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Blue Velvet (1986)

Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Hopper.  Cinematography by Fredrick Elmes.  Edited by Duwayne Dunham. Produced by Fred Caruso. Written and Directed by David Lynch.

Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle MacLachlan) has been called back from college to man his father’s hardware store as he recovers from a stroke. After visiting his dad at the hospital, Jeffrey happens upon a severed ear hidden beneath the wild grass of a field. He rushes the ear over to the police station to present it to John Williams (played by George Dickerson), a detective from his neighborhood.

Later that night, Jeffrey pays Detective Williams a visit to see if there have been any more clues discovered in the case.  The detective explains to Jeffrey that he cannot share any details of the investigation, but he is later enlightened by Williams’ daughter Sandy (played by Laura Dern) who listens to her father work through the thin walls of her house.  She tells Jeffrey what she has heard about a strange woman named Dorothy Valens (played by Isabella Rossellini) who lives nearby.  Jeffrey decides to launch his own investigation, starting with Dorothy’s apartment, which eventually leads him into the most intense and frightening experience of his young life.

Dune was a disaster. Not only did David Lynch have his name on a product that no one seemed to like, but he had compromised his artistic integrity for the sake of a big budget production for the first (and last) time. His filmmaking career was teetering on ruin. But fortunately to balance out the bad news, there was also some good. 

In the details of the contract that Lynch had signed with Dino De Laurentiis while making Dune was a stipulation that De Laurentiis would later produce a smaller picture for him.  De Laurentiis, who was in a world financial hurt after the failure of Dune, reluctantly agreed to fund the project if Lynch would keep the budget under six million dollars and take a significant cut in pay. This arrangement also unofficially gave Lynch final cut on the project; something that would undoubtedly be necessary for what he was dreaming up.

Blue Velvet was something that Lynch had been mulling over since early in the production of Eraserhead.  But when it came time to assemble a screenplay, it was merely a collection of ideas and feelings with a title. His first inspiration was, of course, the mood set by the classic Bobby Vinton song “Blue Velvet”.  He also knew that he wanted to set a mystery within the nostalgia of the Eisenhower era. 

Lynch started building his story with a fantasy he had had of sneaking into a woman’s house and discovering a clue to a murder case while he watched her.  He then threw in an idea he had of someone finding a severed ear in a field that would end up being a portal to another world.  All of these details were intricately woven into a dark noir mystery that could have only come from the mind of Lynch. 

When De Laurentiis finally saw what Lynch had made he knew that no one would distribute it.  But the producer had faith in the picture and took a gamble by starting up a distribution subsidiary of his production company to get the film into theaters.  When Blue Velvet finally reached its audience the initial reception was cool, but support slowly began to build and soon it was hailed as one of the best films of the year (and now certainly among the finest films of the 1980’s).  Blue Velvet is about as raw and brutally honest as anything we are likely to see on film.

Budget: $6,000,000

Total US Gross: $8,551,228

Genre: Mystery

Runtime: 120 Minutes

US Release Date: 9/19/86

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Awards:

Academy Awards: 
Nominated for best director.

Golden Globes: 
Nominated for best screenplay and best supporting actor.

Writers Guild of America: 
Nominated for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

American Film Institute’s Top 100 Lists: 
100 Years… 100 Thrills (#96)
100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains (#36 Villain – Frank Booth).

Tagline: It’s A Strange World.

Quote: “I'm seeing something that was always hidden.  I'm in the middle of a mystery and its all secret.”