Wild at Heart (film)

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Wild at Heart

Original film poster
Directed by David Lynch
Produced by Michael Kuhn
Written by Barry Gifford (novel)
David Lynch
Starring Nicolas Cage
Laura Dern
Willem Dafoe
Diane Ladd
Harry Dean Stanton
Music by Angelo Badalamenti
Distributed by Columbia TriStar
Release date(s) France May, 1990 (premiere at Cannes)
United States August 17, 1990
Australia 15 November 1990
Running time 124 min.
Language English
Budget $9,500,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Wild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch and based on Barry Gifford's novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula about a couple on the run from the mob.

The film Nicolas Cage as Sailor and Laura Dern as Lula. Diane Ladd, and Willem Dafoe also star. The film is a road movie but includes bizarre, almost supernatural events and off-kilter violence. It also contains allusions to The Wizard of Oz and to Elvis Presley movies.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lovers Lula Pace and Sailor Ripley are separated after Sailor is jailed for killing in self defense. Upon Sailor's release they set out for California (ignoring Sailor's probation). Lula's psychopathic mother Marietta Fortune (who had previously tried to have Sailor killed) arranges for a private detective and her underworld friends to find them and eliminate Sailor. Unaware of this, the two enjoy their journey together, until they witness a bad omen: a young woman dying after a car accident. After being stranded in a small town, Sailor agrees to join the loathsome Bobby Peru in a criminal venture.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Origins

Lynch's inspiration occurred at a time when he was trying to regain control over several of his earlier films from producer Dino De Laurentiis. A friend of his, Monty Montgomery, had bought the rights to Gifford's novel in 1989, and gave the manuscript to Lynch to read, with the intention that Lynch would be executive producer and Montgomery would direct. However, Lynch was so taken with the characters that he wanted to make the film himself. Montgomery agreed.[citation needed]

Lynch remembers in an interview, "The book came along and I fell in love with Sailor and Lula. I love the way Barry writes dialogue and that and the title conjured up for me a whole world and sensibility. I saw Sailor and Lula in love in the middle of a crazy, violent, wild world and I wanted to go on that trip with them."[citation needed] At the time, Lynch was working on a screenplay based on a 1940s detective novel for Propaganda Films. They allowed Lynch to stop working on this project but only if he started Wild at Heart immediately, so, Lynch wrote the screenplay in a week and began filming on August 9, 1989.

[edit] Production

  • Filming took place in both Los Angeles and New Orleans.
  • Some of the movie's promotional posters misspell Nicolas Cage's name as "Nicholas."
  • Nicolas Cage performed his own singing.[citation needed]
  • The snakeskin jacket Sailor Ripley wears in the film was actually Nicolas Cage's own. But after filming was completed, he gave it to Laura Dern.[citation needed]
  • After chain smoking a number of cigarettes, Laura Dern passed out on the set. She was awakened by David Lynch saying "Tid Bit? Are you alright?".[citation needed]

[edit] Censorship

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The North American theatrical version was edited in the scene where a character accidentally shoots his own head off with a shotgun: gun smoke was added to tone down the blood and hide the removal of the character's head from his body. The change was supervised by Lynch himself. Foreign prints were not affected. The Region 1 DVD from MGM contains this altered (less graphic) take of the shotgun scene. However, the uncut version has been shown on the Sundance Channel in the U.S.

[edit] Awards

The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990. The announcement was met with a mixture of cheers and jeers, and outrage was expressed by some critics, including Roger Ebert, one of Lynch's biggest detractors.

[edit] Related films

Barry Gifford's character Perdita Durango (played by Isabella Rossellini in Wild at Heart) also appears in Alex de la Iglesia's movie Perdita Durango (1997), where she is played by Rosie Perez.

[edit] Main cast

[edit] External links


David Lynch
Feature films
Eraserhead • The Elephant Man • Dune • Blue Velvet • Wild at Heart • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me • Lost Highway • The Straight Story • Mulholland Dr. • Inland Empire
TV series
Twin Peaks • On the Air • Hotel Room
Other work
Short films • Industrial Symphony No. 1 • Rabbits • Dumb Land • The Angriest Dog in the World
Preceded by:
sex, lies, and videotape		 Palme d'Or
1990		 Succeeded by:
Barton Fink
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