“It's a strange world”

The opening sequence of Blue Velvet sets the stage for one of cinema’s strangest odysseys. As we are introduced through a montage of the small truly American town of Lumberton, we see how pitch perfect America can be. Then we see a man watering his lawn suffer a heart attack. And then the camera takes us into the ground, where we see carnivorous beetles devouring on whatever they can. This metaphorical opening gives us the entire theme of the film in a nutshell: As nice as some things look on the outside, there is a seedy underground of dangers hidden beneath.

Blue Velvet, the film that put the slightly insane director David Lynch from a possible career as a standard Hollywood director to an auteur with a style matched by no other, is a sexual odyssey of dangers that purges into our deepest fears of America. Inspired by existential works by Bergman and classic film noirs of Huston, it is an indescribable experience to watch that plunges the viewer into danger way before they can even guess. And with the casting of the young Kyle MacLachlan, the haunting Isabella Rossellini, and the creepy Dennis Hopper, this is a film that despite how bizarre and frightening it becomes, feels like it could be happening next door.

After the lyrical opening, we are introduced to young Jeffrey Beaumont, played by MacLachlan. Jeffrey has returned home from college to take care of his dad’s store while he recovers from his heart attack. But as curiosity kills the kitten, young Jeffrey does more than just hardware. He discovers a human ear in a field. After going to the police, Jeffery begins a hunt to discover whose missing an ear, but falls into a dangerous world much too fast.

But Jeffrey doesn’t work alone; he’s got a new friend, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern). While Jeffrey wants to dive right in, Sandy (whose still in high school) holds him back. “I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert,” she tells him. Sandy and Jeffrey aren’t lovers (she has a boyfriend), but their friendship seems to be more than simply detectives.

As one dream like shot has Lynch moving is camera directly through the ear, Jeffrey dives right in when he discovers the apartment of Ms. Dorothy Vallens, played by the elusive Issabella Rossellini. The film takes a nosedive during a sequence when Jeffrey hides in her apartment as she comes home. She discovers him, assaults him, pleasures him, and then hides him as Frank appears. Frank, played with a visceral intensity by Dennis Hopper, proceeds to rape Dorothy, but not in the usual way. He gets high on oxygen through a mask, then pleads like a child to his mother, but still brutally hurts her.

This one single sequence, defines what Blue Velvet is truly made of: the loss of innocence. Jeffrey has been trying to help discover what possible dangers could lay in his small simple town and instead discovers a world of horrors that were unimaginable to him. Without any more spoilers, the rest of the film sequences Jeffrey falling further and further into damnation, as if a postmodern version of Dante’s Inferno.

What makes Blue Velevet such a compelling piece of work is Mr. Lynch’s touch on the film. He drives us in, whether we like it or not. Yet we are still glued to the screen. He imagines sequences that not even our subconscious could possibly imagine (His 2001 opus, Mulholland Dr, directly deals with the idea of the subconscious). Take the sequence where Dean Stockwell sings “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison. It’s enigmatic and haunting, by just simply incredibly engaging. The staging of Frank’s position, the lighting upon Stockwell’s face, and the entrance of Dorothy into the scene make it one of the best within the film.

But none of this could work without the performances of these actors. As Jeffrey, MacLanhan completely works as a young child who has no idea of what he’s doing. He’s so innocent, and so naïve to what he’s in, and you believe his actions every second. Hopper creates one of the greatest screen villains of all time with Frank. He’s possibly one of the scariest men one could ever imagine. But in that sentence is one scary thing: imagine. You could believe there actually is a Frank out there, just as crazy as this one portrayed in the film, and you are scared. “Why are there people like Frank?” asks Jeffrey.

But the key performance here is that of Ms. Rossellini. Daughter of famous director Italian realist Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Isabella Rossellini captivates the screen with such a strong presence that captivates every moment she’s in. She truly gives everything in this. It’s a physical performance as much as an emotional, and it’s surprising to believe that Rossellini would do all this without quitting right in front of Mr. Lynch. This is truly one of the greatest female performances to ever be put to celluloid.

Like many of Lynch’s great screen expeditions, this is one that we may never know everything about. Blue Velvet was made with a deal with producer Dino De Laurentiis. Lynch directed the science fiction flop Dune in accordance with his producer, that he could make whatever film he wanted for a certain budget, as long as it was under two hours. Lynch’s original cut ran over four hours, so he began a slow but successful edit to a single frame under two hours. No footage remains from the full cut, though many stills do (and the scenes do exist in the script).

Between Lynch’s other filmography, Blue Velvet might be the only grounded in reality, as strange as that could sound. But like in his other films such as Eraserhead, Lost Highway, and INLAND EMPIRE (and his famous TV series Twin Peaks), Lynch deals with the essence of dreams and nightmares of our world, and how they can hurt us.

Blue Velvet is simply a surreal nightmare. We cannot avoid the dangers of the world once we are aware of them. With strong conviction, Lynch pulls us through this dream, and at the end, we are better because of it. Unlike some of Lynch’s other films, Blue Velvet ends with hope for a better world. It’s only once we open our eyes, that we can truly know and accept the world. And if we fight against it, then maybe our world can be a better place. Blue Velvet is the quintessential David Lynch film that explores the dreams, nightmares, and dangers of the world, we all must face.