Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 23, 2010

Screened at the Cannes Film Festival, David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors MK2. The only extra feature on the disc is an electronic press kit containing a standard making of featurette, actor clips, interviews with cast and crew members, and trailer. In English, with optional French, French SDH, and restricted English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

David Lynch as Gordon Cole

David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the prequel to the famous TV series, is arguably the director's most vulnerable film. It is too serious, too dark, too complex, too much everything. In other words, it is absolutely overwhelming, and, frankly, quite difficult to endure.

FBI Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch) sends two agents (Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, Flatliners) to Wind River, Washington to investigate the death of Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley, Liebestraum). They begin sniffing around and quickly realize that the nearby town, Twin Peaks, has a dark secret. Eventually, both of them disappear.

Far and away from the scene, Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, Showgirls) encounters Agent Jeffries (David Bowie, The Man Who Fell to Earth), who is supposedly dead. Agent Jeffries has an interesting message for Agent Cooper - which introduces him to the Red Room, the Man From Another Planet, and a whole bunch of other fascinating characters and things.

Meanwhile, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee, Notes from Underground), who lives in Twin Peaks, begins to lose her mind - perhaps because of the hard drugs she regularly takes, perhaps because of the constant sexual abuse courtesy of her father's (Ray Wise, Closing the Deal) alter ego, Bob (Frank Silva), which she is forced to endure. Her best friend, Donna (Moira Kelly, Little Odessa), tries to help her but fails.

Things get really bizarre when Laura's father accidentally discovers that she has been having sex with strangers to support her drug habit. Consumed by anger and a great dose of lust, he permanently becomes Bob, and all hell breaks loose.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a dark and exceptionally disturbing film populated with some of the most vicious characters Lynch's mind has produced during the years. It is true that some of the violence in it is borderline cartoonish, hence there are a few genuinely hilarious scenes, but the rest is downright ugly.

Unlike the TV series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me feels rather chaotic - there isn't enough time to get to know all of the key characters and the all-important symbolic scenes that reveal so much about them are simply not as effective; they look and feel awkward, creating more confusion rather than bringing clarity.

The TV series had a strong cyclic structure - the various scattered pieces in it were put together in well conceived large cycles, which among other things gave meaning to the strong sex and violence. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is too short to sustain a similar cyclic structure, which is why it resembles an intense set of hallucinations that have common characters but not a common message.

Still, there is no other director that knows how to mix the beautiful with the ugly and present it to us with style as well as Lynch does. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a genuinely unsettling but fascinating film to behold, and a litmus test of sorts for those who like their films raw and uncompromising.

* In 1992, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was screened at Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.86:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors MK2.

This is a very good high-definition transfer with only a couple of minor issues. Generally speaking, fine object detail is very pleasing; many of the close-ups look very good. Clarity is also dramatically improved; even the darker scenes look notably better than they do on the R1 DVD release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Color reproduction is also substantially better, with the rich reds, blues, and greens looking quite beautiful. This being said, various traces of mild edge-enhancement are often easy to spot. The larger your screen is, the easier it should be for you to see them. Various minor noise corrections have been applied as well, though the fine film grain has been preserved. Finally, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. I also did not see any annoying scratches, debris, damage marks, or stains. To sum it all up, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has obviously been struck from a dated source, which was most likely prepared for the DVD release of the film MK2 did a few years ago. Still, the presentation is quite good. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content. Please note that the disc's main menu can be set in English or French).

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, MK2 have provided optional English, French, and French SDH subtitles for main feature. Please note that the English subtitles appear only during portions of the film where the actual dialog is next to impossible to comprehend (such as the famous bar scene).

The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is a good enough reason to recommend this Blu-ray release - it has an impressive dynamic amplitude and organic qualities that are completely missing from the R1 DVD release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. The dialog is crisp, clean, and stable. I also did not detect any audio dropouts with Angelo Badalamenti's music score to report in this review.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Electronic Press Kit - the kit contains a standard making of featurette, actor clips, various interviews with cast and crew members, and a trailer. In English, with optional French subtitles. (20 min, PAL).

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

David Lynch fans should definitely consider importing MK2's Blu-ray release of his Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, because I honestly do not believe that we would see a local distributor bother with it any time soon. Just keep in mind that it is Region-B "locked". Do not forget that Lost Highway is also out on Blu-ray in France. RECOMMENDED.