Lost on the Lynchian Highway
/* Spoiler alerts in the post*//
Every genre of movies has a director renowed for their work in it, think gangster, its Martin Scorcese, think Western its John Ford and Sergio Leone, think horror it is Wes Craven, John Carpenter, each of these directors has created their own style of movie making, patenting their own genre. And when it comes to surrealist movies, one of the names that comes to mind is David Lynch. Over the decades, Lynch has patented his own brand of surrealist movie making, deriving inspiration from European cinema, but setting it in a context that is totally American. Lynch’s movies are generally not the audience friendly kind, which you can see munching popcorn, in a theater. They have an intensely personal, edgy quality to them. Writing a review on a David Lynch movie was a real challenge for me, because Lynch’s movies are not the standard join the dots, and unravel the puzzle kind. He throws the dots at us, and expects us to join them in our own manner. It is the kind of what you call open ended movie making.
The Lost Highway(1997) is precisely one such kind of surrealist abstract movie. Set in the large urban sprawl of Los Angeles, the movie is about a sax player Fred Madison( Bill Pullman), who in a rather loveless relationship with his wife Renee( Patricia Arquette). A video casette makes a mysterious appearance one day at their door step, and as the couple watch it, they are shocked to see that their entire home, including the bedroom is seen on the tape. They call a pair of detectives Al & Ed over for investigation, but nothing turns up. Fred suspects that Renee could be cheating on him.
One day at a party hosted by Andy( Michael Masse), a sleaze bag and an acquitance of Renee, Fred runs into a Mystery Man( Robert Blake), who tells him that he is in Fred’s house at the moment. When Fred calls up home, he is indeed shocked to see its true, but before he can recover, the Mystery Man disappears. Back home Fred, discovers a mysterious corridor, which he had never seen before, and soon he finds himself arrested for the murder of Renee.
Though he denies having done it, Fred finds himself being sentenced to death by electric chair, and he begins to have seizures in the cell. One day however the prison guards discover to their shock, that instead of Fred, there is another prisoner , a young mechanic named Pete Dayton( Balthazar Getty). How Fred escaped that high security person, is something that baffles them no end.
Lost Highway is a movie that is multi layered. If we take the idea of Fred turning out to be Pete in the prison, that itself is something totally open to interpretation. Especially in the scenes showing Pete’s life, where he gets into an affair with Alice( Patricia Arquette) again, who happens to be the mistress of a local gangster Mr. Eddy( Roberto Loggia). However the cops call him as Dick Laurent. Now if we take the opening scene of the movie, the first lines you hear are “Dick Laurent is dead”. What is the link between Dick Laurent and Eddy? Are they both the same persons?
Well the key line goes back to the part when the detectives who are investigating the mysterious tape, quiz him whether he has a video camera. And Fred replies no, saying
”I like to remember things my own way. Not necessarily the way they happened.”
This could be the key to the movie. What Lynch is putting across through his protagonist is the difference between logic and imagination, and that is the key of surrealism. This particular line could have well been Lynch speaking. If we take the general body of Lynch’s works, they don’t follow what we call a logical pattern, especially his surrealist movies Blue Velvet, Mullholland Drive and Lost Highway. To a viewer the movie flips from point A to C and then back to B.
Like just before Fred becomes Pete, he begins to have hallucinations in his prison cell, getting seizure, when suddenly, it shifts to another scene of Andy enjoying out with two girls Marion and Raquel, and then again back to Fred’s hallucination. One wonders why this, then just a couple of scenes back, Lynch sets it up, showing both of them discussing the execution casually at a shop. But only when it comes to the final scenes, does the significance fo that bit, and relevance of Marion and Raquel to the story comes through.
David Lynch makes use of long silences, low background score, dark and depressing settings to convey the atmosphere of intrigue and deceit. Just imagine yourself walking along a road, that is totally silent, just some sounds here and there. Or cut off in a room, with no noise. It can be teriffying, the horror in Lost Highway comes not from the noises or sounds, it comes from the terrifying silence prevalent. Its as if the air hangs thick with tension, dripping it. Take the scene when Fred spends his first day in the prison cell, you have Fred sitting alone, and the hallway totally quiet, just some sounds in the distance. Its like a person all alone in the ocean, surrounded by a nothigness, terrifying.
Silence, loneliness and isolation is what Lynch explores in the Lost Highway. The isolation between Fred and Renee, who are married but having no love or passion. Even when they make love, its without any passion, somewhat mechanical. Lynch setting the movie in Los Angeles, is also apt, for it has been described as a collection of suburbs sprawling away, cut off from each other, rather than one whole city. The isolation which Fred faces is quite a metaphor for the city itself, where people generally lead lonely lives.
