Spoilers herein.
Lynch lives in a very troubled world. His pictures are characterized by being presented through the mind of the protagonist. Here, the protagonist is a simple old man, who thinks slowly and simply. So that's what we get. He has long erotic meditations on fecundity on the path of life (14 kids!), so that is what we see.
Lynch must be laughing into his gasmask at those who think this is a Hallmark card. Consider these Lynchisms:
-- the deerslaying woman (killed the same number of deer as Straight had kids)
-- the man in the bar sharpening his knife
-- the graveyard
-- the `twin' with the jaw prosthetic
-- the burning house
-- the fat useless woman from next door
-- the WWII hauntings
-- the retarded daughter who has had her children taken away (and the mirror of the pregnant runaway who likely will also)
-- the brother's glance at the end. Look at it again if you think it is appreciative reconciliation. That glance is why they needed an actor of the caliber of Stanton who was also familar to Lynch.
Add to this the notion that Farnsworth knew he was dying and had already planned suicide. This is a very disturbed world, reinterpreted through the elder Kurosawan eye of the determined elder Straight to seem more desperately rosey than it is. Consider this like the first half of "Mulholland Drive," and a more intelligent film it is, because it asks you to provide the last half.
The magic in the movie is not that it is saccharin, nor that it has strychnine, but that it is an homage to other filmmakers: Altman, Kurosawa, de Palma, Greenaway. Straight has his memories which he plays over and over, and so does Lynch.
Lynch lives in a very troubled world. His pictures are characterized by being presented through the mind of the protagonist. Here, the protagonist is a simple old man, who thinks slowly and simply. So that's what we get. He has long erotic meditations on fecundity on the path of life (14 kids!), so that is what we see.
Lynch must be laughing into his gasmask at those who think this is a Hallmark card. Consider these Lynchisms:
-- the deerslaying woman (killed the same number of deer as Straight had kids)
-- the man in the bar sharpening his knife
-- the graveyard
-- the `twin' with the jaw prosthetic
-- the burning house
-- the fat useless woman from next door
-- the WWII hauntings
-- the retarded daughter who has had her children taken away (and the mirror of the pregnant runaway who likely will also)
-- the brother's glance at the end. Look at it again if you think it is appreciative reconciliation. That glance is why they needed an actor of the caliber of Stanton who was also familar to Lynch.
Add to this the notion that Farnsworth knew he was dying and had already planned suicide. This is a very disturbed world, reinterpreted through the elder Kurosawan eye of the determined elder Straight to seem more desperately rosey than it is. Consider this like the first half of "Mulholland Drive," and a more intelligent film it is, because it asks you to provide the last half.
The magic in the movie is not that it is saccharin, nor that it has strychnine, but that it is an homage to other filmmakers: Altman, Kurosawa, de Palma, Greenaway. Straight has his memories which he plays over and over, and so does Lynch.