Is the New 'Lost Highway' DVD Worth It?
Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Home Entertainment
Being in Canada when the first Lost Highway DVD came out, I never imagined that it was a States-free release. And, since I didn't have the best home entertainment system in the late '90s, I never noticed the pan and scan. Just the mere fact that I didn't have to rewind it was good enough for me. But now, ten years later, Lost Highway is getting a new release -- one that isn't confined to the land of the maple leaf, and one that should screen well with its widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1 aspect ratio.However, there's a reason that I didn't include it as a feature on my post about new DVD releases -- it's still not that great. Sure, it isn't pan and scan, but is that really enough? After ten years and all this time, you'd think that there would be a release with some features and perks to make the disc worth it -- especially since the UK has a 2-disc edition.
DVD Beaver has an excellent comparison up about the myriad of Lost Highway discs to hit the various regions -- from aspect ratios and comparison screencaps to bitrate graphs. Where the UK release from 2006 has interviews with Lynch, Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, and Robert Loggia, plus some featurettes, this new North American release has... a keep case. Wait. There is, also, subtitles in English, Spanish, and French, so it has that over the old UK Cinema Club release. But, the review also states that the colors don't seem to mesh with the other releases.
All in all, it's not the greatest option for Lynch fans. If you're itching to have it on your shelves in any form, by all means, pick it up, but you might want to try for the UK version if you want something to really delight your inner, impatient fan.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2008 @ 10:04PM
Ben said...
I think only you watch it, you can comment on it whether the newly release is good or not. I have seen the movie, and think the movie is fantastic. The movie sucks me in, envelops me beckons me to search my own depths for answers. Yea, all the answers are in this newly released:
http://dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=92842&ru=279
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3-25-2008 @ 11:44PM
Accordion27 said...
When this title was originally announced, there was supposed to be a 10-part multi-angle interview with David Lynch as a special feature. I wonder what happened to that?
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3-26-2008 @ 1:06AM
Bill said...
Yeah, I ended up buying the disc today after work. The transfer is pretty lackluster. Too soft, too warm and too dark. I can see why Lynch wants to have as much control over his DVD releases as possible... when he doesn't supervise a release, it ends up like this. Regardless, it's still really nice to finally have a DVD of one of my favorite movies. I'm looking forward to buying a deluxe Blu-Ray version... in 2019.
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3-26-2008 @ 6:09AM
Josh said...
Lost Highway Letterbox is the only VHS that I've purchased since I started buying DVDs in late 1999. Now, it's the only VHS that I still own. I guess I'll just keeping holding onto it for a while longer.
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3-27-2008 @ 5:28PM
steve said...
just looking at the dvdbeaver screencaps, i almost think the movie looks better dark.
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6-03-2008 @ 3:03AM
Dex said...
I'm assuming the author of this article knows what Pan & Scan is. (I myself did not know what it actually was until I recently saw a short documentary about it.) Pan & Scan has nothing to do with your TV or DVD set-up (although you might think that from the name.) It is an absolutely horrible editing procedure that is sometimes used on films with a larger than normal aspect ratio. For example, larger than 1:1.85. Lost Highway was filmed in 1:2.34. Anyway instead of showing the entire picture the 'most important' section of each scene is shown. Mind boggling, huh? This can also lead to wide shots of several people being replaced with several quick, back & forth close-up cuts. As is the case in Lost Highway.
This is why people that had previously only seen the Canadian Pan & Scan release of LH felt like they were almost watching an entirely different film when they saw the MK2 or Cinema Club LH release. It wasn't just the much improved color & sharpness, all of the scenes were different!
As for the new U.S. release, I think the scenes are too dark & I prefer the MK2/Cinema Club transfer. Usually the quickened speed of R2 DVDs bother me but it didn't w/ LH. Probably because I'm not as familiar with it as I am w/ say, Twin Peaks FWWM. (I couldn't even watch the latest R2 of that one all the way thru the 'speed-up factor' was so obvious to me.) Also there's alot of long pauses & very little dialogue thru out most of LH so speeding it up alittle isn't a huge deal. (Although I did notice the speed change during Fred's conversation w/ the Mystery Man.)
I heard Lynch DID supervise the U.S. 2008 LH, which I believe because I also heard the film was originally that dark when it was shot & shown in theaters. But there are SO many dark scenes, it's just too much. It bothers me after awhile of watching it. And I played it on my computer which has great picture, so I was seeing it as it was intended, not any darker. Lynch should have realized people would actually want to see what was going on in the film without squinting their eyes & popping advil for impending headaches the whole time.
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6-05-2008 @ 12:56PM
nicolas said...
I own the letterbox VHS tape of Lost Highway and now i'm trying to find and proper DVD version but 2 things tickles me.
1- aspect ratio , some version are in 1.85,some in 2.35, some in letterbox ... i want the original aspect ratio
2-the running time , it's seem to vary from 120 to 135 minutes according to the version.Is it only an error from amazon or is it really butchered .
I own a multi region dvd player with ntsc/pal convert so that is not a problem!
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