The Lost Highway which Lynch refers to is in fact a shady motel, in the middle of a desert. Lynch here uses 2 symbols of American life, the highways and the motels. Most of the highways in US, are like roads that just never seem to end and go on, and this becomes the motif for the movie also. In fact one reason, why Lynch proves to have his own fan following in the US, that though his elements of movie making are influenced by Luis Bunnel, the context, the symbols and motifs are pure Americana. Pete’s parents Bill and Claire who are former bikers, the sleazy Andy who gets females to star in his porno movies, the nasty gangster Mr. Eddie, all characters who are the kind you could run into in the suburbs or smaller towns. Interestingly one of the scenes, which has Eddie pursuing a guy who has been tail gating him and then hammering him, is shot on the famous Mullholland Drive, which was one of Lynch’s later movies.
What Lynch is doing here is exploring 2 parallel worlds, one is Fred’s world, of isolation, drab and dreary, filled with mistrust, the normal world, and the other one is Pete’s noirish world filled with intrigue, sex, fear. It is not an easy movie to watch, the pace is slow, the narration is non linear, but yet there is a tension you feel at every part. To people who heard of David Lynch, and want to experience his movies, this could be a good starting point. It was panned by critics, and a flop, but highly recommended just to understand .
Tags: Bill Pullmann, David Lynch, Surrealistic Movies
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Thanks for writing this article RS. But I’m not going to read it, because I have been planning to watch Lost Highway without knowing anything about it or having any expectations.
I’ve seen Mulholland Dr (3 times) and Blue Velvet. The former is especially brilliant and fucks with the mind like nothing else. One can seriously raise their IQ by trying to figure out Lynch movies.
@ Papaji, well Lynch’s movies are real mind benders. Fuck man, i had to watch this couple of times, to actually understand the connections. Add to it that his movies have a minimal background score, and slow pacing, you really need to strain ur brains to get it.
ratnakar, your post could not have come at a better time for me. Guess what,I have finally put together these DVDs
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Dune
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Twin Peaks
Lost Highway
The Straight Story
Mulholland Drive
and
Inland Empire
and was embarking on a frikkin LYNCHIAN MARATHON – starting this coming weekend:)
love his movies… and I figured its time to repeat some of his classics and also catch up on a couple I missed earlier…
cheers.
Bipin, envy u man, an entire collection of Lynch’s DVD’s. Though Lynch wud not be pleased, he said in one of his interviews that movies ought to be seen on big screen, its criminal to watch them on the smaller screen.
Have watched Mullholland drive could not figure out what the movie was about, guess have to watch it again sometime later. Another movie which made me raise serious questions about my IQ level was donnie darko :(.
@ Balaji, dont blame u, Lynch’s movies are not easy to get into, they can seriously leave u saying WTF. Need to watch it either alone, or maybe with some one who likes such kinda movies. Donnie Darko is a real cult classic.
@ Arthi, well most of Lynch’s movies have that slow pacing. He takes his own sweet time to get into the things. Try it out if u do can.
Time and agan this film makes an appearance on one of the TV channels. I see the starting and then somehow find it dragging on.. But now I’ll have to watch this film…
Thanks for this nice write-up Ratnakar..
u are indeed brave to write a review on a Lynch film..its so Damn tough to do it..a few days back i attempted to write on Eraserhead but i didnt know where to start and where to end it..loved Lost Highway..like most of his movies even this is open to many interpretations..will watch it again this weekend
Oh Sudhir, u bet man, my mind got totally screwed while writing this post. I mean there were so many layers, so many issues, that i just did not know what to leave and what not to. I have seen couple of movies which were open ended, Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction to name a few, but Lynch’s movies operate on a different level, i mean every part is open ended, and only repeated viewings can make u get it.
RS…I did not read your review….Lost Highway is pending…
I want you to see Mullholand Dr. and Blue Velvet and let me know of your opinions…awaiting it.
P.S…Dont let any reviews on these movies affect your flow and opinions…see the movie and get to writing the review.:)
@Sudhir..go ahead with that Eraserhead review
did you disclose or analyze anything? I am trying to decipher the movie for a long time.. if you have done that, I will try to read your article..
Nik
Nik, i have not analyzed explicitly, but left in some clues here and there. As i said its a movie that is open to interpretation.
oh bhai.. tumne to lynch ka naam mitti mein mila diya. on the top of it YOU suggest people to watch the movie on your recommendation!I found the beginning quite impulsive, but uske baad to ek dum disaster