Lost Highway
Lost Highway is a strange film as are all of Lynch’s works. In my opinion, this movie explores purity culture and sin in a unique way, manipulating reality through the lens of men who experience the world in their own isolated bubbles. This is evident in Fred’s reluctance to acknowledge reality, as shown by his statement about hating video recorders because they document things in a way he doesn’t prefer. We follow Fred’s perspective in the first part of the film, where the truth is revealed through videotapes sent by a strange man.
To me, the strange man represents wrath and/or reality, as he sends Fred a videotape showing him killing his wife, who was cheating on him. The man states that he can only be invited in and doesn’t reside where he’s unwelcome, which suggests that Fred has willingly opened himself up to violence and evil. After being placed in prison, Fred seems to switch bodies with a man named Pete, an ex-convict. This switch, likely another figment of Fred’s mind, represents an equivalent exchange of sin, as both Fred and Pete are criminals. This ties into themes of lust and purity culture, as Pete begins to cheat on his girlfriend with a woman who resembles Fred’s murdered wife.
The woman Alice, carries a lighter, more feminine aesthetic white nails, blonde hair, and a white dress, symbolizing purity. Pete/Fred falls into her beauty, hypocritically cheating on his girlfriend. However, the act of doing so reflects a lack of accountability on the part of Pete or men in general. Alice isn’t punished for working in the porn industry, even though she fits into and caters to what men want from women. In this way, the women in the film represent the expectations men place on them.
Initially, Fred kills Alice for adultery, but when Fred becomes Pete, he cheats on his girlfriend with a woman who represents innocence. The moment Pete learns that Alice works in the porn industry, his perception of her shifts, breaking the illusion of her purity. This is made clear at the end when Alice states that she is not and will never be his. The film seems to emphasize a recurring theme in Lynch’s work a cycle, and a socially applicable statement about the moral contradictions and expectations imposed on women.
As the strange man focuses a camcorder on Fred/Pete, it becomes clear that this is a fabricated reality that Fred/Pete has chosen to live in. The film ends with a scene on a long highway, accompanied by the intense sound of police sirens, symbolizing that the sins Fred has indulged in are ones he cannot remain blissfully ignorant to.
“Fucker gets more pussy than a toilet seat.”