I remember the moment I became aware of David Lynch. It was in the early 1980s, at the dawn of the VHS revolution.

There was one video rental store in our immediate vicinity. That would quickly change, but it was such a novelty at the time. I didn't own a videocassette recorder yet, but a friend had one, and we often went to Rent-A-Tainment to load up on tapes to watch.

I stopped to look at one with a bizarre title and cover: Eraserhead. A young lady employee rushed to our rescue and warned us. "You can't understand it!" I was intrigued, but the guy who owned the VCR took heed. He was more of a Police Academy and Rambo kind of viewer anyway.

By the time I got my own VHS player and moved across town, Eraserhead was harder to find. I didn't get a chance to watch it for quite a few years.

I believe the first Lynch I watched was The Elephant Man. Like everyone else I found it to be a stunning mixture of beauty and the grotesque. A brilliantly made movie that stands among Hollywood's greatest classics.

Then I saw Dune, which already had a worse reputation than Eraserhead. I watched Dune at a drive-in during an ice storm. I remember thinking the movie was weird, and that it didn't really work.

Dune was an expensive misfire from Producer Dino De Laurentiis. It has more respect now, but few got it upon its release. It really wasn't the right project for a mind like David Lynch.

Imagine if Dune had been a huge success. How would it have affected Lynch's career? Everything would have changed. No Twin Peaks, probably.

Then came the one that really put Lynch on the Weirdsville map: Blue Velvet. Everyone was talking about the movie, and it became the movie to rent in 1987. It's impossible now to comprehend how significant Blue Velvet was, not only to David Lynch, but to our society. More than any other film Blue Velvet paved the way for a lot, a whole lot, of dark erotic thrillers. I don't know how many times I saw "This year's Blue Velvet!" emblazoned upon movie posters.

It's highly arguable, but I'm not sure Blue Velvet isn't Lynch's most perfect masterpiece. It works in every way. Dennis Hopper's legendary performance is a big part of it, but the entire film works beautifully. The photography, the performances, the music, and perhaps most of all, and most crucial for the future of David Lynch movies, the sound design and editing.

I don't think anyone could have predicted Lynch making a prime time soap opera next, but that's exactly what he did. Twin Peaks was like nothing that ever came before it. It's been copied and ripped off countless times, but the brilliance of David Lynch, Mark Frost, and his cast and crew was unprecedented.

Here's my shameful admission: I started taping Twin Peaks episodes, then missed one, and I quit. I never watched the whole series. Until very recently.

Clara and I began watching Twin Peaks a month or two ago. We are taking our time, and now, upon David Lynch's death, are around three quarters of the way through Season 2.

We are enjoying the show, but with a few reservations. Season 1 is brilliant, and there are great moments in Season 2, but there are also some incredibly cringy scenes. Twin Peaks is a broad mix of crime thriller, horror, science fiction, soap opera, and comedy, and a satire of all these elements at the same time. The silly parts of Season 2 are so over the top they seem like parodies of sitcoms.

I can't wait to get to The Return. After Season 2 we plan to watch Fire Walk With Me.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was lambasted by critics and fans. Many people were sick of Twin Peaks, and I don't think the movie was given a proper chance. I saw it when it came out, safe in the knowledge that it is a prequel, and I liked it quite a bit.

I heard stories of network interference in Twin Peaks, which probably explains the Season 2 shortcomings. Lynch was off making Wild at Heart a lot of the time it was being made.

David Lynch was never prolific enough for me. After the explosive Wild at Heart and Fire Walk With Me, it was five years before he gave us Lost Highway. This one was met with a lot of derision as well. Many love the film, like me, but others were confounded and confused. I think they were too worried about plot instead of accepting Lynch's invitation to a nightmare. Lost Highway is disorienting and terrifying, but as always with David Lynch, there are very funny moments.

Always one to defy expectations, Lynch did a movie for the Walt Disney company in 1999. The Straight Story is another gorgeous story of humanity and pain, and it's one you can show your grandmother.

Who else but David Lynch could do a huge family movie and still not compromise his unusual personal vision?

There were two more movies: Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, both of which I need to revisit. I'm not jumping on Lynch's funeral procession. I secured Criterion editions of all three in recent weeks. I plan to get to them after the whole Twin Peaks excursion.

I finally did see Eraserhead, and it was everything I dreamed it would be, and nothing that video store clerk could have comprehended.

David Lynch wasn't merely a filmmaker. He painted. He dabbled in music. He was a writer and a disciple of transcendental meditation.

Whole books can be, and have been, written about David Lynch's vision. His work opened doors of perception. Lynch showed us the possibility of more than our senses can perceive. That another, bigger world exists outside what we consider reality. Through images of darkness and wit he gave us hope.

Now David Lynch is gone and I see mourning like when David Bowie or Robin Williams died. People love David Lynch.

I'm not going to call it a loss. We gained too much from him. His twisted, weird, yet oddly familiar visions guided us through the shadows. And they will continue to do so.



Written by Mark Sieber

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