Blue Velvet (1986)

Blue Velvet (1986)

In director David Lynch's polarizing, bizarre and nightmarish film of the dark-side of life with many strange images and scenes - his definitive and original film presented a horrifying look at sex, violence, crime and power under the peaceful exterior of small-town Americana in the mid-80s. Beneath the familiar, peaceful, 'American-dream' cleanliness of the daytime scenes lurked sleaziness, prostitution, unrestrained violence, and perversity - powerful and potentially-dangerous sexual forces that might be unleashed if not contained.

The plot of the film was about a returning college student to a sleepy town who discovered a severed ear, a finding that set him off on an odyssey to discover that "it's a strange world." He became embroiled on the dark side of town (beyond the white picket fence exterior), when he witnessed, first as a voyeur, a sexually-depraved, blackmailing relationship between a monstrous, loathsome, nitrous-oxide sniffing kidnapper and an abused/brutalized mother and fragile nightclub singer.

The bizarre, erotically-charged and nightmarish cult film was considered controversial, shocking, and lurid when released. The compelling film was often criticized for its depiction of aberrant sexual behavior, as well as highly ridiculed and disdained as an extreme, dark, vulgar and disgusting film, especially for its cinematic treatment of Isabella Rossellini - director Lynch's wife at the time.

• in the film's masterful opening scene, there were images of small-town, white-picket fence Americana (in the logging town of Lumberton), accentuated by perfect, budding blood-red roses and yellow tulips, a red fire-truck, children at a school cross-walk, and concluding with a zoom-close-up into the grass finding insects and beetles fighting to the death

• the town's clean-cut, innocent, All-American returning college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) was called home after his father Tom Beaumont (Jack Harvey) suddenly suffered a heart attack and stroke while watering the lawn, and was hospitalized;
• during his visit (while tending to his father's hardware store) and while walking back home, he discovered a severed ear in the grass (covered in ants) carelessly discarded in tall undergrowth; he brought the ear in a brown paper bag to the police department station, and gave it to investigative local police officer Detective John Williams (George Dickerson)
• as he took a neighborhood walk that evening, the camera zoomed in for a gigantic close-up of the severed ear and descended slowly into the disembodied, dirty ear - as it probed into its depths with an exaggerated howling sound; it was a metaphor for the voyeuristic Jeffrey, who now embarked on a bizarre journey to discover more about the severed and decaying body part (excised by scissors)
• before returning home, Jeffrey visited the neighboring home of the Williams family - Det. Williams was the father of a virginal, innocent and wholesome Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) - a senior in Central HS (where he had graduated) and the 'girl next-door'; the inquisitive Jeffrey was warned by Det. Williams that he was to keep quiet and secretive about his grisly anatomical find, and ask no more questions
• as he left the Williams' home, Sandy suddenly appeared from the darkness in a bright pink dress - asking: "Are you the one that found the ear?"; the eavesdropping Sandy shared clues with Jeffrey about the ear, and then mentioned how many of her father's cases involved a nightclub singer - "one thing that keeps coming up is this woman singer. She lives in an apartment building that is real close to your house. It's also close to the field where you found the ear"; Sandy explained that the woman was under surveillance - and then showed him the singer's brick-building apartment (on the 7th floor) near where he lived
• the next afternoon, Jeffrey met Sandy outside her HS, picked her up in his red convertible, and drove her to Arlene's Diner, where he discussed taking a risk to find out more about the intriguing nightclub singer, by sneaking into her place, hiding, and observing; although she was intrigued by his daring and willingness to sleuth and investigate, she also cautioned that it would be very dangerous
• they devised a plan to enter nightclub singer Dorothy Valens' (Isabella Rossellini) 7th floor apartment in a building (the Deep River Apartments) on the other side of town, with Jeffrey posing as a pest exterminator; the sultry, glossy red-lipped and red-dressed Dorothy Vallens answered the door and let Jeffrey in
• during his pest-spraying visit, a "Yellow Man" (Fred Pickler) wearing a yellow sports coat - knocked and entered, allowing Jeffrey to steal Dorothy's duplicate pair of keys, to let himself back in later that evening; at 8pm that night, during a decoy-date between Jeffrey and Sandy, they drove to a sleazy nightclub (the Slow Club) to watch Dorothy ("The Blue Lady") perform "Blue Velvet" on stage; she was bathed in the blue fog of stagelights, wearing a blue velvet dress, bright aqua-marine blue eye shadow, bright red lipstick, and a black wig
• while Dorothy continued to sing on stage, Jeffrey and Sandy drove back to trespass in Dorothy's unoccupied apartment; as he searched for clues, he didn't hear Sandy's 4-honk warning from his car outside, as Dorothy returned home; hiding in Dorothy's apartment's closet, Jeffrey watched through the slats of the closet as Dorothy disrobed to a black bra, black panties, and red high-heeled shoes; he listened as she received a phone call (confusing at this point without any references) - it was later interpreted as a cryptic call from a sadistic, criminal kidnapper named Frank who was holding her husband Don and son little Donny hostage while making her his sexual slave
• after the call, she crawled on the floor to briefly look at a framed photograph hidden under the sofa (a picture of Dorothy's husband and child), then removed her black wig, walked to the rear bathroom where she stripped naked and wrapped herself in a red towel; then, she came back into the living room to reach for her blue velvet robe from the closet; she sat on the sofa and heard a noise from the closet; Jeffrey saw her rise and proceed to the kitchen, where he heard a drawer open as she reached for a large knife; suddenly, she flung open the closet door where he was caught hiding; she threatened him at knife-point into intimidation and forced him to get on his knees; Dorothy remembered that he had been her "exterminator"; she cut his face with the knife blade, turned the tables on him, made him her voyeuristic prey, and forced him to undress in front of her: ("I want to see you get undressed"), all the way down to his boxer shorts and socks

