Despite my intense love of David Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, I must remind myself that not everyone in the world enjoyed the film when it was initially released on August 28, 1992. For this Reviewing Peaks article, I’m looking back at coverage in the Abilene Reporter News in Abilene, Texas where two film critics found the film “worthless” and “done in by loose ends.”
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME ADVERTISEMENTS IN ABILENE REPORTER NEWS
Advertisements of David Lynch’s new film began appearing in the Abilene Reporter News on Aug. 27, 1992. The small rectangular ad stated the new film would open Friday at United Artists 10 Theatre, located at 4310 Buffalo Gap Road inside the Mall of Abilene. This was the only theatre in town showing the film.
The movie theatre originally opened as the UA Cinemas 6 on March 16, 1979 seating 2,350 patrons. According to Cinema Treasures, by 2009, it had been taken over by the Premiere Cinemas chain and is now equipped with all Digital projection. Today it’s known as Abilene Premiere LUX Cine 10.
Another advertisement was published on Aug. 28, the film’s opening day.
Smaller reports about the film being “new in town” appeared in the paper on Aug. 28-29.
Aug. 28 – “The story of Laura Palmer, a year and five days before her murder opened the TV movie/series in 1990. Originals Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise and Kyle MacLachlan co-star.”
Aug. 29 – “Director-writer David Lynch presents the story of a year and five days before her murder opened the TV movie/series in 1990. Originals Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise and Kyle MacLachlan co-star.”
It’s interesting they reported the film was a “year and five days” before Laura Palmer’s murder since the original subtitle for this film was “Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer.”
Elsewhere in the paper on Aug. 28, a small blurb about the film with a photo of Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper appeared in the “Makin’ Plans” column.
Peakies, arise!
Fans of the strange “Twin Peaks” TV soaper of season before last finally can wake up to writer-director David Lynch’s promised big screen “prequel.” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” opening today at the UA-10, will feature ill-fated Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), whose corpse opened Lynch’s TV movie that became a series. “Fire Walk” is to tell us what happened “a year and five days before” Laura was murdered. Joining Lee will be several holdovers from TV, including Ray Wise as her father and Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper.
Another small rectangular advertisement appeared on Aug. 29, 1992, complete with showtimes – 1:30 – 4:15 – 7:00 – 9:45.
One final advertisement would be published on Aug. 30, the same day the movie review was published elsewhere in the small town newspaper.
‘TWIN’ KILLING’ IN ABILENE REPORTER NEWS ON AUGUST 30, 1992
It’s important to recall that New Line Cinema took a non-traditional approach to this film’s release. It originally debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1992 and opened in other countries throughout the summer. The film’s U.S. premiere was on Aug. 16 at the first Twin Peaks Fan Festival held in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. Aside from one other sneak preview in theatres held at 10:00 p.m. on Aug. 27, the film basically had no pre-screenings for critics.
These reviews by the late Bob Lapham and Greg Jaklewicz could be the reason why.
The first review is by Bob Lapham, a film critic and the last surviving member of the 1950s pop and rock ‘n’ roll vocal group The Picks, who died on April 4, 2018. According to his fellow critic Greg Jaklewicz, they reviewed films every Friday. Bob would sometimes see two or three films in a day, to which he called Fridays “eye-squishers.”
“Bob wasn’t big on R-rated movies, and would drop them a star (or more) in our 5-star rating scale if there was too much blood or skin or language,” Jaklewicz wrote in a tribute article to Bob on April 4, 2018. “He detested ‘Goodfellas.’ Many moviegoers told me they’d check out Bob’s review and if he liked it, they didn’t go. If he hated it, dropping the famous BOMB! (totally worthless), they’d be first in line.”
So David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me already had multiple strikes on Bob’s list before he even saw the film. Here is a transcript of his review.
Lapham: ‘Fire’ isn’t boring, just worthless
“With “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” David Lynch again proves his work is not boring.
Revolting, yes. Troubling, ugly, profane, demoralizing, extreme without purpose, yes.
But not boring.
The controversial director ties up his “Twin Peaks” TV experience by giving us the last few days of 18-year-old Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee) horribly abused, pathetic life.
