The movie opens with a montage of random, peaceful scenes that are followed up by a gruesome death. Within the first few seconds, the pattern of the entire movie will be set. After this random scene, the focus shifts to Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Kyle MacLachlan, walking through an abandoned area on the way to visit his father. On the way home, he finds a human ear in this very field. Jeffrey takes it to Detective Williams, a neighbor, in order to involve the police in the investigation of a missing person. A bit later in the evening, Jeffrey stops by the detectives house, hoping to find out more about the case. As expected, Detective Williams cannot be very forthcoming, and asks Jeffrey not to talk about the case with anyone.
As Jeffrey is walking home, he runs into Sandy Williams, who is the detective’s daughter. They begin talking about the case, and Sandy tells him about what she overheard from her father. Sandy tells Jeffery about a woman being investigated named Dorothy Vallens; who also strangely lives in the same neighborhood. Jeffery then becomes progressively nosy about the case, and then hatches a plan to investigate Dorothy’s apartment the next day. For his plan to work, Jeffrey picks Sandy up from high school and then talks her into helping him sneak into the apartment. While he is in the apartment, Jeffrey notices Dorothy talking to a man in a yellow coat. He takes this distraction to steal a spare set of keys to her apartment.
Jeffery plans to come back that night while Dorothy is singing at a nightclub. He sneaks into the apartment, but is trapped when Dorothy comes home without him realizing that Sandy signaled him to leave. He then hides in a closet, but is caught by Dorothy. She makes him strip, and then thinking that he is into voyeurism begins to teach him about sex.
This scene is interrupted by a knock at the door. Dorothy realizes that her “man” is there and rushes Jeffrey back into the closet to hide. He then witnesses the depravity of Frank Booth, Played by Dennis Hopper, the major antagonist of the film. It was a sickening scene, that truly showed Booth’s character. After witnessing this, Dorothy begins seducing him again, until things go very wrong.
When Jeffery meets up with Sandy the next day, he tells her about Booth, and how he thinks that Booth kidnapped Dorothy’s son and husband as hostages to ensure her cooperation in his sick, twisted actions. After this, Jeffrey goes to Dorothy’s club and begins following Booth. Jeffrey shadows his target, taking pictures for a day and a night. He gets random shots of Booth and various visitors, including the man in the yellow suit meeting with someone he calls “the well dressed man”.
Later, after talking to Sandy, Jeffrey goes back to Dorothy’s apartment. He ends up having sex with her; and as he is leaving runs into Frank Booth and his thugs. These men then make Jeffrey and Dorothy go on a “joyride” where a bunch of random, crazy stuff happens that culminates with Jeffrey getting the crap kicked out of him. As soon as he woke up, Jeffery goes to the police, planning on reporting the crime. While at the station, he notices that the yellow suited man is Detective Williams’ partner. That night, Jeffrey goes to Detective Williams house and confesses what he has been doing. The detective warns Jeffrey to stay quiet about what he saw.
A few days after this occurred, Sandy and Jeffery go to a dance together. While at the dance, these two lovebirds finally admit their deep feelings for one another. As they are driving home, they have a lot of crazy experiences that culminate when Dorothy is waiting for them naked on Jeffery’s front lawn. She is then whisked to the hospital, with Jeffery in tow. While at the hospital, Jeffery calls Sandy to make up and tells her that she needs to send her father over to Dorothy’s apartment immediately.
Jeffery then heads to the apartment himself, and finds a shocking discovery when he opens the door. In the middle of the room sits Dorothy’s husband, who is missing an ear; along with the man in the yellow suit, who appears to be a vegetable. As Jeffrey is running out of the apartment, he notices the “well dressed man”, who is Booth in disguise, coming up the stairs. Jeffery runs back into the apartment and tries to call help on the police radio. Shocked that help is a long way off, and remembering that Booth also has a police radio, Jeffrey sets a trap for Booth. He then hides in the closet, with the gun taken from the man in the yellow suit, waiting on Booth. Booth runs through the apartment in a rage, until he finally finds Jeffrey in the closet. Detective Williams, with Sandy in tow, show up just after the final confrontation between the two.
