Misunderstanding Lynch: Wild at Heart, Part 3
Bobby Peru is the devil and he's here to do the devil's work.
Lula and Sailor depart, because Lula’s stomach hurts. I told she was pregnant.
Cowboy and serial killer glasses are in a nearby room.
Lula and Sailor are freaked out by Bobby. This is a smart reaction.
Lula goes to light a cigarette, then flashes back to being raped.
Cut to looking down at Lula through a medical eyeglass thing. Microscope?
The woman is in extreme discomfort, moaning and writhing around. A tube full of what I hope to god is blood pulses from her.
That’s a hell of a way to reveal a character is pregnant.
This reminds me of Blue Velvet, and how the scenes involving sexual assault felt necessary to the plot, and not exploitative. It’s a tricky line to walk. That’s why Lynch was the master.
Lula writes down that she’s pregnant on a piece of paper, claiming she can’t say it out loud.
Sailor lights two cigarettes at once. He tells her it’s fine by him that she’s pregnant. Lula disagrees. She doesn’t want to have a baby. Sailor pretends he isn’t deeply wounded that she doesn’t want to carry his Elvis infused babies. She explains it’s not personal, so much as they are on the endless road trip from hell, and babies don’t generally do well in cars.
Sailor promises he won’t let things get worse.
Sailor is an idiot.
Sailor looks like he wants to run sobbing out of the room.
Next day, Sailor works on his car outside while Lula lounges in a negligee and high heels smoking a cigarette. Lula is way too cool for a dude named Sailor.
Bobby shows up and asks if he can use the head. When Lula uncertainly agrees, Bobby rushes to stress he didn’t mean her literal head.
Having a virtual strange enter your home and promise not to piss on your head kind of makes sense in a Lynch movie.
No, it doesn’t.
Bobby pees with the door open, warning her it will be loud. Lula is uncomfortable.
He smells the puke and asks if it was Lula.
He asks Lula if she’s sick or pregnant.
He asks her if she fucks like a bunny, which is just. Horrifying.
Bobby closes the door behind them.
He’s wearing a black fringed leather jacket. I need you all to know this.
Bobby reaches for her, but Lula cringes away. He keeps calling her a bunny rabbit. It’s awful.
He asks if Lula wants him to fuck her. Aggressively. Menacingly.
Unrelated to anything but in those shoes Laura Dern is taller than Willem Dafoe.
Bobby Peru refers to himself in the third person too. I don’t know how to interpret this.
Bobby grabs Lula, who fights him. He demands she ask him to fuck her. He promises to leave once he’s done if she says it. He invades her personal space. Camera cuts to a close up of his mouth near Lula’s. His teeth are distracting.
Mouths are a big deal in David Lynch movies, it seems.
Bobby sexually assaults Lula, still urging her to ask him to fuck her. Eventually she mouths thee words. He immediately pulls away with a laugh and says ‘Some day honey I will, but I gotta get going.’
He tells Lula to sing instead of cry.
Bobby Peru is the worst.
Lula taps her ruby slippers together three times and bursts into tears.
Bobby seeks out Sailor, I’m sure for altruistic reasons. Sailor is still working on the car. Bobby takes Sailor out for a beer. Bobby asks after Lula.
Meanwhile Lula is in the motel room having a meltdown eerily reminiscent of her mother’s. She whispers Sailors name while she holds her face in the motel mirror.
Sailor looks at his own warped reflection in the mirror.
There are a lot of beers in front of them. Bobby tells Sailor about a job the two of them could run. Rob a feed store for $5,000. Sailor would be the back-up guy. Fifty fifty.
This sounds like bullshit even to me. And I have a terrible sense of smell.
Sailor says no. This is the single smartest thing he’s done since getting Lula to go out with him.
Bobby asks if he plans on raising a family. This gets Sailor’s attention. Bobby lets on that he knows Lula is pregnant. Sailor assumes Lula told him. Bobby points out that they’re going to need money now more than ever.
