John David Ebert Movie Review of Lost Highway

[universallogin1290]

When he mentioned Los Angeles as hell, I was like, "Yeah. Having been here over 20 years, I can say it's the closest thing to hell on Earth we can find."

[Ghostblood1334]

Good analysis...you sure you not making this shit up? Becuase I think you are full of shit. Lost Highway is a bad film.

[HuckMeHard]

This movie is pure unadulterated trash. I'm a huge film buff and I tend to love complex films but this one has absolutely no substance and I find that this particular director (Lynch) is almost entirely devoid of any artistic merit.

This is the 3rd film of his that I've seen which I don't like, so I'm pretty much writing this guy off.

If I could describe David Lynch's films in only two words, it would be:

Artistic masturbation

...without the orgasm.

[MrGamer990]

This is due to one scene when fred was at his friend's party and immediately after his encounter with the mystery man, he asks his friend "Who's that guy?" and his friend says "I don't know" which is the exact reaction i got when in the second re-imagination of fred's life dick laraunt is with the mystery man when he sees him and when fred and TMM finish dick off.

this concludes that from two different perspective of the intercom fred is already dreaming, if not plz be sure to comment on M.C .

[MrGamer990]

i having seen the Lost Highway 3 times, here is one of my many own personal interpretation:

The opening acts as an introduction to the dream/re-imagination of Fred madison's alternate reality. what i mean to say is that fred is already in his own imagination, that may sound repetitive but think about it, fred madison is the only person who can possibly see the mystery man.

[LASTdaysONe]

boob! yes!

[Brubaker801]

I like how you fucked up on Robert Loggia's last name every time too lol

[kabal5000]

does John David Ebert have a review for the Machinist or the Fountain?

[PimpDragon108]

Lynch has said the film is a "psychological fugue," a story about a man who is so desperate to live a better life than his reality that he creates a false world to live in, thus having the things he wanted but never had in his actual life. Look at how the film is paced. The dialogue between Fred and Renee is stilted, awkward, distant. But when he becomes Pete, everything seems normal speed and he is accepted, loved, respected AND this new Renee desperately wants him.

[PimpDragon108]

@PimpDragon108 Look at reality - she's distant, cold and she's sleeping with Dick Laurant. In Fred's new world she's with Laurant (Mr. Eddy) but she years for him. The Mystery Man is sort of a demonic Jiminy Cricket. He constantly serves as Fred's reminder that this world is false. Think about the phone conversation they have about how in Tibet a man who's to get the death penatly walks around until suddenly he's shot. It's like he's reminding Fred that "Hey, you're on death row. Sorry!"

[PimpDragon108]

@PimpDragon108 Finally, Fred's psyche can't hold the illusion together any longer. The new Renee denies him at the end of it all. The Mystery Man is there to greet him and remind him that he killed his wife. All that's left is to kill Laurant. Fred does so. It's after this murder that Fred is finally captured and THAT'S when he finds himself in prison. The film is jumbled, like Fred's psyche, but everything is there. Some elements are just abstract but overall it's pretty cohesive!

[electronicmedium]

great review! are you familiar with free masonic and Illuminati symbolism in films?

[BigBrother187]

Do a review on "El Topo" a film by Alejandro Jodorowsky...

[Markfly]

That story about Jean-Claude Romand is so messed up!!

Great review - incredible movie

[luisdiaz1980]

It would be interesting to see your analysis and thoughts on Jacob's Ladder...and your interpretation of it.

[johndavidebert]

My review of A Serious Man (Coen brothers) can be found on my website.

[Super8StrikesBack]

J.D Ebert should do a Coen Brother flick.

[siggysawdust09]

well done my man well done indeed!

[FranzFafner]

I think the central plot device of "Lost Highway" comes from Ambrose Bierce's1890 short story called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." In that story, a man is hanged - but the rope breaks and he escapes. He finds his senses have all become superhuman, and all sorts of strange things happen until he finds his way back to his home. Then it is revealed that the rope never broke and he never escaped. He imagined all that as he was being hanged.

[DashingBlast]

This is probably the most clear and most agreeable explanation I have come across in regards to this film. I really enjoyed the film, though admittedly some parts of it left me a tad bewildered. Your explanation really seems accurate, I particularly liked your outlook of the Mystery Man being like Mephistopheles. I'd previously assumed that he alluded to the presence of a mental illness in the character.

[jenniferjuniper97]

does the blonde in some way symbolise the redemption and absolution he seeks? the "thing" he will "never have"?

