Director Report Card: David Lynch (1990) Part One

5. Twin Peaks
Episode 1.0: Northwest Passage

“Blue Velvet” triggered major waves in the world of cinema, truly turning David Lynch into a hot commodity and earning him his second Academy Award nomination. Yet the film's explicit sexual content was also heavily criticized, some even accusing Lynch of misogyny. This made his next move surprising: David Lynch went to television. After the success of “The Elephant Man,” Lynch was briefly attached to direct a biopic of Marilyn Monroe. The project fell apart but Lynch became interested in the idea of a woman in trouble, an all-American blonde with a secret life of drugs and sex. He worked on the Monroe project with experienced television writer Mark Frost. A confluence of events would lead to the two developing a new project, a television series about a small Pacific Northwest town whose dark side is revealed when the prom queen is murdered.

What happened next is, of course, well known. The show became “Twin Peaks.” Though network executives had little confidence in it, the show's brief seven episode first season would become a pop culture phenomenon. In the early nineties, water coolers all over America were abuzz with the question “Who killed Laura Palmer?” From there, “Twin Peaks” would quickly collect a passionate fan following. The show would bring David Lynch's particular style to the masses, collecting his hardcore weirdness and obsessions in a more accessible package. In the process, a more cinematic style would be brought to television, arguably having a major effect on the medium. While Frost functioned as the main showrunner, Lynch would write and direct a number of episodes, including the feature length pilot.

In the early morning hours, in the second half of February, a body is discovered in the small town of Twin Peaks, Washington. It is homecoming queen Laura Palmer, her corpse found wrapped in plastic, washed up on the shore of a lake. The news sends shock waves through the community. When a class mate of Laura's, deeply traumatized and wounded, crosses the state line, FBI Agent Dale Cooper is brought onto the case. Working with the town sheriff, Harry S. Truman, Cooper discovers that a serial killer might be responsible for Laura's death... And that the girl had many secrets of her own. In fact, the seemingly wholesome small town of Twin Peaks is crawling with secrets.

From its opening minutes, it is established that “Twin Peaks” wasn't going to be like any other TV series. The show's opening credits was totally unlike anything else on network television at the time. We are presented with slow footage of birds, waterfalls, and the daily workings of a lumber mill. Over these relaxing images, plays the dreamy, melodic notes of Angelo Badalamenti's theme song. “Falling,” composed of sweeping synth strings and heartbeat-like piano notes, creates a dream-like tone unfamiliar to television viewers at the time. Early on, this sets up that David Lynch was leashing his cinematic style very little when moving to TV. The pilot of “Twin Peaks,” with its images of traffic lights blowing in the wind or darkened stairways leading up to empty bedrooms, looks more like a movie than a television series.

More than anything else, “Twin Peaks” is a story rooted in the lost of a young life. After Laura's dead body is revealed, we see her mother calling for her from the kitchen. She doesn't know yet her daughter is dead, rendering this common scene heartbreaking in retrospect. When the news of Laura's death is announced, a wave of desperate, sobbing grief spreads through the whole town. Her father and mother break down into inconsolable weeping, in a practically catatonic state for the rest of the season. The high school principal weeps while making the announcement over the loudspeaker. Her best friend, Donna, wails in agony after looking at an empty desk. Another classmate runs screaming across the school lot. The other classmates are stunned into total silence. The trauma of a young person, with so much potential, their whole lives in front of them, being senselessly killed sends psychic shock waves of pain and horror through the community. Lynch emphasizes this by frequently focusing in on the photograph of Laura, during smiling, happier times, times that are all lost now. This death, this act, is the foundation of everything “Twin Peaks” is about.

Even though “Twin Peaks' was made for television and not for cinemas, it is, in many ways, a direct continuation of the themes and ideas of “Blue Velvet.” This is most obvious in the retro-leaning aesthetic of the pilot and subsequent show. Much like Lynch's last feature, “Twin Peaks” is technically set in the modern day but feels totally out-of-time. Twin Peaks is a town home to neon-lit roadside dinners, teenage boys who wear leather jackets and ride motorcycles. The fashion is distinctly retro in appearance. The characters fit traditional American archetypes: The wholesome small town cop, the prom queen, the jock, catty waitresses and teasing teenage temptresses. This distinct approach is also evident in Badalamenti's music, which often features slinking guitars and jazzy instrumentation.

