lynch-fan litmus test, this three-hour collection of tragic prostitutes, anthropomorphic rabbits, and unexplained musical numbers is like soaking in a deep bath of someone else's nightmares. Inland Empire shows that if he wanted to, Lynch could be one of the greatest horror directors of all time.
4. The Elephant Man (1980)
Lynch supposedly agreed to make this movie based on the title alone, having no other idea what it was about. As his most conventional film, this serves as a good example of how an artist can channel his vision into material that, in different hands, could be boring or trite. Just because John Hurt is covered in makeup and pumping for a Best Actor nomination doesn't mean he isn't incredibly moving.
3. Blue Velvet (1986)
The breakthrough movie in Lynch's career, this is still as powerful and shocking as ever in its mixture of sadism, voyeurism, and Oedipal madness. Dennis Hopper was never better than as gas-huffing sociopath Frank Booth. The only thing holding this movie back, for me, is the slight smirk in its depiction of small-town life.
2. Mulholland Drive (2001)
Almost certainly the best thing to ever be salvaged from an abandoned TV pilot (there's still hope, Wonder Woman!), Mulholland Drive is the greatest blend of dreamlike weirdness, black comedy, and heartrending drama of Lynch's career. A huge amount of credit has to go to Naomi Watts, who delivers an amazing performance (or two) as the small-town girl gone adrift in the city of dreams.
1. Eraserhead (1977)
This is the one that started it all, the purest distillation of everything Lynch has ever done in one ninety-minute package of industrial decay, hideous puppets, and the deadest of deadpan humor. Lynch's other films mesmerize us with visions of murder, chaos, killers, and freaks; in this film, Lynch shows us the horror inside the typical American family, from a disastrous dinner with the in-laws to the terror of mishandling a baby. It's not the kind of movie you follow for story or character — it's something you just have to feel.
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David Lynch
Commentarium (111 Comments)
God, I can't believe I fucking sat through Eraserhead. I think it's the kind of thing that mostly only boys love.
Great, intense, and affecting cinema? Naw, girls can appreciate that, too. Just not you, apparently.
Yeah, i love it to pieces and the boys I've shown it too were...indifferent? I fully agree it's about the feel though. And the noises....it's just....gorgeous.
God, I can't believe I just fucking read this statement. I think it's the kind of thing that mostly only small-minded Girls would say.
I'm with you Andrea. This movie made me feel like I ate something bad!
It's not specific to gender. It is people Whore open minded to innovative works or art. This is a "movie" as the public sees movies. it is art and it can only ne appreciated hi people who see it from all angles. its dynamic cinematography is the object of admiration and of ridicule it is all in the eye of the beholder. it dosent mean anyone is dumb it is just all about what you have learned from movies and whether or not you appreciate classic revolutionary corner stones in movie history or just something that is enjoyable or Relateable. depending on what you looking for this can be mind blowing amazing it weird and creepy
@Marsales:
People whore?
I love it when people defend Eraserhead from critics by claiming "you don't get it" or "it's art". Nope, it's just crap. It's a dreadful movie that pretentious airheaded artsy types look to see meaning in.
I love it when people attack Eraserhead by claiming "it's just crap"! Whether you like it or not, it has provoked intense reactions from thousands of people (positive and negative) since it was released. As far as I am concerned that is the function of art, and the more people who react, the greater the art. If you can ignore it, it isn't art imho.
If you got it, you get it. Comme ca?
Blue Velvet should be #1
Cosign.
Yes, please.
Third. Blue Velvet is a near perfect film, while Mulholland Drive is a lot of great pieces that don't always fit. Wild at Heart and Lost Highway should not be the worst two, either.
Spot on, Jennifer. Every word.
100% agree about Blue Velvet, its in my top five films. Eraserhead is by far the only movie to physically move me.
#1 by any director. Mulholland Drive does fit together! They are like brother and sister these two.
I'd put Dune at number 10 and Blue Velvet at 1. His short films are sometimes hard to watch, too.
I'm a constant fighter for Dune - it captured the falling empire motif perfectly, and - c'mon - adding in Geiger was a nice touch.
eraserhead is the worst film i've ever watched through to the end
and that comment is exactly why your a.....
FUCKING MORON
I could say the same thing about you.
How about i just ram my dick down your throat and ass fuck you with a bowling pin, and we skip the small talk.
eraserhead is a deeply symbolic movie. you may think it was crap but honestly it was probably just because it was hard to understand. Look up the meaning read into it, and if you still don't like it well than you movie taste just isn't really as open to experimental/symbolic movies as most that appreciate eraserhead.
