David Lynch once said, “In Hollywood, more often than not, they’re making more kind of traditional films, stories that are understood by people.And they become worried if even for one small moment something happens that is not understood by everyone.” This pertains to pretty much all of this films but most particularly, Eraserhead. The strange, the odd, the weird! It’s all here and for your viewing pleasure in this 1977 classic experimental narrative film. From the dream like mind of David Lynch he brings you an experience like no other! Weirdoes! Freaks! Monsters! All here presented under the same roof. Observe Henry Spencer trying to deal with his girlfriend Mary X and their mutant baby that won’t stop crying. Be transported to a world that you will never find in a corporate theater, but only in your DVD player, movie channel or Art Theater.

You might be familiar with films such as Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, The Elephant Man and the Twin Peaks television series. The mind that brought you those films made his break through with Eraserhead, which has a cult following that has stayed strong since its release.

Eraserhead is a well-crafted narrative that takes elements of the surreal and the real and splices them together. It takes you away from your everyday narrative and tests your imagination, patience and the want to find a meaning. If you put a wide range of people in a theater and show Eraserhead, those who survive till the end and stay for a discussion afterwards are those who are open minded and watching for more than just entertainment.

The meaning of Eraserhead is not clear cut. While some people say it’s just too weird to be explained, others say it’s just a story about a man that goes through some difficult times presented in a very unusual way. David Lynch as been asked about what the meaning of the film is for him and he says, “It’s better not to know so much about what things mean. Because the meaning, it’s a very personal thing, and the meaning for me is different than the meaning for somebody else.”

He also tells his viewers not to be so concerned with the meaning of this movie or any other movie. He believes that if we fill our brain with what things mean or what they are supposed to mean, then we won’t want new things to happen. We will be afraid of what it’s going to bring us, because maybe we won’t like it.

Lynch has said that Eraserhead is a reflection on Philadelphia, which is a city that he went to school in. If you watch the movie you can tell that he does not like this city. He has once said, “I’ve said many, many, many unkind things about Philadelphia, and I meant every one.”

It’s a good thing we have films like Eraserhead since they are so far from the ordinary, but it’s also good to have the pure entertainment films of Hollywood. With out the two spectrums we would be bored and would want more, but we would never be satisfied because that would be all that we have.