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Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Willem Dafoe, Isabella Rossellini ... see more see more... , Harry Dean Stanton , Crispin Glover , Grace Zabriskie , J.E. Freeman , Calvin Lockhart , David Patrick Kelly , Bellina Logan , Glenn Walker Harris Jr. , Gregg G. Dandridge , Freddie Jones , Charlie Spradling , Eddie Dixon , Marvin Kaplan , Brent David Fraser , John Lurie , Jack Nance , Tommy G. Kendrick , Scott Coffey , Frances Bay , Peter Bromilow , Frank Collison , Sherilyn Fenn , Cage S. Johnson , Sheryl Lee , Nicholas Love , Albert Popwell , Koko Taylor , Bob Terhune , Pruitt Taylor Vince , Tracey Walter , Darrell Zwerling , Jack Jozefson , Ed Wright , Daniel Quinn , Shawne Rowe , William Morgan Sheppard

Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern play a pair of lovers on the run in David Lynch's surrealist road movie Wild at Heart. Cage's Sailor Ripley is a violent ex-convict with an Elvis Presley fixation who falls... read more read more... in love with Dern's Lula Pace Fortune, the daughter of a rich, but mentally unstable, Southern belle named Marietta (Diane Ladd, Dern's real-life mother). Just after Sailor is released from prison, where he was jailed for brutally killing one of Marietta's thugs, he and Lula take off on a wild cross-country trip, pursued by his parole officer, her mother, criminals, bounty hunters, and detectives. Along the way, Sailor and Lula have a lot of sex, share their pasts, share their respective obsessions for Elvis and The Wizard of Oz, and meet a lot of bizarre characters, including a seedy ex-marine (Willem Dafoe) who persuades Sailor to participate in a bank robbery. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

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R, 2 hr. 5 min.

Directed by: David Lynch

Release Date: August 17, 1990

Keywords: road

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DVD Release Date: December 7, 2004

Stats: 2,320 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (2,320)

  • fb1664868775
    March 4, 2012
    fb1664868775
    Startling images, hilarious dialogue and brilliant performances. This is one of Lynch's best. Cage and Dern shine as two lovers on the run but the real scene stealers come from Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru and especially Diane Ladd as Lula's insane mother.
  • paulkoh110
    February 23, 2012
    paulkoh110
    Its one hell of a ride! Nick Cage plays out a very different type of hero with intense violence and sex to amp up his acting. Its really unorthodox but entertaining.
  • mumby1988
    December 19, 2011
    mumby1988
    You know you've arrived as a filmmaker when a bespoke adjective is created to describe your work - Gilliam-esque, Kubrickian, Lynchian and so on. But with this honour comes the danger of said filmmaker producing films which consist of familiar images or elements, without the narr... read moreative or thematic cohesion which earned them the label in the first place.

    Wild of Heart is only partially guilty of this, not being one of David Lynch's strongest or most cohesive efforts. Although its thematic unity is never in doubt, and its central narrative is easy enough to follow, it ultimately amounts to a series of strange and memorable moments which punctuate his loose reworking of a road movie. While episodic and baggy, it contains moments of Lynch at his absolute best, and even at its worst is nothing short of unforgettable.

    Just as Lynch saw Eraserhead as his version of The Philadelphia Story, so Wild at Heart could be described as his take on The Wizard of Oz. Lynch has acknowledged its influence throughout his career, and his most recent works, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, have incorporated visual or narrative references to it throughout. But whereas these films are Lynch works with little nods to Oz thrown in, this is a full-on marriage of the two, as Lynch takes all the touchstones of L. Frank Baum's story, adds plenty of violence, cranks up the creepiness (if that were possible), and makes the central relationship more emotionally raw and raunchy.

    The parallels between the two works are candid from the outset. Lula is Dorothy, thrust into a strange world that is "wild at heart and weird on top", and sustained only by Sailor's companionship and the promise of returning to something she can recognise. Sailor in this interpretation is an amalgam of Dorothy's companions: he may not be much of a coward, but he certainly lacks brains, and his capacity for love doesn't extend much beyond devotion. Alternatively, these two represent different aspects of Dorothy, contrasting Sailor's self-confidence with Lula's sensitivity.

