BLUE VELVET

(September 1986, U.S.)

Ladies and gentlemen, it's my distinct pleasure to finally have the opportunity to introduce to my blog, "the wizard of weird" himself, the great David Lynch; perhaps the only real true artist of cinema alive today. Love him or hate hime, one cannot deny the impact his films can have on a viewer.

To experience a film by David Lynch is to experience a world within a dream and a nightmare. On the surface, BLUE VELVET may appear simply as a mystery film, exhibiting elements of both 1950's film noir and surrealism. On the surface, the fictitious town of Lumberton is a simple, picturesque, Norman Rockwell-like world of good people, beautiful trees and homespun values. Look deeper, though, and you'll find a nightmare world of crime, drug abuse and sexual violence. It's a mystery that starts almost harmlessly enough with young Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle Maclachlan) walking home through a field and finding a severed human ear. Any other normal person would just turn the ear in and leave the matter alone, right? But when you're the hero of a David Lynch film, you proceed to investigate the ear further with help from your high school friend, Sandy Williams (played by Laura Dern), who provides you with information and leads from her father, the local police detective. The investigation draws you deeper into your hometown's seedy underworld, where you form a sexual relationship with the alluring torch singer, Dorothy Vallens (played by Isabella Rossellini), and uncover the vile criminal Frank Booth (played by Dennis Hopper). Frank Booth is undenyably one of the nastiest criminal characters ever created on film.

BLUE VELVET is generally considered the best film of David Lynch's career (my personal favorite is LOST HIGHWAY, but we'll get to that much later) and one of my top ten favorite films of the 1980's. It's a small wonder, though, that Lynch's career ever recovered after the financial and critical disaster that was known as DUNE (I loved it, but that, too, is another matter). Perhaps science fiction was never meant to be Lynch's cup of tea. A true artist such as he has proven most successful when diving into his personal world of visions and dreams. I can recall BLUE VELVET playing at the local triplex movie theater right across the street from my college dorm building in Buffalo, New York for months and I never bothered to go see it. Sadly, I hadn't discovered my appreciation for art films yet. Shame on me.

Personal story time. I had a roomate in college whom I shall call Chris (because that's really his name). He was one of the quirkiest and most spirited guys I ever met which meant it wasn't hard for us to become really good friends. Anyway, he loved, loved, loved BLUE VELVET! He loved it on a level that made him an expert on it's story, its dialogue and David Lynch himself. It was Chris who turned me on to this film. When we'd drink together, he'd enjoy raising his glass and saying, "Here's to your fuck, Eric!". So it is to Chris that I dedicate this post. We haven't seen each other since 1992, and to this day, I'm still unable to locate him on Facebook. I miss him. Here's to your fuck, Chris!

One final observation on this film; the word "fuck" and words containing the word "fuck" are spoken a total of fifty-seven times in BLUE VELVET. I couldn't resist - I counted! Fifty-six of those fifty-seven times is spoken by Frank Booth.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Frank Booth: "What kind of beer do you like?"
Jeffrey Beaumont: "Heineken."
Frank (shouting): "Heineken? Fuck that shit!! PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!"