She Wore Blue Velvet (Movie Only) (Blue Velvet (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Blue Velvet (DVD)
Date:	09/12/07 (268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Seminal movie from a brilliant director

Disadvantages: Certain scenes may shock

As strains of Bobby Vinton's classic "Blue Velvet" warble in the background, a blue screen curtain parts to images of 1960's middle America. Everyday people in their front gardens, a man waiving from a fire engine, all seemingly timeless in small town Lumberton in Carolina. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is a college student whose father has just suffered a stroke whilst watering the garden. On his way home from the hospital, he discovers a severed ear lying in the grass and after taking it to the police, he's informed by the town sheriff's daughter that there may be a link with a local woman, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Intent on investigating further, Jeffrey pretends to be a bug fumigator and having duped his way into the woman's flat, he steals her door keys enabling him to return later whilst she is singing at the local club. Distracted by a flushing toilet, the hapless amateur sleuth hears the front door opening allowing him just enough time to hide in the cupboard. Over hearing a telephone conversation that leads him to believe that the woman's husband and child are being held captive, Jeffrey is discovered but before the strange woman can seduce him after realizing that he is not a threat and forcing him to strip, the teen detective is returned to the wardrobe as local villain, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) arrives. From his voyeur's position, he endures a scene that plays out in front of his eyes that is both brutal, bizarre and sadistic. As Jeffrey gets deeper and deeper into the dim and murky world of violent criminality, sadism and corruption, he realises that the black and white values of morality and decency aren't as clear cut as he was led to believe.

Written and directed by David Lynch and released in 1986 to critical acclaim, "Blue Velvet" is typical of so much of Lynch's "Twin Peaks" branded message of a subversive layer of violence and corruption lying beneath an apathetic surface of conformity in Middle America. What sets aside this movie from others of a similar nature is the master class in story telling that takes the audience on a highly visual ride of extremes of violence and torture. In the opening scene we see Jeffrey's father collapse clutching his neck and as he hits the grass, the camera cuts to a subliminal passage that takes us under the earth and into a nest of beetles. In a wordless exchange, we are told not to take everything at face value and that there are unspeakable creatures right below our very noses; we simply don't realise that they are there most of the time. Jeffrey's bed side encounter with his father wired up to a myriad of tubes and machines is marked only by his soundless acknowledgement of his father trying to speak and his realisation that he wants more from life that the apparently mundane existence of so many of the town's population typified by his father.

Both Kyle MacLachlan (best known for "Twin Peaks") and Laura Dern playing the local sheriff's daughter reprise relatively early roles in their careers and it shows to an extent. MacLachlan is ponderous and even slightly wooden on occasion whilst Dern just looks surprised all the time. As their unlikely relationship develops, they are overshadowed by both Hopper as the sociopath Booth and Isabella Rossellini as the abused Dorothy Vallens. The intensity of Hopper's performance is frightening at times and he features in the two scenes with the most intensity; the violent sex scene in Dorothy's flat and the scene with him inhaling gas at the culmination of taking Jeffrey on a forced joy ride through the town and its outskirts. With the teenager captive in the back seat, Booth inhales the gas maniacally and as he sets about debasing Dorothy in the passenger seat, Jeffrey experiences a rage that underlines Frank's comment that he's just like him and is an unknowing reflection upon the young man's affair with Dorothy and his ability to hurt her as requested when they previously had sex.

Dean Stockwell features in a cameo role as Frank's partner in crime, Ben and centres himself in a highly ritualistic exchange in his safe house. With Frank watching on and the joy ride close to its peak, Stockwell takes a microphone and mimics Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" to entertain his partner. As the music plays and the lipstick, eye shadow adorned side-kick mimes on, Frank experiences more rage and Ben discreetly stops as his partner declares that it's time to leave.

Many of Lynch's hallmark directorial values are present in the movie. Low lighting in Dorothy's flat encourages a mood of voyeurism, the audience being presented with the feeling of looking in from the outside; stylized violence accompanied by a mix of classical and pop music and a subversive story line that undermines conservative vales. For a low budget, film noir which "Blue Velvet" essentially was, the musical score is a triumph. With a soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti, the movie enlists a mix of classical pieces mainly from Shostakovich whilst weaving in seminal pop songs like Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" and the timeless "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison. The latter features in two key scenes and re-enforces the feel for the period the movie is set in as well as providing a juxtaposition for the violence expounded in the story.

With a run time of around 2 hours and an 18 certificate for bad language and scenes of sex and violence, "Blue Velvet" is very definitely a movie for adults. I watched it again the other night as it's a film that has sparked so much controversy in its time and yet won so many awards since its release. On the face of it, the film is a thriller that takes in the world of drugs, violence and sadism but it's so much more than that. In a way that he may never do so effectively again, Lynch manages to tell us that the world we live in is so much grayer than we think and that our moral values can be challenged at any time. For a movie that makes its audience think whilst entertaining in such an extreme way, the balance of opinion can only be that "Blue Velvet" is a masterpiece and deserves its place in cinematic history. For some it may prove too much; for the majority of us we can only revel in its storytelling and wince at its bleakness as the blue curtain closes and the closing credits roll.

Thanks for reading

Mara

DVD available at Amazon from £4.97

Summary: Overview of the movie