Mulholland was the most pompous bit of dreck I've ever seen. The first hour, I had such confidence he was going to tie all this together. When it finished, after a second hour of aimless crap, and the woman whispered "el finito" I audibly (and I NEVER talk in theaters) said "el stupido" and there was applause. What a farce that this was anywhere near Blue Velvet on this list.
Mulholland Drive is probably the easiest film on this list to explain. I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it, but the first few minutes contain a pretty important shot.
i agree with JM that there is a logic to Mulholland Drive and that the initial shots contain the keys....but calling it the easiest to explain is a bit over the top. It's almost impossibly hard to piece it together, which makes it so damn satisfying when you begin to understand the connections. I think that's why the people who like it, absolutely love it. And the people who don't like, hate it.
jesus christ. the first 2 hours are her dying hallucination, the last half hour is the time leading up to her suicide. hasn't this been explained a million places already? how the fuck could a lynch fan not know this. JD, you need an education.
To clarify I meant, easier than say Eraserhead or Lost Highway, not the Elephant Man. As Brad revealed it's a dream/hallucination and then memories, which is a lot more straightforward than whatever the hell is going on in Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks. I mean the movie starts with the camera headed into a pillow and the weirdness stops with her waking up. I admit I had to have it pointed out to me, but when it was I pretty much smacked my palm against my head. I was looking for something far more out there and, well, Lynchian.
Mulholland Dr is by far my favorite on the list and one of my faves of all time. You know how there are some songs you love, even though you haven't figured out all the lyrics and aren't really sure what some of the verses mean, but you love it anyway? That's Mulholland Dr for me in film form.
She also says "Silencio" at the end, not "el finito". I mean, come on. And the movie does pull everything together (almost) pretty brilliantly, just not in the way you'd expect.
It's my favorite of Lynch's films also. I like Lynch best when he gives you just enough to piece together coherence, but still leaves you sore from being mindfucked.
Brad you fucking twat, not everyone has seen the movie yet. Thanks for ruining it.
Well if movies are suppose to make you think, this one sure did. I had to watch it twice to figure it out. I guess I'm slow. It's better than the average movie where you can predict what is going to happen next, and even what the actor is going to say.
To Bradisanasshole
Brads interpretation is only one of many where viewers attempt to extrapolate a real world physical solution. I find it much richer and more fulfilling when considered from a non physical mental perspective of a recurring allegorical tale of repressed fears occurring within an inner repressed mind. Don't be put of by others "solutions". Lynch has created something which can be much deeper than a puzzle of a girls destructiion at the hands of Hollywood for those who care to journey further. It requires studying every aspect of the film from sequencing, lighting, editing, sets, costumes, character names (as listed in credits) as well as Lynch's own interests. It is a remarkably complete work of art!
And this is where these list things really grind to a gnashing, mismatched stop. You're taking the white light of work fron a man like Lynch and trying to refract it into a meaningful ordered spectrum but really is red any better than violet or is it the sum of the parts that makes for the meaningful expression and enduring spectacle?
Ew. Please stop talking like that. You write like someone that just read "As I Lay Dying" for the first time.
Lol@gyptheblood. Also red IS better than violet, stupid.
Yeah, but Violet has way more energy going for it. EM Spectrum, mothafuckas!
Sorry, but Lynch only ever made one Good (as in watchable, and intelligible) movie, The Elephant Man. The rest are crap.
I think you mean he's only made one mainstream, easily digested film (two, though really). Elephant Man isn't special because it would've been remarkably similar if ten other directors had made it. They may not be your taste, but Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, etc. are uniquely Lynchian. He has his own adjective for a reason.
Doubtful. And you don't think Elephant Man wasn't "Lynchian"? Dreams and dreamlike sequences, unsettling quiet periods, fixation on symbolism, etc.... The only thing un"Lynchian" about it was the heart of the titular character.
I'd have to give it to Blue Velvet. Mulholland Dr. never clicked for me the way I think it did for a lot of people.
keep thinking pete. :-)
I'm thinking as hard as I can!
You greatly underestimate Fire Walk With Me. As a study in the mind of a girl being abused, it is quite affecting and, at times, extremely powerful.
The "Questions in a World of Blue" scene kills me.
