This kind of high-octane violence which is fueled by maniacal characters and deranged intervals creates a fantastic effect. Heads are rammed against walls, fists are lunged into guts and what results is a brutally bashed corpse with brains pouring out of it's head. Dern’s real mom, Diane Ladd, plays Lula’s mother like one of Oz’s wicked witches with a broomstick parked in “Dallas.” She’s an evil Dolly Parton or Tammy Faye Baker with poofy Nashville hair, gulping martinis in a single swallow, gazing clairvoyantly into a crystal ball and ploting to keep Sailor and Lula apart-even if she has to kill.The opening scene to Wild At Heart features Nick Cage ferociously beating an assassin to death. Lula’s family is rich, Southern and perverse. In an outstanding performance, Cage channels Elvis-a young and vital Presley-as a rebel delinquent with a hard-eyed code of honor.Īlong with Oz and Elvis, Wild at Heart builds its allusions from the sort of hothouse Tennessee Williams adaptations produced in Hollywood during the 1950s and early ‘60s. They have consciences and their love for each other.

Even the protagonists, Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern), are bad but better than most. Violence is endemic and sometimes extreme enough to be comical. If Oz had its treacherous patches, the America of Wild at Heart is Hades as blueprinted by a demiurge with a sense of humor. He gives general directions and allows the material of the unconscious to surface.Īnd that material can get dark. Among the bonus features on the new Wild at Heart DVD are interviews with Lynch, cast and crew the director is described as shaping, sculpting and molding ideas as he goes along. Then again, explaining one of Lynch’s films can be a

If The Wizard of Oz was a road picture, maybe that explains the recurring references to wicked witches and the Emerald City in David Lynch’s road picture, Wild at Heart (1990).

Wild at heart 1990 cast