Defining Generation X: David Lynch

 When we talk about generational influencers timing is everything.  Lynch came out with his first film in 1977.  Generation X was too young really for Eraserhead, but within a few years it would be playing across the country in dollar theaters in college towns as Gen X was heading to college.  By 1986 Gen X was well established in college and Blue Velvet hit the theaters.  It was an instant cult classic.  

Then of course there is Twin Peaks which ran for two seasons 1990-1991.  This came out at a time when Gen Xers were the driving force for the media market and again it became a cult classic and had a big influence.  I have heard people like Gen X director, Kevin Smith, talk about the influence Twin Peaks had on him, when he got his own chance to make a TV show, Reaper.  There is a reason that Smith chose Ray Wise, Leland from Twin Peaks, to play the Devil.  

Why you might ask was Lynch so important for Gen X?  

In film Lynch explored life in a very different way.  It is dark.  It is immoral.  It is frightening.  What we see on the surface is fake.  These aren't necessarily new ideas in film, but Lynch approached them in a way that felt so very different. 

Take the main character in Blue Velvet.  He's a nice guy, from a small town.  He's pitted against Frank who is definitely not a nice guys, abusive, crazy, and violent.  Dorothy meanwhile is this beautiful victim who seems scared and innocent and needs saving from Frank.  Then there is Sandy.  Sandy is young and innocent, but even she is drawn into the darkness of the world.  Her father is a cop and she's seems to be so aware of the violence and danger of the world and just accepts it as the world we live in.  She dreams of something better, dreams of a world where love saves the world.  

Of course the reality that Lynch shows us is that the differences between Jeffrey and Frank are not as great as they seem.  Dorothy is a victim, but certainly not innocent and someone who has become so corrupted by the violence from Frank that she craves it.  Sandy, well Sandy is Sandy.  And this is a theme that often runs through Lynch's work.  In this world we can be corrupted or we can believe in a greater thing, love.  That love is the only thing that can keep us safe.  

This is a very important message when it comes to Gen X.  This idea of people being so easily corrupted, the idea of how easily, even for someone like Sandy, they can look at this and just see it as part of the world we live in and nothing that can be changed, not until the Robins come.  

These are of course the main themes that run through Twin Peaks as well.  We find ourselves rooting for the innocents to escape this dark world, but it feels so hopeless.  Lynch does one thing in Twin Peaks that I don't know anyone has ever done better and that is to express just how scary real violence and real insanity are.  This is also another theme of Lynch's, but he never wants you to forget that murder is an awful and violent act.  Amazingly the clip below actually aired on television at a time when things were greatly censored.  

The violence is scary, insanity is frightening, we are all really just one small nudge away from falling down this rabbit hole of being controlled by Bob.  

This gets us to what may be the best move that Lynch ever made The Straight Story in 1999.  Yes Lynch was hired by Disney to make a rated G movie based on a real life story about a guy who road his lawn mower across Iowa to visit his sick brother.  

If you haven't seen it, watch it.  It is an incredibly powerful movie and Lynch forced to stay out of dream space deals with these same topics but in a way that is so rooted to reality it feels less scary and more sad.  

There is one scene in particular that I'll share below that really shows what an artistic master Lynch was.  From the shots, to the music, to the acting.  All of it is simply amazing. 

Thank God they hired Lynch to make this film.  What other director and writer would have looked at this story and decided this was the way to tell it.  The question Lynch is asking is why would a man ride his mower across Iowa rather than get a ride from someone or take the bus.  We get to know Alvin Straight along this journey and I think we understand exactly why he would ride his mower.  

But note in the scene I linked to here we are still dealing with some of these same themes.  The world is not a nice place.  Look at what happened to Rose.  She's a true innocent and look at what the world did to her.  

This is not a piece about Lynch and his work as a director, but it is about how he influence Gen X and to me his greatest contribution is the exposure of just how dark and dangerous our world can be, and just how close all are to walking down that path ourselves.  

I believe this is something that really hit home with a lot of Gen Xers and one reason why Lynch is an important artist in defining generation X.