Fans have been debating the true meaning of David Lynch's Eraserhead since it was released in 1997. This tends to be the case with many of his movies, as well as his cult-classic TV show Twin Peaks. He's not exactly forthcoming with behind the scenes details, clearly desiring his audience to interpret things for themselves. For the most part, he even has kept fans in the dark as to why he won't see the remake of Dune.
Regardless, many fans believe they know the true and shocking meaning behind David Lynch's bizarre and groundbreaking debut masterpiece. But the filmmaker himself seems to debate it. Here's what David Lynch has said about Eraserhead, making the film, and it's true meaning...
David Lynch Thinks Eraserhead Wouldn't Get Made Today
There's just no way for any film critic or historian to accurately analyze Eraserhead. As Vulture journalist Bilge Ebiri wrote, it's truly "unclassifiable". It deals with a plethora of themes that include love and death and responsibility. The latter has been twisted by numerous critics who are certain the film is secretly about coming to terms with fatherhood. But David hasn't ever really backed that idea up.
Eraserhead is also a movie that just wouldn't get made today. Therefore, the unique filmmaker himself probably wouldn't have a career if he attempted to recreate his rise to cult stardom in 2022. Aside from the somewhat grotesque and totally mind-boggling nature of the film's premise and visuals, Eraserhead would have such a hard time today because it relied on theater marquees for publicity. The movie had no budget, so it needed to build a following by creating a buzz on the streets. And the art-house indie flick did this with the help of the midnight movie circuit.
"The midnight movie circuit was what saved or brought a lot of films to the public," David Lynch said in an interview with Vulture. "You know, the word Eraserhead was on a marquee of many, many theaters for years. Whether people saw the film or not, they’d see the name, and it just went into their collective consciousness. It was the most beautiful thing for independent cinema and art-house cinema, this idea of running films at midnight. It was really important for Eraserhead. [Film exhibitor and distributor] Ben Barenholtz, they call him 'the grandfather of the midnight film' — if it wasn’t for Ben, I don’t think Eraserhead would have been discovered at all."
How David Lynch Created Eraserhead
David Lynch had just quit the AFI Conservatory when he concocted Eraserhead. He had basically no budget and very few script pages. But he had a vision. And that vision allowed him to bypass some financial constraints to create a truly visually remarkable film.
"It needed to look a certain way, and the look comes about from what’s in front of the camera and how it’s lit. I designed it and built a lot of the things. You just work until you get it to feel correct," David continued in his interview with Vulture. "I knew what I wanted because of the ideas I got. And I love the world of Eraserhead. I would love to live in that world. I loved being in there during those years."
David also admitted that so much of the look of Eraserhead was inspired by Philadelphia. Or rather, what Philadelphia was decades ago.
"It [was] a smokestack-industry world. It’s factory-worker homes tucked away out of time. It has a certain feel," David said before claiming the city that inspired Eraserhead's specific look has changed. "I went there a couple of years ago, and the city is completely different. It felt very normal to me, not like it was then. It was brighter and cleaner."
What Is The Meaning Of Eraserhead?
There is no end to the papers written on the meaning of Eraserhead or the analysis videos found on Youtube. And this is precisely what David Lynch wanted as well as why he hasn't ever delved into the true message or theme of the film.
"I always say the same thing: Every viewer is different," David Lynch said to Vulture when asked about why he won't reveal the true meaning of Eraserhead. "People go into a world and they have an experience, and they bring so much of what makes them react, it’s already inside of them. Each viewer gets a different thing from every film. So there are some people where Eraserhead speaks to them, and others it doesn’t speak to them at all. It’s just the way it goes."
As for all the interpretations of Eraserhead found out in the ether, David had this to say:
"No one, to my knowledge, has ever seen the film the way I see it. The interpretation of what it’s all about has never been my interpretation."