Filmic Friday 233: Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet is amazing

And yes, the Criterion version is also incredible.

I had the opportunity to watch David Lynch's Blue Velvet recently, and let me tell you, that thing gave me more nightmares than tax season does. That's not an indictment, though, because it's also one of the most beautiful and dreamlike movies out there. Ever want to see how Twin Peaks' Agent Cooper got his start? Ever wanted to feel like you were simultaneously dreaming and in very real danger? How about watching Dennis Hopper scream obscenities and be a VERY bad man?

Then this is your film.

You'd think this album cover-y shot of roses on a white picket fence would be comforting.
It's not.

Our hero is Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle McLachlen) who has been forced to return home from college due to his father's stroke so that he can help run the family hardware store and save them some money. On his way home from visiting dear old dad in the hospital, Jeffrey finds an ear in a field. Yes, a severed human ear. Lynch leads with the freaky.

He has a shockingly measured response to this.

Being a concerned citizen, Jeffrey brings the ear to the police. From there he gets entangled with not only the detective's daughter, Sandy (played by Laura Dern), and the case, but also ends up getting dragged into some pretty dark places.

Why yes, she is the lady from Jurassic Park!
Also, look how flipping young they both are! Adorable!

At the center of the case of the severed ear are troubled nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and terrifyingly psychotic Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). Jeffrey, being a curious and intrinsically heroic young man, gets completely swallowed up by the horrific world these two dwell in.

Though looking at Dorothy, it may be a world worth losing oneself in.

Or maybe not.

However bad you may now think it is between Dorothy and Frank, it's far, far worse and infinitely weirder.

One thing you cannot accuse this movie of is sugarcoating the violence. Every moment of violence feels both inevitable and shocking. The finale is also possibly one of the most tense and frightening moments of 1986 cinema.

Because having Dennis Hopper wheezing into some kind of druggy gas
while pointing a silenced pistol at you is never fun.

I'm being sparse and vague here because I really want you to go see this movie. Get ahold of a copy. Settle in with comfortable seating and snacks, and be prepared for the subtle references to the Red Room and the Black Lodge (especially in the Slow Club).

Also be very prepared for an amazing movie.

My final note is this: you cannot convince me that Frank Booth isn't a previous earthly incarnation of Bob the Killer from Twin Peaks.

And on that note, I bid you adieu.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC