Wild at Heart (1990)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

David Lynch

Writers (WGA):

Barry Gifford (novel)
David Lynch (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 August 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.

Plot Keywords:

Hitman | Lover | Hate | Prison | Car Accident

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Nicolas Cage	...	Sailor Ripley
Laura Dern	...	Lula Fortune
Willem Dafoe	...	Bobby Peru
J.E. Freeman	...	Marcelles Santos
Crispin Glover	...	Dell
Diane Ladd	...	Marietta Fortune
Calvin Lockhart	...	Reggie
Isabella Rossellini	...	Perdita Durango
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Johnnie Farragut
Grace Zabriskie	...	Juana Durango
Sherilyn Fenn	...	Girl in Accident
Marvin Kaplan	...	Uncle Pooch
William Morgan Sheppard	...	Mr. Reindeer (as W. Morgan Sheppard)
David Patrick Kelly	...	Dropshadow
Freddie Jones	...	George Kovich

Also Known As:

David Lynch's Wild at Heart (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:R (cut) | New Zealand:R18 | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 (DVD version) | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Castle Green Apartments - 99 S. Raymond, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

Trivia:

Several cast members were culled from David Lynch's then-active TV series, "Twin Peaks" (1990), which he temporarily left to make this film. Sherilyn Fenn, Grace Zabriskie, David Patrick Kelly, Sheryl Lee and Jack Nance were all either regular or recurring characters on the series.

Goofs:

Continuity: When they are in bed - he has a shirt on in one shot, the other one it's off, and then on again.

Quotes:

Lula: Uh oh. Baby, you'd better get me back to that hotel. You got me hotter than Georgia asphalt.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Specific Spontaneity: Focus on Lynch (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Kosmogonia

In A Word: Outrageous!

Outrageous! This is another sick-but-fascinating David Lynch film, maybe his sickest, although I've never seen Eraserhead.

The most interesting feature of this strange movie, I think, was the weird characters, one after the other. Make that ultra-weird.....and the strangest of them all is "Bobby Peru," played by Willem Dafoe. In all my years of movie watching, I think "Bobby Peru" still has to rank in the top five of the creepiest characters. He is so outrageously disgusting and perverted you just have to laugh out loud at him.

In fact, "outrageous" might be the best word to describe this film, characters and all.

This wild and entertaining film sometimes makes me shake my head in disgust that I own it, and at other times makes me just laugh out loud at the absurdity of it. You really have to have a dark sense of humor to appreciate much of it. I do, to some degree....enough to keep viewing this.

Nicholas Cage is particularly fun to watch and provides most of the laughs. Laura Dern is also convincing as a trailer-trash-type. If you want a clue on why Dern would play such a sleazy role, check out her real-life mom in this film, Diane Ladd, who plays her mother in the movie. It looks like Mom passed on her wholesome values.

As with some other Lynch films, the music is outstanding: just a great soundtrack. I bought the CD to this a year after first seeing the movie, and I've always enjoyed it. And, another Lynch trait that certainly is here is the excellent visual style, which is enhanced by the widescreen DVD.

So, if you are looking for an outrageous two hours and you aren't easily shocked or offended, this would be a film to consider.