The Lost Highway movie represents two world views, the real world which represents the reality and the surreal world representing wishes, thoughts and the inner personality. The movie begins with the real world which is contextually represented by the character Fred, his thoughts, and wishes concerning his problems. While Fred pretends to behave and act fine, depicting a stable personality, his inner thoughts and wishes are very opposite. In the real world, Fred is a jazz musician with an impotent wife called Reena (Kluge and Alexander 1). This however changes when he is take to prison and suddenly changes form to a young man called Pete. At this stage of introduction, the movie begins to portray its theme of two world views as represented by the two characters, each representing an individual world view. The character Fred represents the real world view, reality while Pete represents the surreal world, inner thoughts and wishes of the Fred. Pete becomes a personified inner personality of Fred. By enabling the transformation of Fred into another being, the video technology has helped to keep the viewers in a dilemma and state of confusion to enhance the ambiguous nature of the movie. Lost Highway has immensely adopted technology in most its aspects to project its plot and achieve its objective for the viewers. First, the technology has enabled the movie’s narrative to have two personalities, the real and surreal being represented by two different characters embodying one person. The two characters Fred and Pete who have been technologically scripted to represent one person, thereby enhancing the narrative of the ambiguity of the movie. Secondly, technology has been used in the visual aspect of the movie. The effective cinematographic work to portray the pictures and the events in the movie has been facilitated by technology. Finally, technology is evident in the sound aspect of the movie (Lupino and Ida 1). The sound tracks which complement the visual work to bring about coherence and flow exhibit technology. The sound tracks as the visual work have enhanced the cinematographic aspect of the movie and helped it achieved its objective for the viewers and the narrative.
The portrayal of violence in some scenes in the movie such as the killing of Mr. Eddy and the surrealistic killing of Fred’s wife Mrs. Reenah can trigger and influence violent thoughts on the viewers, especially if they are juveniles. The urge and desire to emulate and experiment the actions might lead them to violent behaviors. While violence in the artistic media may be scripted and unreal, they can influence the behavior of the viewers and motivate them to violence.
Media technology has disrupted linear time by back and forth transformation of characters such as Fred, Pete, and the mystery man into various forms and spheres of time. The character Fred is transformed and embodied in a younger personality, which is against the principle of linear time. In addition, Mr. Eddy and the Mysterious Man are transformed and embodied in other forms. Besides the transformation of characters, events and some scenes are foreshadowed and advanced against the principle of linear time (brown and Lewis, 122). The use of media technology to disrupt linear time aimed at promoting the ambiguity of the movie by creating dilemma and artistic electrocution among the viewers.
To be lost literally means to be in a position where one cannot find their way or in a location of unknown identity. Alternatively, to be lost can mean to be in a weird and strange situation with no definite solution or where the victim does not know what steps to take to get them out of the situation or location. However, in the Lost Highway movie, to be lost has been figuratively used to mean losing touch with reality or alternatively in denial. The main character of the movie Fred, a musician is portrayed as a schizophrenic man whose inner thoughts and wishes have made him to lose touch with his reality world (Brown and Lewis 120). The obsession with perfection is making Fred to dissociate from his real identity. The wishful perfect personality and the real evil personality of Fred are in constant battle to dominate him. This led to the creation of two world views; the real and surreal world each represented and personified by different personalities embodied in different characters.
The projection of two world views, the real and surreal world leads the character Fred in a space where he loses control of his mind and decisions. While he tries to act perfect and mannered, the inner thought, desire and evil personality cannot let him be, and instead wages against his pretentious personality (brown and Lewis 123). Situating oneself in a space in the context of the movie implies a situation of ambiguity where different forces beyond control fight to control one’s personality. In the movie, cinematographic technology has been used to situate one in space. However, in the real world, mapping techniques such as GPS and mapping space are usually used.
Works Cited
Brown, Lewis. “The Cinema of Disorientation: Inviting Confusions, by Dominic Lash.” Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, vol. 23, 2022, pp. 120-124. Web.
Kluge, Alexander. “On the Terminal in Cinema.” Book Reviews, 2022. Web.
Lupino, Ida. “Designs for Life: David Lynch by Justus Nieland,” 2022. Web.