In Search of the Lost Highway

David Lynch's "Lost Highway" stands as a modern film noir masterpiece. Like the most brilliant paintings or songs, the film lets the audience play nearly as an important role as the artist. The viewer must decide how to interpret the bizarre, free-flowing story line whose characters sometimes seem to represent abstract ideas more than actual people. Set against the decadent, pseudo-glitz background of a city that is almost certainly Los Angeles, "Lost Highway" features strong performances from Bill Pullman as Fred Madison and Patricia Arquette as his wife. However, the "Mystery Man" and Lynch's sublime use of color and lighting push the movie to a pinnacle.
I originally saw this movie with a friend of mine who is a film major and cinema buff. He recommended it. Naturally, after the first viewing, I had a number of questions and was unsatisfied. "Lost Highway" demanded a subsequent viewing. I had my opportunity during the spring in Paris, where I attended a matinee and saw it on the big screen. The film improves drastically on the big screen. Lynch's mastery of color and lighting comes alive in a manner that one cannot appreciate on VHS.
At the beginning of the film, Fred Madison is the protagonist. An adventurous jazz musician, Madison's playing sounds like a mixture of Ornette Coleman and "Stellar Regions" era Coltrane. The frenzied, almost enraged sound of the saxophone at the beginning of the film stands as Lynch's first example of Madison's mental state.
The first half of the film centers around a gradually deteriorating Fred Madison. His entire world seems to be crumbling in a decidedly horrific manner. Strange video tapes appear on the front steps of his house, first showing a view of the house itself, then a scene of Madison and his wife in bed. Paranoia about his wife's fidelity haunts him; he begins to see the Mystery Man, a terrifying individual with a chalk-white face, clad entirely in black. Madison cannot escape the Mystery Man; throughout the movie, he turns up everywhere, even after Madison has changed to Pete Dayton.
The Mystery Man remains an enigma. However, he seems to represent an idea, or a part of Madison's personality more than an actual separate being. When Madison sees him at a party and they talk, the sound in the film cuts off, save the conversation between Madison and the Mystery Man.
When Madison confronts Dick Laurent at the end of the movie, the Mystery Man is on hand, but he vanishes soon afterwards, leaving Fred Madison alone, or so it seems. I believe that the Mystery Man is the dark half of Fred Madison. Madison fears him so greatly because that side of his personality terrifies him. He tries to bury it, but it comes out in the form of the Mystery Man. It haunts him, such as when he sees that face on his wife, or when Pete Dayton receives a telephone call from Dick Laurent, who hands the phone over to the Mystery Man. However, the dark half of Madison's personality ultimately ends up triumphing. The Mystery Man confronts Dick Laurent and then he and Madison merge. Shortly thereafter, Madison takes off down the lost highway.
We can explain the character of Pete Dayton if we consider him part of Fred Madison. In the middle of the movie, when Madison is in jail awaiting execution for the murder of his wife, a guard walks to the cell, only to see Madison has vanished and a young car mechanic named Pete Dayton has replaced him. Nearly the entire second half of the movie, where Dayton is the protagonist is a psychotic delusion of Fred Madison. Dayton's character stands as another side of Madison, perhaps him as a young man, or maybe a fantasy. Again, Lynch offers no explanations. However, when Dayton suddenly changes back to Madison, he leaves little doubt that the two characters are crucially interlinked.
Both Pete Dayton and Fred Madison are involved with two different women that look nearly identical in "Lost Highway.," played by Patricia Arquette. Madison is supposedly married to the brunette version, but after a third viewing of the film, I no longer believe this to be the case. The movie begins with a voice uttering the somewhat cryptic phrase "Dick Laurent is dead." Madison hears this coming through the intercom in his house and seems bewildered by it. However, the movies' subsequent events show this phrase to be essential to coming to some kind of understanding of "Lost Highway." When Madison is the protagonist, Patricia Arquette is his wife, and he is haunted, but when Dayton is the protagonist he engages in a liasion with Alice the blonde, who is the mistress of Laurent. Ostensibly, Madison is married to the brunette character, but the marriage could very well be another delusion, manifested as insatiable lust in the relationship Dayton has with Alice.
"Lost Highway" is remarkably complex and disturbing, and features outstanding acting and cinematography. I cannot argue with the fact that it is confusing and downright frustrating to try and understand at times, but nevertheless multiple viewings will prove rewarding. I have rarely seen a film that offers such a unique perspective on cinema. With the exception of multiple love scenes that one may or may not deem gratuitous, little that is considered conventional American cinema appears in "Lost Highway." Lynch has offered something provocative and intriguing, and arguably, brilliant.