• she pulled down his boxer shorts to the floor ("Don't move, don't look at me"), and began touching, fondling, and kissing (and fellating?) him, and forced him to remain motionless; she asked: "Do you like that?" and then asked a question combining domination, pain, power, pleasure, and humiliation: "Don't touch me or I'll kill you? Do you like talk like that?"; responding with nervous ecstasy, arousal, but defenseless fear, he was led to the couch to lie down where she straddled him and kissed him, while still threatening him with the knife
• their encounter was interrupted by three loud knocks at the door - the arrival of Frank - frightening Dorothy; she frantically feared the man's arrival and with the knife gleaming above Jeffrey, she told him to head back into the closet: ("Go hide in the closet. Don't say anything or he'll kill you"); Jeffrey watched in horror, hiding behind a wardrobe closet door, as Dorothy was terrorized by her visitor - evil, psychotic, blackmailing, perverse and depraved villainous kidnapper Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) [Note: It would become clear that Frank held her husband Don (Dick Green) and son little Donny hostage while sexually-enslaving her. Don was the owner of the severed - or castrated ear.]
• the next scene was disturbing, cruel, sadomasochistic, and kinky; demanding and condescending to her; Frank quickly established an abusive master/victim relationship over Dorothy as she accommodated his depraved preferences; the 'dark' scene was intercut with a frightened Jeffrey (stark naked) surreptitiously viewing the shadowy, broken images between the slats of the distasteful ordeal from his hiding place in the closet
• the evil, ether-addicted, drug-pushing psycho Frank with an oxygen inhaler abusively began to terrorize the blue velvet-robed Dorothy; he ordered her to sit in the living room across from him: "Spread your legs. Wider. Show it to me"; she slowly opened her legs wider and adjusted her robe, while Frank stared at her crotch and drank his bourbon; he repeatedly demanded that she look away from him - denying her the sight of his 'dark' nature; he also began to inhale (helium?) gas to heighten his sexual excitement
• he play-acted being both her Daddy and Baby: ("Baby wants to f--k. Get ready to f--k. You f--ker's f--ker. You f--ker. Don't you f--kin' look at me!...Baby wants blue velvet"); as he began to feel her breasts, he sucked, chewed, and bit velvet cloth (part of Dorothy's blue robe); and then after forcefully touching her genitals, he mounted her and started humping her with his unbuckled pants still on; he moved frenziedly faster and faster until climaxing in a brief and brutal f--k; after getting off of her, he slugged her again in the face, hideously threatening her again: "Don't you f--kin' look at me"; standing astride her on the floor before he left, he warned: "Stay alive, baby. Do it for Van Gogh"; then he marched out of the apartment, shutting the door behind him and leaving her crumpled on the floor
• after Frank left the scene of victimization, Dorothy surprised Jeffrey by pleading with a consoling Jeffrey to embrace her, touch her and further abuse her: "See my breast? You can feel it. My nipple. Still hard. You can touch it. You can feel it." Jeffrey responded by touching her. "Do you like the way I feel?...Feel me. Hit me." She banged her fist into the wall, as Jeffrey refused: "No. Dorothy no. Stop it." She continued to plead with him: "Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!"; soon after, Jeffrey descended the dark staircase outside the apartment building and the scene turned dark; that night, Jeffrey experienced a nightmare of the haunting and repulsive scene of Frank's victimization of Dorothy
• the next night, the troubled Jeffrey met with Sandy parked outside the town's white church to describe Dorothy's nightmarish "strange world" from the previous evening; he described how he had learned that kidnapper Frank had taken Dorothy's husband Don (Dick Green) and Little Donny (Jon Jon Snipes) as hostages to extort and coerce sex from her: ("Frank has done this to force Dorothy to do things for him. I think she wants to die"); Jeffrey asked himself: "Why are there people like Frank? Why is there so much trouble in this world?"
• in response, Sandy shared a euphoric description of her own dream world, using imagery including robins and transcendent Love; she told how robins would be returning to Lumberton, and her belief that there would be trouble before their arrival: ("I had a dream. In fact, it was the night I met you. In the dream, there was our world and the world was dark because there weren't any robins, and the robins represented love. And for the longest time, there was just this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free, and they flew down and brought this Blinding Light of Love. And it seemed like that love would be the only thing that would make any difference. And it did. So I guess it means there is trouble 'til the robins come")
• as the film progressed, Jeffrey was now dangerously attracted to the overwhelming power of sex and pleasure, and was becoming less of an observing detective and more of a participating pervert; in the next scene, he returned to Dorothy's apartment, to become the bad-girl's lover; he also visited her again at the nightclub to watch her perform

