Wild at Heart is a 1990 dark comedy/crime/road movie written and directed by David Lynch while he was taking a break from Twin Peaks, based on the novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula by Barry Gifford.
The film follows Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage), a recently released convict, and his lover Lula Fortune (Laura Dern) going on a road trip from North Carolina to California in order to escape the clutches of Lula's extremely overbearing mother Marietta (Diane Ladd). As they travel and come across Lynchian situations, Marietta has both of her boyfriends, private detective Johnnie Farragut and gangster Marcello Santos (Harry Dean Stanton and J. E. Freeman, respectively) try to track down Lula and dispose of Sailor. Hilarity, Elvis Numbers and Oz Allusions Ensue.
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 (Roger Ebert 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 Palme d'Or in 1990, and was infamously booed when it was announced as the winner.
This film includes examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: 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 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.
- All Women Are Lustful
- Arc Words: More like Arc References, as many characters allude to The Wizard of Oz throughout the film.
- Bar Brawl: Very narrowly avoided.
- Berserk Button: Whatever you do, don't insult Sailor's snakeskin jacket.
- Black Dude Dies First: The opening scene has Sailor kill Bobby Ray Lemon, a black assassin hired by Lula's mother.
- Big "NO!": The whimpiest one ever captured on screen.
- Blood from the Mouth: The girl from the car crash vomits up a little blood right before she dies from her injuries.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Double-Aught Spool, the rocket scientist who won't stop talking about his dog (assuming he even is a rocket scientist, since we only have the word of another minor character on this matter).
- Crapsack World: Lots and lots of violence everywhere.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: An extremely brutal and bloody one opens up the film.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Sailor's childhood is only alluded to via dialogue, but that's what we discover:Lula: When'd you start smoking, Sail?Sailor: I guess I started smoking when I was about... four. My momma was already dead then from lung cancer.
- Elvis Impersonator: Played for Drama surprisingly enough. While wooing Lula at a nightclub, Sailor sings the Elvis Presley 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. During the final scene, he sings "Love Me Tender" to Lula to confirm that he is going to marry her.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Sailor and Lula are just the tip of the iceberg here.
- Evil Matriarch: Marietta.
- Gorn: There's the opening head-smushing sequence and then the bank robbery.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Sailor's snakeskin jacket, He takes a lot of pride in it.Sailor: Did I ever tell ya that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?Lula: About fifty thousand times.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played with, since Lula finds out she's pregnant midway.
- Karma Houdini: Several examples, most notably Santos and many of his accomplices and associates.
- Large Ham: Everyone, but especially Sailor and Marietta.
- Mad Hatter: Several examples, notably pigeon-obsessed George Kovic and dog-obsessed 00-Spool.
- Mrs. Robinson: Played with, as Marietta tries - and fails - to seduce Sailor early on- her actual goals are debatable, though, since it may as well be a ploy to drive the couple apart, and she's soon revealed to be evil.
- Outlaw Couple: Sailor and Lula become one, since they decide to head off to California violating Sailor's parole, and later they get mixed up with Bobby Peru's gang, who Sailor joins in a robbery.
- Rape as Backstory: Lula was attacked at a very young age by a family friend; upon learning that, Marietta arranged for him to be murdered.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: 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.
- Retargeted Lust: Just hearing about one of her lover's past encounters makes Lula, in her words, "hotter than Georgia asphalt."
- Say My Name: After his epiphany courtesy of the Good Witch, Sailor screams, "LULAAAAAA!" Lula also screams Sailor's name multiple times throughout the film.
- Shout-Out:
- Most of the film references The Wizard of Oz with Glinda the Good Witch keeping a close eye over Sailor and Lula and even giving Sailor advice at the end.
- After Bobby shoots off a bank teller's hand, a dog steals said hand and carries it in his mouth, a scene that also occurs in Yojimbo when Sanjuro enters the town.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Sailor and Lula seem to be heading towards that, right up until the very end.
- Stealth Pun: Sailor once refers to Marietta by her last name, as "Ms. Fortune".
- Sudden Musical Ending: Although Sailor does have one musical number earlier in the movie.
- Title Drop: "This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top."
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Lots and lots.
- World of Ham: Deliberately invoked, it's David Lynch after all.
- Your Head A-Splode: Bobby Peru after the robbery.