    The Oz references extend far beyond the permutations of the central characters. Diane Ladd makes a convincing Wicked Witch of the West, following Lula's/ Dorothy's every move, cursing the fact that the couple are still together and getting further towards their goal in spite of all her schemes. The long road to California doubles for the yellow brick road, and the car crash featuring Twin Peaks star Sherilyn Fenn could be a nod to the poppy fields, which disorientate and threaten to destroy the heroes. Fenn later turns up as a literal manifestation of the Good Witch Glinda, reflecting that the couple's perseverance and desire to help her were both the right choices to make.

    Lynch described the central theme of Wild at Heart as "finding love in Hell". He creates a dark and violent world all around the characters - a world populated by car crashes, robberies, betrayal, infidelity, sex, violence and various undignified ways of dying. With all the supporting characters having at least one foot rooted in the grotesque, Sailor and Lula become our natural focus, as people with at least part of their sanity intact who desire more than anything else to escape, by whatever means.

    This atmosphere of aggression and theme of feeling trapped is reinforced by Lynch's choice of music. Working with Angelo Badalamenti, who has scored all his work since Blue Velvet, Lynch blends the laid-back 1950s sound of Chris Isaac's brilliant 'Wicked Game' to some very aggressive speed metal, the latter of which foreshadows his work with Marilyn Manson on Lost Highway. It's an oddly effective blend, depicting the violence and possible redemption which confront the characters.

    Music plays a key role in demonstrating the mental conflict of the central characters. In one great scene, Lula tunes through all the radio stations in the car, hearing nothing but bad news. She slams on the brakes, gets out of the car, and starts screaming that she'll go mad unless she hears music. Sailor finds some hard rock, starts screaming too, and they share an impromptu mosh in the middle of the desert. There are big nods to the Elvis back catalogue, with Sailor serenading Lula with 'Love Me' in the club, and finally cementing his love with 'Love Me Tender' during the closing credits.

    Although these scenes in and of themselves are well-assembled and great fun, they do hint at the big central problem with Wild at Heart. There are so many of these strange little bits floating around the central story that they never quite integrate into a seamless, disorientating whole. Lynch's symbolic imagery and manipulation of colour don't gel quite so naturally with the story and characters as such techniques did in Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive.

    The Blue Velvet comparison is the more illuminating, particularly with regard to the amount of time the ideas of the film had to gestate. Lynch had the story and themes for Blue Velvet all worked out in his head before Dune, so that even when he was forced to shoot quickly due to lack of money, he knew how to shoot the robins speech, or the zoom down to the cockroaches, in a way which was seamlessly integral to the story and its themes.

    Wild at Heart, on the other hand, was rushed into production following the collapse of Dino DeLaurentiis' production company, which delayed progress on both Twin Peaks and Lynch's pet project, Ronnie Rocket. He was given Barry Gifford's novel by friend Monty Montgomery with a view to producing it, and only had two months between buying the rights and beginning to shoot. It is no surprise therefore that the script of Wild at Heart doesn't entirely click; it is, in Lynch's words, "a compilation of ideas."

    This disjoined feel has the side effect of taking us out of the story during many of the weirder moments. During Jack Nance's cameo, doubling for Toto in yet another Oz reference, you find yourself staring as much in puzzlement as in mesmerism. Some of Badalamenti's musical cues feel oddly overcooked, such as the huge dramatic chord when Sailor pulls up at Perdita's house. The final scene, where Sailor and Lula reaffirm their love, lacks the beauty and irony of Blue Velvet's ending, which manages to be both uplifting and watchful.

    Despite some self-imposed cuts on Lynch's part, there are many scenes in Wild at Heart which remain problematic. The violence is par for the course for an 18 certificate, even the sight of Willem Dafoe's character losing his head with a double-barrelled shotgun. But the sexual advances of Dafoe's character are deeply disturbing for all the wrong reasons, and the recurring image of Lula's rape doesn't add to the central theme beyond turning our stomachs (as rape should).

    Ultimately, however, the performances in Wild at Heart are enough to see things through. Nicolas Cage is on startling form, showing that he thrives when given a director who understands melodrama and exaggerated characters. He may be massively over-the-top, but it makes sense, and his Elvis impersonation is great. Laura Dern's unusual beauty fits the Southern belle look of her character, and we believe in her emotional turmoil throughout. And amongst the hysterical supporting case, including Dern's real-life mother Diane Ladd, the stand-out is Harry Dean Stanton, who stands calm in the eye of the storm, looking as bemused as the rest of us.

