Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This film should be viewed as an addendum to the entire Two Season epic television series TWIN PEAKS. (They've finally worked all the bugs out of the TWIN PEAKS - THE DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX EDITION, which is a worthwhile purchase for all Lynch fans.) When viewing David Lynch's brilliantly underrated prequel TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME, it is important to understand some key elements to Lynchean symbolism. David Lynch is an adherent of Eastern Vedic philosophy and meditation. Along with Eastern Vedic thought, Lynch also mixes shamanism and Christian mysticism into the much bigger cauldron of "The Perennial Philosophy." (A term made popular in 1945 by Aldous Huxley's book by the same name.) The Perennial Philosophy is the recurrence of all universal religious or mystical truths inherently found in most cultures.The Dreaming World: To mystics and shamans of countless cultures, the dreaming world is just as important as, if not more important than, the waking world. It is the place where the subconscious is free to associate with the superconscious mind, or the source of all consciousness. Like the dreaming world, the waking world is also a construct of perception. Pictures, images, and symbols. This is why it is hard to separate the dream world, or non-reality, from normal reality in most of Lynch's work. Dreams and normal reality are one and the same. The building blocks of the phenomenal world are illusive and illusory constructs. The pictures and images we witness as reality are essentially the same as the pictures and images we witness as dreams or non-reality. They are only constructs of consciousness. They are transitory states of perception that rise and fall out of emptiness.Like many other Lynch films, FIRE WALK WITH ME depicts the dual nature of a waking and dreaming world. These two worlds do not separate in The Lynchean Universe.Not all, but some of the actors from the TWIN PEAKS television series, and most of the critics, felt that Lynch had lost something with this film that was a part of the original television series: the dark underbelly of evil that was hidden just beneath the surface of a small idyllic town in Northern Washington. They felt that the film was too "in your face." (See the documentary on this disc.) While it is hard to witness, it was important for Lynch to pull no punches in depicting the events of Laura Palmer's tragic murder. Although it appears as such, the abuse and destruction of Laura Palmer is not a bogeyman lurking beneath her bed. It is the beast in man displayed in full form, breathing his foul stench into the face of the innocent. It is the curdled cream that floats to the top of a festering cup of evil coffee. A damn fine cup of evil coffee. It is not a story to be presented delicately or to be brushed under the rug to make it more palatable. It is a story of abuse that happens everyday. It depicts the harrowing, violation, and destruction of an innocent girl. Because of Sheryl Lee's brave and amazing performance, it is an extremely effective film. Psychologically and emotionally.The film begins with the investigation into the murder of Laura Palmer's friend Teresa Banks, and takes place one year before the final days of Laura's life. The beginning of the film seems tacked on and unrelated to the events that take up the majority of the film one year later. But, this prologue is not superfluous. It is important to understand the symbolism of The Disappearing Agents. (See below.)****************************SPOILERS*********************************The symbol of The Doors: Doors are used by Lynch as symbols for entering into and out of subconscious memories, the hidden aspects of the psychological mind, the dreaming world, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.The symbols of dream color: Dream colors are important to understanding Lynch. In dream sybolism, the color "blue" symbolizes truth, eternity, emotion, the feminine, and Heaven. Blue angels respresent guardian spirits or the super-ego. Blue light represents truth, enlightenment, Heaven, Nibbana (blowing out the FIRES of greed, hatred, and delusion), or Nirvana. I don't fully understand the meaning of the Blue Rose. Agent Cooper, referring to the murder of Teresa Banks says, "This is one of Gordon's Blue Rose cases." What does he mean? As blue can also represent sadness, it may signify the murder of a lonely girl, unclaimed by family or friends. The color "red" symbolizes power, anger, hatred, the id, primal and sexual urges, the masculine, and Hell.The symbols of The Black Lodge and The Red Room: The Black Lodge represents the purgatory of samsara, ignorance, or the blinding ego of the self. The Red Room in the Black Lodge represents the lowest level of the self in The Black Lodge. The id, the primal self, animal urges, suffering, murder, or Hell. (Briefly, because it is not mentioned in FWWM, The White Lodge represents escape from samsara, egoless enlightenment, Nirvana, or Heaven.)The symbols of The Demons: Bob is not presented as a symbol, but as a physical entity. Bob is an entity that feeds on fear, pain, and sorrow. "Garmonbozia." As a symbol, The Demon Bob represents the id, primal animal instinct, suffering, and/or pure evil. The Boy in the Mask (The Jumping Man) represents the fusion of the Leland/Bob personality. The monkey behind the mask represents Leland's primal self. Bob as his dark half. The incestuous and animal urges of Leland's id. The dwarf, or Man from Another Place represents the missing arm of The One Armed Man (Philip Gerard). The dwarf is The One Armed Man's connection to his base or animal self, The Red Room, and to Bob. He