Re: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - Warner Bros. Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Ethan Riley
Da's kewl. I think you're right; that sounds more like what I read. Can't find the old thread. But I wish he would re-incorporate some missing footage. That movie, to me, always seemed like it needed a lot more breathing room.
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I just rewatched all of Twin Peaks earlier this year (both seasons and the film), and I agree that the movie is lacking. I wouldn't call it a terrible film, but I would say that, due to the subject matter (and how well the story is told), it's terribly unpleasant to watch. It has a few moments of levity, and some intrigue, but for the most part, the movie just gives a face to a story we're all familiar with. We know what's going to happen, and we know it's going to be terrible -- hard to "enjoy" that.
That's the movie's flaw, in my opinion, and there's really nothing that could have been done about. David Lynch decided to use the movie to tell a story that a lot of people weren't all that interested in seeing. I think I'd feel better about Fire Walk With Me if they had been able to make additional films, as originally intended. If it wasn't the last word on Twin Peaks, that is. Going from the series finale, which is already quite a few episodes removed from the Laura Palmer story, to the movie which spells out what we've already been told in gruesome fashion, was really jarring for me. That's why I find this to be such a difficult film to give a real review to -- I don't think it's fair to give a negative mark to the film because it's not the Twin Peaks story I wanted to get a feature of. I can't blame the film for not being what I would have wanted; to give it a negative review because I wished Lynch had concentrated on another part of the Twin Peaks saga isn't a good reason. It's a good reason for me not to like it as much, but not a good reason for me to trash the film itself.
It's also hard to discuss because a) I don't want to give away spoilers to those who haven't seen or finished the show yet, and b) it's still just hard to discuss. (Skip this paragraph if you're afraid of spoilers, I don't think there are any but just in case...) I don't have a problem with prequels in general; the idea of going back, in any series, before the point at which it began is almost always a fascinating concept. And I think about a movie like "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", where I knew what the ending was going to be walking in, I just didn't know how it was going to happen or what the fates of the secondary characters would be. The fun in watching that movie came from knowing some heavy stuff was going to be going down and wanting to watch how it all played out. But it's a little bit different with Twin Peaks, because the series revealed all of those things. We know who killed Laura Palmer, and also when, where, how and why. We know the fates of the secondary characters (well, inasmuch as the Twin Peaks series allowed us to). In Star Wars, we knew Anakin was going to become Darth Vader, and I understand there were perhaps some earlier books or comics that delved into that origin, but if you had only ever seen the films (as was the case with me), we knew Anakin becomes Vader, but that's it. We didn't know exactly how, who did it to him and exactly why, etc., etc., so there was still some suspense. That's the difference between Twin Peaks and my Star Wars example. (And it was just an example off the top of my head, I am in no way suggesting that the two films are on the same level.) So to me it's almost like watching a baseball game taped from the night before where my team got pummeled, only I read about it in the paper instead of watching it, and now I'm going back just to actually see with my own eyes how badly the team lost. It's not a perfect analogy, but that's more or less where I'm at with this.
I've seen the movie maybe 4 or 5 times at this point, and I still don't know what I think about it. I'm grateful to have had one last glimpse into the world of Twin Peaks, but ultimately, it's not the glimpse I would have chosen.
That said, I would definitely consider purchasing a Blu-ray release of this title; and if it included the deleted scenes, I would definitely buy it, probably the moment it was released. The deleted scenes won't fix the problems I have with the film, but they would give us another visit into the world of Twin Peaks, and that can only be a good thing.
? And the worst was early on in the movie when the sign language chick came on--and she was such an over-acting Cirque duSoleil-style bum that the audience was like wtf? These scenes, and stuff like David Bowie's screeching fit, characters disappearing into nothingness and more confused the crap out of the casual audience. I saw people in the audience looking at this thing with dismay. People were probably thinking that Lynch was a big kid playing with a big expensive toy. They thought he was coming across from the viewpoint that he could do no wrong. I think audiences tried to punish him for that perceived arrogance by staying away and recommending that their friends do so as well.
