One thing Herbert fans and Lynch fans generally agree on: Dune didn't work. An ambitious failure but a failure nonetheless.
My favorite Lynch film would be Dune, which I've loved since I saw in theaters when I was 13. His best is probably Blue Velvet, FWWM, or Mulholland Drive. I've at least liked pretty much everything I've seen by him. Wild at Heart I can take or leave.
I think Blue Velvet might be my favorite with Eraserhead a close second. It's an embarrassment of riches to be sure. 1. Blue Velvet 2. Eraserhead 3. Fire Walk with Me 4. Lost Highway 5. Mullholland Drive 6. All those Lynch at work documentaries 7. The Straight Story 8. The Elephant Man I don't think we'll ever know what he intended with Dune - would have been great to see that four hour cut without the narration. I often wonder if all those elements still exist but probably not. I am also not as big a fan of the more improvised movies like Wild at Heart and Lost Empire. As fun as it is to see David get weird for weird's sake, I think his more linear films are stronger. Just me though.
I voted Blue Velvet because it is the one that instills the most of his style and deeper meanings, others come close but BV has the script, the performances, the music and Lynch's complete control over his vision. The theme of smallown USA with an evil underbelly sums up his art perfectly, innocence dragged down by salacious corrupters. The theme continued with Twin Peaks which is just an extended Blue Velvet sequel. I saw it the theatres in 1986 and it was perfect, 34 years later is still is. I can remember renting it at a local grocery store which had new release VHS and the cashier remarked it was her favorite movie. I looked at her stunned as she did not seem like a Lynch fan, she said as a kid her favorite was Elizabeth Taylor...d'oh she thought I was renting National Velvet! I thought of Frank Booth and I replied no this is a bit different haha.
I so want like Dune every time I watch it. But it never fails...I either get frustrated and turn it off, or endure the pain until the bitter end and just shake my head. Maybe I should just accept that David Lynch's Dune is one of the worst "big budget" movies ever made.
I voted Lost Highway, mainly for it's perfect ending which is a rarity amongst Lynch's films. I love them all, especially Blue Velvet and double especially Twin Peaks the return (episode 8 should have been in the poll). Edit: Fair enough, this thread was started in 2015 and The Return didn't air until 2017. Nevermind...
The top two vote-getters, "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Dr.," are my top two, and in that order. There are 23 votes for "Fire Walk With Me"? How about that?
I hadn't voted yet, as I wanted to watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me as I've recently finished the TV series. I think that'll wind up being my vote.
"Dune" was the first DL movie I saw in the theaters but it was more because I read the book 6 months before it was released than because of who the director was. "Blue Velvet" is my favorite theatrical release. Television has changed so much in the last 30 years that most people forget how unique and mind blowing "Twin Peaks" was when it first hit TV back in 1990.
Funny this was resurrected recently, I've been on a Lynch kick. My wife and I recently watched Eraserhead, the new Criterion of The Elephant Man, and as we got Showtime in our cable bundle we watched Twin Peaks The Return episode 8 last night. I'm also a third of the way through the book Room to Dream - I read the bio chapter on Dune last night (the book alternates between chapters which read like magazine profiles and Lynch's responses and annotations to them). I picked Mulholland Drive as my favorite, with The Elephant Man being the only film which competes with that title. I was never a fan of Blue Velvet - but a couple of years ago a local theater had a showing and I could appreciate it more. I still have to see The Straight Story, and I couldn't make it to the end of Inland Empire.
I love all David Lynch, on any given day I could vote for any one of them, so today it's Wild at Heart.
The Elephant Man. It's been a long time favorite movie of mine. After that, for the ones Lynch wrote as well as directed, Eraserhead.
