'Blue Velvet' is flawed,
but strangely fascinating
"It's a strange world, isn’t
it." says young Jeffrey Beau
mont to young Sandy Williams.
That’s not the half of it in David
Lynch's "Blue Velvet." a
perverse story of sadism,
masochism, cruelty and evil ex
isting beneath the surface of
Norman Rockwell’s America.
Review by
Sean Axmaker
Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) is a
college man come back home to
sleepy little Lumberton ( “the
only town that knows how
much can a woodchuck
chuck." says the local radio sta
tion) when his father collapses
while watering the lawn.
Writer/director Lynch keeps the
details vague; we see him col
lapse. but we’re not sure what
the cause is — a stroke, a bite,
something else entirely. The
way Lynch presents it. though,
tells us that something evil is
afoot.
Jeffrey is introduced to the
underbelly of Lumberton as he
walks quietly through a vacant
lot and finds, lying in the grass,
a human ear. Clean-cut Jeff is
understandably intrigued and
decides to conduct his own in
vestigation, Hardy Boys style.
The daughter of the in
vestigating police detective,
Sandy (Laura Dern), provides a
few bits of vital information and
helps Jeff in his first undercover
activity — breaking into the
apartment of suspicious
nightclub singer Dorothy
Valiens (Isabella Rossellini).
Jeffrey is in for more than he
bargained for. Caught by
Dorothy and held at knife point ,
she makes him strip and begins
to explore his body until they
are interrupted by Prank Booth
(Dennis Hopper). Jeffrey wat
ches, horrified but perversely
fascinated, as Frank beats and
abuses Dorothy. He figures out
through their halting verbal ex
changes that Frank has kidnap
ped Dorothy’s husband and son
and is holding them as a threat
to Dorothy. The ear belonged to
her husband
This is merely the beginning
of the story, for leffrey con
tinues his investigation while
continuing to see Dorothy as a
secret lover.
All the while he maintains his
ties to the ordinary world while
managing his father’s hardware
store and dating high school
student Sandy. Jeffrey is still in
trigued by the excitement and
sexual danger of Dorothy's
world and can't quite pull
himself out of it. and that is go
ing to get him involved much
more than he would ever have
guessed.
Lynch has always been more
interested in atmosphere than
narrative, as easily confirmed
by his cult classic "Eraserhead”
and his recent mess "Dune.”
Both of those films have story
lines that are ambiguous at best
(the story of "Dune" is simply
impossible to follow), but the
Continued on Page 13
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