A little less than a year ago I started watching David Lynch's films as guided movie watching. I hadn't seen any of them, and knew I was late for the party as a mid 20's movie fan that likes to think he's a little 'hip' and 'with it'. This was what got me started thinking about possibly writing a blog. I liked viewing things in a directed fashion, as if it were the syllabus for a film class, and I especially enjoyed discussing them with Lindsay afterward. I moved on to do the same thing with anime (a little bit of hit and a whole lot of miss), John Carpenter, and possibly in the future David Cronenberg. So far I think the David Lynch 'class' has been the most successful. He has a pretty wide catalog, but not too big as to be overwhelming. His movies are also all worth watching (except maybe Fire Walk with Me the terrible Twin Peaks 'prequel') and also usually elicit a pretty strong response (which may or may not be positive).
Blue Velvet may be the best place to start if you were interested in getting into David Lynch. I first watched Eraserhead which although spectacular in it's own way, isn't really for everyone. The only rival to Blue Velvet in terms of being a good introduction into the world of David Lynch would be his best film (in my opinion), Mulholland Drive. Blue Velvet is probably his most straightforward film in terms of genre and plot. Sure, a fair amount of weird things happen, but the story is mostly a film noir about a young man coming home from college and getting into some trouble with local mobsters.
The young man in question, Jeffrey (played by a young Kyle MacLachlan) comes home to his hometown during a college break because his father is having some health issues. Passing through a field on the way back from visiting his father in the hospital he finds a severed ear. David Lynch uses his patented technique of making the ear much creepier than it should be by having the camera zoom inside the ear, which is accompanied by a loud deafening rumble. After taking the ear to a detective, he decides that with the help of the detective's daughter (Laura Dern) he wants to investigate the case himself. Eventually this involves breaking into a local lounge singer's house (Isabella Rossellini, whose current role is portraying bug sex acts) where he sees some weird shit involving a mobster played by Dennis Hopper, and eventually gets caught up with Dennis Hopper and his crew.
Blue Velvet seems as if it's another piece of media where we are introduced to a small sleepy 'perfect' suburban town, only to realize the horrors that lie just underneath the surface. This is telegraphed right from the beginning when David Lynch (who's middle name is not subtlety) pans from a beautiful well cut yard of grass to the bugs that are infesting the soil that lies underneath. However, this film is not in the same vein as say American Beauty where the suburbs are displayed as a soulless place where everyone is screaming with rage on the inside. There may be crimes and criminals that exist in this 'perfect' town, but not everyone has a secret or is rotting from the inside. Most of the town, including the detective that Jefferey turns to for help as well as the men who work in his dad's hardware store are stand-up people. This may be the result of Lynch growing up in a small city (Missoula, Montana), so he's not as dismissive of middle and small town America as are most artists from the coasts.
Besides Lynch's distinct direction, the thing that really makes this movie is the acting by Kyle MacLachlin and Dennis Hopper. MacLachlin's character seems to be a younger more naive version of the character he plays in Twin Peaks, Special Agent Dale Cooper. He has the same wide-eyed optimism, toughness, and thirst for solving crimes that Dale Cooper does. He also attracts younger women and gives off an aura of collected cool. Jeffrey may be a little wet behind the ears, and a little foolish, but you can almost see how his brush with the evil incarnate Dennis Hopper would push him into the FBI. Speaking of Hopper, holy cow! This was the role that he was born to play. After watching this movie the first time, I couldn't help but think that every other crazy, off the rails, yelling incoherently Dennis Hopper character was just a toned down take of Frank Booth. From his weird sexual desires to yell at Rossellini's crotch while having his face stuffed with a patch of blue velvet, to his drug fueled rage issues and his ridiculous costumes it just seems that no one else could have played this role.
Just the other post, I was complaining about a lack of theaters that show older movies in the way they were originally to be seen. Thus I was really excited when I found out that the Plaza Theatre here in Atlanta was going to have a showing of Blue Velvet. This theater shows lots of indie and small movies, along with having some interesting horror and gore shows if you're into that. I really love that it exists. That being said the crowd really got on my nerves.
The show was sponsored by PBR and thus I didn't mind the promoters giving out free PBR merch/advertisements at the beginning of the show. What I minded was the attitude that the majority of the crowd came in with. This being an independent theater near little five points that was showing a David Lynch movie, I expected a lot of hipsters. I knew that hipsters had adopted Lynch as their movie director, but I didn't understand their reaction to the movie. At the beginning of the movie there was a pretty energetic buzz of the movie, and I was happy to be in a room full of people excited to see this movie. The movie starts out as pretty innocent, with some ridiculous Lynchian lines and shots that are admittedly pretty amusing. Additionally, some of the scenes in the middle of the film with Dennis Hopper are definitely laugh out loud funny. However, as the movie went on they began to laugh more and more even though none of the scenes warranted it. I understand that seeing a movie in a theater is an interesting experience because of the crowd, but laughing because Laura Dern is crying, or because the characters are being emotional on the screen doesn't make any sense. It also kept pulling me out of the movie which had a negative effect on the experience. I know hipsters have to love things only if they're 'ironic' but why can't they just like something in all sincerity? Maybe people in the theater may have really liked the movie, but it seemed like they had to laugh and make sounds because of the developed sense of awareness that being a hipster requires. For once I wish this new group of 'counter culture' could just earnestly like something, without having to laugh or make fun of it in order to still seem 'cool' to the people around them.
My rant being over, I still really enjoyed seeing Blue Velvet on the big screen. It's an interesting movie that is thrilling, dark, and terrifying while still being weird. While it's a little slow and not my favorite of Lynch's films, but it's still an effective piece of cinema that everyone should see at least once.
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