is still partly trapped in that world by his own karma. (At one time, The One Armed Man committed atrocities with Bob. Or, was possessed by Bob.) Other demons may represent other hidden aspects of the primal mind.The symbol of Bob as psychological denial: Unfortunately, Laura is in many ways a victim of forces beyond her control (rape and incest). This makes her journey even more frightening and sad. The manifestation of Bob represents Laura's psychological denial of her incestuous rape by Leland. The memory of Leland raping Laura since she was 12 years old, is replaced with the image of Bob as her attacker. Instead of fleeing from the years of abuse, Laura hides her true self inside her secret diary. As do most victims of abuse, Laura escapes psychological and physical torment into a world of self-abuse, drugs (cocaine), alcohol, and prostitution. (Sometimes victims of abuse will cut themsleves, which thankfully, Lynch does not portray here. )Years of abuse become psychological transference. Laura feels she doesn't deserve love on any level. She is empty and worthless. She becomes a self-loathing symbol of sexual lust, perversion, and desire to men. In the days proceeding her death, her choices are becoming limited, and her destiny is almost etched in stone. A force of karma that must be played out. In the most profound scene of the entire film, before heading into the hedonistic Pink Room, Laura receives a warning from The Log Lady about the path she has chosen to continue upon, which is only partly, of her own making. It is heartbreaking."When this kind of fire starts. it is very hard to put out. The tender bows of innocence burn first and the wind rises - then all goodness is in jeopardy."LOG LADYEventually, Leland/Bob finds Laura's diary, steals her true self, and shatters her identity completely. Only after many years of psychological trauma and denial, does Laura finally realize that Bob is actually her father Leland. Innocence is completely destroyed. Laura gives in to utter abandonment and fear, which leaves her defenseless against her total destruction. That fear is completely devoured by Bob, who only exists to feed on fear.The symbols of The Pictures: The original picture that hangs upon the wall of Laura's bedroom depicts children being served food by a guardian angel. This picture represents the love, warmth, comfort, and protection of home, which is disappearing for Laura. The other picture given to her by The Demons from The Black Lodge, which she later hangs upon her wall, depicts an empty room with an open door. This picture represents the Door to Hell. The disappearance of the guardian angel from the original picture on her bedroom wall symbolizes a point of no return for Laura. Laura's descent has taken her so far down the road to Hell that her guardian angel spirit (also symbolized by Agent Dale Cooper) can no longer save her from her fate, karma, or destiny. The second picture or symbol, supplants or usurps the original. Once Laura is pictured inside the door, there is no return. She will die.The symbol of The Guardian Angel: A recurrent symbol for Lynch. By the end of the film, Ronette Polaski's guardian angel appears to her, as Laura is being murdered by Leland/Bob, and spares her from Laura's fate. (Ronette is later found alive in the TV series.) Only after Laura dies is she visited in the Red Room by her guardian angel and Agent Cooper. She then realizes that her pain and sorrow has reached an end. She will be released from puragtory, samsara, and suffering. A better world awaits her on the other side.The symbols of The Green Ring and The Disappearing Agents: Agent Desmond (Chris Isaak) is transported to the Black Lodge after finding The Green Ring under the trailer and bending over to pick it up. Like the Door to Hell picture, The Green Ring symbolizes a path of no return. When Laura puts it on, she will die. Green symbolizes a "going out," traveling, or leaving this world. The disappearance of Agent Jeffries (David Bowie) and Agent Desmond symbolize the good men who investigate these horrible crimes. They are transported into a psychological Hell, from which there is little or no escape. These are men that risk their own sanity and psychological well being in their battle with evil forces, and their search for justice. (In the series, while inside The Black Lodge, Agent Cooper agrees to trade his soul to Windom Earle for Annie Blackburn's. Annie's murdered image appears briefly in FWWM. Cooper himself becomes possessed by Bob at the end of the series. Too bad we never got to see where that journey would lead.) I choose to believe that the disappearing agents are Lynch's symbolic homage to them. They are the brave ones that walk around inside the psyches of these demons. Sometimes, they never return from the Hell of what they've seen. Hence, their disappearance in this film.********************************************There are animals rapists, demons, and monsters that walk among us. FIRE WALK WITH ME is an amazing metaphor for the destructive power they possess over their innocent victims. The victims can either be total strangers, or the immediate family members of these evil beings. The abused often become the abusers, and if not completely destroyed, often continue a neverending cycle of abuse and destruction. These themes are as just as profound today as when Lynch made this film. These monsters continue to walk among us.The DVD includes a great documentary with the reflections of the cast and crew on the entire TWIN PEAKS phenomenon. It also includes some online features which I have not perused. As with most Lynch films, the DVD is not divided into chapters.A very powerful film about a very dark subject. And, one of Lynch's best.Enjoy.

