Heineken? Fuck That Shit!

I like how people constantly refer to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet as being the easiest to comprehend. The fact that you can get the story in one sitting compared to his other efforts like Mulholland Drive that have a more open ended approach. I find that because Blue Velvet is so “simple” it makes it much harder to comprehend fully. There are so many different aspects of the film I’m not sure I fully understand even though the film has led me to believe I do. While most people will disagree I think this is his most challenging film.

Lumberton is a small town in North Carolina which apparently has a busier nightlife than most metropolises these days. It has a considerably large crime syndicate for what appears to be a tight knit community. Lynch extenuates this point in the very beginning by showing various shots of the town itself. Jeffery (Kyle MacLachlan) is a college student who returns home after his dad has a stroke watering the yard. After returning from the hospital he finds a severed ear and instead of ignoring its existence decides to investigate.

Jeffery’s personality has a few different sides. At first you see him as generally curious and nothing more. His investigative techniques are very similar to a character MacLachlan later plays in Lynch’s Twin Peaks. While they may not be to the point of throwing stones at a bottle to spot suspects you can see Lynch was playing with the idea of faulty investigations even with Blue Velvet. Jeffery’s other side is much more mysterious and even by the end of the movie I found myself questioning his real motive behind visiting Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini).

The most crucial part of Blue Velvet ends up being Jeffery. Knowing that he is seeing these surreal images for the first time makes you come to terms with the odder points of Blue Velvet. Frank (Dennis Hopper) is mostly the reason for these strange outings. The film is largely straightforward up until the point where Frank begins to make his appearances. At that point Lynch takes Franks mental state and puts it on display which ends up becoming an iatrical part of the story. Dennis Hopper does an unbelievable job with Frank who is the demented ringleader of his group. Without his portrayal I’m not sure I could have fully believed the character.

Blue Velvet is a technically more straightforward than Lynch’s later efforts but that isn’t really saying much. Watching it again I’m sure will only unveil more mysteries I’ll have to figure out. To tell you the truth, I almost prefer to be completely in shock after one of his films than feel like I know only half of it.