THE LOST HIGHWAY (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: David Lynch Writers: David Lynch and Barry Gifford Starring: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Bathalzar Getty, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake, Gary Busey, Richard Pryor, Giovanni Ribissi, Henry Rollins, Marilyn Manson, Jack Nance
David Lynch is one of the more...interesting directors. He's made a career out of baffling people with his films that to call bizarre is merely an understatement. But in most of his great films, there's some kind of underlying theme or message. Take "Eraserhead" - a film that on the surface makes about as much sense as William S. Borroughs' "Naked Lunch." But one can see a satirical vein inside, popping out. But his newest film, meant to be his comeback after "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," not to mention the whole "Twin Peaks" spiel (which i kind of liked), is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a film of sound and fury, signifying noting.
Get this for a premise: a saxophonist (Bill Pullman) and his brunette wife (Patricia Arquette) live in a spacious condo of sorts in, I think, L.A. or somewhere. They mysteriously begin receiving packages with tapes in them that show their house, first from the outside, then from the inside, showing them sleeping. They freak, call the cops, and then one night, get a tape that only Bill watches, and sees Arquette brutally murdered. Of course, he did it, but he has no recolection of actually killing her...or any kind of motive.
He's sent to jail, and begins getting massive headaches all of a sudden. One day, one of the guards look in and see he has mutated into a whole other person! Instead of the moody saxophonist, he's now a punk 90s teenager (Bathalzar Getty). They let him out, 'cause they really can't hold him since he's a whole other person, and he goes back to his life, but things have kind of changed for the more bizarre.
Not only does his one female friend begin taking off her shirt for him, but back at his mechanic job (run by Richard Pryor, who seems to so sick that it almost brought a tear to my eye), he meets the moll (Arquette again, this time as a blond) of a short-tempered mafia guy (Robert Loggia). They obviously begin spending nights at cheap motels, but Loggia obviously and eventually finds out. Then I got lost as far as plotting, as they have sex in the middle of the road, he turns back into Bill Pullman, there's a porn starring Marilyn Manson. Oi.
First off, I believe that not all films are supposed to be taken as literally as others. I'm very apt to letting plot details slide, like in the case of a John Woo film. It brings the film experience down, and it makes me feel anal. And when watching David Lynch films, I try not to be hypercritical about the plot, since he usually has some kind of theme, as I said.
But.
"Lost Highway" has not theme. It's about nothing. It's just a weird film with a neat gimmick of switching the protagonists, not like Woo's "Face/Off," where the two who switched had a rivalry going on, but that the two have never even met eachother and have no link whatsoever. What is this supposed to mean? Why did these two switch? And then there's the Arquette thing. Why are there two of her? Is it the same person? These are questions I don't think Lynch even knows. But the thing is, I would excuse these and give this a good rating if, and only if, it meant someting. If it was out to prove something satirical, or give some sort of message to the audience, I would forgo this the same way I forgo the fact that in the end of "A Clockwork Orange," there are just too many coincidences. That was a fable though. This is just a David Lynch film.
Then there's the one scene that baffled me so much that my head hurt - the one where Robert Blake (from "In Cold Blood") walks into the room at the party with his face painted white, his ears sticking out, and dressed in some weird garb, walks up to Pullman, and tells him he's at his house at the same time he's talking to him at the party. Pullman obviously doesn't believe him, so Blake gives him a cell phone and tells him to dial up his number. He does, and Blake picks up on the other end, even though he's standing in front of him. Now this is ingenious. I mean, I heard about this scene months before it came out, and I was telling everybody about it. But what does it mean? Is he some sort of God who can control time or something? Did he kill Arquette? And why did Pullman and Getty switch places? And where did Pullman go when they switched?
Also, Lynch seems to be recylcing ideas from his older films. The Loggia character is just an older version of the Dennis Hopper character in "Blue Velvet." The scene where Arquette is forced to strip at gunpoint is faintly reminiscent of the scene in "Blue Velvet" where Isabella Rossellini was dropped off by the mob guys totally naked and in suburbia (my nightmare). The god-like ability for Blake to be two places at once..."DUNE!" And Arquette being a brunette, then a blond - well, that's a rip off of Hitchcock's "Vertigo." I sure hope this guy hasn't run out of ideas.
I like Lynch, mainly because he's intellectual stimulating. But what I hate about this film is it's SO SLOW MOVING. It moves about an inch per hour, mainly attributed to the incredibly long pauses between the characters' lines. They speak in hushed tones, and then go ahead and take seconds to respond. "Are you going to read?" (insert 14 seconds here) "Yes." (insert 16 seconds here) "Read. Ha. Read." The actors don't really act much in the first half, mainly because their lines are mechanical. Pullman and Arquette can act and all, but you wouldn't know it here.
But to be postitive about this film, I think it's not as bad as it seems. Yes, it makes absolutely no sense. No, it doesn't have any kind of purpose for being. However. It's fascinating to watch. With the neat gimmick of it not having any kind of purpose, Lynch grasps the audience in his claw, garnering their attention span for the whole time. Yes, it's frequently boring, but never dull (it makes sense to me). And there are some classic scenes. For one, the Blake party/phone call scene is too cool for words. And there's this great plug for not tailgating, done with Robert Loggia. And, I mean, you get to see Gary Busey subdued!
There's not much more I can say about this film. It's totally void of any meaning, but it's one hell of a watch.
P.S. Look for "Eraserhead" himself, Jack Nance, in his final role as a kinda senile mechanic.
MY RATING (out of 4): **1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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