Line #23 Film/WildAtHeart


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wild_at_heart_1990.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:It's like an old Music/ElvisPresley movie done by Creator/DavidLynch!]]
3
4	->''"If you are truly wild at heart, you'll fight for your dreams."''
5	-->-- '''[[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Good Witch]]'''
6
7	''Wild at Heart'' is a 1990 dark comedy/crime/[[RoadTripPlot road movie]] written and directed by Creator/DavidLynch while he was taking a break from ''Series/TwinPeaks'', [[FilmOfTheBook based on]] the novel ''Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula'' by Barry Gifford.
8
9	The film follows Sailor Ripley (Creator/NicolasCage), a recently released convict, and his lover Lula Fortune (Creator/LauraDern) going on a road trip from North Carolina to California in order to escape the clutches of Lula's extremely overbearing mother Marietta (Creator/DianeLadd). As they travel and come across Lynchian situations, Marietta has both of her boyfriends, private detective Johnnie Farragut and gangster Marcello Santos (Creator/HarryDeanStanton and Creator/JEFreeman, respectively) try to track down Lula and dispose of Sailor. [[SurrealHumor Hilarity]], [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis Numbers]] and [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Oz Allusions Ensue]].
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11	One of the most divisive films of Lynch's filmography: those who love it consider it one of his best, while those who hate it (Creator/RogerEbert among them) consider it laughable, melodramatic trash. Regardless, it's one of Lynch's most distinctive examples of American grotesquerie. ''Wild at Heart'' won the UsefulNotes/PalmeDOr in 1990, and was infamously booed when it was announced as the winner.
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13	----
14	!!This film includes examples of:
15	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Mob lady Perdita Durango was supposed to be "a hairy, ugly woman", and the actress who played her was quoted as being "overjoyed" at the chance of [[BeautyInversion grunging it up]]; as a result, "ugliness" comes down to a cheap blond dye job with visible dark roots. Oh, and the actress? ''Isabella Rossellini''.
16	* AffectionateNickname: Sailor tend to refer to Lula as "Peanut". She in turn refers to him as "Sail'".
17	* AllWomenAreLustful
18	* ArcWords: More like Arc References, as many characters allude to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' throughout the film.
19	* BarBrawl: ''Very'' narrowly avoided.
20	* BerserkButton: Whatever you do, don't insult Sailor's snakeskin jacket.
21	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: The opening scene has Sailor kill Bobby Ray Lemon, a black assassin hired by Lula's mother.
22	* BigNo: The whimpiest one ever captured on screen.
23	* BloodFromTheMouth:
24	** Lula bled from her mouth after she was raped by Uncle Pooch; making it at least somewhat ambiguous what he actually did to her.
25	** [[spoiler:The girl from the car crash vomits up a little blood right before she dies from her injuries]].
26	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Double-Aught Spool, the rocket scientist who won't stop talking about his dog (assuming he even ''is'' a rocket scientist, [[InformedAbility since we only have the word of another minor character on this matter]]).
27	* ButNowIMustGo: {{Subverted}}. [[spoiler:Sailor tries to pull this on Lula and his son, Pace, at the end of the film, believing that they will be better off without him, but one very short fight and a vision from the Good Witch of the North later, he chooses to turn his life around and declares [[IChooseToStay that he is going to stay with his family instead]].]]
28	* CrapsackWorld: Lots and lots of violence everywhere.
29	* CreepyUncle: Lula's "Uncle Pooch", who raped her when she was 13 (although, she points out that he wasn't an ''actual'' uncle, just a business partner of her father).
30	* CurbStompBattle: An ''extremely'' brutal and bloody one opens up the film, when Bobby Ray Lemon attacks Sailor with a knife, and the latter proceeds to utterly trounce him before ultimately killing him with his bare hands.
31	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Sailor's childhood is only alluded to via dialogue, but that's what we discover:
32	-->'''Lula''': When'd you start smoking, Sail?\
33	'''Sailor''': I guess I started smoking when I was about... four. My momma was already dead then from lung cancer.
34	* ElvisImpersonator: PlayedForDrama surprisingly enough. While wooing Lula at a nightclub, Sailor sings the Music/ElvisPresley song "Love Me" to her. Later, Lula asks Sailor why he didn't sing "Love Me Tender", his favorite Presley song, to which Sailor replies that he can only sing that song to his wife. [[spoiler:During the final scene, he sings "Love Me Tender" to Lula to confirm that he is going to marry her.]]
35	* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: Sailor and Lula ends up fornicating in pretty much every hotel room they make a stop at. And they're just the tip of the iceberg here.
36	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Sailor namechecks the tropes when he is telling Lula, who is a blonde, a story about a former lover of his. Lula interrupts his story to ask what color her hair was. Sailor explains that it was "Jet-black. Though [[Literature/GentlemenPreferBlondes gentlemen prefer blondes...]]"
37	* EvilCripple: Downplayed. Perdita, a henchwoman of Santos who has a personal story with Sailor, [[spoiler:but nonetheless lies to him, in spite of the deal they had to warn each other if they knew that someone ever called out a hit on them]] and [[spoiler:participates in assassinating Johnnie Farragut]], can still walk, but she is shown to have a strange way of carrying her body and occasionally is seen using leg braces and crutches, implying that she suffered some serious physical damage at some point.