Bobby admits to talking to Lula earlier the afternoon, but insists he was only guessing about her delicate condition. Sailor is unsure. He drinks more beer. This will help him think clearly.
Bobby shows Sailor the shotgun in his trunk. Sailor is focused on standing up straight. And figuring out what the fuck that burning thing in the sky is.
Fade to the two men in a crystal ball. Sailor reluctantly agrees, saying it well get them further down the yellow brick road. Bobby decides not to ask.
A woman’s black-nailed hand moves slowly around the crystal ball.
Fade to a cigarette burning in an ashtray. Lula is in bed chain smoking. ‘Here comes Sailor’ she tells the horse radio next to her bed. Yes. Horse Radio.
I think Lula pack bonded with the radio.
Sailor comes back. He is terribly drunk, and therefore insists he’s not that drunk. He is wearing some teeny undies.
Sailor wears socks to bed, because he is a monster.
Lula asks to leave. Sailor refuses.
Cut to Perdita’s house.
Sailor lies about being up to anything with Bobby Peru.
‘This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top’ is a fucking line for the ages. Shivers. Every time.
Lula as a very understandable meltdown and asks Sailor to sing me love me tender. She asks about the Yellow Brick Road.
Cut to Perdita. She’s wearing the Insane Heels that I hope come back in style.
Cut to a picture of Perdita, Marietta, and Reggie.
Cut to Perdita screaming in Reggie’s face.
Cut to Bobby Peru leering at the photo. Perdita sits on the couch smoking a cigarette. She has no right to look that good with that haircut.
Perdita tells Bobby about Sailor stopping by. Bobby is delighted by her lie.
Bobby presses a quarter to his forehead and warns that Sailor could have an accident during the robbery.
Easily.
The quarter drops from his forehead into his open palm.
Outside the motel, Sailor paces and chain smokes and wears all black in the desert sun while talking to himself. I’ve never related more to a single character in the entire Lynchian oeuvre.
Sailor decides to back out of the job, but before he can leave, Bobby and Perdita show up. Sailor is upset to see her.
‘Mr. Big Round Balls’ is a hell of a nickname to give a new acquaintance whose lady you sexually assaulted the day before.
‘They say the eagle flies on Friday.’ Sailor takes a long drag of his cigarette, flicks it away, and steps into the car. Sen. Sational. This feels like cinema. It’s the only way I can describe it.
Who are they? What eagle? Why Friday? I will never know. It doesn’t matter.
Cut to Lula posing dramatically and sexily on the bed again. She’s wearing panty hose, but at least ditched the shoes this time.
She smokes a cigarette and stares at the horse radio, which is bathed in soft sunlight. There’s a long zoom in as she watches the horse. The music swells. It’s a sad, wistful scene and for the life of me I cannot articulate why.
David Lynch movies are about how they make you feel, I tell myself whenever I’m confused by the symbolism.
Sailor sits in the back of the convertible. Perdita drives. Bobby leers at Perdita.
In the pantheon of extremely horny characters, Bobby is the horniest of all.
Back to Lula. She smiles beatifically at the radio. Her eyes glisten with tears. She cries.
I want to see a hatchback in a David Lynch movie,
Bobby and Sailor put pantyhose over their heads, grab their guns, and go a-robbing.
These are not very good masks.
The bust into the shop. Bobby demands access to the money. Sailor screams and waves his gun around.
Sailor spins around, posing with the gun.
The police stop by Perdita, who’s waiting in the car. Beacuase of course they do. Perdita plays it cool and tries to brush off the cop’s advances, but he ignores her growing discomfort and continues to chat her up.
Bobby emerges from the back with the money. All is well. Heist accomplished. Then Bobby turns to the tellers. ‘Say cheese.’ He shoots them.
Sailor shouts, ‘Bobby no!’ in what is somehow the most dramatic way possible.
