David Lynch In Memoriam (1946-2025)
It brings me no pleasure to learn that writer-director-actor David Lynch has passed away today at 78 years of age. He introduced me to cinematic surrealism with his delightfully baffling plots, his toying with the press (when asked to explain why Eraserhead was one of most spiritual movies, Lynch answered with a simple “No!”), and his boundless creativity.
As a child, my first exposure to David Lynch would have been through my Dad’s movie tie-in copy of the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Featuring a handful of color photos from the 1984 Dune feature directed by Lynch, the pictures with its innovative rubberized armor and trippy images really fueled my imagination.
My love with David Lynch really blossomed decades later when I was introduced to Twin Peaks by my friend Alex. Although he didn’t have a copy of the pilot feature-length episode (it remained unreleased for years in the US due to storied legal fracas), we faithfully watched the DVD of Season 1, his friend’s VHS copies of Season 2 over the course of a few months, and the DVD of the feature film spoiler-filled prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. At the end, we celebrated what was then the end of the Twin Peaks saga with some apple pie (cherry was not available) and some damn fine coffee.
As I continued to work my way through David Lynch’s filmography, I learned to love the deliberate pacing, the meditative nature of his sound design, and the sometimes quirky, sometimes disturbing but always heartfelt dialogue. David Lynch is truly a one of a kind director, and it was a real highlight that his final major work was a third season of Twin Peaks made decades later titled Twin Peaks: The Return for Showtime. Even more out there than the original series, it showed David Lynch returning in a way to alien strangeness of his debut feature Eraserhead.
Although David Lynch is gone, he will never be forgotten. If you’ve never seen one of his films, I’d recommend starting with perhaps his most accessible The Straight Story. His only film made for Disney (!!!), it’s based on the true story of Alvin Straight, an old man who takes a riding lawnmower across the United States to visit his brother who recently had a stroke. It’s a gentle introduction to Lynch’s quirks and love of long silence saddled between oodles of oddball observations.