In 1986, David Lynch followed up the overblown and disjointed Dune with a film that was, for all intents and purposes, Dune's diametric opposite. Blue Velvet, shot on a modest $6 million budget and set in small-town America, had all the trappings of a Capra movie -- honest, upright citizens, scads of nostalgia, a square-jawed hero and a sunny, girl-next-door heroine. But, being a David Lynch film, there had to be a catch. In Blue Velvet's case, that catch was Lynch's decision to take the most typical feel-good elements of Capra and put them on a head-on collision with the darkest of film-noir amorality and depravity. Blue Velvet is the story of Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), whose discovery of a severed human ear leads him to a much darker side of his hometown than he ever could have imagined.

Rather than being replused by the darker element, Jeffrey's insatiable curiosity -- and long-repressed dark side --- draw him deeper and deeper into a world of crime, drugs, forced sexual dominance, perversity and extreme violence until he too is a part of that world. With the inadvertent help of Sandy (Laura Dern), a police detective's daughter, Jeffrey explores a small-town underworld populated by Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), a masochistic nightclub singer; Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a psychotic gangster; Ben (Dean Stockwell), an effeminate and violent pimp; and a slew of Frank's henchmen, who, although tame in comparison to Frank's rage and perversion, are no less dangerous.

Blue Velvet disorients the viewer through the interplay of opposite types of scenes: those depicting a bright, pastel-colored vision of middle America and those in which the darkest depths of perversion are explored against a lurid, color-soaked backdrop. As the film progresses, the clear-cut lines between these worlds begin to bleed into one another, with Kyle McLachlan's desire to satify his curiosity about the darker side of life as their chief catalyst. What starts out as a voyeuristic thrillride soon engulfs Jeffrey as he moves from bystander to voyeur to hostage to willing participant in a side of life he never imagined existed at all, much less within the confines of his hometown of Lumberton.

In the film's key scene, Jeffrey hides in the closet of Dorothy's apartment, who he suspects knows something about the severed ear. He watches as Frank berates, beats and violates Dorothy. After Frank leaves, Dorothy dioscovers Jeffrey in the closet, forces him at knifepoint to disrobe and orally -- and forcibly -- arouses him, thus mirroring Frank's domination and violation of her. She later asks Jeffrey to beat her, exposing her hidden masochistic side. The scene is impossibly uncomfortable to watch and yet utterly compelling.

Lynch's point in Blue Velvet -- told in extreme bursts of violence as well as subtle strokes of metaphor -- is that there is an underworld of terror lurking beneath even the most placid surface. Although that point has been made in cinema a thousasnd times before and after this film, Blue Velvet probes deeper -- and more uncomfortably to the dark side of normal, "good" people than any film before or since. Beneath perfect lawns, swarms of ravenous beetles are locked in a ferocious struggle for dominance at the primal level. And beneath perfect behavior, inner turmoil, perversion and evil are locked in a similar struggle. In short, Blue Velvet is the story of Jeffrey's journey through his subconscious.

The conclusion of the film -- in which the depraved and evil underside of Lumberton is wiped away, as if all a part of Jeffrey's bad dream -- poses a full-circle return to the nostalgia and Americana of the film's opening. Yet, after gaining a glimpse of what lay underneath the veneer of white picket fences and perfectly manicured lawns, there is an undeniable falseness to it all.

Although many critics in 1986 lauded Blue Velvet for its visual style and irony, many did not. Roger Ebert derided it as a classic example of style over substance -- the late Gene Siskel felt that Lynch's intentions were to "play" the audience like a piano. In general, the filmgoing public was alienated by its portrayal of deviant sexuality and extreme violence, despite the honors it received -- winner of the 1986 Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) and Cinematography awards by the National Society of Film Critics and Academy Award nominee for Best Picture and Best Director. In short, the visual beauty and style of the film undermined its impact among moviegoers at the time. Yet, the years that have passed since the film's initial release have been kind to it, and to any lover of film, Blue Velvet stands out as Lynch's masterpiece, as well as one of the greatest films of the 80s. For fans of this film, MGM's long-awaited release of this film on DVD is a godsend; for others new to the film, it's a brilliant introduction to a masterpiece.

Notes

Blue Velvet features digitally remastered visuals and sound in widescreen format; Dolby digital stereo; French and Spanish subtitles; and the original theatrical trailer. Blue Velvet will be released by MGM Home Entertainment on April 25, 2000.