"Arrow Recommends is a column that has my sorry ass advise older movies to your royal asses. I will be flexible in terms of genres i.e. I will cover whatever the bleep I want. For now, it will be the way to keep my voice on the site."
PLOT: A feature film that pimps out deleted scenes from Lynch's now cult classic 1992 prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me!
Bobby Briggs: I killed a guy for baby laxative.
Laura Palmer: What is the world coming to when you kill a guy for baby laxative?
LOWDOWN: One of the upsides of Hollywood having little imagination these days or a desire to do anything truly new is that I get to be inspired to go back and re-visit works that I love, grew up with and that have shaped the way that I perceive cinema today. Recently, ALIEN COVENANT sent me back to the ALIEN franchise and now the new TWIN PEAKS THE RETURN series has booted me back to TWIN PEAKS land (am presently re-watching the first two seasons on my down time on top of Season 3, just how I roll).
I thought I had all my bases covered TWIN PEAKS wise…but I was wrong. I was dead wrong. I recently got wind of a hour and a half documentary called TWIN PEAKS: THE MISSING PIECES, which can only be found on this recent BLU-RAY BOX SET. This documentary was basically an hour and a half of select deleted scenes from Lynch’s bold, smutty and nasty prequel TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME. In case you didn’t know Lynch had shot over 5 hours of footage for the film, but the Studio was adamant to have the run time be low hence many of the TWIN PEAKS TV show regulars wound up having limited screen time or were dumped on the cutting room floor. Fans have been “jonesing” for a longer cut of FIRE WALK WITH ME for eons, but Lynch wants NATHING to do with it. Hence the best we got (thus far that is) was MISSING PIECES. I know a bunch of deleted scenes strung together with no narration or talking heads doesn’t sound too exciting, but it’s Lynch man and if you’re a Lynch fan, you’ll get your rocks off this cherry – TRUST ME!
Being that I already own the Season 1 and Season 2 DVD sets and the Complete Series Gold DVD set on top of that, I wasn’t about to shell out more coin just to tap MISSING PIECES. Thankfully a girlfriend of mine had the set, and after some black-mailing, she was kind enough to lend it to me. Here it goes! One thing that worked in this one's favor was that the deleted scenes were edited in sequence, hence with my knowledge of FIRE WALK WITH ME, it felt like I was watching a feature length companion piece. Not sure how to break this down to be honest, let me figure it out as a type. Ummm, well… well some scenes stood out loud and proud more than others and would have made a great addition to the feature. Top of my head the “Special Agent Desmond (Chris Isaac) Vs. Sheriff Cable fist fight” was hilarious. It also fleshed out the Desmond character (who needed it) and added levity to the proceedings (which this bitter pill of a flick also needed). The footage gracing us with more insight on David Bowie’s oddball character of Phillip Jeffries was esteemed too. It took me 9 viewings of FIRE WALK WITH ME to “get” this guy and how he fit in the whole shebang – could have maybe saved me some time with these bits in there.
Moreover, I wish that the poignant convo between Laura (Sheryl Lee) and her mama Sarah (Grace Zabriskie) had made it in the final cut. The scene amplified their relationship and was one hell of a gripping dramatic moment. The same went for the "Palmer Family dinner scene", which showed a lighter side of the unit (while tying in with the Twin Peaks pilot) and their endearing dynamic. With that sequence in the feature it would have made the horror to come hit even harder. The "Laura interacting with Donna’s parents" (Warren Frost and Mary Jo Deschaenel) footage hit the sweet spot while the "Laura and Bobby" moments hit me hard as well. Again, adding more layers to the characters and their relationships and in the case of Bobby (Dana Ashbrook), the deleted scenes made me dig him more and I understood further where the lad was coming from in all of this. Poor basterd.
And the added horror elements oh so owned me. Namely the Leland tomfoolery (like Teresa blackmailing his ass – so fueling him further) or the "Laura meets Bob on staircase with creepy ceiling fan in tow" scene which back-handed a severe case of the willies my way. Finally more Log Lady (the late Catherine E. Coulson), the necessary inclusion of Dr. “stuck in the 70’s”Jacobi (Russ Tamblyn), further Red Room trip-outs and extra Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) schtuff is always a good thing.
NOTE: Kyle MacLachlan didn’t like how Twin Peaks Season 2 went down, he felt abandoned by Lynch and wasn't crazy about doing the film. Which is why his screen time was so minimal in FIRE WALK WITH ME and the Desmond character was invented to make up for his absence in terms of the investigation angle (which BTW goes against the info that was given to us in Season 1). You get all that? Happy that Kyle and Lynch have cleared that shit up and are all good again. END OF NOTE.
Granted, some of the deleted scenes somewhat deserved to be nixed out, as they didn’t really contribute to the FIRE WALK WITH ME story line. They were basically on hand to shoe-horn beloved characters from the series in there. Which is not necessarily a bad thing for this hardcore fan. Am talking the "Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean), Andy (Harry Goaz) and Hawk (Michael Horse) setting up a bust sequence", the "Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) scared of CB’s bit" (basically redone with cell phones in the THE RETURN), the "Josie (Joan Chen) and Pete (Jack Nance) debate on the right way to sell wood" or the "backseat love fest between Norma (Peggy Lipton) and lover Big Ed (Everett McGill)". With that sliced, I was glad to see those scenes as stand-alones none the less. The more Peaks the better!
Overall, TWIN PEAKS: THE MISSING PIECES is a MUST SEE for anybody that is a TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME addict as it clarifies, beefs up and gaps some of the holes the film had. Everybody else should see FIRE WALK WITH ME and then watch this mofo right after. You can thank me with a piece of cherry pie and a hot cup of coffee!