A few days after all this occurs, the movie flashes to Jeffrey and Sandy getting along with their lives. It also shows Dorothy reunited with her son, before ending with the same two random scenes that the movie started with.
There are more hidden meanings, themes and “lessons” that are prevalent throughout Blue Velvet than are available to be noticed in the first twenty viewings. The major theme of the movie surrounds understanding the truth behind the facade of society. Blue Velvet shows the depth and darkness that can exist in even the most perfect of towns. It then describes the journey of Jeffery, who discovers this seedy underbelly of society, as he allows his inquisitive nature to lead him into trouble. This brings up many philosophical ideas and questions that make the viewer think and consider many things about their own life. This is not the only thought provoking interpretation of Blue Velvet, just the most obvious one. I will not list the others that I found, since I do not want to color your opinion of the film.
Blue Velvet itself was a well made film. Director David Lynch had a vision, and succeeded in bringing it to life on the screen. Throughout the film, it was obvious the meticulous care Lynch took when designing every scene and ensuring the quality of the shots. This care and skill continued to represent the actors. Every actor in this film was held to the same high standard, and performed admirably. This is even more astounding when one takes into account the various well recognized actors who made appearances, if not starring roles, in Blue Velvet. The main character, as stated above, is played by Kyle MacLachlan, who is famous for the show Twin Peaks and Desperate Housewives. He does an admirable job playing the intrepid, aggressive protagonist in the film. Another star is Isabella Rossellini, who plays Dorothy. She is able to capture the deep, dark nuances of this role and plays it with a panache rarely seen. Dennis Hopper makes his return to acting by playing Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, after his time in rehab. This makes the character seem even more realistic, since Booth is an alcoholic, junkie who goes crazy. If you have seen Hopper’s work, then you know he played this role admirably; creating the sense of depravity and insanity that brought his character to life. The surprising cast member in Blue Velvet was Laura Dern. She is famous for, and in my mind only notable for playing in Jurassic Park. Seeing her in this movie really showed the scope and depth of her acting talents.
The aspect that really made the 25th anniversary release of Blue Velvet shine comes in the inclusion of so many special features. The first, and probably most popular, special feature is about 50 minutes of lost footage from the movie. These additional scenes, or just snippets, create an even more in-depth experience to the movie and add new nuances that are not in the original cut of Blue Velvet. Along with this is the documentary titled Mysteries of Love. This documentary is on the making of, and the thoughts behind, Blue Velvet. It goes into detail about the actors and the directors thought processes when designing scenes, characters and deciding to participate in the movie. The final major addition to the 25th anniversary release of Blue Velvet is the original review by Siskel and Ebert. It was amazing to see the debate between these two film buffs, about the qualities and negatives of this movie. In addition to these main features, the Blu-ray also includes small vignettes, TV spots and a very limited number of outtakes.
While the special features help to make the Blu-ray release of Blue Velvet exciting, there is a major problem with the menu design. The problem comes when realizing that there is no actual disk menu. The only form of menu or navigation comes from a pop up menu that you have to access during the film. This makes it a lot harder to access and navigate the amazing array of features. Sadly, this oversight also creates a difficulty in realizing when a number of the special features break, or the extent of the features. The only good point of the design of the Blu-ray for Blue Velvet seems to be that the designers of the Blu-ray spent all of their time remastering the video to bring out the high definition experience. The scenes were extremely crisp and clear; everything that a person should expect from a Blu-ray and more. In the Blu-ray Blue Velvet, the colors are so pristine that they are quite breathtaking, especially for being such a dark and gritty film.
In conclusion, Blue Velvet creates a dark and gritty world that promotes thought and a bit of unsettling feelings. It was a good movie, especially in the category of dark drama that David Lynch is known for. The major consideration for watching this movie comes with the language and nudity presented. Normally, I do not care about or notice these features; but in Blue Velvet they were quite obvious. With this, I must say that David Lynch did not include the language or nudity just to have it, as many directors do; rather each use was specifically designed to increase the viewing experience. This being said, the quantity, voracity and use of these elements earns the rating R, and I would not recommend it for the faint of heart. I would however, suggest this movie for anyone who likes dark, thought provoking entertainment experiences.
