Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 4, 2010

Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios-UK. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc. In English, with optional English SDH, Italian, German, Catalan, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Japanese and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Sailor and Lula

Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans) and Lula Fortune (Laura Dern, Jurassic Park) are madly in love with each other - and Lula's mother, Marietta (Diane Ladd, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore) a crazy aging Southern belle with a serious drinking problem, does not like it at all. In a desperate attempt to push Sailor away from her daughter, Marietta offers to have sex with him, and then hires an assassin to kill him. Unfortunately, he rejects her offer and beats the assassin's brains out. Sailor ends up in jail and Lula vows to wait for him.

A couple of years later, Sailor gets out of jail and offers Lula to take her to California. They would also stop in New Orleans - to try a few of those famous fried banana sandwiches and listen to some good old fashioned jazz. Lula immediately accepts.

On the way to California, Lula decides to send her mother a postcard to let her know that she is doing well. Marietta goes berserk and immediately asks two of her ex-lovers, Johnny Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton, Paris, Texas) and Marcelles Santos (J. E. Freeman, Miller's Crossing), a perverted goon who may or may not have something to do with her husband's death, to go after them and have Sailor killed. Johnny agrees, hoping that once the job is done he would get to have some fun with Marietta, just like the old days when they were young and in love, while Marcelles tells Marietta that he would help her if she finally lets him deal with Johnny.

After a short stop in New Orleans, Sailor and Lula end in Big Tuna, Texas. There, Lula gets sick and pukes in their hotel room, while Sailor befriends a crazy cowboy named Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe, Antichrist), who has been paid to kill him. Shortly after, Bobby tries to seduce Lula, and then convinces Sailor to help him rob a local bank.

David Lynch's Wild at Heart premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990, where it won the prestigious Palme d'Or award. A year later, the film was nominated for Oscar in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category (Diane Ladd).

Like most Lynch films, Wild at Heart has fascinating characters with fascinating secrets. From afar they look like normal people, but they are not - they do things normal people don't and end up in places normal people wouldn't. Needless to say, these characters also get to experience things most normal people won't.

Like most Lynch films, Wild at Heart also has two very contrasting sides. One is dark and disturbing; the other is light and incredibly hilarious. Naturally, the abundance of explicit sex and graphic violence in the film is carefully countered with wacky humor. Example: we get to see a man blow his head off with a sawed-off shotgun but we also get to enjoy a group of seriously obese naked and slightly drunk ladies who have been shooting a "Texas Style" porn film dancing.

Wild at Heart is based on the original novel by Barry Gifford, who later on went on to write the screenplay for Lynch's Lost Highway, and contains a number of references to "The Wizard of Oz". The film is also complimented by a beautiful soundtrack featuring Elvis' classic "Love Me Tender" (performed by Nicholas Cage), Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "Love Me" (also performed by Nicholas Cage), Chris Isaak's hugely popular "Wicked Game", original music by award-winning composer Angelo Badalamenti, etc.

Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Lynch's Wild at Heart arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios-UK.

This is a good but somewhat inconsistent high-definition transfer. Generally speaking, fine object detail is good, clarity pleasing, and contrast levels adequate. The color-scheme is also quite nice; reds, greens, yellows, blues, browns, grays, and blacks look rich and natural. It has to be said, however, that the high-definition transfer has been struck from a dated source and as a result there are certain contrast and clarity fluctuations that may annoy some sensitive viewers. Occasionally, traces of very mild edge-enhancement are also easy to spot. A few compression artifacts also pop up here and there. The good news here is that there are no traces of heavy DNR manipulation. Some sporadic light noise reduction tweaks have been performed, but the fine film grain is very much intact. There are no serious stability issues. Blown though a digital projector, for the most part the high-definition transfer conveys very pleasing depth (the nighttime footage is the only area where some key improvements are needed). Lastly, I noticed a relatively large number of tiny flecks popping up here and there, but did not see any large cuts, warps, marks, or stains to report in this review. All in all, even though there are some issues with the presentation, Wild at Heart looks good, and I have absolutely no problem recommending it to you. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu. Please note that the main menu can be set in one of the following languages: Japanese, English, Italian, German, Catalan, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Traditional Chinese).

Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are eight audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, German DTS 5.1, Japanese DTS 2.0, Italian DTS 2.0, Catalan DTS 2.0, Brazilian Portuguese DTS 2.0, Latin Spanish DTS 2.0, and Russian DTS 2.0. For the record, Universal Studios-UK have provided optional English SDH, Italian, German, Catalan, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Japanese and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is pleasing. The range of dynamics is certainly impressive. The dialog is also exceptionally crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Angelo Badalamenti's wonderful music score either. While viewing the film, I also did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc whatsoever.

Wild at Heart Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

And so the trend continues - we have another very good release of a classic David Lynch film that gets a Blu-ray release in a number of European markets but not in North America. However, unlike Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and The Elephant Man, I have a very, very good feeling that Wild at Heart will appear on Blu-ray in North America in 2011. For those who cannot wait, the UK release is a very good alternative. It looks and sounds very good. One other thing - while I am not a proponent of dated transfers, and ideally would like to see fresh scans done for catalog titles as often as possible, if for whatever reason there are no funds for specific older films to get a fresh new transfer, at least bring it to Blu-ray in its raw form, looking like film, which is exactly what we get with this Blu-ray release of Wild at Heart. It is not perfect - there are some minor fluctuations, a few flecks popping up here and there, etc - but it looks like film. I am fine with it, and I am certain a lot of other people will be as well. This is a top film, folks, so do not hesitate to pick it up. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.