I have to speak in favor of Lost Highway, then. I think that if there's "a movie that if he wanted to, Lynch could be one of the greatest horror directors of all time," it's that one. The first section between Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette is a concentrated domestic horror flick. Never has a wifely pat on the back been so truly terrifying.
Lost Highway may not be my favorite Lynch film (I think that is probably Mullholland Drive) but it is my favorite.
Your favourite what? If it's not your favourite Lynch film, is it your favourite... ice cream?
I am English, so putting a 'u' in 'favourite is correct.
I wouldn't explain all this but I think you are stupid. I write this in the vain hope that you're gnomic and weird.
It seems unfair to rank David Lynch movies like Dune and The Straight Story against Blue Velvet and Inland Empire. Where is the basis for comparison? And really, what is the point? When you are ranking Lynch films against each other, what you are really seeking to order are the strange, dark, a-chronological mind-fucks--that he also directed The Elephant Man and Straight Story is incidental, inconsequential. Not that those two aren't great movies (they are), but that to rank them as "Lynch films" is beside the point.
I agree.
I'm gonna have to agree with that statement. You can't really compare something like The Elephant Man with Lost Highway. Despite the odd subject matter, the former is a more elegant, straight-forward example of Lynch's abilities as a director, while the latter (along with Mulholland, Inland Empire, and Eraserhead) are more akin to psychological exercises, concerned primarily with tone and imagery more than they are with plot. I think what makes Blue Velvet such a successful movie is that it fits somewhere between the two.
no one else is appalled that Wild At Heart is ranked last? my personal favorite.
I really love Wild at Heart! I just find the whole "ranking" system inappropriate for an auteur.
Wild at Heart should be in the top 5, somewhere near Blue Velvet. Both were example of Lynch feeling his way along a path that split "Lynch film" and "movie".
APPALLED. Wild at Heart is fantastic. It's one of my favs and I love Lynch.
Also, does anyone else feel like the David Lynch episodes of Twin Peaks should be ranked? At least the 2 hour series premiere, which is longer (and better!) than several of the movies on this list
I agree that Twin Peaks should have at least been a collective count! I just recently watched all episodes, and should be in the top 5! Although, yes, the ending left an expected return.
Wait, wait what the fuck drugs are you on and can I have some? You put Lost Highway at number 9 and Eraserhead at number one?? Did someone offer you a blowjob from his cat if you ddid this?
P.S. Your rating skills are subpar and I am pretty sure your mother should have swallowed you..
I'm pretty certain the only way someone's ranking skills can be subpar is if they put the numbers in the wrong order. Everything else is open to interpretation--for example, I think spelling your name with a 'y' invalidates your opinion about, well, everything, but that's just my interpretation.
Eraserhead as number 1? A bold move that I think I agree with.
surrealism isn't for everyone
I saw The Straight Story for my ninth birthday. What a mistake.
I don't like this list. At all. Lost Highway was an excellent film and it's low ranking is disappointing - I love being completely immersed into the nightmarish world it creates every time I watch the film. I will never understand why it was so disliked. It really grabs you. It should be in the top 5.
And Blue Velvet will always be my #1 Lynch film. Always.
How's Annie?
My mother rented Eraserhead for us to watch when I was around 11 or 12 because the cover looked "silly". I was sent out of the room during the chicken scene. I haven't been the same since.
Eraserhead is an excellent piece of art but as a movie? I dunno. I feel like mulholand drive and blue velvet are waaaaay better movies while still containing plenty of awesome lynchy surrealism
How is Dune not the worst? The studio ripped it apart. It's not even a Lynch film. Do your research champ. From worst to first: Dune, Inland, Straight Story, Fire Walk, Lost Highway, Wild, Elephant, Eraserhead, Mulholland, Blue
They're all pretty much awful. Its not hard at all to make people feel nauseous and jilted.
absolutly no. lost highways, at least is superior than fire walks with me, and without it Inland empire or mullholand drive couldn't exist...
blue velvet number 2.
D+
Inland Empire should be #1 by far imo. I think it's really obviously his masterpiece. I find it to be the most beautiful and engaging and entertaining and the most Lynchian. The most accomplished. The only ranking I'd agree with personally is Mullholland Drive at #2. I'd put Eraserhead at #3. I was never that big a fan of Blue Velvet, but I loved Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway, so they'd be the next two on my list.
Oh wait, I'd agree with Wild At Heart being last too. I hated that one.
With regard to FWWM: Actually, Lynch made a 4 hour film in which most of the show's cast appeared, it's just that he was forced to cut them out. Which cut out much of the humor and whimsy. There exists a director's cut, and I WANT IT. There is no chance in hell it will ever see the light of day, though. :(
someone make this happen!
