- 5 months ago
An in-depth analysis of David Lynch's Blue Velvet.
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00:00David Lynch's early career as a director is interesting from an artist's point of view.
00:26He started off with his debut Eraserhead, which was an uncompromisingly strange experience.
00:33Its narrative relies on the viewer being able to read into the symbology to fully understand it.
00:39That is one of the most bold things that an artist can do.
00:43To put out work that's so esoteric, without a care in the world, was probably not easy on Lynch's part.
00:50Not everyone will be able to understand it fully.
00:52He did seem to care to some extent because his follow-up films were far more digestible for a wider audience.
01:00But it came at the cost of his unique approach to filmmaking.
01:04That's where Lynch's Blue Velvet came into play.
01:07It strikes a fine balance between strange, but easy to understand.
01:11I imagine many people who watch this film will just see it as a simple noir crime film.
01:18But like most of Lynch's films, there's a deeper, uglier depth to it.
01:23The film's opening demonstrates Lynch's strong penchant for creating a dreamy atmosphere.
01:28The combination of the song and the bubbly and vibrant scenery is just perfect.
01:33A little too perfect, one could say, when it shifts to a nightmarish sequence of Tom having a heart attack.
01:41Which is followed by a small shot of a group of beetles.
01:45The sound design of this part is just excellent.
01:49Lynch is very tuned in to sound design and visuals to make a scene like this so effective.
01:54The opening to this film is iconic and very subtly hints at the oncoming darkness of the film.
02:02Though everything might appear pleasant on the outside, the contents are grim.
02:07This type of juxtaposition is usually seen in most of Lynch's works.
02:12I think Twin Peaks is another one of Lynch's works that is very similar in subject matter that explores the dark heart of America.
02:19This is probably due to his experiences living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
02:25He stated that he had a pretty perfect childhood, one with picket fences and blue skies, until he went to Philadelphia.
02:33He stated that it was very corrupt and a very terrifying place to live.
02:38He manages to bring that darkness to his films because of his real life experiences with it.
02:43As much as he might state that you don't have to suffer for your art,
02:47he was clearly traumatized by his experiences living in Philadelphia.
02:52Much of the film seems really bland at first, until our main character, Jeffrey, stumbles upon an ear.
02:59This isn't a typical body part or even corpse you might see in a crime film.
03:04You can see Lynch being a lot more restrained with his strange qualities of his films,
03:09but he slips some odd moments in here for sure.
03:12The shot of the ear is one of the most eerie in the whole film.
03:18Jeffrey is another character in this film that has a nice exterior to him, but with a lot of darkness underneath.
03:25I imagine a lot of people in this situation would simply flee after finding the human remain,
03:30but Jeffrey not only picks up the ear, but takes it to the police as well.
03:34He even wants to investigate further in secret with the detective's daughter, Sandy.
03:40I think most sane people would back out at this point,
03:43but expecting Lynch's characters to be sane is like expecting pigs to fly.
03:48One detail that's pretty cool about this film is how the tone shifts based on the time of day.
03:54During the day, we usually get these sappy scenes punctuated with nice music,
03:59while at night, it's silent and usually features disturbing scenes.
04:03It ties into the theme of duality in this movie.
04:07The characters are literally taking part in the dark aspects of their world.
04:11One of the first night scenes that we get takes place in the nightclub,
04:15which features the main suspect in this movie, Dorothy.
04:18This is where we get some of David's weird leanings.
04:22The stage has a dog eating food out of a bowl,
04:26and a weird mishmash of a bad comedian with a band.
04:30David's letting you know that he's still the one in the director's chair here.
04:35A staple of David Lynch's films is an antagonist that feels more like a malicious entity.
04:41These are usually the most memorable parts of his works.
04:45In Twin Peaks, you have Bob,
04:47and in Lost Highway, we have the Mystery Man.
04:50And in Blue Velvet, we get Frank Booth.
04:53There's a reason why his introductory scene was an inspiration for Pyramid Head and Silent Hill 2.
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05:16Frank is Frank.
05:18He's the literal embodiment of everything wrong with the world wrapped up into one person.
05:24An agent of chaos, if you will.
05:27He's also a large part of why a lot of people find Blue Velvet to be disturbing.
