I just finished watching Eraserhead, and I can say that I got it! I can explain the whole thing, except for the fact that the margins to this blog are a little too narrow...
No, but seriously—what an inscrutable film, even for David Lynch! Here are my own thoughts on the movie, after having seen it for the second time in 15 years:
The film, as a whole, is extremely sexual. The number of phallic symbols throughout is astronomical. I think this is neither accidental, nor overdone.
The film is also incredibly disturbing, though it's hard to say why. The "score" (mostly sound effects with some music) hovers between haunting and wrenching; along with the visual imagery, it succeeds with, rather than suffers from, the sparse dialogue. The result is captivating, a little nauseating, and... well, disturbing.
Henry experiences the struggle that many men have as they "settle down". He has a girlfriend, whom he confesses to love. They have sex, and end up with a baby. (I say "end up" advisedly, as Henry is generally portrayed as a victim to his cold, industrial, bizarre surroundings.) The baby is hideous, completely alien, and yet Henry finds himself identifying with it more and more (to the point of his head being replaced by the alien baby's.) It cries incessantly (as babies are wont to do from time to time), drives Henry's wife crazy, and eventually drives her away. The baby foils Henry's attempts to seduce his lusty neighbor. At the end of it all, as Henry stumbles upon his neighbor courting another lover, the baby cackles wildly, taunting Henry as if the baby meant to torment his life. What new father hasn't looked at his child, at his new responsibility, and secretly convicted it as an outsider, bent on tormenting him and ruling his life?!
The girl in the radiator is Henry's fantasy. She existed before he knew of his child, while it was just him and his radiator in the dingy apartment. She exists throughout his relationship with his wife—she is the sole light when even his wife is depressed in his dark world. When his wife leaves him, the girl in the radiator does a dance for him. But as worms (keenly reminiscent of sperm) fall to her stage, she steps on them, reminding him of the shame done to his manhood by his wife's leaving. Finally, as he cuts his final tie with his "responsible" life by cutting through his baby's swaddling rags and killing it, he embraces his girl in the radiator and all is white and right in the world.
I think there's more, but it's very hard to tell. This is a bizarre movie, one of the weirdest I've seen. I think I actually like it somewhat better than some of Lynch's other movies; it has a purity that is lacking from some of his other, weird-just-to-be-weird works (coughTwin Peakscough). But, like others, I just can't quite be sure what to think. So... what do YOU think?
Posted by pcg at October 22, 2006 9:15 PM