Overhyped: Blue Velvet Movie Review

Recently I watched the classic 1986 murder mystery film Blue Velvet. I did not know anything about this film when i watched it; afterwards, I checked the Wikipedia page on the topic and discovered that it is considered a cult classic and the seminal work of writer/director David Lynch. According to the Wikipedia page's small critic sample, the film also received an extremely positive reaction on release.

Which just goes to show you that most cult films are bad.

Blue Velvet is at best a film with serious narrative issues and no sense of closure, and at worst a film that expressly banks on its controversial content for interest.

The film opens with Jeffrey Beaumont returning to his boyhood home after his father mysteriously collapses on his lawn. Spoiler: there's no explanation for Mr. Beaumont's fall. He serves no point but to bring his son home, which could have been done without creating a confusing red herring for the viewer. The real mystery focuses on a lounge singer named Dorothy Vallens and a severed human ear Jeffrey finds in the field. Another spoiler: there's no explanation for why the ear is found in the middle of a field. Jeffrey, with the aid of the teenaged police detective's daughter Sandy, begins to investigate Vallens and discovers that she is being manipulated by the sociopathic Frank, who has kidnapped her husband and son to force her to indulge his violent appetites. Surprise, surprise, why Dorothy was singled out by Frank is never specified. Eventually Jeffrey discovers that a policeman is complicit in Frank's drug-related crimes and while Frank's operation is taken out in a police firefight, Jeffrey kills Frank. Then everybody walks off into the metaphorical equivalent of the sunset.

Don't get me wrong, there's some nice symbolism. Under Mr. Beaumont's lawn are roiling beetles, suggesting the pulse of crime underneath the seemingly normal town. By the end of the film, a robin (representing love) is eating a beetle. It's a fairly decent coda to the film, which is entirely ruined by the complete lack of closure and what I consider "five-minute syndrome".

Five-minute syndrome is more commonly found in television episodes, but the basic symptom is that a resolution appears with no sort of real development. Jeffrey heads to Dorothy's apartment after she appeared crazed and naked on his lawn and finds the corrupt policeman with a hole in his head and what we assume is Dorothy's husband tied up and dead. No explanation is ever given for what they are doing there. and Dorothy, who we see as horribly twisted as the result of her experiences (she derives sexual pleasure from being beaten) is nowhere to be seen in the final scene when she's rejoined with her son. No physchological scars?

I can't say that the acting is bad, in some cases it is quite good, but the writing causes issues. The most glaring example is when Sandy talks about the overt symbol of robins as love. The speech is right up there in cringe-worthy territory as Anakin Skywalker's "I hate sand" bit from Attack of the Clones. On the plus side, Dennis Hopper seems to admirably fulfill the "act crazy" requirement in portraying Frank, and Dean Stockwell has a rather interesting cameo lip-syncing in the manner of a 50s crooner.

Let me continue on the positives in that while I was confused by the lack of answers throughout the film, there were minor scenes that were unintentionally or no hilarious in their incongruity, in particular Jeffrey getting the tar beaten out of him while an aging whore dances on the roof of the car. Some of the dialogue is snappy enough that it engages the viewer. While the content is disturbing and ultra-violent, I never got the feeling that this was the root cause of any problems in the film. In parts, its treatment of the topic is quite profound and nuanced.

...But then it wildly veers back to the other extreme. One of the most sickening parts was the constant repetition of the title song, "Blue Velvet". It's played at the beginning of the film, on the radio, sung (twice) by Dorothy in a club, and sprinkled randomly at other intervals. Just when you've been granted a reprieve for 20 minutes or so, the final frames dissolve into... you guessed it!

Another issue with the music is that at odd points it emphasizes certain actions or scenes. Actually, it's not the music's fault alone, it's also the cinematography. The most obvious issue is seen when Dorothy drops a knife she was threatening Jeffrey with into the radiator. the shot longers on the location of the knife while she gets up... and when Jeffrey is trapped in the apartment with Frank, you expect him to use it. But no, he pulls out a gun and shots him in the head. Whaaaa? Was the only point of the lobotomized policeman in the room to provide a gun? Why'd you have the threatening music if we were never going to see the knife again? After watching the film, I expect that you'll have similar issues... and that's no way to make a film. "Cult classic"? Then that's one cult I'm glad not to be a part of.