{"id":160502653,"date":"2023-06-22T06:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T06:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=160502653"},"modified":"2026-08-14T02:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:39:48","slug":"life-death-eraserhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=160502653","title":{"rendered":"Life, Death & Eraserhead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Watching Eraserhead<\/em> for the first time in several years brought about a lot of feelings. It\u2019s almost clich\u00e9 to call Lynch\u2019s films \u201cmoving paintings\u201d but Eraserhead<\/em> truly is. It\u2019s obviously not a traditional film by any means and that requires turning off one\u2019s traditional way of interpreting film. It would be easy to conclude that this film is about fatherhood and all of the fears and feelings that go along with it, but that to me feels like it\u2019s missing the point of the film. Fatherhood and the baby itself aren\u2019t the crux of the film, they\u2019re a mere symptom in this fever dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s this man\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Eraserhead<\/em> has been called by Lynch himself his most spiritual film, a statement I will freely admit that I didn\u2019t always understand. Repeat viewings and trying to allow the film to wash over me rather than me trying to analyze every little detail has changed that though. The film opens with a series of shots that leads to a man pulling gears. He almost seems to be in some kind of power position within the universe. Whether his pulling of these gears and levers is what lead to the birth of Henry and Mary\u2019s child or not is irrelevant. What this speaks to is a system in the universe that we have no control over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many younger people obsess over the larger questions in life. What is the afterlife? Does time really just go on forever? How did the universe begin and what else is out there? As we get older and busier in our own lives, these questions and often times, fears, tend to subside. We either have beliefs we\u2019re content with or we simply don\u2019t give these questions as much time to dwell on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eraserhead<\/em> at its core is about living a life we don\u2019t want, a life we have no control over and this man, pulling the levers of life, speaks to a lack on control we as humans have. We don\u2019t know exactly what is out there but there is something bigger than us and to some, that unknown is a terrifying thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an artist like Lynch who has built a career off defying systems and trying to do things his own way, this man with the sores on his face, pulling the levers, could represent the obstacles Lynch himself was facing at the time. A position of power who was creating the circumstances we\u2019re forced to live within. The rules we have to abide by. The baby, which does seem to come as a result of these levers being pulled, was representative of the hand we\u2019re dealt and the responsibilities we\u2019re expected to assume, even if we don\u2019t want them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Heaven, Everything is Fine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Much of the film is about Henry adapting to this new life, this new hand he\u2019s been dealt. His girlfriend Mary, he\u2019s expected to marry and she moves in. This challenging child, who is monster like in appearance and never stops crying, becomes the focus of Henry and Mary\u2019s lives. They\u2019ve given up everything to care for this child, a child neither of them appeared to be prepared for or even want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary\u2019s sudden exit, telling Henry that she \u201cjust needs a decent night\u2019s sleep\u201d and that \u201cshe\u2019ll do what she needs to do\u201d conjure thoughts of possible suicide. It is interesting to note that we only see Mary once after this, shown in bed with Henry as he\u2019s descending more and more into his own instability. Later, when Henry is asked by the attractive women across the hall where his wife is, he isn\u2019t sure. He questions if she went back to her parents, again. In a film all about escaping lives we don\u2019t want, it\u2019s not unfathomable to think that Mary had escaped the life she didn\u2019t want through suicide and Henry is unable to process this, being alone with this child now. While there is little to no narrative evidence to conclude that Mary committed suicide, it would create an interesting narrative to have Mary escape via suicide, whereas Henry would go on a spiritual journey to become free of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are many ways to interpret the lady in the radiator, she strikes me as a spiritual guide of sorts. She is a beacon of hope for Henry, trying to guide him away from the existence he so desperately wants to escape. In later Lynch works, he would return to this idea of a guide, with Frank Booth in Blue Velvet <\/em>serving as a guide of sorts to Jeffrey Beaumont. In that case, Frank was guiding Jeffrey through a metaphorical underworld, a dark side to life that Jeffrey was not privy to. In the Twin Peaks<\/em> narrative, Phillip Jeffries also serves as a guide, in this case to Agent Cooper, showing him that you can indeed navigate between two worlds and the dangers that come along with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Henry in Eraserhead<\/em>, the lady in the radiator exists to show him an escape, a better way of life. Henry\u2019s sexual experience with the lady across the hall, which very much feels like a dream, begins a process of Henry taking his life back into his own hands and not doing what\u2019s expected of him. Onscreen, we see a dramatic depiction of Henry\u2019s newfound desire for freedom, a desire to escape the life he has, which isn\u2019t the life he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual act of killing the baby is symbolic for the fact that it\u2019s simply a visual depiction to breaking the ties that hold us down. For a young filmmaker like David Lynch at the time, it could be a representation of seeking independence from the film industry and the games that are required to be played to succeed in that given industry. The man with the gears can no longer pull the levers of life if we take back our freedom and choose our own path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lynchian Universe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The most frequently cited similarity between Eraserhead and other Lynch works is the chevron pattern used both in the scenes from the lady in the radiator and in the Red Room \/ Black Lodge from Twin Peaks<\/em>. Both places aren\u2019t actual physical locations, they\u2019re constructs of the mind and subconscious, shared between people and those that exist outside our planes of existence. Are they heaven, hell or something in between? That\u2019s debatable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other major comparison to make here is the \u201crealm\u201d that Agent Cooper in Part 3 of The Return<\/em> finds himself in and the space that the man with the gears occupies in Eraserhead<\/em>. Both appear to be in space, almost free floating and independent of any and everywhere else. In Part 3 of The Return<\/em>, although not narratively confirmed, does appear to be across a body of water from The Fireman\u2019s Palace as illustrated in Part 8. Cooper is on a journey of the spirit to get to The Fireman\u2019s Palace whereas Eraserhead<\/em> seems to depict a place of control, although one could argue that Twin Peaks<\/em> was doing the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What Does It All Mean?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Who knows? The beauty of Eraserhead<\/em> is that it\u2019s purposefully abstract enough to allow for many working theories. For me to interpret the film as a young artist expressing his pent up frustrations with the world, the powers that be that we have to contend with and questioning the larger mysteries of life, is valid. But so are theories that I reject such as feelings over fatherhood. I might not subscribe to an overly simple thesis such as that one but that\u2019s not to disqualify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eraserhead<\/em>, David Lynch has long said, is his most spiritual film<\/a>. It\u2019s a film that questions life, flirts with death and ponders over what else is out there. It\u2019s a film that examines the possible ways to escape a life we don\u2019t want. In Heaven, everything is fine, but do we have to wait to get there? What can we do to \u201cbe fine\u201d before we do? Are there men pulling gears somewhere out there determining our fate or is free will more than just an interesting concept? According to Eraserhead<\/em>, at least in my interpretation, we can take our life into our own hands and be free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watching Eraserhead for the first time in several years brought about a lot of feelings. It\u2019s almost clich\u00e9 to call Lynch\u2019s films \u201cmoving paintings\u201d but Eraserhead truly is. It\u2019s obviously not a traditional film by any means and that requires turning off one\u2019s traditional way of interpreting film. It would be easy to conclude that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160502654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[112,21],"class_list":["post-160502653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-analysis","tag-david-lynch","tag-director"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160502653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160502653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160502653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160502655,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160502653\/revisions\/160502655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/160502654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160502653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160502653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160502653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}