[g00ch]

The most clear conception of the film that I have come across, especially when you figure in Lynch's eastern mysticism both in philosophy and practice (meditation for 30 years) which plays out in his films in various ways but is barely spoken of in critical review. Thank you very much John for providing us with the crucial insights to the near inevitable schizo/paranoid mode that prevails upon identity in electronic society.

[Floorsnarl]

I think Ebert, judging by the soundness of his review (or lack thereof), was inspired by Sylvia Browne to write this review.

[ostattack]

Thats Roger Ebert! A totally different person

[johndavidebert]

@jakespick

You're talking about Roger Ebert. I'm John Ebert. Two different and not related people.

[robaquarian]

@johndavidebert there are many parallels in this movie and the shining. cut her up in pieces,electronic technology,doubles,labyrinths etc.

[tepporocks]

David Lynch sometimes claims that he doesn't know what any of his films are about. That it's up to the viewers to decide for themselves.

Well, I've got a hunch that even if that's true, he probably has his own interpretation of what each of them mean to him.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Lynch's own take on Lost Highway, resembles that of John David Ebert.

I mean, I have never figured the film out myself, nor have I heard of another theory which ties all the "clues" together so well.

Nice.

[milojed]

Good job...

[Ballardian]

I find your review/interpretation interesting but incorrect and without basis.

Your discussion about how electronic media erodes the boundaries of the self is in itself quite interesting, but I just don't think that is what the film is about. Sure, technology features in the film, but mainly in a metaphorical way - the same way it is used in dreams. I think the film is mainly about the psychology of the one main character. I think you have merely projected your own pet ideas onto the film.

[eigilmus]

Totally agree.

[kungiiii]

@Ballardian Also there is also no hell, purgatory or heaven like superstition stuff he mentions about other movies. Like we saw in mulholland drive it's all about psychological point of view. He dreams while in sleep -> goes insane and kills herself.

[misterbuckethead]

@Ballardian 'merely projected your own pet ideas' that's all that you can do, he even said that in the review.

i loved this theory.

[ArminPS]

very nice review,

although i believe the last sequence would back up the view that the protagonist has been imagining this in his prison cell. He is being chased by police cars and then seems to be being electrically shocked ie. electric chair, execution, at the end....

but yes its still ambiguous of course

[ldzppln4]

That has always been my theory. Fred is imagining much of the film's storyline. It is such a fantastic film. Lynch is a genius.

[travelogue200]

Note that he is also going through an execution memory in his cell too in the middle of the film before becoming Pete. He is in a loop continually trying to invent a newer world through a different character to escape the fact he is in the electric chair all throughout the film being executed. The Lost Highway is a loop through endless hell; the ego refusing to let go of it's imaginary power to control - the ego can not follow Fred into death so it keeps him in a perpetual loop. Hell is the ego.

[JassuElla]

Hum...

I'd offer a different explanation: the whole movie takes place inside of "Fred"'s head, who escapes into increasingly psychotic fantasies and alternate identities in order to escape his knowledge of the truth: namely, that he HAS murdered his wife.

The key sentence in the whole film is: "I like to remember things my own way - not necessarily the way they actually happened." So, whenever the knowledge of his deeds comes crashing in on him, he reverts deeper into psychosis.

[aicfan85]

think harder about that theory..it doesn't hold much water.. that kind of reasoning works great for mullholand drive.. but i think john eberts review here is closer to whatever truth their is in this movie..in which their may be no actual truth.

[Floorsnarl]

I agree completely with JassuElla. For instance, in Ebert's review, I don't think it was as much about Fred Madison forgetting about killing his wife as much as I think that it was about him trying desperately to avoid the memory and guilt of killing his wife. This notion Ebert has on spirits shifting from body to body and "the astro-plain" is pretty ridiculous and seems highly irrelevant.

I think Ebert is trying to turn Lost Highway into Arthur C. Clarke's best story he never wrote.

[aicfan85]

good explanation...but i dunno how much you can really know this as being the real interpretation..

[TheLogicJunkie]

I wonder what John David Ebert would do with "Porky's".

[TheLogicJunkie]

In all seriousness, though, this is an excellent, elegant review. Kudos.

[johndavidebert]

Don't tempt me. I might actually do a review of "Porky's." I do take requests, you know.

[MrByronDunbar]

@johndavidebert Would you review Unbreakable?

[mdstephens]

Excellent!

[Rohyprogesterex]

Fascinating analysis.

[anisblond]

Damn your good!!