Blue Velvet
Unedited Thoughts - This is part of my unedited thoughts series.
I came to this film straight after finishing Twin Peaks season one. This was a complete coincidence but lead to some interesting thoughts as soon as I saw ‘Directed by David Lynch’ in the titles.
What sort of wild ride were we in for? Lynch doesn’t keep us waiting long – after the lead’s father suffers a heart attack in the opening scene there is a disturbing close-up into beetles in the grass. This trope occurs a number of other times in the film – the ants in the infamous ear is another one that jumps out.
I’m not exactly sure what he is saying with either of these shots but boy do we know he is saying it. We very quickly meet the lead, Geoffrey, following this. He finds the instigating ear in the part behind his house while walking home from visiting his father in the hospital.
Geoffrey becomes interested in the case and the tit-bits of information that he garners from the detective’s daughter lead him down a path into the seedy underbelly of his home town. I find the role of the detective’s daughter very interesting.
At first we feel that Geoffrey is just using her to find out more information about the case – which she is eager to volunteer. Then he starts to take more of an interest in her – kind-of – this is not clear. She is upset when her boyfriend finds out about her and Geoffrey’s escapades.
But then there is this party they go to where she declares her love for him and he says it back – with a little hesitation but not enough to really read much into. Then on their way home they come across the naked and distraught Dorothy.
The way that Geoffrey holds Dorothy reveals that she is much more than the focus of Geoffrey’s investigation and Sandy is beside herself. Geoffrey also seems upset by the whole experience. But it does feel that this scene exemplifies his pull between the dark side (Dorothy) and the light (Sandy).
From the moment he finds the ear Geoffrey takes more and more risky steps to find out what is going on. To start off with this is just interest but it morphs into love/lust for Dorothy and wanting to save her kidnapped partner and child. I’m not sure what he thought would happen if he was successful.
There are some really weird lines in this film. When Geoffrey is breaking into Dorothy’s apartment Sandy says: “I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.” To which Geoffrey replies: “That’s for me to know and for you to find out.” Yep Creeper.
There are some neat moments that are handled really well. For example, Sandy is going to signal Dorothy’s return to the apartment but Geoffrey misses the signal because he is using the bathroom. This is because he was drinking beer before – all well setup for an important plot point that could have come off as contrived.
All of the normal tropes of this sort of film are broken almost instantly. Geoffrey gets caught – then he falls in love with Dorothy. Then he starts to become the horrible man that he has just watched beat Dorothy.
The steps into the underbelly of the town are easy for him to make and he soon understands a lot of what is going on with the gang that has kidnapped Dorothy’s husband and child. Then he gets caught by the gang.
The weirdness of the gangs antics get turned up a notch and Geoffrey takes it all in his stride even hitting Frank when he decides it has gone too far.
We learn that some of the cops are rotten and the detective might even be in on it. But Geoffrey doesn’t care. Like when he hit Frank with a likely change of death – he wades into the gang war to try and save Dorothy.
The shoot out and the end is great. Both the cops taking the gang headquarters and Geoffrey confronting Frank in Dorothy’s apartment – powerful stuff.
