‘Blue Velvet’ is the screenwriter and maverick director’s nightmarish vision that studies sex, crime, violence and corruption, all hidden under the deep exterior of small-town America. The peaceful town of Lumberton is not what it seems. By day, a beautiful small vision of serenity but by night a sleazy, perverse hellhole filled with prostitution, unprovoked violence and hatred.
Firstly a big bright red fire engine slowly glides past the frame, all the while a friendly fireman waves in slow motion. A crossing guard then allows some school children to cross the road by holding up a stop sign. Then outside one of the many repetitive looking houses, an old man is watering his plants and garden, his wife sits inside watching a dark film noir thriller on their T.V (A black & white image of a hand holding a gun, suggesting that something is not what it seems).
Then suddenly the man watering the plants has some sort of seizure and falls to the ground. Water flies into the air, causing a dog to jump wildly about on the old mans chest, trying to eat the water. An innocent toddler in a nappy stumbles down the driveway to see the man lying there.
The camera slowly and menacingly pans away and through the huge blades of grass in his garden. We are taken to another world were giant insects attack each other and struggle to survive whilst on top of each other.
Overall, without offending Lynch hardcore fans, the overall story of ‘Blue Velvet’ is a twisted detective tale. While it is also a throwback/tribute to art films, 50’s B-movies, film noir and mystery thrillers, my opinion is that it’s a detective tale. Although Lynch calls it a ‘Love’ tale.
A young, innocent man named Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan, is throwing rocks at a Heineken bottle when he looks down amongst the dirt and weeds only to find – A severed human ear!
He takes it to the police and then gets involved in a chain of events that take him head first into the sinister and dark Lumberton he has never seen before.
Detective Williams (George Dickerson) hands the ear over to the coroner's office for forensic study, the coroner explains he can tell the Sex and blood type of the person and whether or not the ear came off a dead person. Then he declares - it looks like the ear was cut off with scissors.
The pair walk down town, Sandy then points out the apartment where the singer lives. Jeffrey, full of confidence wants to investigate, but decides to walk Sandy home. As they walk along, they talk about each other and the ear. It is an obvious parallel/tribute to Frank Capra's film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ when George Bailey and Mary are walking along together after the school dance. Also considering Mel Brooks, whose Brooksfilms Company helped produce ‘The Elephant Man’, famously called Lynch “Jimmy Stewart on acid!!!”
The next day, Jeffrey picks Sandy up from school and tells her his plan on how to get into the apartment and look for clues. Jeffrey is going to disguise himself as a bug spray man and enter the singing ladies flat without her suspecting a thing.
Frank Booth is a local thug and gangster, he is also one of the most incredible manifestations of evil ever-portrayed on screen. An ugly, snarling, foul-mouthed thug prone to random acts of unprovoked violence, after inhaling gas from a tube. Jeffrey watches from the cupboard as Frank beats and assaults Dorothy. A controversial scene as we see a rather odd and eerie smile crack across Isabella Rossellini’s bloodied face. Is she enjoying it?
As the superb Dean Stockwell mimes along to the classic Roy Orbison song, we see Booth’s face wincing in pain, a man who is clearly hurt by the powerful lyrics, battering and wounding his soul.
Lynch, a big fan of Orbison, obviously recognised the strangeness, loneliness and darkness at the core of Orbison’s material and Lynch turns the music into a weapon against Booth.
The two men (Jeffrey & Frank) almost seem similar mid-way through the movie. At one point Sandy questions what Jeffrey is, a detective or a pervert; in another scene Frank claims Jeffrey is like him. Lynch brilliantly blurs the clear line between hero and villain.
Various phrases re-occur throughout like: “It’s a strange world, isn’t it?” and Booth’s “Now it’s dark”, both position themselves as major lines in the film.
The famous pre-Beatles US pop theme song is a song of longing for one woman, written by Lee Morris and Bernie Wayne. It also serves notice to the odd ‘retro’ feel. The Idyllic small-town images of the town look like something from pre-Kennedy 50’s America, but the movie still has a glossy 80’s feel about it. As seen in the meeting of Jeffrey and Sandy, played by Laura Dern, which takes place in a 50’s style diner.
Although I haven’t covered nearly half the subject matter of this rather complex masterpiece in this review, it is a film that has to be seen, by everyone.
A haunting, terrifying vision of a dark and sinister man. A movie that even Spuffjockey’s favourite critic, Mark Kermode couldn’t sit through. The man’s favourite film is ‘The Exorcist’.