Funny how secrets travel I’d start to believe if I were to bleed….
Lost Highway (1997)
Directed By: David Lynch (Eraserhead)
The Prologue
The mid to late 90′s wasn’t a bad time at all for movies if you think about it. We had a ton of clever, well written, well shot, films that many today still talk about. While horror may have taken a bit of a nose dive for a while other genre’s surely didn’t. Films like
Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, and countless others were widely praised and with good reason.
Now today lets take a look at another good film from the 90′s directed by legendary director David Lynch, Lost Highway. A movie that came out in 1997 but never made it’s way to DVD until 2008. Lynch is widely known for making odd films. He perhaps made the weirdest of the weird with Eraserhead. But one can’t forget other gems like the series Twin Peaks. So going in you probably have an idea that what you see won’t make much sense, but you know for sure you’ll be entertained.
The Movie
After a bizarre encounter at a party, a jazz saxophonist is framed for the murder of his wife and sent to prison, where he inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic and begins leading a new life.
You know I didn’t bother reading that plot detail there before I watched this so when the body morphing started I was a bit confused and I did keep that confusion with me until the end, but that’s not saying I didn’t enjoy the movie regardless.
The movie starts off simple enough with Fred Madison (the Saxophonist played by Bill Pullman) clearly having some trust issues with his better half Renee Madison (played by Patricia Arquette when she was still smokin’ hot). The films does indeed have you in a weird spot with the plot elements such as the couple receiving VHS tapes on their steps with little clips on them, but things are still easy enough to follow up until Fred runs into a creepy man simply known as Mystery Man played by the real life creepy Robert Blake.
From the moment this Mystery Man comes into play the weird hits over drive and the next thing you know we are fast forwarding through what appears to us to be a grand frame job on Jack, but at the same time we can’t fully trust Jack either now can we? Next thing you know a rough night for Jack comes and goes and Jack morphs into a younger guy named Andy who works on cars and seems to have his eye on a very bad man’s woman..who just soo happens to look just like Jack’s dead wife.
Are you confused yet?? Well let me tell you as the story goes on with Andy you do tend to forget about Jack because the story is interesting. But that forgetting about Jack doesn’t last as the stuff you see hints very loudly that something about everything going on just can’t be right.
The film is a very well made film without question. It has a deep hidden answer to every question I’m sure we have (and I have plenty) but you have to think for them. So to someone who isn’t use to Lynch’s work you may very well loath this film once the credits roll. I was very confused myself but after a long laying around thinking about it process I think I have figured it out…I think. For those of you that don’t like to think, I’m afraid depending on what you like you may just have to settle for seeing Patricia Arquette’s characters naked 90% of the time for your form of enjoyment.
To put it simple, for people who like odd stuff, this will be right down your ally.
The Conclusion
While I enjoyed Lost Highway I can easily see how someone may just toss it off as being a confusing mess with a very very jumpy plot. I ask to those who think that, what did you think you’d get from the man behind something like Eraserhead??
Confusing, odd, weird, but worth watching in my humble opinion.
Cruise me cruise me cruise me babe…I’m deranged
The Rating (7.5/10)
Chucks website