38	* EvilMatriarch: Marietta.
39	* EvilWearsBlack:
40	** Downplayed somewhat with Santos, who is very overtly a mobster, and tends to wear a black shirt and pants combo with a white tie and a grey blazer as his standard outfit.
41	** Played painfully straight with [[spoiler:Bobby Peru, whose every article of clothes are all pitch black]]. Lula even refers to him as a "black angel".
42	* ExactWords: When [[spoiler:Johnnie Farragut]] suddenly disappears from the hotel they are staying at, Marietta asks Santos if he has done anything to him; and more specifically if he has done anything to hurt him. Santos denies this, so Marietta asks to swear on his mother if he is telling the truth. Santos then swears, on his mother, that ''he'' hasn't done anything to [[spoiler:Johnnie]]. As they speak, however, Dropshadow, Reggie, and Perdita, who just so happens to work for Santos, have knocked [[spoiler:Johnnie]] out, kidnapped him, and currently preparing to kill him...
43	* {{Gorn}}: There's the opening head-smushing sequence and then the bank robbery.
44	* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Sailor's snakeskin jacket. He takes a lot of pride in it.
45	-->'''Sailor''': Did I ever tell ya that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?\
46	'''Lula''': About fifty thousand times.
47	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Played with, since [[spoiler:Lula finds out she's pregnant midway]].
48	* KarmaHoudini: Several examples, most notably Santos and many of his accomplices and associates.
49	* LargeHam: ''Everyone'', but especially Sailor and Marietta.
50	* MadHatter: Several examples, notably pigeon-obsessed George Kovic and dog-obsessed 00-Spool.
51	* MrsRobinson: Played with, as Marietta [[spoiler:tries - and fails - to seduce Sailor early on]]- her actual goals are debatable, though, since it may as well be a ploy to [[spoiler:drive the couple apart]], and she's soon revealed to be evil.
52	* TheNapoleon: Downplayed. Bobby Peru, being played by the 5'8½ (174 cm) tall Creator/WillemDafoe, does not have that much height difference compared to Lula, who is played by the 5'10½ (179 cm) tall Creator/LauraDern. Yet, Peru is notably still able to physically intimidate and menace Lula, despite her standing a bit taller than him.
53	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. The first scene of the film sees Sailor being attacked by an assassin by the name of Bobby Ray Lemon. While in Texas him and Lula meet Bobby Peru, who [[spoiler:is ''also'' an assassin who is out for Sailor's blood]].
54	* OutlawCouple: Sailor and Lula become one, since [[spoiler: they decide to head off to California violating Sailor's parole]], and later they get mixed up with [[spoiler:Bobby Peru's gang, who Sailor joins in a robbery.]]
55	* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler:Lula was attacked at a very young age by "Uncle Pooch", a family friend]]; upon learning that, [[spoiler: Marietta arranged for him to be murdered.]]
56	* RealityIsUnrealistic: The crash victim's babbling about her mother and the contents of her purse might seem odd, but that kind of deliriousness is very common for victims of severe trauma.
57	* RetargetedLust: Just hearing about one of her lover's past encounters makes Lula, in her words, "hotter than Georgia asphalt."
58	* SayMyName: After his epiphany courtesy of the Good Witch, Sailor screams, "LULAAAAAA!" Lula also screams Sailor's name multiple times throughout the film.
59	* ShoutOut:
60	** Most of the film references ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' with Glinda the Good Witch keeping a close eye over Sailor and Lula and even [[spoiler:giving Sailor advice at the end]].
61	** After Bobby Peru shoots off a bank teller's hand, a dog steals said hand and carries it in his mouth, a scene that also occurs in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' when Sanjuro enters the town.
62	* SociopathicSoldier: The very unpleasant and borderline psychotic Bobby Peru is very heavily implied to be a former US Marine. He refers to a toilet as "a head" and he has a prominent tattoo spelling out "USMC" [[ASinisterClue on his left hand]].
63	* StarCrossedLovers: Sailor and Lula seem to be heading towards that, right up until [[spoiler: the very end]].
64	* StealthPun: Sailor once refers to Marietta by her last name, as "Ms. Fortune".
65	* SuddenMusicalEnding: Sailor sings Music/ElvisPresley's "Love Me Tender" to Lula at the end. Though he ''does'' have one musical number earlier in the movie, having sung Elvis' "Love Me" earlier, and he did promise afterwards that he was saving a performance of "Love Me Tender" for the woman who would be his wife.
66	* TheTake: A variation. When Sailor learns that Lula [[spoiler:is pregnant with his child]], his immediate reaction is light up ''two'' cigarettes at once and then starting to smoke them simultaneously. He then tries to play it cool and tells her in his most deadpan voice possible "It's okay by me, Peanut."
67	* TitleDrop: "This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top."
68	* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Lots and lots.
69	* WorldOfHam: Deliberately invoked, it's Creator/DavidLynch after all.
70	* UnholyMatrimony: Reggie and Perdita, two of Santos' henchmen, are very much in love, and they tend to both get off on committing murders together.
71	* YourHeadASplode: [[spoiler:Bobby Peru]] after the robbery.

Context Film / WildAtHeart