Sanitarium

I was at K-Mart today and low and behold I see Lost Highway sitting on the shelf for $4.99. I looked on the back and it said Pan&Scan version but I figured for $5 what the heck. I bring it home and realize I really hate P&S plus the picture quality was crap. I've seen bootlegs that looked better than that.

Anyway, I think it's time for whoever has the rights to this film to get off their asses and give this movie a decent release. It's a great movie and I think with the whole Robert Blake thing they could make some decent money on an SE.

Leechboy

When did this come out on dvd? I want it so bad I would buy a P & S copy.

Cameron

i assume you bought the vhs for 4.99

bareva

I agree 100%. It is time.

Shagrath

You probably got the Canadian R1 for some reason. That one is P&S and has a crappy transfer as well. I heard this was getting an official US release sometime this year, but haven't heard any updates for a while.

meritocracy

Agreed. The Canadian disk is the only R1 release of the film available. As has been stated, it's a P&S release with an absolutely horrific transfer to boot. As Lynch has slowly been getting decent releases of his older films out (FWWM/Blue Velvet/Wild At Heart), we'll hopefully get an announcement of an upcoming release shortly.

Drexl

You would think that a man who is so particular about how his films are viewed that he intentionally disables chapter stops on DVDs of his films would not allow the only version of one of his films to be a pan and scanned one.

steebo777

Yes it does.

Sanitarium

No it's a DVD. I think it's the canadian version. Why it was at a US store is beyond me.

Fok

I never really got this movie, was there time travel and stuff?

ScottsDvds

I will hold onto my japanese laserdisc a little longer.

Cygnet74

the short, short version:

Willy

I love this movie and the soundtrack is also amazing.

Shagrath

This isn't the only version of this film. There's a UK R2 that's anamorphic widescreen, but only 2.0 audio, there's a German R2 that's anamorphic /w a 5.1 track, and there's an Australian R4 that's anamorphic and has a handful of special features, but only a 2.0 audio.

I'm still holding out for a decent US release. My friend has the German version, and while I haven't seen it for a few years, I don't remember that transfer being horrible.

garmonbozia

Amen....

and the same should be said about Lynch's 2 miniseries:
Hotel Room
On the Air

kms_md

nice synopsis.

you can pick up the R4 from cd-wow for a pretty decent price. btw, if you are interested in the movie, check out the essay written by david foster wallace for (?) esquire about the filming of lost highway and dl movies in general. it can be found in his collection of essays a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again.

kms

soonercineaste

I thought this was extremely interesting ... I did a search on Netflix this evening for "Lost Highway" and it came up. After placing it in my queue, the following was beside it: "Available on Mar. 8, 2005." Is there a re-release in the works or is this something else?

Squirrel God

Now that Lynch has finished the Wild at Heart SE, there's no reason why he can't turn his attention to Lost Highway. I have the Australian Region 4, but I would love this to receive the Lynch SE touch.

Those seeking a thorough explanation and analysis of Lost Highway should look no further than here:

http://www.jasonsweb.com/LostHighway/

I must've seen this film countless times and the Mystery Man still freaks me out. One of the most chilling characters ever!

Dan

I recently acquired the R4 disc from cd-wow.com, and it's probably the best version available right now. The Canadian R1 disc is a joke (much like the original Canadian R1 version of Straight Story, as well).

But, in regards to the remastered R1 version that's been "in the works" since as early as 2000:

- David Lynch had worked with USA Films to produce a new transfer of the film (again, this could have been as early as 2000, but probably happened in late 2001 to early 2002).

- He supervised the entire transfer, including a new audio mix, although there has been no indication about whether it's the theatrical 2.0 mix, or a completely remastered 5.1 mix. Knowing how DL tends to handle DVD releases that he personally works on, my guess is it's a 2.0 mix (which is fine by me. a strong 2.0 mix is better than a weak 5.1 mix). As for video, if he was involved, you know it's going to be perfect. Look at the Eraserhead disc. (the Eraserhead transfer was scrapped at least once, I believe, because it wasn't good enough)

- David Lynch most likely had no participation in the "special features" department, as he generally avoids them for his films. He's very much a "let the film speak for itself" person.*

- USA Films did finish the project and had specific plans to release the DVD.

- Universal Studios bought USA Films and therefore acquired their entire back-catalogue of titles. At the time, they put a hold on all USA Films releases until they had the time to sort through them and decide what THEY felt was worth releasing.

- Some titles were released. Some weren't. Lost Highway essentially got lost in the mix.

- Universal IS doing a special edition re-release of Dune (and an HD-DVD version as well), so it is possible that they'll dig up the Lost Highway project and get it released. All they have to do is press a few thousand copies of the damn thing and let retailers know it's available.

- Criterion has been asked about whether they had plans for special editions of Lost Highway and other Lynch films, but they seem to remain tight-lipped about it all. They don't offer any more information than "Criterion does not hold the rights to [film x] so we will not be releasing it". Looks like they'll never be able to release a David Lynch film (if they even wanted to).

that's all there is to know (so far) about an R1 Lost Highway. If I've made any factual errors, it's because I'm tired, but as far as I remember (I've been loosely following the project for a few years), that's where it stands. If I'm not mistaken, there's at least one other Lynch fan here who can either confirm or deny my ramblings.


- D

* Also, because the Lost Highway DVD is one that David Lynch worked directly on, I can almost guarantee that, if it's released, it will not have chapter stops.

Squirrel God

From what I remember, Wild at Heart SE and Blue Velvet SE both have chapter stops and Lynch worked directly on both of those.

Mulholland Drive is the only one I know that doesn't have chapter stops. I don't own the Lynch-certified version of Eraserhead, does that have chapter stops?

Filmmaker

It does not.

Squirrel God

Cheers. Looks like Lynch has had a change of heart of late then as the most recent DVDs he's worked on have had chapter stops. Either that, or pressure from MGM to include them. Hard to say if a Lost Highway SE would or wouldn't have them then ....

RocShemp

Perfect summarry of the film. But what irked me about this film was how suddenly it ended. I dunno but it left me wanting more and not in a good way. I may pick up a remastered release for sake of nostalgia nonetheless.

auto

As was mentioned above, with the release of Blue Velvet/Wild At Heart: Special Editions and the announcements of a Dune:SE and Twin Peaks:S2 and the fact that the transfer/soundtrack is done, I think this will be announced soon.

Chapter stops or no, I can't wait for this.

auto

Although I still think this DVD is forthcoming (see above post), I just read this over at dugpa.com.

February 14th 2004

No Lost Highway DVD in March

I got word back from Universal that there are currently no plans to release Lost Highway on DVD at this time. The Netflix date looks to be the day they will be carrying the Canadian DVD for rental. Word has it that Universal is waiting for the whole Robert Blake scandal to blow over before they release the DVD fearing bad press. Go figure. Just another good reason to go out and get a region free DVD player. More news as it comes.