Wild at Heart: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Wild at Heart: Collector's Edition

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
There are very few directors out there that is as controversial as David Lynch. Nor is there one whose films are so utterly fascinating, even if you wonder if you’ve been on an acid trip after watching one of them. General audiences may recognize him from the incredibly botched Dune, or the amazing Twin Peaks, but his most powerful (and most insane) films tend to be his arthouse dramas like Eraserhead and Wild at Heart. Watching a David Lynch film outside of the few mainstream films he’s done is a true experience, and there’s no other way to describe it. An EXPERIENCE. Wild at Heart was the director’s 5th feature film, coming in right after he found his footing again with Blue Velvet (he spent a good four years stumbling around and ended up making Dune, which nearly killed his career), and marks a return to truly strange form, ala Eraserhead. He’s widely regarded as a genius, a madman, an autuer, and a strange director that really is an acquired taste. It really is true that some directors are an acquired taste, and David Lynch is at the top of the heap for that category. You either love his films to death, or you hate them. I’m a bit on the edge with the love, as I truly TRULY enjoy his films as you just get absorbed in the insanity. But at the same time I fully understand why his surreal style of film making doesn’t jive with the general public. Neither side of the love/hate relationship are wrong in my opinion. They just can or can not accept his style of film making as something they enjoy.

Wild at Heart is the follow up to his ode to crime thrillers, Blue Velvet, using the same style of “in your face” insanity to fuel another nightmaric thriller. This time in the guise of Thelma & Louise, or Bonnie & Clyde. The film sets the mood for the entire production, opening up with young Sailor (Nick Cage) and his girlfriend Lula (Laura Dern) getting assaulted outside of a party and Sailor viciously beating the man’s brains into the cement (literally) before looking up with that wild “Nick Cage” look and getting hauled off to jail. A year later, Sailor is out and Lula (against the wishes of her mother Marietta) runs off to California with the love of her life. Marietta (Diane Ladd) is not about to let her young daughter go though, and sends a host of weirdo killers after the pair with the intent to have Sailor killed and her young daughter dragged back. What happens next is sheer lunacy, with Sailor and Lula against the world, fighting bar flys, killers, and drug dealers alike in an effort to get out of Dodge and make the world their oyster.

Wild at Heart is a strange film with a seemingly lack of narrative hook, but the story is there under the surface. In typical Lynchian style, the general story of finding true love when you’re “wild at heart” is pretty easy to see. Lula and Sailor are trying to make it out from under the hooks and claws of their past life. Sailor is a wild one, but he’s at odds with himself. He wants so desperately to live a normal life, but his past keeps fueling his ego and his wild nature even though it’s not something he really wants to continue on with. Lula is a spoiled rich girl, who’s controlled by her mother and lashes out with the “bad boy” Sailor in order to give her mother the proverbial middle finger. She really doesn’t know what she wants, but loves being rebellious and wild with her beau.

That being said, David Lynch fills the entire narrative out with a bevy of interstitial plot points and segues that really make the film feel more complex than it already is. Lynch is famous for letting the main story out with little tidbits and breadcrumbs and this is just as true with Wild at Heart as it is for say, Twin Peaks. The initial story about Sailor killing a man is seen through the eyes of at least 4 different people, and Lynch uses flashbacks throughout the movie to show just how each person’s view taints the tale, with each flashback telling a new side of the story and revealing the actual truth of what went down. However, those interstitial segues that I mentioned above are probably the most insanely intoxicating pieces of the whole movie. The assassins that follow Lula and Sailor are as memorable as the duo are themselves, with Willem Dafoe turning in one of the most insane performances of his already insane lifetime (literally. There are whole forums dedicated to dissecting the insanity of his character Bobby Peru and David Lynch).