05:32Now, I have seen a lot of people saying that his scene with Dorothy is kind of funny,
05:37and I guess I can see why.
05:40He's a very over-the-top kind of character,
05:42but personally, it doesn't detract from anything that he's doing.
05:46He also comes across a bit pitiful here.
05:50He's obviously not a good person,
05:52but he clearly has some type of mental problem,
05:55and it makes you wonder where all this came from.
05:58He shifts between cruelty and having sobbing fits.
06:02It's disturbing.
06:04I think everyone can agree that the dream segments in Lynch's films
06:08are some of the best parts,
06:10and the ones in Blue Velvet are no exception.
06:13Jeffrey continues to go down this dark underbelly of society
06:17and gets himself entangled into a relationship with Dorothy.
06:22Jeffrey has fully gazed into the abyss,
06:25and the abyss has gazed back.
06:27He's dumbfounded by what he's seeing,
06:29but he also can't look away from it.
06:31As he continues to go down the rabbit hole,
06:35his morals also slip too,
06:36as he gets into a relationship with Sandy
06:39while continuing to see Dorothy.
06:42He even hits her during the act as well.
06:46I could see that there might be some themes of cycles of abuse here.
06:51Dorothy says to Jeffrey not to look at her,
06:54and it seems that she picks this habit up from Frank.
06:57She even repeats the line,
06:59Don't look at me.
07:01And I think it could be possible that Frank
07:03has also suffered from some type of abuse himself.
07:07He can't handle the thought of Dorothy looking at him
07:11while he's doing his acts.
07:13I'm not sure if this is him being mentally unstable,
07:15or perhaps he feels ashamed of what he's doing.
07:19He's clearly a character that carries a great deal of pain inside him either way.
07:24Perhaps he was also abused when he was young,
07:27and that's where he picks the habit up from.
07:30The Ben scene is one of my favorites in the entire movie.
07:34The lines that Frank's character spits off here are just so good,
07:38although he does cuss about as much as a fizzy pop character.
07:42Ben is also just so nonchalant and cool as a character,
07:46which comes in contrast to the loud psychos on screen.
07:51The jump cut at the end where Frank laughs is such a brilliant moment.
07:56When Frank takes Jeffrey out for a joy ride,
07:58we get one of the most important moments where Frank says,
08:03you're just like me.
08:05It's a very interesting line that makes you think about Jeffrey's character.
08:10Sure, Jeffrey is not quite as abrasive or horrible as Frank,
08:14but the two actually share a lot of things in common.
08:18I've pointed out that Jeffrey has had ample time to leave his situation,
08:22where he could have just looked away the entire time,
08:26but he chooses not to.
08:28Why?
08:28Well, he clearly enjoys the world that he's entered.
08:33He keeps looking because he himself says that he likes mysteries.
08:37He also cheats on several people during the course of this film.
08:41Some people like to draw a comparison with David Lynch's works to the psychologist of Carl Jung.
08:48David Lynch and Jung talk much about the unconscious parts of the brain that we suppress.
08:54This can be in the form of sexual or aggressive aspects of our personality.
08:59I see the concept of the shadow self from Jung's work at play here, too.
09:05Frank has fully embraced the dark side of the world,
09:08while Jeffrey seems to struggle integrating that into himself.
09:13Also, on the surface level of this film,
09:16it's very bright and vivid with a small community of people,
09:20but it's very surface level.
09:23Beyond that is a world of corruption and deceit
09:26that most people want to just sweep under the rug and pretend like doesn't exist.
09:31This is a theme that's commonly explored in the noir genre.
09:35This is also classified as a noir film, albeit a very atypical one.
09:41It feels very similar to what Lynch later did to Twin Peaks.
09:45The final part of this movie is actually pretty tense,
09:48with the fight between Frank and Jeffrey.
09:51It does feel like it has a strange ending for a Lynch project, though.
09:55But it does show how much the film rides between conventional and unorthodox.
10:01I was not expecting it to be so cheery and bright.
10:06Overall, I would say that Blue Velvet is one of Lynch's best films.
10:10It scratches all the right itches and left me feeling pretty satisfied.
10:15It's got a decent enough story on the surface level,
10:18but has a lot of depth for those who are willing to look.
10:21I would say that Blue Velvet is a good point of writing.
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