Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and The Missing Pieces

The Twin Peaks hiatus is over! Apologies for the delay, but as this film was rated 18 and the IMDB Parental Guidance section is somewhat graphic I deemed this would be unsuitable for my usual Twin Peaks viewing environment of my laptop on a public train, and it’s taken me several months to find an evening devoid of other more pressing activities in order to actually watch this film. But watch it I now have, and my thoughts I will soon distribute.

As with the first two seasons of Twin Peaks I went in knowing precious little of Fire Walk With Me, other than it was a prequel to the original show. My assumption was that this might follow Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on the Theresa case, and whilst that was partially correct, this is far more about Laura Palmer’s week leading up to her washing up on the river bank encased in clingfilm, and my what a horrendous week she had. We’ll get there, though. For now, here’s my regular stream of consciousness from watching the film, albeit more edited this time due to the film’s length, otherwise we’d be here all day.

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Wild at Heart

Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune (Nicolas Cage & Laura Dern) are young, spirited, and very much in love. When a man (Gregg Dandridge) approaches Sailor at a classy function and accuses him of trying to sleep with Lula’s mother Marietta (Diane Ladd) and tries to kill him, Sailor defends himself and brutally kills the guy, and is sentenced to two years in prison for his trouble. Upon his release, he and Lula set out on a road trip, much to the chagrin of Marietta, who sends a selection of assailants out to put a stop to their escapades.

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Amistad

Captives from Africa aboard a Spanish slave ship revolt and take control, but are re-captured and taken to the USA. Various factions claim ownership of these people, and a trial is required to attempt to settle the situation. This is one of those very important Spielberg films, portraying a significant and specific moment in history, with a phenomenal cast that had me going “Hey it’s that guy!” every 5-10 minutes. When your cast boasts the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Paymer, Ralph Brown, John Ortiz, Anna Paquin, Stellan Skarsgard, Xander Berkeley and Pete Postlethwaite amongst it’s supporting members, you know there’s going to be something worth your time.

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