Why can we not have this???
www.soulecat.blogspot.com
i beg to differ ...
like.
www.soulecat.blogspot.com
Rare that I've seen a ranking list that I agree with more! Excellent job and all the more so with the Lost Highway placement. As a long time Lynch fan who saw Eraserhead when it came out, and then about 5 times in a row in the theatre, I have never understood the ravings for what seems the impossibly obstuse, meandering and narcoleptic mess that Lost Highway is.
I would post my own list but I haven't seen Inland Empire yet so I am not qualified. However, I am fairly certain that Mulholland Drive would be #1. Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet would all be somewhere in the top 5.
Straight Story would be #10, Dune #9, Elephant Man #8, mostly because those 3 aren't really Lynch films. Yes, sure, he had a part in them but that's not really what we're talking about here. "Lynch Film" means something.
I just wish I could get a copy of every episode of "On The Air" that was ever finished. Talk about a riot!
Twin Peaks is absolutely fabulous in the worst ways possible. I recently just started watching this show and realizing why it is one of the most ridiculous cult classics EVER! I also have a soft spot for both Mullholland Dr. and The Elephant Man (well, I remember watching the elephant man as a young child and being terrified, but my parents kept reminding me that the elephant man is a person too).
Blue Velvet: the depiction of small town life is a reflection of the willing naive perception Laura Dern has of her own environment and works as a contrast to the world of Frank Booth. So the smirk is merely in the eye of the beholder.
I'd flip one and two. I'm still processing Mulholland Dr, and I saw it years ago. Naomi Watts is amazing.
Maybe Dune is okay, but that's it. I found TP unwatchable.
I loved both Wild At Heart and Lost Highway. there were some great scenes in both. I would put both towards the top. I had a hard time with Inland Empire, though I did not think it was a bad movie. I also liked Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I would put it more towards the middle. Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive definitely deserve to be at the top of the list.
I like your list much better than the published one
www.soulecat.blogspot.com
I was just about to do this list on my blog... was inspired by the David Lynch Coffee Commercial. I guess I got beat to the punch, but I will do it here. I had it on a scrap paper list in my desk drawer before I read this list so here goes (worst to first). Prefaced that I love movies #7-1:
10. Dune
9. Inland Empire
8. Straight Story
7. Eraserhead
6. Lost Highway
5. Fire Walk With Me
4. Mullholland Drive
3. Blue Velvet
2. Wild at Heart
1. Twin Peaks Series (oops I made the list before I saw what was on this one)
Anyone with me?
www.soulecat.blogspot.com
Elephant Man
oops, Elephant Man should be around 6.5
I love David Lynch. Your listing SUCKED! I would rate almost exactly opposite - Wild at Heart is his MASTERPIECE! Blue velvet second. How can you possibly rate Wild at Heart 10? "Jesus Saylor, thw whole world is wild at heart and crazy on top" - and you have rotten taste in movies.
And how do you consider Lula and Saylor "afterthoughts" in Wild at Heart. The movie revolved around them? Did you even see this movie? How in the hell do you qualify as a movie critic? If you evaluate a movie based on the fact that it either did win or didn't win an award "the Palme de blah who gives a fuk" then you are basing your opinion on someone elses opinion and you are merely a lackey not a critic. YOU SUCK I'd like to take you 'Buffalo hunting - " do you know what the fuck that means?
So when you say ranked 'worst to best' do you mean number 1 is the worst? I don't understand.
If you said top 10 films then for sure #1 would be #1.
My wife (at the time) and I came out of the theatre after watching Eraserhead and turned to each other and almost together said " I feel nauseous". But, you know, in a good way.
Not many kudos for "Straight Story" - pretty conventional and very conventional as Lynch movies go. It's really quite a nice little movie about an ordinary fellow doing a pretty extraordinary thing. It's a great piece for Richard Farnsworth, a largely unrecognized actor.
I pretty much agree with the rankings, although the 'Twin Peaks' pilot should be in there somewhere around # 6. 'Mulholland Drive' is actually quite a moving experience, but having said that, no-one so far has mentioned that a truly high point is the seriously fine sex scene. It's hot.
This list only shows how you suck as a movie critic.
Dune is better than Wild At Heart and Lost Highway? Oh my...
Maybe because you're busy trying to find answers for his movies; just give up and go for your M. Night Shyamalan flicks.
