Subject: Re: Finally saw "The Movie" (European release?)
From: jblum@umd5.umd.edu (Jon Blum)
Date: 1992-01-30, 21:20
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1992Jan29.190726.13952@cbnewsm.att.com> kalin@cbnewsm.att.com (andrew.j.kalinowitsch) writes:
> >* * * SPOILERS AHEAD * * *

> >
> >Big deal!  BOB killed Laura.  So what?  I don't know how
> >a first-time Peaks viewer would react to this, but to me,
> >it was a severe letdown.

I liked the fact that the ending seemed to come completely out of left field.
In the context of the movie, which (divorced from the continuing storylines
explored in the later episode) is simply about the tangled webs of inter-
relations between the characters in this small town, the only logical way to
end it is to show some almost completely un-noticed trivial part of this town
-- i.e, the one-armed man glimpsed for five seconds in an elevator -- as the
key to what's really happening.  It shows that there's a lot more going on
here than we could ever hope to understand.

> >The ending seemed much more
> >rushed than I expected it to be; sure, twenty minutes is
> >not very much time to resolve the plotline, but sheesh!
> >It reminded me of the ending of _The Abyss_, hacked to
> >death by Hollywood bureaucrats.

On that, I kind of agree.  If they could have perhaps intercut the new footage
resolving the plotline with some of the earlier scenes, so that it didn't seem
to come all in a rush, that might have worked better.  BTW, have you read
Orson Scott Card's novel based on "The Abyss"?  He actually makes the ending
make sense...

> >I think I would have 
> >been more satisfied if Lynch had tacked on the "How's
> >Annie?" segment instead.

I don't think they'd even dreamed of that bit at the time of shooting.  If
you notice, they don't even deal with BOB as a demonic presence -- probably
that idea came later in the writing.  Remember, all this "new footage" was
actually shot for the video release before the series was picked up, at the
same time as the pilot...

> >And the "25 years later" scene -- what was _that_ all about?
> >Seemed like it was gratuitously thrown in for no other reason 
> >than to let Lynch show off one of the more bizarre scenes 
>from the series.

...including the red-room dream sequence.  I don't think this was originally
meant as clues to Laura's murderer, as it was used in the series, but simply
written as sheer Eraserhead-style weirdness.  In the movie, it seemed to me
like it summed up the themes of the pilot -- our hero Cooper finds himself
in a bizarre situation where nothing seems to make any sense (i.e. the close-
knit town of Twin Peaks, where none of the secrets are expressed on the
surface).  Only now, his confusion is brought to a sort of resolution by
the angelic Laura Palmer, the spirit of the town in a way, kissing him and
whispering all her secrets in his ear.  I thought it made a great ending.

> >Since I deliberately did not read any postings concerning the 
> >movie, I will now ask:  Did anyone out there get actually _like_ 
> >this thing?  

Yep, as I said.  I wasn't satisfied, any more than I was ever satisfied by
this series full of permanent cliffhangers and deliberately frustrated
expectations, but satisfaction wasn't the feeling Lynch ever wanted us to
get.