**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**
Henry Spencer walks through a massive wasteland of human excistance, on his way to his girlfriends house. When he gets there her father says to him "We're having chicken tonight. Little damn things, smaller than my fist, but they're new!" That line pretty much folds out the concepts of Eraserhead for us. Bizzare, meaningful, senseless, symbollic, all depending on who's watching. To most, Eraserhead is the ultimate example of disgusting drivil, making the audience turn their heads and stop watching. To others, that is the ones who'll rightfully give any movie a chance, will no doubt find Eraserhead one of the most fascinating movies of all time.
We follow Henry, and basically only Henry, as he operates in his grey coloured world. He is both innocent and confused throughout his daily life, forced into situations beyond his control, much like our own suburban mishaps (meeting your girlfriends parents and embarrassing yourself). Henry's life can be viewed as a complete mockary of our own. His problems are our problems, only given some LSD and thrown off a cliff. He slowly drives himself over the edge as he stares at the angel in his radiator and contemplates suicide.
When Henry reaches dinner at his girlfriend Mary's house, we learn that he has impregnated her, thus giving in to the most primitive of human temptations, lust. That is Henry's sin, and his punishment from God (The Man in the Planet, possibly) is a deformed baby. And when i say deformed, I mean DEFORMED. Henry and Mary are soon both living in Henry's closet-esque apartment, but in contending with the screeching baby, Mary leaves Henry alone to deal with it. And rightfully so, since it's his punishment. The baby cries through the night, but once it stops Henry tries to leave the apartment. The baby cries louder as Henry tries to run, escape if you will, so basically they are both stuck together.
Henry later destroys his sin, and thus is free to live with the angel (the lady in the radiator) in heaven (the radiator). He faced his punishment and ended it himself, becoming free from it.
That is Eraserhead from the mind of a 15 year old. Go see it and tell me what you think. Hopefully it will be totally different.
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