The film is fairly straightforward at first, but it’s the detour at the grungy town of Big Tuna that really changes the structure of the film. Up until that point the film has been about the pair running from the assassins and from the law (Sailor had to break his parole to take Lula out of state), but when they get to the seedy town Sailor gets distracted hooking up with local low life Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe). It’s here that they seem to segue into a moral dilemma, with Sailor having to change his whole life around in order to live with Lula, and him fighting against that social construct the entire way. Lynch ties the film together at the end, but it only gets crazier from there.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




Video:

The Blu-ray from Shout Factory appears to be using the same master that Twilight Time used in 2014, so those familiar with that encode should be prepared for a NEAR identical replica. Luckily that transfer was pretty excellent, really did justice to the unique looking film. David Lynch’s obsession with vivid color palettes comes to life here, with hellish looking red filters, and the use of diffusion filters to create an almost warm “sun drenched” glow to the picture make it one of the more unique looking films out there. Some of the primary colors really pop off the screen (such as Marietta’s blood red lipstick, or the green of a passing field), while the more earthy tones throughout the second half mute them just a bit. Some of the scenes look a bit soft on first light, but this is mainly due to the diffusion filters that I mentioned Lynch likes to use. The film is intrinsically grainy (sometimes heavily so), but it is a very natural grain layer and I can’t seem to find any signs of digitally tampering anywhere. Blacks are usually quite deep and inky, but the grain levels do have a tendency of spiking during those scenes as well.







Audio:

Lynch is such a visual director that most people will get so absorbed in what you SEE on screen that the audio may come in as a secondary effect. Still, the track is exceptionally good, offering the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA remix that the TT release had, as well as the original 2.0 DTS-HD MA track as well. There’s some inconsistent use of the surround channels, but the track is incredibly nuanced, morphing certain shots into other shots, and shifting some sounds from the original scene into the segued scene. The heavy metal sound track is deep and punishing, offering some nice midrange LFE and an oppressive feeling that fits the mood of the film to the core. The opening scene with the battle between sailor and Marietta’s hired good is punchy, powerful and FILLED with deep bass, and the track has more than a few moments that keep the intensity high like that. As a warning, Wild at Heart was SUPPOSED to go out in May of 2018 instead of August, but Shout Factory detected an audio drop issue in their 5.1 mix and recalled all of the discs, replacing them with new ones and then re-releasing the film in August. If you have a UPC that ends in 1332 then you have the good one, but if you don’t, you can go HERE and request a replacement.


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Extras:

• NEW Interview With Novelist Barry Gifford
• Extended And Deleted Scenes (76 Minutes)
• Love, Death, Elvis And Oz: The Making Of Wild At Heart
• Dell's Lunch Counter: Extended Interviews
• Specific Spontaneity: Focus On David Lynch
• Lynch On The DVD Process
• Original 1990 Making Of EPK
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Image Gallery

Final Score: ​

Wild at Heart is a great film…...if you’re a fan of David Lynch and his off center variation on storytelling. He’s not a wildly accessible film maker, but the allegorical and surreal visuals that he uses to push the narrative along make for some incredibly stimulating conversations. His use of sex between Lula and Sailor is actually quite poignant, and not in the least any less disturbing considering that it acts as the focal point of their rebellion against society (or for Lula, her mother), but also acts as the final binding moments of the film, revealing the avenue in which the pair can settle down and live….even though he’s “wild at heart”. Wild at Heart was originally a Twilight Time release, which was given to them for a 3 year contract and only limited to a 3,000 run pressing, which then subsequently sold out and went out of print before the 3 year limit was even up. It looks like Twilight Time lost the rights in 2014 sometime after their 3 year window, and Shout Factory has given it a new look with their Shout Select line (this being their 46th film in the series). The video encode and audio mix seem to be identical to the Twilight time release (I compared both versions to make sure), and they have actually included the original cover art that the Twilight Time film had as a reversible insert. If you have the Twilight Time release there is only one or two new extras, so upgrading is really no big need. HOWEVER, if you missed out on Twilight Time’s release back in 2014 before it sold out, then this is the perfect time to own the film. Again, I can’t iterate enough that Wild at Heart is not for everyone. You almost have to be a David Lynch fan to really enjoy the film, which leads to me to the recommendation of “for the fans” due to the strange nature of the film. At least as a blind buy.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Nick Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe
Directed by: David Lynch
Written by: David Lynch (Screenplay), Barry Gifford (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 124 Minutes
DVD Release Date: September 21st, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Great Cult Film

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I am not sure if I saw this long time ago but will look for it.