Product Details

• Actors: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, J.E. Freeman, Crispin Glover
• Directors: David Lynch
• Writers: David Lynch, Barry Gifford
• Producers: Michael Kuhn, Monty Montgomery, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Steve Golin
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Anchor Bay
• VHS Release Date: April 4, 1991
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303018351
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,226 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

David Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart is an utterly random and ugly experience with pockets of startling imagery and inspired set pieces. Based on a Barry Gifford novel, the film stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as lovers on the lam whose relationship is tested and who meet some truly dangerous wackos (including an almost-simian Willem Dafoe). Lynch's thoughts seem to be everywhere, and he expects the audience to keep up with a story that seems more a collection of avant-garde whims than a coherent vision with the intuitive brilliance of his Blue Velvet. Cage gives one of his more chaotic performances, but then he was just reading Lynch's signposts. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Wild at Heart [VHS] (1990) Nicolas Cage (Actor), Laura Dern (Actor), David Lynch when they were very young.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Direct, disturbing access to the mind of David Lynch., November 20, 1998

By 

William A. Otis (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild at Heart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Wild at Heart is less a movie and more a psychological journey. It's hard for me to judge it the way I judge other movies; it simply can't be put under the same standards. Most movies are about entertainment and telling a story; this movie (like Blue Velvet before it) is about intense emotions, the darker side of the soul, and the warped mind of director David Lynch. David Lynch is one of the few directors left who still expresses himself through his work; he is one of the last true film artists. He indulges himself here, perhaps to an extreme. I'm not even sure I can say that this movie "entertained" me in the usual sense; but I relished the experience. His obsessions with Elvis, (impersonated or channeled by Nicholas Cage in an inspired performance) The Wizard of Oz, (the movie repeatedly references the classic both concretely and in symbolism) his desire to opress/victimize women, and the evil inside us all take center stage here; the story becomes secondary. The story itself is about a couple whose love borders on an unhealthy obsession, and seems to be founded in pleasure more than spirit. It is a "road picture" if you boil it down superficially. But this movie is about Lynch's twisted desires and his desire to twist us as well. The scene where Willem Dafoe's evil, animalistic character seduces Laura Dern verbally is one of the most powerful scenes in film. In my mind the release of this movie and the premiere of "Twin Peaks" on television were the events that started the 90's, at least in an artistic sense. Watch this movie; it is an intense roller coaster, a visual dream, and an unfiltered look into Lynch's mind and the American psyche.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This movie affected me forever. Thrilling, soulful, cute., December 3, 2000

By 

Jeffrey M. Papineau "Tech Lover" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wild at Heart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I only saw it once, in the theater and was a liberating, thrilling experience because of the emotion and depth of it's creator's mind came through so completely. This is art. If you are offended by it's treatment of women or racial distortions, you miss it's point entirely. Life is not fair. It's both sweet and primal, brutal and dazzaling, crude and enlightening, depending on the road you take, in various mixtures of each. Much like this film. I forever looked at the world differently; thru Lynch's eyes, a brief glimps of his soul and the metaphores his charactors represent. I could identify with each, and in some ways see myself in all of them... but if anything, I think it encouraged me to hang a little bit looser and attempt to enjoy more thouroghly because that's what life should be. If you haven't loved someone obsessively, you haven't really lived. If you haven't let loose and really partied, you missed something. If you've denied your dark shadow self your entire life, you don't really know who you are. I've been waiting years for this to come out on DVD and it looks like the wait will be over soon.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best!!, November 22, 2004

By 

G. Preston (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wild at Heart (Special Edition) (DVD)

Maybe there's something to the theory that Europeans "get" Lynch more than the average American does. Not sure about that, but I love this film just as much as Blue Velvet, Fire Walk With Me, Mulholland Drive etc, and it surprises me that many have such a low opinion of it. Most Lynch films seem to explore the connection between romance (or at least lust) and darker impulses such as obsession, murder and dementia. Here the division is very clear; it's a full blown Romantic Epic, with Cage and Dern as the hopelessly-in-love couple on the run. The classic romance paradigm is done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner here, and Lynch and the actors have a great deal of fun portraying the characters in a cheesy, over-the-top manner. This is where some people seem to have a problem with the movie: the exaggerated acting of Cage & Dern. Personally, I think they do a great job-it is meant to be humorous, and it works as a perfectly good counterpoint to the increasingly sinister obstacles they must overcome. Here is where the movie really shines: Lynch lets his imagination run wild in his depiction of a bizarre and dangerous underworld of criminal activity. Willem Dafoe is pitch-perfect as the sleazy hitman, and the scene where he tries to seduce Laura Dern in the hotel room is one of the most disturbing moments of sexual tension ever caught on film. As with most David Lynch films, there are so many small details, so much humor and intelligence (as opposed to your average Hollywood hit) that it can be enjoyed over and over again. All in all, this is an extremely imaginative and fun movie, and not to be missed!