"Blue Velvet" is a now-classic David Lynch movie, described variously as a mystery, neonoir or psychological horror movie. Its a Lynch movie, so we can dispense with the labels. It might also be considered the first theatrical movie that was the full creation of Lynch, since previous films were either the student film Eraserhead, and the adaptations Elephant Man and Dune. It was released in 1986, and was a rebound after the commercial and critical problems of Dune. As can be believed, the movie was controversial at the time, and is considered a cult classic and also a regular classic. There are many views of this film, and this review will be mine. Since the film considers strong subject matter in many ways (sex, violence, drugs) I will be talking about some disturbing things here.
When I started watching this movie, I went through a few steps. To be honest, the beginning of the movie, with stilted acting and wooden dialog, showing normal life in the small town of Lumberton, made me wonder if I really enjoyed Lynch films or was just under the spell of his reputation. Then the movie shifted, giving me an at least intellectual appreciation of what he was doing, and then at a certain point in the film, everything clicked. This scene was the "descent into hell" where we first see the evil gangboss Frank Booth (played by Dennis Hopper), which occurs about 45 minutes into the 2 hour long film.
The story starts when Jeff Beaumont (Kyle McLachlan), a college student, returns home to the small town of Lumberton after his father has a stroke. On a walk home, he finds a human ear in an empty field, and takes it to a local police detective. The daughter's detective, Sandy (Laura Dern) overhears Jeff talking to her father, and together, as plucky partners akin to something from Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, they decide to investigate the crime themselves. They find out that Dorothy Valens (Isabella Rossini) is being blackmailed by sadistic gangboss Frank Booth. This is also where the movie takes an abrupt turn: from a story about two young people investigating a mystery to noir with frightening psychosexual elements. Jeff begins a sexual relationship with the abused Dorothy at the same time as he enters into a more traditional relationship with the "girl next door" Sandy. In the climax of the film, Frank Booth kidnaps Jeff and verbally and physically abuses him, as well as introducing him to Ben (Dean Stockwell), a bisexual pimp. The climax of the movie "revolves" the plot and lets the seemingly normal small town life return.
This movie worked, and not just because of the style (which, was of course, great, in a bizarre Lynchian way.) but because of the substance. My theory about why this film has substance, and not just style, hinges on how well Lynch explicates evil in the figure of Frank Booth. This, of course, is my guess, but enabling guesses is what Lynch films are about.
Frank Booth represents how cloying evil is. Booth shows two faces of evil: he is both totally aribitrary, and tightly restrictive. The dialog quoted above:
Frank: "You wanna go for a ride?"
Jeffrey: "No thanks."
Frank: "No thanks? What does that mean?"
Jeffrey: "I don't want to go."
Frank: "Go where?"
Jeffrey: "On a ride."
Frank: "A ride? Hell, that's a good idea. Okay, let's go."
shows his modus operandi. He acts as if he is following some set of rules, and expects other people to follow them as well, but his rules are totally made up. He is both arbitrary and restrictive, and his evil lies in forcing people to accept his reality, even though it makes no sense. This is also a part of his weird Freudian play: in the sexual play that he forces Dorothy into, he insists on being "baby" and "Daddy", alternating between a infantile neediness and an "adult" insistence on domination and control. And so it is that with Booth, in every scene, he is dependent on others: he constantly seeks the validation and attention of others, usually through the verbal abuse of his henchmen and captors, but also through the fawning he shows to Ben. Although Frank Booth is a caricature, he is also a perfect depiction of evil in many ways: he is evil because he is both arbitrary and restrictive, and he is evil because he is parasitic, needing to constantly lean on other people to continue to exist. And this stands in contrast to Jeff, who exhibits a
sense of self throughout the story. In fact, when we first see him, he is alone, appearing tranquil as he walks in nature. So if I had to sum it up, I would say that this movie substantially displays the difference between good and evil as the difference between what is self-contained and what is parasitic. Besides of course this is a David Lynch movie so it is always more than that.
One final note, that both weakens and strengthens this movie, depending on the viewer's taste. The year it is set in is somewhat mysterious. Some of the hairstyles and fashions (such as Jeff's earring) seem to be out of the 1980s, while much of the film resembles the 1960s. The movie is set in a hazy nostalgic time. The size of the town is also somewhat inexact, since we are dealing with a white picket fence small town---that still has 7 story apartment buildings, and night clubs playing jazz music. Which would all just be artistic touches, but certain issues in this movie, such as police corruption, also touch on issues of racial and social justice. There are only two black characters in the movie. So I feel that something is missing here, in that obvious issues of social justice are not addressed. But this is a David Lynch movie, so those connections might be alluded to without being directly answered.