The movie David Lynch calls “meaningful on so many different levels”
Even though he hasn’t directed a feature since 2006’s Inland Empire, David Lynch has hardly been resting on his laurels or taking it easy, with various other creative outlets occupying his time in the intervening years.
As well as helming all 18 episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017 and taking a recurring role in Seth Macfarlane’s animated Family Guy universe as Gus the Bartender, Lynch has also directed a Duran Duran concert. In addition, he has hosted weather reports on his website, played legendary filmmaker John Ford in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, and continued dabbling in art.
He’s not retired, but neither is he in any great rush to make a return to the world of cinema. Fortunately, analysis of Lynch’s filmography is as rich and detailed as the movies themselves, ensuring that his back catalogue is always being pored over, dissected, and debated as his extended sabbatical continues.
One influence above all others has shaped his personal and professional direction, though, to such an extent that a documentary was even made about it. In one of the most famous quotes to emerge from somebody known for an off-kilter soundbite or two, Lynch memorably stated during a Q&A session that “there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz“.
Writer and director Alexandre O. Philippe took that sentiment and ran with it to craft Lynch/Oz, a documentary divided into six chapters. It features either a contemporary, peer, or critic examining Lynch’s career through the prism of Victor Fleming’s seminal 1939 fantasy.
“It’s really hard to not see the DNA of The Wizard of Oz all over his work,” Phillipe said. “And I don’t think it’s all conscious.” Whether it’s by accident or design, Lynch regularly echoes the thematic undertones of the Technicolor classic, something his fellow directors have also picked up on.
“David has gone over the rainbow from the first film ever,” was how John Waters put it. “He lives in a different reality than you or I do, and that’s quite obvious.” Beyond that, David Lowery explained that another recurring theme of Lynch’s output is “tarnishing the American dream,” comparing his oeuvre to The Wizard of Oz in the way “Lynch accepts the fact that we are at all times surrounded by dark forces, but he also believes that goodness will prevail.”
According to his own sister Martha, “David growing up was really quite obsessed with The Wizard of Oz,” not that he’s ever tried to hide it. In fact, when reflecting on the movies that were important and influential to him in an interview with The Guardian, Lynch described it as “a cosmic film and meaningful on many, many different levels” before labelling ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ as “one of the most beautiful songs ever”.
Every director has their own favourite movie, but the mystique surrounding Lynch has become such a key part of his personal and professional persona that somebody found it an important enough connection to make an entire 108-minute in-depth analysis of it.
