The “Eagle Scout Film”: David Lynch as Auteur and Genre Filmmaker | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 12, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2042-1869
  • E-ISSN: 2042-1877

Abstract

Knowing David Lynch’s background as an Eagle Scout, this article explores that many of Lynch’s films and their protagonists, particularly Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) in (1986), embody Eagle Scout-like heroes and serve as genre-like “Eagle Scout films.” These films and their protagonists have similarities with the film noir and western genres and their detective/cowboy heroes through their dealings with ethics, morality, and justice in sadistic worlds. In his genre-hybrid films, Lynch acts as an auteur in using recurring thematic preoccupations/stylistic tendencies, while exemplifying hostile environments offset by a central protagonist with an Eagle Scout-like set of morals.

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2021-09-01
2024-05-03
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): auteur theory; Blue Velvet; David Lynch; Eagle Scout; film theory; genre theory
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