Ever since “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch decided to flesh out the backstory of murder victim, Laura Palmer, in his 1992 follow-up movie, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”, viewers seem to be split into two camps, with one praising the film as a masterpiece, and the second decrying it as a foul blemish on an unforgettable TV series. Beginning with its unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival, FWWM continues to polarize critics and audiences alike, with very few having neutral feelings about it. Fans of the original TV series were disappointed because the movie didn’t maintain the spirit of the original, and those new to the world of Twin Peaks were baffled and, largely, lost in Lynch’s weird, unnerving prequel. If you are a fan of the original series and haven’t yet seen this movie, I think it’s advisable to be forewarned that FWWM takes a very dark journey with a very different tone than “Twin Peaks” did, with none of the humor or warm folksiness that previously leavened the tragic, scary events unfolding in the town. Beginning a year prior to events in the TV show, FWWM opens with an FBI investigation into the murder of a teenage prostitute, which eventually overlaps into the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. In between the investigation and Laura’s murder, reality blurs with the surreal and the supernatural, as Laura’s double life (by day: All-American high school sweetheart; by night: prostitute, cokehead, underworld moll) begins to unravel, dragging her deeper and deeper into an abyss of terror and despair. And it’s that unrelenting terror and despair that really sets the tone for the movie: Laura’s journey is bleak, as are the journeys of most of the characters in this film. Some come and go, basically in cameos, with no apparent purpose other than to reprise their roles from the series. Others simply disappear, seemingly into thin air, with ominous hints at their fates. And then there’s David Bowie, briefly materializing as a long-missing FBI agent who delivers a mysterious warning before permanently dematerializing from the film.The main character in FWWM, of course, is Laura Palmer, played by gorgeous and talented, Sheryl Lee, reprising, and giving life to, her role as the mostly-dead homecoming queen who washed up on the banks of a lake next to Pete Martell’s house in the series’ first episode. Lee was briefly able to emote in the TV show, not as Laura, but as her look-alike cousin, Maddie Ferguson, who was also brutally dispatched after a few episodes. In FWWM, Lee gives an amazing performance as the tormented Laura, the eternal victim, whose degradation and abuse takes her below the tranquil, happy surface of the town of Twin Peaks. In virtually every scene she’s in, Lee is awesome. She is, by turns, touching, maddening, seductive and heartbreaking as she tackles the role of the enigmatic, doomed anti-heroine. Kyle MacLachlan returns as Special Agent Dale Cooper, but only briefly, as the events of the film transpire before those in the series (and before Cooper was much involved). The head FBI agent in FWWM is well- played by singer, Chris Isaak, who at first seems to be the hero of the piece, an assumption quickly dismissed about 45 minutes into the movie. David Lynch, himself, has a couple of brief, funny scenes (the only humorous moments in the movie) as Isaak’s and Cooper’s boss, and David Bowie is properly strange and alarming. The rest of the cast is also very good in their allotted time onscreen, and we get to see a more fleshed-out version of Ronette Pulaski, (returning Phoebe Augustine), another high school prostitute and cohort of Laura, who accompanies her on her ill-fated trip into the deep, dark woods. Having grown used to Lara Flynn Boyle playing Donna (Laura’s best friend) in the TV show, it’s a little disconcerting to watch Moira Kelly taking on the role in the movie. Kelly is fine, but different, which is pretty much an accurate summation of the film. I like it, I think it’s excellent, but it is different from what I was used to seeing on the TV show.The Criterion release 4K digital transfer is newly awash in heightened, beautiful colors and the sound is much clearer than on the previous DVD release. At times, scenes exhibit the allure of a master’s painting (although a painting by Bosch, maybe). The extras include deleted scenes, interviews with Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise (who played her cheerfully sinister father) and Grace Zabriskie (Laura’s high-strung, in-denial mom), trailers for the film, and a great booklet featuring an interview with David Lynch.If you haven’t seen the movie and never saw the TV show, I think it’s necessary to watch the series first just to understand the events in the film, because Lynch assumes that moviegoers are already familiar with many of the characters, their motivations and their fates. When you do watch the film, leave behind any assumptions that it will be a mystery with darkly comic overtones like the TV show. “Fire Walk With Me” is a dark horror story that stirs up emotions and, for better or for worse, remains with the viewer after it ends.