Movie Description In adapting Barry Gifford's colorful novel, David Lynch delivers another jolt of adrenaline to unsuspecting viewers everywhere. WILD AT HEART follows the troubled romance of Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern), two lovers who struggle to remain together even when fate seems intent on keeping them apart. In this case, fate is Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd), a desperate woman who hates Sailor and will do anything to keep him away from her daughter. After Sailor is released from prison for murdering a man--albeit in self-defense--he and Lula embark on a sex-filled, rocking road trip, aware that they are being hunted by one of Marietta's cronies. When they pull off the road in order to hide out in a small trailer park, Sailor befriends Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe), an incredibly intense war veteran with a rotten set of teeth. Bobby convinces Sailor to help him rob a bank, much to Lula's objections (for she has discovered that she is pregnant). Sailor must decide if he wants to go straight and be there for his child or remain under Bobby's influence and risk returning to jail. Lynch's raucous film contains his trademark visual style, over-the-top dialogue, and pulsating soundtrack, creating another truly distinct picture.
| Credits | | Cast: | Brent David Fraser, Crispin Glover, David Patrick Kelly, Diane Ladd, Freddie Jones, Grace Zabriskie, Isabella Rossellini, Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, W. Morgan Sheppard |
| Details | | Sound: | HiFi Sound, Stereo Sound, Surround Sound |
Notes Released theatrically in the United States on August 17, 1990.
Diane Ladd, who plays Laura Dern's mother in the movie, is also her real-life mom.
Nicolas Cage does all his own singing in the film.
Editorial Reviews "...The flames are of a heat and intensity to melt a Cadillac Seville....[Dern and Cage] triumph..." Canby
"...A mammothly entertaining Guignol....David Lynch doing David Lynch. And very nicely, too..." Film Comment - Mary Corliss (09/01/1990)
"...Nicholas Cage may be the most high-flying actor in the movies right now. He's the perfect performer for Lynch..." Los Angeles Times - Peter Rainer (08/12/1990)
"[A] perversely hilarious, brutally erotic, WIZARD OF OZ-themed, rock-'n'-roll neo-noir from hell." Premiere - Premiere Staff (12/01/2004)
Ranked #4 in Uncut's Best DVDs Of 2005 -- "David Lynch's audacious 1990 pop-noir road movie starts in Cape Fear and ends near Oz." Uncut - Uncut Staff (01/01/2006)
"[T]he story serves up a spicy stew of hot sex, shaggy-dog flashbacks and oblique nods to THE WIZARD OF OZ." Sight and Sound - Matthew Leyland (02/01/2006)
Awards 1990CannesPalme d'Or
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