Fashion in Film: Wild at Heart
“…a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom”
In 1990 David Lynch gave us Wild At Heart; a classic American road trip romance, with enough gratuitous violence and ominous Lynch weirdness for it to qualify as a cult movie.
If you were to create a David Lynch/Quentin Tarantino Venn diagram, Wild At Heart would appear somewhere near the middle. One could even make the comparison that Laura Dern is to Lynch what Uma Thurman is to Tarantino; a charismatic and totally encapsulating female lead that has been Lynch’s go-to for numerous projects (Blue Velvet, Inland Empire, Twin Peaks, the list goes on).
Similarly to Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers, the protagonists in Wild At Heart occupy those same Bonnie and Clyde archetypes. A young couple on the run from the law (and/or their parents), and apocalyptically in love.
Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern are a match made in heaven. This is one of the few occasions when Cage portrays an undeniably sexy heart-throb in Sailor Ripley. The sexual chemistry between these two is palpable. In fact the sex scenes are about as gratuitous as the violent ones, but they serve to keep you rooting for Sailor and Lula. Their forbidden love knows no bounds, and won’t be tempered by Lula’s mother’s (Laura Dern’s real-life mum!) attempts to tear them apart.
We are spoilt for choice in the quotable lines department, however the particularly compelling maxim that Cage delivers on multiple occasions in reference to his sublime snakeskin jacket, surely takes the cake :
“This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom”
We first hear this statement at the beginning of the film, when Lula is picking Sailor up after a stint in prison. Then we hear it again, in a California club where Sailor and Lula dance maniacally to “Slaughterhouse” by speed metal band Powermad. A hapless club goer attempts to dance with Lula, but Sailor confronts him. Mocking his chivalry, the club goer remarks “you look like a clown in that stupid jacket” to which Sailor responds with his classic line. His delivery is perfect, leaving little room for argument. A man this confident in his wardrobe is not going to back down easily.
The jacket in question is actually Cage’s own, purchased years before at Aardvark’s Odd Arc; a vintage store located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (ceased trading in 2018). When Lynch approached Cage about about making the film, Cage floated the idea of wearing the jacket throughout as a visual representation of Sailor’s identity. Needless to say Lynch liked the idea so much he wrote it into the script.
A distinctive leather jacket has been a staple in American cinema’s wardrobe departments since the 50’s, and we largely have the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean to thank. Brando famously wore leather in both “A Street Car Named Desire” (1951) and “The Wild One” (1953). Dean wore his bold red leather jacket in “Rebel Without A Cause” (1955). However, the most likely reason for Cage’s jacket choice comes from Brando’s performance as the aptly named Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier in “The Fugitive Kind” (1960). In this film Brando wears a very similar piece, and his black shirt and jeans are also not dissimilar from that of Sailor Ripley’s.
So where is the infamous jacket now? Back in Cage’s weird and wonderful wardrobe? Alas no, Cage actually gifted the jacket to his co-star Laura Dern upon finishing the film, stating : “She was such an enormous part of Wild At Heart that I felt it belonged to her”.
We could all learn a thing or two from Sailor’s dedication to his outfit. His unashamed certainty that his jacket is an important representation of his individuality is a force to be reckoned with. We’ve all felt that twinge of self consciousness when wearing a particularly loud look, but perhaps if we all embraced such confidence in our clothes then the world would be a more vibrant place.