In case you didn’t know, David Lynch is brilliant. And he makes some pretty crazy flicks. Eraserhead is certainly more bizarre than Blue Velvet, but the latter is perhaps the more artistic and altogether better film.
Some movies exist in a more brilliantly colorful world than the rest, where each scene is like a different reflecting surface of a kaleidoscope. Think The Wizard of Oz or Edward Scissorhands or Hitchcock’s Vertigo or Argento’s Suspiria. Blue Velvet has this same beautiful look. And let’s not forget the soundtrack that blends perfectly with the scenery. A prominent stylistic feature in the film is the use of vintage pop songs, especially “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton and “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison.
It’s a mystery, technically, though not a bleak noir-style mystery, with trench coats, fedoras, and dark alleys; and forget about the cigarette-smoking Humphrey Bogart-type lead. It’s a mystery, but it’s really not. The mystery–a human ear found in a field without any sign of its owner–is merely the catalyst for all the events that follow, with violence and drug use and odd sexual fetishes.
It’s possible, if not likely, that all four of the main actors–Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern–give their best career performances in Blue Velvet. Without question, this is the case with Rossellini and MacLachlan. And Dennis Hopper plays a better and more iconic psychopath than Jack Nicholson or Nicholas Cage could ever hope to portray. The role of Frank Booth seems to be written specifically for him.
Blue Velvet is a classic, and is a must-watch for more reasons than I care to write about. If you have not seen it yet, fix that right away: Amazon.