in 1999, David Lynch made an apparently simple film about a man traveling across the country on a lawn mower. The actor playing the part had terminal cancer and knew it.
The nature of the thing was deceptive: superficially it was a simple travelogue, but if you knew Lynch you could see barely hidden depths. The control was amazing, simply amazing.
I'm sure he had this partly in mind. Here we have an old guy, also dying of cancer, traveling across the land in a similar vehicle. The genre is comic but the tone is the same: a lone man in the midst of vast nature.
Its a sad time though. The man we watch was a genius, someone who invented a huge portion of how we think in film. But he became a drunk and ruined himself. You can see this ruin in every move.
Yes, he can pretend to be himself, but that screen self was so sharp, so tuned that it probably vanished in the first phases of his drink.
What a sad, sad movie. I recommend watching "Straight Story," then this, then the accompanying documentary. It will bring pathos into your day and sadden your dreams.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
The nature of the thing was deceptive: superficially it was a simple travelogue, but if you knew Lynch you could see barely hidden depths. The control was amazing, simply amazing.
I'm sure he had this partly in mind. Here we have an old guy, also dying of cancer, traveling across the land in a similar vehicle. The genre is comic but the tone is the same: a lone man in the midst of vast nature.
Its a sad time though. The man we watch was a genius, someone who invented a huge portion of how we think in film. But he became a drunk and ruined himself. You can see this ruin in every move.
Yes, he can pretend to be himself, but that screen self was so sharp, so tuned that it probably vanished in the first phases of his drink.
What a sad, sad movie. I recommend watching "Straight Story," then this, then the accompanying documentary. It will bring pathos into your day and sadden your dreams.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.