Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
|
New Line Home Entertainment / 1992 / 134 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: February 26, 2002 
It is certainly no coincidence that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me begins with the image of a television being smashed to pieces. Disgruntled by his shoddy treatment from ABC network executives, David Lynch chose to carry his cult TV show to the big screen with a vengeance. The film was produced after the series ended but is technically a prequel, taking place before the start of the first episode. However, the movie absolutely requires a thorough knowledge and understanding of the entire series to comprehend its narrative. Many of the events depicted are those we have heard described in the show but could not see for ourselves, and Lynch's use of symbolism is derived entirely from things we learn in the series. Without proper context, the significance of these events may seem unclear or even meaningless. More importantly, the movie assumes that the viewer is aware of certain plot turns (such as the identity of Laura's killer) and freely divulges information that should not be revealed until late in the series. As such, the movie is not appropriate for viewers hoping to pick up the Twin Peaks story from the chronological beginning. On the other hand, since it is a prequel the movie also does not resolve any of the cliffhangers left open at the end of the series. In fact, the movie poses more questions than it answers, a fact that upset many who were expecting closure. The film starts with the murder of Teresa Banks in the town of Dear Meadow, a sort of mirror opposite to the Twin Peaks we know so well. The victim was trailer trash without any friends or family to claim the body. The town's sheriff is incompetent, his deputy a surly brute, the local diner waitress is a rude old hag, and the coffee is bad. FBI Special Agent Chet Desmond (his initials the inverse of Dale Cooper) is sent to investigate with his partner, a meek forensic scientist. Desmond is a capable detective, but seems to be lacking the special insight that Cooper has. He is also impatient, confrontational, and at times even cruel (he plays a mean trick on his partner for a laugh). Desmond's investigation ends with his own unexplained disappearance, and the story jumps ahead one year in time to bring us to more familiar territory, Twin Peaks itself. The remainder of the film covers the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer, the discovery of whose dead body begins the TV show.
Critics despised the film (Vincent Canby in the New York Times said of it, "It's not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be") confused audiences stayed away, and even fans of the series were divided, some loving it but others calling it a disaster. It is often said that the movie separates the "true" Twin Peaks fans apart from those who call themselves fans but really only liked a few episodes in the first season. To be sure, this is not easy viewing. Whereas the television series was a collaboration with veteran TV writer Mark Frost, the movie is pure, undiluted and unrestrained David Lynch. It contains all of the trademarks of his cinematic style: abstract symbols, bizarre unexplained events, dark surrealism, intense violence, raw emotions, graphic sexuality, fragmented narrative time, and all sorts of disturbing psychosexual weirdness. Notably missing is much of the humor found in the original show, as well as a good number of the audience's favorite characters. The movie is a distillation of all the themes running throughout the series. It brings to the forefront the dirty secrets hidden beneath the pleasant exterior of this quaint little town, and exposes them to plain view, forcing the viewer to confront and deal with them. The series was already pretty dark for network television, but the movie takes everything two steps further. It graphically depicts all of the horrors that could only be implied on television: the drugs, violence, sexual abuse, torture, and murder. The film is also a beautiful, haunting, and poetic (if harrowing) journey into the life of Laura Palmer. Laura was the very heart and soul of Twin Peaks, and though we may have thought that we knew her through flashback, Sheryl Lee's brave, astonishing performance convinces us that she was more complicated than we could ever understand. Twin Peaks is David Lynch's definitive masterwork, and Fire Walk With Me is the perfect coda to finish it. It brings the story to conclusion by taking us back to what it was really all about in the first place. It is one of the great misunderstood works of modern cinema, and those who disparage it do not understand Twin Peaks at all.
Video: How Does The Disc Look? If ever there were a movie in desperate need of video remastering, this was the one. New Line's old laserdisc release was a disastrous mess of chroma noise and excessive grain. Worse yet, during its last half the movie was seriously misframed. The 1.85:1 letterboxing was misaligned, actually causing character heads to be cut off by the upper matte. Pioneer released a better laserdisc in Japan, with a looser 1.66:1 framing that greatly improved the compositional balance. Even this disc had its share of problems, though, including an overly contrasted image and Japanese subtitles cluttering up the picture. New Line has finally corrected their mistakes of the past with this new DVD. The disc is letterboxed to 1.85:1, slightly tighter than the Japanese laserdisc but thankfully framed properly so that no one is unintentionally decapitated. I've always wondered why Lynch chose not to shoot this movie in 2.35:1 widescreen like the majority of his other films. I suppose he was trying to maintain some consistency with the look of the television series, yet he takes great pains to distance himself from television in so many other respects. It almost seems like a missed opportunity, but at least the composition that he did choose is presented properly. The image quality is by far the best the movie has ever looked on home video. Its sharp, anamorphically enhanced picture brings more detail to the photographic textures Lynch likes to capture. Colors are vibrant and free of grain or noise. The image has more depth than either laserdisc, and is really a quite stunning improvement all around. The movie contains permanent English subtitles in the picture during certain scenes where dialogue is intentionally obscured. Like all previous home video releases, Agent Desmond's disappearance in this edition of the film concludes by a fade to black; the original US theatrical prints ended this scene with a fade to white, but Lynch apparently rethought that edit after the fact. The reason for this change is one of the film's many mysteries...
