With the 30th Anniversary of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on August 28 this year, I’m launching a new series titled “Reviewing Peaks.” These articles will take a look back at the reviews of David Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece. At the time, many critics were not in love with the film beginning with film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May (though fans in attendance loved it). The critics’ initial responses may have led New Line Cinema to cancel press screenings before the film’s official theatrical release. Once it hit theaters, critics didn’t hold back. As you’ll see, these reviews shaped perceptions about the film that may still linger today. We’ll start with Dave Kehr, former movie critic with the Chicago Tribune.
According to MOMA.org, Dave is now a Curator with the Department of Film, after joining the museum in 2013. He had a long career as a film journalist, “including stints at the Chicago Reader (1974-85), the Chicago Tribune (1985-93), the New York Daily News (1993-98) and the New York Times (1999-13). His work has been collected in two anthologies, When Movies Mattered and Movies That Mattered. He has served on numerous juries and selection committees for organizations such as the New York Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Venice International Film Festival. In 2017 he was awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in recognition of his support of French cinema. He was a founding member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in 1988 and remains on the board today. ”
You can still find him active today on Twitter at @Dave_ehr.
For additional context, Dave provided his list of top films from 1992 with Unforgiven in the first spot. This Clint Eastwood classic was in theaters around the same time that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was released.
PAST ITS PEAK
Below is the original Chicago Tribune review from Dave that was published in the August 28, 1992 edition.
He gave the film two stars and felt Lynch’s film “lurched around inconclusively.”
They published this production still from Lynch’s film when Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) confronts Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee, center) as she walks home with her girlfriend Donna Hayward (Moira Kelly, right).
But the most interesting thing about this review was how far it reached. Newspapers across the United States paired Kehr’s text with some pretty damning headlines.
SO I GUESS YOU DON’T LIKE IT
I created the image above (with some familiar looking wallpaper) with headlines from various news outlets that published the review. Holy smokes! No wonder people did not go see the film during its initial theatrical run. I’m assuming that local editors, not Dave, wrote these headlines. When viewed together, you can see why New Line Cinema may have been hesitant to screen the film prior to August 28.
For the record, this is my favorite David Lynch film, with The Straight Story a very close second. These headlines only make me want to watch the film even more!
KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
Interestingly, I found a shorter review from Dave published on August 27, 1992 by Knight-Ridder Newspapers. This review cuts his Chicago Tribune review basically in half, ending with the line, “Those aren’t good reasons for a movie to exist.” Come on, it isn’t that bad.
Knight-Ridder was an American media company that operated until June 27, 2006 when it was purchased by McClatchy. It was a merger between Knight Newspapers, Inc. and Ridder Publications, Inc. both of which could trace their history to the early 1900s. The companies went public in 1969 and merged on July 11, 1974. For a time, the combined company was the largest newspaper publisher in the United States.
The article was most likely syndicated or distributed to newspapers owned by the same parent company. This review offers a slightly longer but not complete lift from the Chicago Tribune.
The film was available on 691 screens during the first week of release. It was expanded to 984 screens by the end of the second week, which included smaller markets where papers like The Sheboygan Press covered the film on September 10, 1992. This time, the review is a direct lift from the Chicago Tribune.
The article included another publicity photo from New Line Cinema – “Sheryl Lee stars as Laura Palmer in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
MORE LIFTS FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE
The articles below are direct lifts from the original Chicago Tribune review; they vary in length due to space constraints.
Odd that Laura Palmer’s image is reversed … or is that her doppelgänger?
This article from the Morning News Tribune included another publicity shot.
The caption reads in the shot by Lorey Sebastian: “Sheryl Lee and Kyle MacLachlan star in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a pre-quel [sic] to the hit series, which uncovers the events leading to Laura Palmer’s murder.”
The Central New Jersey Home News ran the full Chicago Tribune review but included a photo of Chris Isaak holding a guitar.
Here is the original image of Isaak which was most likely captured during publicity shots for his album “Heart Shaped World.”
Daily Press ran the story on August 29 and included yet another publicity image of James Hurley and Laura Palmer.
Onset photographer Lorey Sebastian also captured this image of outside the Palmer residence. The caption reads: “Doomed lovers James Hurley (James Marshall, left) and Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee, right) in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, from New Line Cinema.
The Southern Illinosian article on September 2 paired a shorter review with recently released box office results from August 21-23.
The final article I located from September 18 has an image of Laura Palmer’s funeral from episode 1003 in the first season of the show.
Now that some time has passed, I wonder how Dave feels about the film, especially being the curator of the film department at MOMA.