Creepy Cop hears the gun, and tells Perdita to stay put. She does not.
She hits him with her car. This feels like a fair punishment for him being a Creepy Cop.
Bobby has gone haywire. Sailor’s gun has no bullets.
I can honestly say this is the scariest I’ve ever seen Willem Dafoe.
The other teller tries to shoot Bobby, but he’s too slow.
Sailor takes the opportunity to run, throwing himself out of the building onto the dirt. The police orders him to stop.
Bobby runs out after Sailor. Cop shoots Bobby a bunch. Like a whole bunch. Bobby falls to his knees. The rifle swings under Bobby’s chin As he hits the ground, he pulls the trigger.
Bobby Peru’s head goes flying off, pantyhose and all. A big soft goopy mess held together by the pantyhose lands near Sailor, who is still lying in the dirt.
Sailor puts his hands behind his head as ordered by the cops and immediately starts crying over how he’s let Lula down.
‘Peanut!’ He sobs. I am distracted by how much dirt must be in his mouth.
Oh shit the two tellers aren’t dead, they’re just bleeding fucking everywhere. How much blood can you bleed before you die? How concerned should these guys be?
Bobby shot off one of their hands, and the two men are searching for it.
Cut to an adorable dog walking out of the building with the hand in his mouth.
Dismemberment is a metaphor.
Sailor gets arrested.
Lula sits in the hotel bedroom with her candy necklace and shouts his name. She eats the necklace. She’s at a train station, or prison? Jail.
A little old dude comes up to her and asks for help. When she doesn’t respond he snaps his fingers in hr face. Then he stomps his foot. Then he sulks off.
Lula is too lost in Sailor-related misery to notice ANY of it.
Wy are there so many little old dudes in this movie? Where do they come from?
Marietta shows up. She embraces Lula, and says they can go home. Lula does not want this. She won’t leave Sailor.
Lula is so tall.
Marietta begs her daughter to come home. Santos threatens, in a low-key way.
Santos hugs her and she screams. Appropriate response.
Sailor sits in prison smoking two cigarettes at once, reading a letter from Lula.
Lula tells him she’s having the baby, and she’s going to name it Pace. Their kid will be six when Sailor gets out.
Fade to a picture of Lula standing next to a grinning little boy.
5 YEARS, 10 MONTHS, 21 DAYS LATER
Marietta lies across a footrest on her stomach. She has a phone in one hand and an empty martini glass in the other. Her hair is messy, unkempt. It’s a really fancy breakdown.
She wants to know when Sailor’s train gets in.
Is Marietta dry heaving? Over Sailor? Did she see his snakeskin jacket?
Marietta calls Lula and screams at her not to go see Sailor. Lula threatens to pull her mothers arms off by the roots and hangs up on her.
Lula is badass.
Lula throws a glass of ice at a picture of her mother.
Marietta screams ‘No’ at the phone for way too long.
How Lula managed top find a white tiger print convertible is beyond me. Good for her.
She andPpace come upon an accident on their way to see Sailor.
Lula shields her son.
There’s a man lying on the ground with his head mashed. He moans. A dude in a wheelchair consoles him: ‘Same fucking thing happened to me last year.
Sailor waits at the train station with a small suitcase and a stuffed lion.
If I had a nickel for every time Nicolas Cage played a father unfairly imprisoned for protecting his wife/girlfriend, thereby missing all of their child’s young life who tries to win over said child with a stuffed animal, I’d have two nickels.
This is why I love Nicolas Cage.
Lula is dressed like a 40s pin-up girl, complete with Veronica Lake hair and red lips.
Sailor says hi to her before even acknowledging the child he has never met. So that’s cool.
‘You must be my son.’ Great start, buddy. Pace and Sailor shake hands. Pace appears unimpressed. Pace is the smartest one in the family. Sailor gives him the lion. Pace is pleased with this offering.