    Wild at Heart is not Lynch's finest work by any stretch of the imagination. It has structural deficiencies which were not sorted out in the editing room, and the lurches in tone may prove too much for the casual viewer. But in the moments when it does work - and there are plenty - it is an often joyous reminder of Lynch's power as a filmmaker, telling stories in ways which are frighteningly unique. While no masterpiece, nor an ideal starting point, it is often majestic and always memorable.
  • mjgildea
    September 27, 2011
    mjgildea
    After burning myself out on Wild at Heart about 15 years ago and walking away for awhile, I can honestly say that it isn't as good as I remember. There's plenty of classic Lynchness even if the movie didn't age all that well. Thanks a lot, early-90s speed metal. If nothing else W... read moreillem Dafoe alone is worth it.
  • ajv2688
    April 10, 2011
    ajv2688
    A wild movie from Lynch. Leave it to him to make an outrageously weird lovers on the run drama with violence and blood. It's really awesome.
  • ythelastman89
    February 11, 2011
    ythelastman89
    I appreciate this for being so incredibly offbeat. Even for David Lynch, it feels like the road trip from hell. I think this is the most comedic that he has or ever will go. The characters are so screwball in nature, that you can't help but laugh when they try to make sense. Nich... read moreolas Cage and Laura Dern are just so good together that it's almost scary, it really felt as though they were head over heels and crazy in love. This has the unique look and feel of some of David Lynch's work, but like it's content, it's so much jollier and goofy in nature. Now that's probably a false sense fluffiness because there's so many demented messages rooted in the story. It's almost as if the movie is just as crazy as its two leads.
  • LoughnerWasLucid
    February 10, 2011
    LoughnerWasLucid
    This is a movie about fucking. Crispin Glover puts cockroaches in his ass. Nicolas Cage smashes a guy's head against the wall like a pumpkin. Laura Dern doesn't mind showing her tits in an art movie. Willem Dafoe still has all his baby teeth.
  • ceWEBrity
    January 28, 2011
    ceWEBrity
    David Lynch, ever the darling of canons cult and critical alike, is just not a filmmaker I care for. In my opinion, for an auteur that's carved a reputation out of creating from the fringe, his works play surprisingly closely to conventional cinematic benchmarks, with Inland Empi... read morere being his greatest deviation (and thus, in my eyes, his greatest success). Though I haven't seen Eraserhead or The Elephant Man yet, a lot of his work follows a surprisingly simple byline - violence, almost-surreal imagery, and shameless heterosexual titillation. His work is beautiful, but it's also fast and cheap and self-interested, and frankly I just think he's a pervert with a wild imagination.

    Wild at Heart isn't quite as grievous an offender as Mulholland Drive was, as the latter film was linchpinned on the notion that the audience payout would be simulated lesbian sex. And hey, I can totally understand that, but call me crazy if two and a half hours of an unintelligible Hollywood mystery for thirty seconds of softcore isn't quite a fair trade off. For most people his self-indulgence works, as that unintelligibility can be written off as uniqueness. It's something that a certain, admittedly niche, audience can relate to - I can't, and I readily admit that. Wild at Heart is not quite as beloved in his filmography because it's essentially a road movie, a genre heavily mined by 1990, and with little to justify its own personal mundanities. Lynch hands to us some uninvolving crime babble, a few casual mentions of witchcraft, and a really lame Wizard of Oz metaphor. The quirks are generally what sell his narratives, but they aren't strong enough here, and the film's single most enduring image - Diane Ladd done up in red lipstick, crawling through a desperate phone conversation - is so much more vivid and character-conscious than anything else he manages to conjure.

