Eraserhead [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: David Lynch David Lynch

Overview

"David Lynch made his feature film debut with this densely symbolic and unsettling cult movie masterpiece. The nominal plot concerns the creepy and quiet Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), who dwells in a bleak and poisoned industrial landscape. He lives in a barren apartment and he is seemingly on vacation with nothing to do except to picture in his mind's eye the Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near). Things pick up when the Girl Across the Hall (Judith Anna Roberts) informs Henry that his girlfriend Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) wants him to come to her parents' house for dinner. Henry is nervous about going, since this will be the first time he has met her parents, Mr.X (Allen Joseph) and Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates). But it turns out that the dinner is more than a social call when Henry finds out that Mary is pregnant and they are about to be married. After their marriagae and Mary gives birth, the child turns out to be a malformed fetus that spends most of its waking hours crying in terror. Mary can't take it and leaves Henry to return to her parents. All alone with his caterwauling monstrosity, Henry has to come to terms with being a father and adjusting to this new reality by any means necessary."

Product Details

Release Date:	06/30/2014
UPC:	0715515125710
Original Release:	1977
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director David Lynch, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack; "Eraserhead" stories, a 2001 documentary by Lynch on the making of the film; New 2K digital restorations of six short films by Lynch: Six Men Getting Sick (1967), The Alphabet (1968), The Grandmother (1970), The Amputee, Version 1 and 2 (1974), and Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1995), all with video introductions by Lynch; New documentary featuring interviews with actors Charlotte Stewart and Judith Roberts, assistant to the director Catherine Coulson, and cinematographer Frederick Elmes; Archival interviews with Lynch and members of the cast and crew; Trailer; PLUS: a booklet featuring an interview with Lynch from filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley's 1997 book Lynch on Lynch

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jack Nance	Henry Spencer,Actor
Charlotte Stewart	Mary X
Allan Joseph	Actor,Mr. X
Jeanne Bates	Mrs. X
Judith Anna Roberts	Beautiful Girl Across the Hall
Laurel Near	Lady in the Radiator
V. Phipps-Wilson	Landlady
Jack Fisk	Man in the Planet
Jean Lange	Grandmother
Thomas Coulson	The Boy
John Monez	Bum
Darwin Joston	Paul
Neil Moran	The Boss
Hal Landon Jr.	Pencil Machine Operator
Jennifer Chambers Lynch	Little Girl,Person Digging in the Alley,Composer
Brad Keeler	Little Boy,Person Digging in the Alley,Man Fighting
Gill Dennis	Man with Cigar
Raymond Walsh	Mr. Roundheels
Peter Ivers	Composer
Fats Waller	Composer

Technical Credits

David Lynch

David Lynch	Director,Screenwriter,Producer,Special Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Frederick Elmes	Special Effects
Alan Splet	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

An open-ended metaphor with the tone of a nightmare, David Lynch's debut feature combines disturbing visuals with what may be an even more disturbing sound design to create an unforgettable film that's affecting on a visceral level. A Cronenberg-ian discomfort with the simple fact of physical existence courses through Eraserhead, beginning with, but not limited to, matters of sexuality and reproduction. In an early scene, Lynch turns even a family dinner into a horrific affair, emphasizing the inherent grotesqueness of the mere act of eating. The later introduction of a deformed, extremely vocal child seems not the least bit out of place in a world in which even the most mundane aspect (a radiator not the least among them) is notable for its ability to disturb. While Lynch would rarely return to the outright fantasy worlds he explores here, Eraserhead nonetheless sets up the obsessions that would follow him through his career, particularly the ability of the seemingly ordinary to unsettle upon closer observation. That the dystopia Jack Nance inhabits resembles reality tilted at 45 degrees owes more to Lynch's unique vision than his film's low-budget origins. Everything from John Merrick to a field with a severed ear falls into place after seeing Eraserhead.