More than anything else, “Twin Peaks” is most connected to “Blue Velvet” by its story. This is another tale of an innocent drawn into a mystery, which exposes him to the dark side of a small American town. Though both played by Kyle MacLachlan, Dale Cooper isn't Jeffrey Beaumont. He's not a wide-eyed teenager, unfamiliar with the ways of the mature world. Yet Cooper maintains a child-like glee about simple things like trees or cherry pie. He also smiles widely when diving into the details of the mystery. Much like its main investigator and its director, “Twin Peaks” is fascinated by the possibilities of a mystery. Which is why the pilot dangles many tantalizing details in front of us. Such as a one-armed man appearing randomly, uncertain clues hidden under fingernails, or a cryptic phrase scrawled in blood on a piece of paper. We all know now Lynch never intended to resolve the murder of Laura Palmer, confirming that the filmmaker is far more interested in what the possibilities of a mystery present then its actual resolution.

Dale Cooper also represents a gateway to the wider eccentricities of “Twin Peaks'” world. Cooper himself is a bit of an oddball. (Lynch has admitted he has a lot in common with the FBI agent.) He talks obsessively into a hand recorder, leaving notes to a mysterious “Diane.” His audio notes are full of rambling details. Douglas fur trees and cherry pie are only two of his fascinations, as we'll soon discover. There are other quirky qualities to the pilot. Such as Nadine, wife of burly gas station owner Ed, and her obsessive fixation on drapes. Or Dr. Jacoby, another oddball with an off-beat energy of his own. A flickering light, a boy in an Indian headdress, a table full of neatly stacked donuts, a sheriff named after a president for some reason: “Twin Peaks” is full of particular details that mark it as not like any other place in the country.

Inevitably, those eccentricities lead to a reoccurring sense of humor. For all the grimness in its story, “Twin Peaks” is a funny show. The humor appears early, when flighty police secretary Lucy – played by a perfectly squeaky Kimmy Robertson – provides an overly specific description of a phone.  Andy, her boyfriend, also has a tendency to cry at crime scenes, a habit both funny and sweetly sad. Audrey Horne, the mischievous teenage daughter of hotel magnet Benjamin Horne, provides another one of the episode's funniest moments. When she spills a business meeting with a group of Norwegian investors. “Twin Peaks” is definitely funny, its humor beating in time with its morbidness, its surreal qualities. Just look at the casual way Cooper describes a box of chocolates or Sheriff Truman introduces the Log Lady to see the dry, absurd humor of the show.

Being the first part of a series, the pilot movie of “Twin Peaks” introduces a collection of elaborate subplots. Twin Peaks is a town crawling with intrigue and affairs. Waitress Shelly is sleeping with high school football player Bobby, who was also dating Laura. Shelly's frightening truck driver husband Leo clearly has secrets of his own. The Hornes conspire to buy the town mill, which is also adrift with entanglements and complications. Donna and James, a boyish biker, share emotions of their own. Though it would become more apparent as the series progressed, the melodrama of some of its subplot points “Twin Peaks” as both an example of and a satire of soap operas. Some of the intrigue in the town is so overheated, that it can't help but be funny.

Over the course of his first four features, David Lynch presented a subtle criticism of authority, of the systems put in place to operate things. “Eraserhead” showed a failing of the traditional family unit, “Blue Velvet” a collapse in authority's ability to do anything about violence or crime. We see these criticisms in the pilot of “Twin Peaks” as well. Ben Horne is a classical vicious capitalist, looking to destroy the town's livelihood of lumber to further his own success and greed. The brief meeting we get of Twin Peak's mayor paints him as a feeble, ineffectual old man. As “Twin Peaks” went on, it would further explore the ways the American way of life fails its people.

When “Twin Peaks” was given the greenlight by ABC executives, it was with the expectation that this might not take off at all. So an agreement was made, that the pilot of “Twin Peaks” would also be filmed with an alternate ending that would resolve its story. (Or parts of its story anyway.)  While the pilot version ends on a rather inconclusive note, the international version features an extended epilogue. Utilizing footage that would largely be used in later episodes, it quickly introduces and then deals with Laura's killer. The final surreal sequence would also be reused for one of the series' most memorable moments. As an ending, it's in no way satisfying. As a burst of Lynchian weirdness, in between the backwards talking dwarf and the poetry-spouting murderers, it's certainly unforgettable.

You can't judge the pilot of “Twin Peaks” as a standalone feature, even with its tacked on European ending. This is obviously only the beginning of something bigger. As one ninety minute presentation, it is absolutely a fascinating experience. The cast is wonderful, the characters immediately intriguing. The mystery at its center draws you in, as does the examination of grief and trauma happening around it. Watching as a fan of Lynch, you see his favorite ideas and concepts continue to evolve. The town of Twin Peaks is a engrossing place to visit. It's no surprise that Americans in 1990 would be hooked from this point on. [Grade: A-]