A few years ago, two critics whose names escape me created a list called the "Disturbo 13" of the 13 most disturbing films of all time. That "Eraserhead" would be listed in the notorious company of "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Combat Shock" was quite surprising, and initially I felt nonplussed that such an obviously serious and artistic statement was listed alongside bottom-of-the-barrel exploitation trash like "Man Behind the Sun" (although, to be fair, Pasolini's "Salo" and "In a Glass Cage" were also on the list -- these are films I personally detest, but they do at least have artistic value).
However, I was hard pressed to find a reason why "Eraserhead" wouldn't qualify for this list. It is certainly the most convincing portrayal of a nightmare ever put on film. Like a nightmare, it has its own logic, which doesn't seem open to question while the film is playing itself out. Afterwards, like the afterimage of a nightmare, one doesn't fully understand what transpired, but knows that it made sense while inside of it. And that, to me, is what lifts "Eraserhead" above the pretentious hackwork that many claim it is. Unlike Lynch's "Lost Highway", this one doesn't break its own rules.
I don't believe that this film holds any answers whatsoever, but that its meaning is whatever you choose to make it. Because the film is completely nonlinear, any assertion made about its symbolism could be inverted -- the opposite could also be true. Although I still don't know what to make of those "man-made" chickens......
As a postscript: I don't want to start any little wars here, but to smugly proclaim your interpretation of the film to be the correct one and to accuse anyone who didn't like the film of utter ignorance is no more intelligent than claiming the film was stupid in a review where half the words are misspelled.
However, I was hard pressed to find a reason why "Eraserhead" wouldn't qualify for this list. It is certainly the most convincing portrayal of a nightmare ever put on film. Like a nightmare, it has its own logic, which doesn't seem open to question while the film is playing itself out. Afterwards, like the afterimage of a nightmare, one doesn't fully understand what transpired, but knows that it made sense while inside of it. And that, to me, is what lifts "Eraserhead" above the pretentious hackwork that many claim it is. Unlike Lynch's "Lost Highway", this one doesn't break its own rules.
I don't believe that this film holds any answers whatsoever, but that its meaning is whatever you choose to make it. Because the film is completely nonlinear, any assertion made about its symbolism could be inverted -- the opposite could also be true. Although I still don't know what to make of those "man-made" chickens......
As a postscript: I don't want to start any little wars here, but to smugly proclaim your interpretation of the film to be the correct one and to accuse anyone who didn't like the film of utter ignorance is no more intelligent than claiming the film was stupid in a review where half the words are misspelled.