David Lynch's Lost Highway -- What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 184)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2024
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Disclaimer: All reasonable comments are welcome, including reasoned disagreements. You will be banned for foolish talk, harassment, and hate speech on sight; it's a tremendous waste of life. I believe in freedom of association and, by extension, freedom of dissociation from you.
This might just be a coincidence, but the Mystery Man has always reminded me of the Death character from The Seventh Seal.
good grief, it took me a long time to figure out the significance of your name. Anyway, yes, good comment!
Except the Mystery Man has secrets, and Death flatly states he has none.
It helps if you've watched the movies you're referencing.
Goated user
One thing i can say about this film on first watch, is that rammstein should be used in more movies
The OST in general was phenomenal - smashing pumpkins, NiN, freaking Lou Reed?!
Movies like this really go into the psychological realm and I like that
My favorite movie. Period. I first saw it in 1999 and fell head over heels.
I read somewhere that the hemispheres of the brain are connected by a tissue that is of different size between male & female, and that was refered to as the 'Lost Highway'. The subtle difference that makes men and women different minded.
I don’t understand why people have a hard time understanding this movie. This is all happening inside the main characters mind-both characters are him, from different time periods. This movie is him coming to terms with the fact he killed his wife and he’s facing the electric chair. We’re witnessing a collapsing mind.
Just Loved Everything about this Film when I seen it in 1997 ? And it started my Wonderful Journey into the Great World of David Lynch and I’ve been Hooked Ever since!
Spoilers:
Basically to me Lost Highway is simply the story of a guy who killed his wife and is on death row and creates a fantasy in his head before he get's executed. Ofc there are other stuff going on but that is the basic plot(Again too me).
I honestly feel the film doesn’t work because it never share the personal story of the guy. Like, the real emotions that led to the killing if his cheating wife. I like David Lynch, but I think in this film, Lynch got lost in his own exploration.
@@Acoustic-Rabbit-Hole The beginning of the movie makes it somewhat clear that Fred believes his wife to be cheating on him. However, in a sense you are correct. Fred does not explicitly show his malicious intention because he created the Mystery Man character in his head to compartmentalize these emotions. That’s why he has no recollection of his wife’s murder, other than the tapes, that we later find out are the product of the mystery man his mind created.
I’m of the opinion that the entire movie is a fantasy, including the beginning before he goes to prison. I think the beginning is Fred’s own twisted recollection of the events that his mind fabricated in order to absolve himself of guilt.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to this. What's interesting about, say, the idea that the mystery-man was "created" in the killers mind, does hold true in the dream world. Often the enemy in one's dreams is actually part of one's self. The mystery man truly SYMBOLIZES part of himself. Just as the in the pool-party scene where the Mystery Man said that he's in the man's home because he was _invited._
I was revisiting 120 Days of Soddom, the old black & white Italian film that is a commentary of Mussolini's fascist state and and the graphically depicted destruction of the countrymen's body and souls that this absolute power brought on it's victims. / But what I started thinking that both films were similar in that they told the story very methodically. You are given information which methodically tells a story. Which all great films do. I don't think "My Dinner With Andre" was a real work of literate fiction. It was just an intimate discussing of philosophy and modernism by two guys talking at a table for two hours. // But, in contrast, both "Lost Highway" and "120 Days of Soddom" tell a horror story with compete, methodical presentations of information that methodically tell a story, an all without adding any sentiment, judgment, or full. Somewhat vouyeristic? Maybe. But maybe not. Both films were made to made very deep social statements. SHAME of Sisklel and Ebert!
I take back my statement that the film doesn't work. I was letting my ego right-it-off. Though not as severely as Siskel and Ebert saying that is was "pretentious" and "sophomoric."
When the killer is jail he suddenly becomes the cocky young mechanic from another town. Literally, he is switched. If this was a fantasy/dream, then there would not have been the jail-keepers the next morning being shocked that the original inmate dissapperead and was replaced with another bad-guy. Reality doesn't "react" to your dreams. This is a very important point, and I truly believe that Lynch was suggesting ideas about parallel universes and entrainment. Not atomic, but almost . . . psychological.
Not to mention the themes of Hollywood Elitism in the entertainment industry that shows to be merged with the porn industry and free-masonry/satanism (the porn snuff-film where non-other than Marilyn Manson is the willing voicing in the dark ritual). The film deserves attention. I still kind of feel the entire this was so loaded that it cold have been expanded on or developed to avoid a sense of fragmentation. Or maybe it was just a perfect little puzzle that Lynch made for us to open together. Either way, its a film that does deserve attention, and I'm happy that the many stars and musicians endorsed the film by appearing in cameos and in the music score.
I'm actually a film maker, and am just finishing up my first full-length film here on channel if you'd like to take a gander.
Thanks so much for the discussion!
- _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
@@Acoustic-Rabbit-Hole if you’re the kind of person that needs everything explained to you, you’re not gonna like this movie. If you’re comfortable using a brain to understand, it works.
