Review of Lost HIghway Screenplay by Lynch

I first saw Lost Highway in a film studies class. I was thoroughly entertained. Now after reading the script I have an even deeper appreciation for the film. The script was very good. David Lynch is a surrealist filmmaker and the script paints visuals and language with a wide brush. The sudden changes of character, the descriptions of the videotape of the Madison's house, and, of course, the mystery man played so deviously by Robert Blake make the script engrossing and hard to put down. At the end of the screenplay which is 114 pages, I was so glued to it, I couldn't look away. The descriptions, the language, all great.

I think the best parts of this screenplay are the beginning and the end. The part where Mr. Eddy beats up the guy for tailgating is a little boring. I don't really see how it adds to the story. It seems odd to have that sequence in the film. On the other hand, the beginning is dark, mysterious, and engaging. With each videotape comes a wanting for what it means, who has shot, and where the story will go. And with Robert Blake as the mystery man things get even more sinister. When Bill Pullman's character turns in the auto mechanic the film changes direction so decidedly that I wondered where it was going the first time I saw the movie. Definitely a surrealistic expression of cinematic art. I don't think there are too many films that have such an abrupt change in the composition of the main character. Perhaps a Hitchcock film has some similarity. Vertigo has a similar quality in Jimmy Stewart's character's mental state, but I can't remember a change like that in another film.

The film, as I mentioned before, languishes a little bit in the Mr. Eddy sequence, but it rebounds quickly with a very surrealist ending. Beginning with the auto mechanic and Mr. Eddy's wife having an affair the script begins to build up tension again reaching a climax when Bill Pullman or the mystery man kill Mr. Eddy. I thought the ending, from Andy's apartment to the final scene on the lost highway, was full of tension, mystery, ambivalence, and anxiety, As I read through it I wondered what would happen next. I remembered the basic plot of the film, but I didn't remember all of the details, so it was a deeper reading of the film.

In the script, which I realized for, perhaps, the first time was that Lynch uses longer descriptions of each scene. He also directs the camera which is a departure from other screenplays I have read. The descriptions are essential to the beginning of the film where the Madison's receive the videotapes. The first twenty or so pages of the script are very dark, very alluring, and very good writing. This is, perhaps Lynch's best film. After I watch the rest of his LA trilogy I will do a final assessment about Lynch's total work and hopeful make some grand conclusions about his films and his place in film history.