I loved Fire Walk With Me. It's heartbreaking and downright creepy. Not to mention, brutal. I think, for me, that would be #2 after Blue Velvet.
I conker mud, though i would put Fire Walk number 1. Why , i wonder, is no one mentioning Donnie Darco?
Can everyone just stop pretending to like INLAND EMPIRE? It's boring, it looks like shit, he never gives you a reason to care about ANY of the characters, and it's got more close-ups than a Mexican soap opera. AWFUL!
this list is trash, except for the part of the list that says wild at heart was last.
to me wild at heart seems like something tarantino would make, if he had some sort of severe retardation.
also, i do greatly enjoy eraserhead, but it was number one on this list just so someone would look artsy, pretentious or something like so.
You have got to be a little off as many have pointed out. I've had ppl say I'm a little off for liking DL's films so much, I've always loved Wild at Heart the most! Inland should be burnt, not on the list! Blue is probably in about the right place and Mulholland is a great one too...
I've just recently gotten into the films of David Lynch (well I've been checking out his films for about a year or so now) and tonight I just watched "The Elephant Man". While I think it was nice to see it in the top 5 of this list, I'm surprise by how little love it's getting in the comments. Such a truly remarkable film. The emotional impact of this film is like any other and for those of you who said that it's not very "Lynchian", I would have to disagree. I think this is just as much of a David Lynch film as Blue Velvet is. Here are the films of his that I have seen so far.
- Mulholland Drive
- Eraserhead
- Blue Velvet
- Twin Peaks (The complete series but not the film...yet.)
- Elephant Man
Of course, I know not seeing six of his films probably doesn't give me much credibility but I just feel that it deserves just a little more respect than what it's getting.
Totally disagree with not putting dune and fire walk with me at the bottom.
n°10 is Wild at Heart?! And Lost Highway is n°9 ???
WOOOOW...The fuck?
Are you for real ?! Is this some kind of joke ?
Fire Walk With Me clearly gets the worst wrap here. It is an absolute masterpiece and possibly the most emotionally affecting and visceral cinematic experience I've ever had, (only 2001: A Space Odyssey can top it for out-of-body pure cinematic bliss moments, but even that falls short in that here it is CHARACTER madness, it is emotion).
You can't try and fully comprehend it. I'm not saying I don't get it and don't bother, most of the basics are easy enough and I love speculating on the rest like everyone. But that's for long nights on the internet. When watching it you have to just close your mind and open your heart and body to an experience that is purely aesthetic. The film is essentially one mindblowingly genius shot scene after another. To top it all off, it even has the two things all the haters whinge about it not having!
1. A happy ending
2. A sequel-based resolution to the series
Both those criteria are fulfilled when you analyse the end and the purpose the angels.
I would rank FWWM at worst a very close 2nd (perhaps tied 1st) behind the sheer perfection that is Mulholland Drive. Nothing new needs to be said about that though.
I completely agree ...
FWWM & MD joint first place. Both near perfect films.
How in Satan's unholy name is Inland Empire so damn high? I've never seen a more pretentious, self indulgent film in my entire life.
I'm going to start by saying that this is the author's opinion. In doing something like this, it is completely impossible to set them on a ranking of worst to best, unless you're only criteria were the profits (or lack of) in the box-office. That being said;
Inland Empire is by far my favorite. I love each one the most, for many different reasons. The thing I like most about the film in the aesthetic appeal, but I mean the old lady warns you at the beginning. The film is cursed.
Most of you people only want explosions! 8-minute long fight scenes, which is alright if it's Tony Jaa. You probably listen to Taylor Swift or LMFAO. What David does is straight from his fucking brain. This man has thoughts you could only fathom to have! Go in them expecting that. You can't really believe that when you sit down to watch one you're thinking you'll be shown a nip slip of Angelina Jolie after she jumped from the exploding helicopter into the ocean of shark-infested water.. OMG!
I beg you to give any of his films another try. It could've been 10 years ago that you watched this one or that one, but you've changed since then. You never know the things you'll appreciate an hour from now that you never did or thought you would.
Also check out his album if you weren't aware. CRAZY CLOWN TIME.
it was nice squishy slimy baby aaaahhhh aaaahhhh henry spencer junior was beautiful
None of Lynch's films have lodged in my brain and re-emerged over the years like "Mulholland Drive." It's a beautifully told story, and I find myself thinking about it regularly. I finally saw "Eraserhead" a couple of years ago though, and it vaulted to my #2.