When the TV movie left some intriguing questions dangling, “Twin Peaks” became a series that banged along like a wild bumper car, careening from this premise to that, until blessed coup de grace via cancellation.
“Fire Walk With Me” (don’t ask! I could go back a hundred times —if I had no stomach — and couldn’t get close to a reason for the title) does one thing right, I guess. Someone who had never seen the TV treatment could walk into this one and pick up the story, disjointed as it is.
We begin a year and a few days earlier with the death of Teresa Banks in tiny Deer Meadow.
FBI Special Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), the campy hero from TV, has an elongated cameo, even though it breaches the original story’s credibility.
Laura’s fragile, too-loyal best friend, Donna (Moira Kelly) returns. Beaus Bobby and James; Jacques, of the Bang Bang Bar. Lynch appears as a near-deaf FBI chief. Others, like Keifer Sutherland and David Bowie, drift in and out, often peopling the endless dream and dream-within-dream sequences.
And, of course, good ol’ Dad Palmer (Ray Wise) is back.
But what happened to Agent Desmond? The deputy’s trailer? In seeing more than 250 new movies since August, 1990, I have been insulted, bored, elated, impressed and surprised. Only twice have I left a theater feeling as if I might be physically ill — after “Wild at Heart,” and “Twin Peaks.” Both were directed by Lynch. In fairness, he has innovative touches. His casts seem directed. But he’s sloppy. And being different doesn’t automatically mean the work is good. — BOB LAPHAM
Ouch, Bob – that review was rough. I’m wondering, however, how many people flocked to see it since Greg mentioned that a bad review from Bob meant to go see the film.
The second review was done by Greg who was a self-proclaimed fan, or “Peakie,” of the television series. Today, he serves as the Newsroom Director for the Abilene Reporter News.
Jaklewicz: Quirky cast done in by loose ends
I can just imagine my movie buddy Bob looking like evil “Bob” coming back from the “Twin Peaks” prequel. He turned his thumbs down on the controversial TV series, and after seeing director David Lynch’s movie Friday, I can visualize in a flashback dream sequence Lapham’s thumbs coming right off and floating above his aching head. Maybe to the tune of the Stones’ “Under My Thumb.”
Sound weird? You should see the movie. Actually, you shouldn’t, unless you’re a diehard Peakie like me. Even so, this slow-moving, disjointed film will disappoint you.
Oh sure most of the nutty crew was back. And though I missed the doughnuts, there were a couple of good scenes involving coffee. I still wanted to punch whiny James. It was minor fun to pick out which characters were played by rockers David Bowie and Chris Isaak.
But like the TV series toward the end, Lynch left behind a nifty murder story involving quirky characters like the Log Lady and the Colonel, and entered the great beyond the red curtain. In the movie, people come and go, incidents happen and are never solved, and Lynch seems more interested in the absurd than in telling a story. Lynch is totally involved with the sad state of affairs of lovely Laura Palmer leading up to her death which opened the TV series.
Perhaps Lynch’s best effort of the day was replaying his screaming FBI chief. Early on in the movie, when the chief calls Agent Desmond on the car phone, we see classic Lynch. The whole scene is nuts. And the airport scene with the chief giving Demond clues via a dancing woman wearing a blue rose is a gem.
But soon the movie stops flowing and comes in bits and pieces.
Lynch never explains the title of the movie, or even why the victims had letters put underneath a certain fingernail.
And what about the blue rose?
I give Lynch a little more than our Bob, but not much. Just because I’m a Peakie. — GREG JAKLEWICZ
One small note – he mentions “the Log Lady and the Colonel,” which I’m assuming he meant Major Briggs. Devil is in the details on this site.
On Sept. 5, 1992, the paper published a graphic from the Associated Press taken from Exhibitor Relations Co. that highlighted top weekend movies for Aug. 28-30, 1992. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was number 8 on the list with $1.8 million in ticket sales.
Sadly, these kinds of reviews didn’t help the film’s original release. Thanks to the passage of time, critics and fans have come to appreciate Lynch’s 1992 film as one of his best.
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