• Jeffrey also began to investigate and stake out Frank (who also was seen watching Dorothy's nightclub act, while fondling a piece of Dorothy's torn blue velvet robe) with his cohorts Raymond (Brad Dourif), Paul (Jack Nance), and Hunter (J. Michael Hunter); by following their car that night after they left the Slow Club, Jeffrey drove up to the location of Frank's headquarters in a brick building; he remained there until 1:30 pm the next afternoon in his car, and then drove by the high school to pick up Sandy (as she avoided her boyfriend Mike) and the two returned to Arlene's Diner
• in the diner, Jeffrey shared his findings (in a flashback) with Sandy about Frank's suspicious activities during the day; with a hidden camera, he had snapped photos of a meeting between the "Yellow Man" and Frank, and then between and a "Well-Dressed Man" with a briefcase and the "Yellow Man", who left and drove together to a factory downtown; Jeffrey watched as the two climbed up on a fire escape, as they pointed to the deadly results of a suspected drug-deal transaction nearby outside another brick building where there was an active crime scene: a blonde woman had two broken legs after being tossed to the ground, and her drug-dealing male partner was hanging dead from a window; however, Jeffrey didn't tell Sandy of his increasing romantic involvement with Dorothy
• although Sandy warned Jeffery about his dangerous activities, he admitted that he would continue delving into the criminal "mystery" by returning to Dorothy's apartment ("I'm seeing something that was always hidden. I'm involved in a mystery")
• afterwards, Jeffrey was lured back to Dorothy in her bedroom, with a rendition of Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" playing in the background - and the sonic signature of a cavernous howling in his ear was heard; in close-up, their naked bodies made love on the blue-silky sheets of her bed; she asked: "Are you a bad boy?" and then the masochistic Dorothy demanded to be hit: "I want you to hurt me...Go on, hit me. Hit me!" - Jeffrey obliged by slapping her in the mouth as he overcame his resistance to abusing her after she begged him to please her - her moist red lips appeared with sparkling white teeth; again, he hit her, as the flames grew and the animalistic howling sound intensified during their violent, erotic love-making in the darkness; she told him: "I have your disease in me now"

