Wild At Heart: Collector's Edition (1990)

Details: By Loron Hays; 23 May 2018

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Wild at Heart (1990 - Blu-ray

"You move me, Sail, you really do. You mark me the deepest," says Laura Dern as Lula to Nicolas Cage. It is a haunting moment in an equally haunting tale that features an unforgetable Willem Dafoe as an accident prone bank robber, a blonde-haired Isabella Rossellini, and Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks) as the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. But, knocking it completely out of the park, is the combination of Cage and Dern who simply sell this quirky love story with a ferocious and frenetic energy that is timeless.

Writer/Director David Lynch is a master filmmaker. There is no other way to describe the quirky enigma that is Lynch. What he creates with every single film is a unique vision where the fury of flickering images collides with music to create something so memorable and bizarre that it, once seen, can never be forgotten.

Lynch’s films are, simply put, amazing in their abilities to transport the audience into another world; one that runs parallel to ours. Sometimes, it feels very real as if it could be ours and then, when the screaming starts, we see just how weird and different these films really are. There is no one else doing what Lynch does.

And Shout Select, with their amazingly perfect handling of Wild At Heart’s new 2K remastering, knows that about Lynch. The company also knows that Lynch’s fans are meticulous and rewards their collective patience with a lot of supplemental goodies that should keep brains happy for a long time.

"a classic of badass cinema. It is erotic, violent, and so damn funny that sometimes it is hard to breathe."

This film, based on Barry Gifford's book, is a classic of badass cinema. It is erotic, violent, and so damn funny that sometimes it is hard to breathe.

Lynch’s films are also always purposeful and exacting in their celebration of sound and vision. One need only revisit this film to see just how much of a smart and smooth operator Lynch is when it comes to bringing visions to the screen. There is a dedication here to keeping the film and its strange characters completely without commentary. Wild At Heart, which was critically hammered upon its original release 1990, is a film that, much like the love between Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) and Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern), is more misunderstood in this imperfect world than it is accepted and appreciated.

With the violence purposefully cranked up to 11, Wild At Heart is the story about the innocent and pure love between two lost souls, Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) and Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern). And it begins quickly with Marietta (Diane Ladd), Lula’s mother, wanting to sleep with Sailor (in the bathroom). Grrrrrosss. He passes, but it pisses her off and a woman scorned…

…quickly gets revenge. Soon enough, a hit man is after Sailor and he, because Lynch doesn’t dare skimp on the gore here, bashes his head in. Repeatedly. Sent to jail, Sailor and Lula’s love only grows. And upon his release, the two are hot in the sack and in the streets as, on an epic adventure across the country, they meet all sorts of, to coin a phrase, deplorables.

But it is the patience of Marietta’s detective boyfriend Johnnie Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton) that will dog them the most. Not to mention all the violence and violently ill images, too. Audiences are treated to Crispin glover shoving cockroaches down his underwear, a shotgun accidentally blowing a guy’s head off, hacked off hands, and lots of lots of flies on vomit throughout this tale. Eat your heart out, Mark Twain.

As obsessed with The Wizard of Oz and Elvis Presley that this film is, Wild At Heart is no family friendly road trip through the rotten parts of America’s cherry pie. There’s a lot of sex and violence and, trying to find peace somewhere over the rainbow, are Sailor and Lula, two American kids growing up in the heartland…

Now, walk on.

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MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 125 mins
Director: David Lynch
Writer: David Lynch
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Comedy | Crime
Tagline: A love story.
Memorable Movie Quote: "This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top."
Theatrical Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company
Official Site:
Release Date: August 17, 1990
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 21, 2018
Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by Barry Gifford, Wild At Heart stars Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation) and Laura Dern (Inland Empire, Jurassic Park) as Sailor and Lula, a pair of young lovers on the run from Lula's mother Marietta (Dern's real-life mother Diane Ladd, in an Academy Award®-nominated role). Sailor and Lula's journey takes them into the dark heart of America, where dangers and temptations lurk ... and where only their love can truly protect them. But even their all-consuming passion may not withstand the sinister presence of Bobby Peru.

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Wild at Heart (1990 - Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray - August 21, 2018
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

The new 2017 2K scan of the interpositive is beyond impressive. Shout Select continues to deliver the goods to fans of the forgotten and underappreciated films. Shout Select presents Lynch’s vision of Wild At Heart with a polished visual upgrade from its original release. The new transfer showcases the draw in the world at war with Sailor and Lula with a nice, scenic beauty. The film is presented in a crisp and crackling 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Nicely saturated, there are no dents in its new HD shiny armor. Colors are strong throughout and are particularly memorable with their inclusion of details and strong edges. Black levels are clearly defined, too. Shadows are detailed. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is solid and aggressive, making Angelo Badalamenti’s score sound as awesome as it really is.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None.

Special Features:

With a NEW interview from Barry Gifford, we finally get the author’s statement on the film. He loves it. Even though some might speculate otherwise, Gifford talks at length at just how it differs from his work (not much) and how much it is a product of Lynch’s grand view of the world. The other supplemental items are ported over from other releases. With new cover art and a slipcover, Wild At Heart is granted new life thanks to Shout Select.