This film is nothing like a Lynch film. I've heard many people comparing it to a miniature Lynch movie while it's obviously a basic Herzog film, it's definitely not Herzogs best but it is without a doubt in his particular style. If Lynch wasn't a producer no one would compare this to his work.
shareApparently you have not seen many David Lynch films, the entire sequences of the shots where the actors stood still is classic lynch, secondly, having characters/actors in the background that have nothing to do with the shot, again, classic lynch. Repeated Coffee reference, classic lynch. Dialog that has nothing to do with the movie, again classic lynch. This would be why numerous people are say this is a movie trying so hard to be a David Lynch film
I personally would have said this director is trying to emulate David Lynch with or with out the name being associated with the movie.
Evie Decker: Did you ever feel like it wouldn't matter if you lived or died?
I've seen every single thing Lynch has directed numerous times yet I could never imagine him directing this piece. If someone showed it to me without telling me who directed it I would instantly guess Herzog. If I recall correctly there was only one scene where the characters stood still and that scene was completely in the essence of Herzog and obviosly a further developement from his latest stuff. Both of these directors are surrealists but at a different degree, Herzog is often more subtle in his abstraction than Lynch, and so is this movie. The scene when the mom gave them brownies was perhaps the most like Lynch but still very Herzog-like. The score and various scenes like the ostriches running or the scene of him screaming in the theater or using South-America as a location is as Herzog as it gets. Also just having the main character psychotic or psychologically different and more extreme than anyone else in the story is classic Herzog, basically every main character in a Herzog film is that way one way or another. While as in a Lynch film most characters are in some way strange or different from another or at least have a weird line, anything weird in this film comes from Brad entirely.
Both directors have stated that each others work has influenced them but this film is no more of a Lynch copy than any Lynch film is a Herzog copy.
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but that's Ok, it was still a good movie.
That's because it isn't and was never meant to be. On the DVD features, Herzog addresses this specifically. The actress playing the mother was Herzog's ONLY concsious nod to Lynch. Herzog has "moved to the USA" and is exploring new work relationships, redefining himself. I am excited to see where his new drive will lead him.
***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**
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In addition to Zabriskie, Dourif, Dafoe and coffee there are also elements such as the distant train horn when the film opens (a sound effect used aplenty in Inland Empire); a pair of funny Lynchian cops; Dafoe´s character´s name is Havenhurst; a guy in their Peru-visiting group constantly preoccupied with meditating; the tuxedoed midget; piano player in a restaurant lounge pulling his own version of No Hay Banda!...
And maybe more.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
There is a strong hint of child abuse and a resulting dissociative state, which is common in the films of Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Dr., etc.) but not in Herzog's previous films.
shareI wouldn't say nothing like a David Lynch Film.... some images like the midget and the man on the treadmill with the breathing mask reminded my of Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, without the atmosphere though...
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