• as Jeffrey and Dorothy left the apartment, Frank and his three thug-partners arrived, and in a harrowing scene, Frank insisted on taking a "joy ride" with a knife-threatened Jeffrey and Dorothy; Dorothy sat between the driver Frank and Hunter in the front seat, with Jeffrey wedged in the back seat between Frank's two other cohorts Raymond and Paul; their destination was a house of prostitution ("THIS IS IT"), run by Frank's suave, clownish and effeminante crime associate Ben (Dean Stockwell); at the front door entrance, Frank held Jeffrey at knife-point as he criticized Jeffrey's beer preference: (Frank: "Heineken? F--k that s--t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!")

• while Frank and his buddies were slugging at Jeffrey, he also saw and overheard Frank exchanging money and drugs with drug-pusher Ben, and bragging about their gun-toting accomplice Gordon, who had murdered and stolen drugs from a rival drug courier-dealer (the crime scene seen earlier); Frank also allowed Dorothy to see her small son, Donny, who was being held hostage there in a back-room
• in another remarkably surreal sequence in the bordello, the crazed, kabuki-like, Queen Bee proprietor-pimp Ben lip-synched - in a cool, karaoke-style - Roy Orbison's cassette-taped pop tune "In Dreams" - a workman's light functioned as a spotlight and as a microphone: ("A candy colored clown they call the Sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper Go to sleep everything is all right. I close my eyes. Then I drift away. Into the magic night. I softly say A silent prayer. Like dreams do. Then I fall asleep To dream my dreams of you. In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, you're mine, all the time. We're together...")
• after the song ended, the raging Frank abruptly turned off the cassette tape and then ordered everyone to leave for another joy-ride: "Now it's dark. Let's F--K. I'll f--k anything that moves"; the group drove off to a deserted lumber saw-mill - an industrial site at Meadow Lane where Dorothy's husband was being held prisoner; when Jeffrey attempted to defend Dorothy from being taunted and sexually-abused by Frank, by punching him in the face, Frank ordered the car stopped; after he continued to inhale gas from his mask, he also smeared his face with red lipstick, and then repeatedly forced kisses on Jeffrey, transferring the lipstick to his face and emasculating him in the process

• in the truly terrifying scene, Frank terrorized and brutalized Jeffrey and communicated how he would kill Jeffrey for helping Dorothy by shooting him with a "love letter bullet" - as he distorted and butchered the metaphor of the lyrics of another Orbison song "Love Letters (Straight From Your Heart)" playing on a cassette tape in the car: ("Don't be a good neighbor to her. I'll send you a love letter straight from my heart, f--ker. Do you know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a f--kin' gun, f--ker. If you receive a love letter from me, you are f--ked forever. Do you understand, f--k? I'll send ya straight to Hell, f--ker!"); and then, Frank repeated lines from the earlier song "In Dreams" ("In dreams, I'd walk with you. In dreams, I'd talk to you. In dreams, you're mine. All...forever in dreams") before severely brutalizing Jeffrey with blows to the stomach and face; Jeffrey was left in the muddy dirt where he awakened the next morning with bloody bruises
• Jeffrey visited the police station to report his savage treatment, where he was shocked to learn that Detective Williams' partner in a nearby office was Detective Gordon ("The Yellow Man"), who was implicated in murder and illicit drug dealing; he hurriedly left the station, and privately spoke to Det. Williams later that evening in his home, to show him his B/W photographs of Det. Gordon with Frank, and then Gordon with a gang-member dubbed a "Well-Dressed" Man with a briefcase, and to tell him about the kidnapping of Dorothy's family members - Little Don and husband Don; he also lied and vowed that Sandy was not involved
• a few days later, Sandy and Jeffrey went on a date to a dance party with other teens, where the two danced as boyfriend-girlfriend, and were soon in each other's arms, kissing and dancing and expressing their love for each other - to the organ-accompanied love song: "Mysteries of Love"
• on their drive home after leaving the teen party, they were pursued and harrassed by another driver (Sandy's very jealous ex-boyfriend Mike) and were stopped in front of Jeffrey's house; there, they were shocked to see a naked, vulnerable and battered Dorothy appear on the Beaumont's front lawn; Jeffrey sheltered her as he led her to their car, before they took her to Sandy's house to call for an ambulance