Everyone is smiling. Lula smiles because Sailor is free. Sailor smiles because he’s free and with Lula. Pace, because he got a stuffed lion.
Meanwhile, Marietta copes with this turn of events with grace, class, and maturity. Not really.
She screams and waves her drink around.
Pace is stuck in the middle seat between his mother who is not talking to his father, who he just met for the first time and who is also not talking. Poor Pace.
Awkward family drive.
Are Lula and Sailor technically rockabilly or cowpunk?
Lula pulls over and gets out of the car.
‘Is Mama all right?’ ‘It’s okay, son.’ Son? Dude, you’ve been here less than twenty minutes. Take a step back and check yourself.
Pace shakes his head as he watches his father try to comfort is mother. Pace is my favorite.
Sailor decides Lula freaking out is a sign he’s made a huge mistake. He tells Lula he’ll walk back to the train depot.
I’m sure Pace won’t even notice. I can’t tell if I’m kidding or not.
Now Lula is really upset.
Lula does not want him to leave. Sailor is an insane person for walking away from Lula. I want that on the record.
After meeting his son for less than half an hour, Sailor takes off. He leaves his six year old son with some incoherent advice and a stuffed lion.
Pace got off easy.
Close up of Lula’s crying eyes.
Sailor kisses her once, then walks away.
Lula begs him to come back, screaming and crying.
Sailor does not come back.
Cut to the picture of Marietta on the floor and the sound of sobbing.
Fade to a set of black cowboy boots walking across the pavement.
A man walks into the center of the road. Four other men follow behind him. Four more men approach from the front.
Oh it’s Sailor.
He’s going to get mugged by West Side Story.
Since he wants everyone to think he is cool and edgy, Sailor lights a cigarette and throws down a slur.
The gang members beat the shit out of Sailor and leave him in the road.
A purple light flashes over Sailor.
It’s a bubble, with Glinda the Good Witch hovering over Sailor.
Sailor still has the cigarette in his hand. That’s pretty cool.
In a soft voice, Glinda urges him to wake up. She encourages Sailor to go back to Lula.
‘But I’m a robber and a manslaughterer and I haven’t had any parental guidance.’ I laughed my ass off at this night.
Glinda: Maybe don’t be such a whiny bitch and go with the hot blonde who inexplicably thinks you’re cool. Maybe do that instead.
‘But I’m wild at heart.’ Sailor does beat poetry and no one can convince me otherwise.
Glinda reiterates that Sailor is being a big dumb crybaby bitch. She blows him a kiss. He blows one back.
The gang is still around Sailor, who clearly had a fun hallucination. They appear kind of concerned.
Sailor’s nose is broken. He apologizes for the slur and thanks the gang members for changing his life.
Raising his arms to the sky, Sailor screams ‘Lula!’ and runs down the street back from where he came.
The gang watched, bemused.
‘Should we chase him?’ ‘Do YOU want to?’ This is why we love David Lynch.
The ice cubes that spilled onto Marietta’s picture melt. In her Wicked Witch garb, she melts away in the photo until it’s just an empty frame.
Close up of Lula’s eyes.
Sailor runs down the street hopping on top of cars to find Lula. I’d be furious if he hopped on my car.
Sailor ends up on the hood of Lula’s car and pulls her up. They embrace.
Pace wonders how many stuffed lions he can get out of this guy as his parents make out on the hood of the car.
‘I just met the Good Witch.’
Then he sings her ‘Love Me Tender’ which as we know he said he’d only sing to his wife.
What are the other cars doing right now? They’re literally gridlocked.
If I saw some lunatic singing to his girlfriend on the roof of his car in traffic I would tackle them in sheer blind rage.
A lot of people suggested this to me as the scariest David Lynch movie. It is not hard to see why.
I love how much Lynch loved Wizard of Oz.
I don’t understand it - but then again, when have I ever understood the inner machinations of the mind of David Lynch.
//cj//