@@cggg490 See some my own short films. I’m very inspired by Lynch. I just finished puttup a music video for a Beach House Song, PPP.
- _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
8:40 you mention Carravagio chiaroscuro. I would also mention Leonardo's sfumato - particularly when bill pullman's character walked into the dark hallway.
I’ve been exploring David Lynch’s filmography lately. I haven’t watched this movie yet, but your comparisons to Taxi Driver intrigue me since I thought of Taxi Driver a lot when I watched Blue Velvet for the first time.
Blue Velvet, like Taxi Driver, has a protagonist delving into the dark underbelly of society and becoming a self-made vigilante in his attempt to rescue a “damsel in distress” from the corrupt, sexually exploitative world he has come to know. Interestingly, in both films the “damsel in distress” is reluctant and/or afraid to get out of the corrupt world they are engulfed in. Also, both films end with a shoot out in an apartment building and a sort of “dreamlike” ending scene.
Robert Blake as the Strange Man is terrifying.
I love All Lynch films, even Dune 🤣
For a short movie I made for the 48 Hour Film Project, called "A Minor Fifth," I stole Lynch's intercom idea, but used a RING video doorbell instead. (The plot involved an invisible man, so he could speak into the video doorbell without being seen.)
Interesting thoughts. I watched this in the theater when it was released. I did not understand it, but I _experienced_ it, and so I thought it had some merit. The party scene ("Call me... ASK me.") gave me chills.
Lynch movies work on an emotional intelligence level.
God Patricia Arquette is a goddess in this movie
Now we know why she was chosen for Kissing Kate Barlow
She was a real woman! :)
Gawd such a woman. Her snaggle tooth is so damn sexy. Eyes deeper than the sea
This movie is very surreal.
I enjoyed the film. The only flaw of the movie is that the jail keepers witness the killer dissappear and magically “become” someone else. Really? What “fantasy” were the jail-keepers creating in their OWN heads? See what I mean? Lynch’s previous “Mulholland Drive” is the ACTUAL dream-state of the main character; a dissolutioned, unknown Hollywood actress; Whereas Lost Highway causally overlaps fantasy with reality to the point where it’s not even coming from the point of view ANYONE anymore. Much less the killer himself. A film that could have been a deep study about displaced masculinity in the pre-digital modern era becomes a fascinating, yet deflated exploration of the very theme it brings “up.”
Mulholland drive is after this film. He improved
@@stephenkeen5737 I almost feel bad about complaining! I think the whole twin peaks series from beginning to end was almost prophetic.
@@stephenkeen5737 Stephen, I’m a filmmaker. If you have a sec, I’d love to get your reaction to my short film for a Beach House song. It’s my tribute to Stanley Kubrick. m.th-cam.com/video/KEWLvhNgEiI/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUWUGlzcyBwb29yIHBsYW5uaW5nIHBwcA%3D%3D
David Lynch and David Fincher both David are super genius.
Lost Highway on a surface level is about a husband who murders his wife for infidelity. In reality, the Film is Lynch calling out all his "tailgaters" (hence the tailgating scene) for ripping him off, particularly directors like Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino(both made their own versions of Wild At Heart, then Stone straight up ripped Twin Peaks off w Wild Palms & Tarantino has ripped him off in other ways like he does with every director).
This is why Balthazar Getty is cast as a car mechanic (NBK), why Patrica Arquette was cast (True Romance), why Trent Reznor produced the score (NBK), why Robert Loggia was cast (Wild Palms) and there's plenty more reasons why he casted the actors he did. That's why one of the films main themes is identity crisis.
It's also an incredibly angry movie because of how Twin Peaks: FWWM was received and where Lynch was at this point in his career. With that said, it's one of my favorite Lynch Films and one of my favorite Films of all time.
Except a Oliver Stone and Tarantino are better filmmakers than David Lynch…..his only great films are The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive that’s it
@@kdizzle901 Oliver Stone has good movies in the 80s until JFK, after that his movies are terrible. Tarantino has 2 good movies, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. After that his movies are a complete joke. And Tarantino is the most overrated Movie Director ever in the world imo. They're both not very original filmmakers, and they're also both very one note. Tarantino has one movie, 70s grindhouse and Stone is always insanely political. That's why I consider The Hand one of his best. Alexander, Death Proof, Savages, Django Unchained etc....these are awful, terrible movies.
The only bad Lynch Movie is Dune. Everything else is great to amazing. And Wild at Heart is better than anything Stone or Tarantino have ever done, and it's not even one of the better Lynch films.
@kdizzle901
They’re not better filmmakers, hardly. They just make more commercial movies that can be marketed to anybody
@matsalvatore9074 Hi, I'll try my best. I'm pretty biased when it comes to Lynch cause he's one of my favorite filmmakers, so let me just get that out of the way.