    Lynch's work can never truly be brushed off. His technique is far too powerful and innovative for outright dismissal, and Wild at Heart as much of a show of refined craftsmanship as any of his other films. Scenes like Sailor Ripley brutally beating a man within the first five minutes of the film, a confrontation in a dance hall, and the heist of a tiny bank are exhilarating in their arrhythmia. They're astray in what's inarguably Lynch's most tiresome narrative, though, and barely sustain it to the point of watchability. Almost obligated viewing for Lynch's importance in cinema, but I found very little real value in it.
  • MrMarakai
    December 23, 2010
    MrMarakai
    Going for a more linear approach, director David Lynch offers one of his more accessible films while still maintaining his talent for weirdness.
    Based on the novel by Barry Gifford it tells the dark and twisted story of Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) and Lula Fortune (Laura Dern) ... read moreas young lovers fleeing south from Lula's vengeful mother Marietta (Diane Ladd). In a fit of rage, Marietta is determined to prevents the two from seeing each other and sets thoroughly weird and dangerous hit-man Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe) on their trail, as well as private detective Johnny Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton), while a few other dangerous pursuers join in the chase.
    Lynch brings us a nightmarish road movie with homages to Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and "The Wizard of Oz". Full of warped black humour and numerous memorable scenes with eccentric oddball characters. The standouts being, a confused Sherilyn Fenn after a road accident, wandering aimlessly while picking at the fatal wound on her head, and Crispin Glover making an excessive amount of sandwiches for his lunch, while putting cockroaches in his underpants. These are just a couple of quality Lynchian moments that only he can capture and that's not to mention J.E. Freeman's deliciously evil henchman Marcelles Santos, crime-lord Mr. Reindeer and one of cinema's most memorable villians in Bobby Peru (a fantastically creepy and unforgettable Willem Dafoe on top form). The whole cast are, in fact, on top of their game. It's one of Cage's finest wacky performances and the Oscar nominated Diane Ladd is scarily and convincingly venomous. As ever though, it wouldn't work without the genius of Lynch himself and his painting of the surreal, off-beat and depraved underbelly of America, that no-one can do quite like him.
    One of Lynchs more coherent films, it still has his usual dreamlike quality, peppered with strange outlandish characters and events and more linear than what we are used to from the brilliant transcendental director. Excellent stuff.
  • matertenebraum
    April 7, 2010
    matertenebraum
    Wild at Heart begins with an arresting scene of bloody violence by one of the two lead characters, Sailor Ripley, and this immediately grabs our attention. After this he hooks up with his lover, Lula, who he fiercely protects, and goes on a bizarre road trip into the deep south o... read moref the states, while avoiding Lula's mother, played with passion by a deservedly Oscar-nominated Diane Ladd, who has an obsessive hatred for Sailor. They meet an assortment of weird people, especially Bobby Peru, and also Perdita Durango, who has appeared recently in a film with her name as the title, also written by Barry Gifford. It is classic David Lynch, with a homage type theme to the Wizard of Oz. It has the sensuality and eroticism later seen in Lost Highway, the violence and gore, the head sequence after the bank robbery being graphic, and a general uneasiness throughout. But it is a darkly humorous and transfixing piece.

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Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman
September 17, 2008
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Even the title is a letdown, somehow. Full Review

Variety Staff
September 17, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Joltingly violent, wickedly funny and rivetingly erotic. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
September 17, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Barry Gifford's beautifully written picaresque novel about southern lovers on the run, though essentially literary, could have worked as a movie had David Lynch shown some fidelity to the realistic co... Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Though Miss Dern and Mr. Cage are constantly upstaged by the rest of the movie, they triumph. Full Review

Peter Travers
May 12, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Lynch's kinky fairy tale is a triumph of startling images and comic invention.

Hal Hinson
January 1, 2000
Hal Hinson, Washington Post

For all its torrid sex play and violence, fire is precisely what Wild at Heart lacks. Instead of being wild at heart, it's empty at heart. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is lurid melodrama, soap opera, exploitation, put-on and self-satire. Full Review

Desson Thomson
January 1, 2000
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

The movie's initial intensity is so great, it consumes itself. Full Review

Ali Catterall
September 17, 2008
Ali Catterall, Film4

The result's mostly empty at heart and hollow on top. Full Review

September 17, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This winner of the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or is a lunatic road movie seething with the same dark intensity that animates director Lynch's earlier work. Full Review

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Wild At Heart Trivia

  • Name the director of these films; "Wild at Heart", "Blue Velvet", "Eraserhead" and "Mulholland Drive".  Answer »
  • "This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top". What movie is the quote from?  Answer »
  • What valued possession is a "symbol of individuality" and a "personal belief in freedom" for Nicholas Cage in Wild at Heart?   Answer »
  • In Wild at Heart, what kind of jacket does Sailor wear?  Answer »
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