• Dorothy screamed out for Jeffrey to hold her (calling him her "secret lover"), and then made the odd declaration ("He put his disease in me") - referring to her clandestine sexual relationship with Jeffrey; Sandy was terribly pained and distraught by the sordid, distasteful accusation, hurt in learning that Jeffrey had a sexual relationship with the nightclub singer ("What's going on here?"); Sandy slapped Jeffrey in the face after the ambulance took Dorothy away for his unfaithfulness, but then almost immediately, she phoned Jeffrey and apologized when he admitted he had been dishonest with her
• Jeffrey immediately returned to Dorothy's Deep River apartment, and upon entering saw the results of two gruesome murders: Detective Gordon (the 'Yellow Man') was propped up dead (with a gunshot head wound) in the center of the room, and Dorothy's husband Don was seated on one of Dorothy's chairs with his hands tied and mouth gagged (with a piece of Dorothy's blue-velvet robe) - he had also suffered a gunshot head wound - and was missing an ear; over the Detective Gordon's radio, Jeffrey heard a police assault with gunfire in progress led by Det. Williams at Frank's brick apartment building

• as Jeffrey was leaving, he saw the "Well-Dressed Man" entering the building - he realized it was a disguised Frank Booth with a police radio!; Jeffrey rushed back inside to radio Det. Williams about Frank's disguise and his approach, but then realized that Frank had been listening in; to fool Frank about where he was hiding, Jeffrey radioed Det. Williams that he was in the back bedroom, but then hid in the living room's closet; as Frank finally realized Jeffrey's hiding place, he opened up the slatted closet door, where Jeffrey was poised - Jeffrey blasted him between the eyes - point-blank - with Det. Gordon's gun; Sandy and then Det. Williams rushed in, who concluded: "It's all over"; Sandy and Jeffrey - the heroine and hero kissed and hugged in the hallway before the screen turned to complete whiteness
• in the film's denouement accompanied by the love song, "The Mysteries of Love," it was springtime, and Jeffrey was in his backyard on a lounger and a robin was in a tree above him; Sandy had prepared lunch inside the kitchen; Jeffrey's recovered father and Det. Williams were also in the garden, while Mrs. Williams and Jeffrey's mother were in the living room; the final scene was backed by peaceful organ music, romance, bright sunshine in a kitchen, an optimistic future, friendly conversations between neighbors, united families - all the false comforts of the nostalgic 50s past that were symbolized by the return of the robins, bringing Sandy's dream to fulfillment - the Blinding Light of Love: (Jeffrey: "Maybe the robins are here"); Sandy (looking at Jeffrey and smiling) told him: "It's a strange world, isn't it?" (Jeffrey nodded in agreement) - as they looked at a robin consuming a bug
• as a neat bookend, the peaceful images from the film's opening were replayed
• in another afternoon scene involving a second family group in a local park, Little Donny was reunited with his mother Dorothy, who cradled him in her arms and hugged him, although she appeared bittersweet as tears formed in her eyes; she was heard singing in the background: "And I still can see Blue Velvet through my tears"