Basically w Tarantino, I think it started w True Romance, which is really just Wild at Heart. He also took the ear slicing from Blue Velvet and put it in Reservoir Dogs. Not that any of this is really a big deal when Directors pay homage to other films they like, (or just rip off) it's just this was the year after FWWM and I think Tarantino's comment after watching it was something to the effect of "I'm done w Lynch, his head went too far up his own ass." This I'm sure lead to there being some hostility, and I can tell that just from watching Lost Highway.
With that said, I'm pretty sure all Lynch's films other than Elephant Man and Twin Peaks (show) have never really turned a profit. And if they have, it wasn't some huge smash hit no matter how well they were received by critics or audiences, and even had Oscar noms. Tarantino on the other hand, his movies make boat loads of money. I'm sure this is another reason Lynch feels slighted and does not even want to work anymore.
Then w Oliver Stone, he did that same thing w Wild at Heart and made NBK. Both that and True Romance were written by Tarantino. Then Stone also had a show called Wild Palms that was literally a rip-off of Twin Peaks. Lynch even steals a scene from it and puts it in Lost Highway. I'm not really sure Lynch was screwed or anything, it's just I'm sure he sees these movies he clearly influenced make money and his own films struggling to make anything must be pretty frustrating.
That's where I think a lot of Lost Highway comes from. Then he continues some of these same themes in Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire by ripping Hollywood to pieces in each of them.
@matsalvatore9074 You are Welcome! Glad I can help, most people don't even listen to me when I talk about Lost Highway lol.
That's awesome you watched those, I always say to everyone seeing Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire in the theater were probably my two best experiences in a theater ever. If you can, check out Twin Peaks, if you like those films you mentioned, I'm positive you'll dig it. It's frighteningly addictive to watch. Elephant Man and Wild at Heart are also great.
I'm a big Lynch fan and I've seen his whole filmography except Dune and some shorts, this was one of the first from him I saw so there was probably a lot I didn't get. It will be fun to revisit it with some of your ideas in mind.
please let me know what you think of the movie from your POV!
Best movie ever made
the coldness of the characters in lynch's work is a bit hard for me to engage with, prob a personal thing of course on my part ... but i still need to see mulholland drive
have you watched it yet
not yet, ty@@Hypno_BPM
I didn't love the ending. Ironically it was too closed for my taste. Lynch usually leaves his endings open. It's closed enough that the term "mobius strip" gets thrown out there sometimes. Loved your take on the mystery man!
You obviously haven't seen the Elephant Man, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, or Mulholland Drive.
love! blessings!
I love it because I'm a RAMMSTEIN fan 🔥
I tried to understand some of the theories about the movie and i hate it even more now, i always love a straight forward narrative
David Lynch's philosophical ideas aren't that complicated to grasp. Most people are used to signs and symbols being used to express a material reality. If it is abstract it might sometimes be called representational realism. But what surrealists often do is create worlds built out of signs that don't necessarily represent a material reality, but nevertheless plug into the audience's psyche. It's something like what Jack Grapes calls an 'absence of field'. Lost highway is a little trickier because David Lynch seems to throw quantum physics into the mix and a possible fairy tale element.
I am not sure how his ideas are described as uncomplicated, and then four sentences later his symbols are basically described as non-tangible, amorphous, and therefore ambiguous.
@@LearningaboutMovies Well, a work can be both highly abstract but also philosophically uncomplicated. Fairy Tales are a great example of that.
Great video.
I love Lost Highway but I wish they hadn't included the Marilyn Manson cameos. Adds a layer of cringe and datedness at this point.
Nice review. I just watched a lynch double feature at the cinema. First was “wild at heart” followed by this one. Can I be honest and say that 5 hours of lynch on a Friday night may be a bit too much for the sane mind. I’m tired. I saw this movie when it came out, over twenty years later I watch it again and remember myself as a youth enjoying this film.
I’m just tired.
Too much lynch.
Need more time to think about it some more.
thank you
OMG! It is so weird that you bring up O.J. Simpson! I am watching this review late and today O.J. died.
Yes, Lynch himself has said much about the OJ connection.
Twin Peaks & Eraserhead are the only David Lynch i can stomach
eraserhead isn’t exactly the most accessible
True that . I lost interest after season 1 of twin peaks tho
@@C_Jj_G Dig yourself out of the shit of season 2 so you can get to season 3
@@C_Jj_G that's sad
I love your channel but this was one was off the rails haha. Cheers :)
I re watched this a month ago and I'm still not a fan of it. Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive are great films with Eraserhead being the best.
It's great, honestly
@@VERA-po4gl Too be fair I'm probably biased because I dated a woman like the one in the film lol
@@maciek8159 lol 😂
See my commentary I just posted above as to why I think the film defeated its own purpose. @@VERA-po4gl
like playing a videogame that is unbeatable, what's the point?
What an ignorant comment.