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound? When released in America in 1992, theatrical prints of the film included a note asking projectionists to increase the default volume for their theater screening rooms. Sound has always been important to David Lynch (he works as his own sound designer), and this film was intended to be a loud experience for the audience. Curiously, the DVD has been mastered to the exact opposite effect. All of the soundtrack options on the disc are set by default to a volume lower than many other DVDs. This is easily enough corrected by increasing the volume before watching. The loud portions of the movie are meant to be extra loud, so set your volume reference for the dialogue and let the infamous "Welcome to Canada" scene play out as the glorious sonic assault it was intended to be. Still, I have to wonder why no one caught this discrepancy. Otherwise, the sound quality of the DVD is fine. The soundtrack has been newly remastered and is available in the choice of Dolby Surround 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, or DTS 5.1. The movie's sound design is filled with many wonderful strange noises, but Lynch prefers a restrained surround presence. Only the musical score has any truly aggressive surround activity; the rest of the mix favors the front soundstage. The audio presentation is notably different than either previous laserdisc release, and the results are interesting. The PCM Dolby Surround mix on the American LD was decent enough, but the high end could get rather shrill when played at loud volumes. The Japanese disc had a strident sound that was inferior in most respects.
The Dolby Digital and DTS tracks on this DVD both have dramatically improved dynamic range. The low end extends much deeper, and the highs roll off without distortion even at loud volumes. The terrific Angelo Badalamenti score sounds full-bodied and deep. I was also impressed by the dialogue clarity. Scenes where the dialogue is traditionally buried in the mix here are much more audible, even amid the deafening cacophony. I barely needed the subtitles at the Pink Room club, and later in the film I could even hear the monkey whisper "Judy" clearly for the first time since I've ever seen the film (this detail is usually discovered by cranking the volume for those few seconds). Less impressive, unfortunately, is the rest of the audio's mid range, which feels compressed and even muddy at times. The laserdisc PCM track was very open and expansive in this respect, with crisp and well-delineated sound effects, but on DVD the sharp sound effects are dulled and other noises seem to blur into one another. Take, for example, Chapter 27 at approximately the 1 hour 27 minute mark. There is the sound of a dog barking randomly that should seem to rip through all the other sounds as though tearing at the very fabric of the film, but here you can barely distinguish it unless you are specifically listening for it. The audio quality is by no means poor, and is in many ways an improvement, but I do have some reservations. I tried switching between the Dolby Digital and DTS tracks to see if one offered a significant improvement over the other, but to be honest I could not tell them apart. A French 2.0 soundtrack has also been provided, along with optional English or French subtitles and English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Let's talk about the film's notorious deleted scenes. There are none on this disc. David Lynch's working method is to overshoot his movies and then trim them down in editing to find the parts that are essential to the narrative. For Fire Walk With Me, he filmed numerous cameo appearances from the TV show's supporting characters, but most of them were removed because they were extraneous to Laura Palmer's story. Lynch has stated that he desired to provide much of that footage as a supplemental feature on this DVD, as a sort of final gift for loyal Twin Peaks fans. Unfortunately, complications arose with the European production company that owns the footage and the scenes could not be presented here, despite New Line's efforts to obtain them. That is quite disappointing. Fans have been clamoring for a glimpse of those scenes for years, but without inclusion on this DVD there is little chance that they will ever see the light of day. What New Line have given us instead is a new half-hour documentary about the movie, featuring interviews with many of the key Twin Peaks cast members (and at least one uncomfortable-looking fan). We may not get to see the famous deleted scenes, but at the very least we can hear them described. It is a small consolation. The same people who did the video supplements for Artisan's Twin Peaks Season One box set produced this documentary. It is composed mostly of extensions from the same interview sessions, pretentiously cross-cut back and forth among one another. This will seem annoying at first, but as the documentary goes along it allows for some amusing comparisons between conflicting stories (one actor will say that Lynch allows tremendous room for improvisation, while another will claim that everything was tightly scripted.) The actors relay some entertaining anecdotes, and on the whole the piece is an enjoyable watch, if lacking true insight or substance. The only other is supplement is the movie's theatrical trailer, available in anamorphically enhanced widescreen. This is the same preview found on the Japanese laserdisc. It is a decent trailer, but gives away too many plot points for my liking. Unlike some other recent David Lynch DVDs, this disc does contain chapter stops. There is not, however, a Scene Selections menu to guide you through them. DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC? No ROM extras have been included. Parting Thoughts While I am disappointed that New Line could not obtain the movie's deleted scenes, this DVD is by far the best video presentation that the film has yet received. That they have finally made amends for the botched laserdisc edition is reason enough to celebrate. This disc is a necessity for any Twin Peaks fan, though I cannot stress enough that new viewers should refrain from watching the movie until they have seen the entire television series. |
Comments (0)