David Lynch Showed He Was Really Just a Big Softy When He Changed the Ending of This Underrated Crime-Romance

“The possibility that love is not enough,” was Major Garland Brigg’s answer to the question, “What do you fear most in this world?” in season two of David Lynch‘s groundbreaking, surrealist soap opera, Twin Peaks. Although Lynch did not write this episode, the dialogue exchange could just as well be used as the thesis statement of Lynch’s decades of storytelling about the most disturbing, confounding, and upsetting forces of evil that work against the human spirit. Lynch’s recent, unfortunate passing has left many of us reflecting on his stories, and one element of his work that deserves more attention is his propensity to inject a great deal of love, hope, and sentimentality into his films.

In Blue Velvet, and many of Lynch’s masterworks, we accept the dreadful conclusion that the evils of this world will remain even in the face of love. But there’s one movie in his batch of work that suggests that Lynch’s answer to the question—what if love is not enough—may not be so hopeless after all. Wild at Heart, starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, is a lovers-on-the-run story; one in a long and storied subgenre including the likes of Badlands, Sugarland Express, and True Romance. When you compare the works of Lynch to Terrence Malick, Steven Spielberg, and Tony Scott, it may seem hard to believe that Wild at Heart actually has the happiest ending of all these movies.

David Lynch Changed the Story’s Ending, Turning ‘Wild at Heart’ Into a Fairy Tale

Wild at Heart is based on a 1990 novel by American writer Barry Gifford. The premise is largely the same: Sailor (Cage) and Lula (Dern) go on the run to California after Sailor breaks his parole, following a short stint in prison for involuntary manslaughter. This enrages Lula’s mom, played by Dern’s real-life mother, Diane Ladd, who hires a hitman to track them down and kill Sailor. The story plays out like many lovers-on-the-run films do—they run from place to place, meeting a variety of characters who pose a threat to both their freedom and their love. But sadly, the end of the novel sees the two lovers separated. In a surprising twist, Lynch found this too upsetting and changed the ending in a manner that brought an underlining, fairy-tale aspect of Sailor and Lula’s romance to the surface. In Lynch’s Wild at Heart, Sailor leaves Lula after spending more time in prison, deciding on her behalf that she would be better off without him. After leaving her, Sailor is attacked and left broken and bloodied on the ground.

When all hope seems lost for our protagonist, a vision of Glinda the Good Witch (portrayed by Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee) appears to Sailor and tells him that if he is truly “wild at heart,” he cannot give up on his love for Lula. The two lovers reunite, and he sings an Elvis song to her in a gesture of his undying love. It is a sweet, sentimental ending, in spite of the excessively profane, violent world that Sailor and Lula have traveled through together.

‘Wild at Heart’ is Merely One Example of David Lynch’s Earnest Sentimentality

While Lynch will forever be associated mostly with his cryptic, dream-logic narratives and surreal imagery, one element of his filmography that is often overlooked is his genuine love and curiosity about all forms of human connection. People assume, because the films often have dark endings and disturbing subject matter, that Lynch cannot possibly see any beauty in the idyllic suburbs of Blue Velvet or the quaintness of the town of Twin Peaks. But Lynch had a strong affection for the people and places that his stories centered on. The evil at the heart of his stories always exists in stark contrast to something pure, good, and beautiful in its own way.

Twin Peaks: The Return is about as unsentimental as you can get; many of the legacy plot lines are left completely unresolved or conclude on devastating notes. But even Lynch could not resist giving Ed and Norma their happy ending. His underrated, subdued examination of regret and redemption and brotherly love, The Straight Story, also ends on a sweeter note, and The Elephant Man is a tragic movie, but one that consistently sets aside time for genuinely beautiful moments of compassion and empathy extended toward Merrick’s character.

When Lynch originally changed the ending for Wild at Heart, he expressed concern that the softer resolution would be seen as a move motivated by commercial prospects. But if Lynch made a turn to the sentimental, it was because the story led him in that direction, not because he wanted to placate audience expectations. Whether his stories have happy endings or soul-crushing ones, David Lynch will always be remembered as an uncompromising, immovable artistic presence and a man who brought dreams and nightmares to life like no one else before or after could ever manage. As bleak as some of his films could be, Wild at Heart is one where Lynch made it loud and clear that love can be enough.

Wild at Heart is available to purchase from Shout! Factory in the U.S.

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