Misunderstanding Lynch: A Loving Look at 'Blue Velvet,' Part 2
Trouble until the robins come.
Regularly Scheduled Disclaimer/Explanation:
Because this is the internet, I want to make this explicitly clear:
The following piece is not meant to be taken seriously. At all.
I’m a long-time fan of David Lynch (I even wrote about Twin Peaks: The Return for an entertainment site), and have been pretty heartbroken by his loss.
This is how I process grief and honor the work of a true artist. By lovingly joking about his weird, wonderful creations.
I’ll be riffing on all of Lynch’s movies in the upcoming weeks. This is part two of Blue Velvet.
Next up is Lost Highway. Will it be behind a paywall? We just don’t know.
//cj//
Blue Velvet: Part 2
Jeffrey has a gut churning nightmare about Frank and Dorothy.
That night he meets up with Sandy to talk about what happened.
Jeffrey tells her he thinks Don and Donny were kidnapped by Frank to blackmail Dorothy. The ear he found belonged to Dorothy’s husband. It was cut off to prove to Dorothy he’s still alive.
‘Frank is a dangerous man.’ He made me cry a little. I hid in the closet. But in a very cool, manly way.
Sandy wants to tell her dad, since he’s a police officer and this would make sense.
Jeffrey and Sandy experience some extremely on-point teenage angst. Yes, a child is being held hostage but let’s talk about our feelings.
Sandy tells this beautiful story about robins and love. It’s magical. Perfect example of the hope and romance in every Lynch movie.
Jeffrey is smitten with Sandy, which I get. Sandy does not reciprocate. Which I also get.
Jeffrey goes back to Dorothy’s place because he has the common sense of a spoon.
And then they have sex. The sex is not shown, an interesting contrast to the rape scene, which was uncompromising and invasive.
Jeffrey and Frank are at the club watching Dorothy sing.
Afterwards, under a neon red light, Jeffrey waits until Frank and his friends leave, then follows them in his car. It’s a sinister moment, like Jeffrey has turned a corner and can’t come back.
He ends up outside a squat brick building, waiting all night for Frank to leave. Frank never does.
Jeffrey picks up Sandy at school. Her boyfriend sees and gets upset. This fails to be the most compelling storyline in the movie.
‘Five minutes from now, you’re not going to believe what I’ve told you.’ I intend to open every conversation with this line going forward.
Jeffrey stalks Frank and his friend ‘The Yellow Man.’ He wears a yellow suit. Jeffrey is a poet.
Jeffrey took photos with the most charming old-fashioned camera. Frank’s selling drugs and murdering dealers. I fail to be shocked that this crazy, violent person does crazy, violent things, crazily and violently.
Jeffrey makes a move on Sandy. Despite his weird thing with Dorothy. And Sandy’s boyfriend. Sandy shuts it down fast.
Jeffrey walks up the apartment building stairs into darkness. Chilling. It feels ominous. He’s not descending into hell, but he’s not walking up to heaven either.
Dorothy and Jeffrey wander off to have sex. Every time they have sex, the camera pans to an open window with red velvet curtains.
Dorothy asks Jeffrey to hurt her in bed. Jeffrey refuses. He tells Dorothy he knows about her husband and son. Dorothy proceeds to have a naked fight with Jeffrey. Ultimately he slaps her. She is thrilled.
There’s flames and then Jeffrey and Dorothy have wild, unhinged sex.
How can David Lynch make a stairway so unwholesome.
Dorothy: Am I crazy?
Jeffrey: Your hair is pretty.Frank catches Jeffrey and Dorothy canoodling in the hallway. Dorothy introduces Jeffrey as a neighbor. With whom she canoodles.
Frank is so fucking menacing. His very presence carries an air of hostility and barely restrained cruelty.
Frank grabs Jeffrey and takes him on a joy ride in his car.
There is nothing joyous about this ride. Jeffrey is sandwiched between two giant men. Dorothy, in her blue velvet robe, is up front with Frank and another, less giant man.
‘HEINEKEN? FUCK THAT SHIT PABST BLUE RIBBON.’
So maybe PBR funded this movie.
Frank takes them to a weird fancy drug place. I have no idea how else to describe it. Think Eyes Wide Shut decor, but there’s no visible orgy. The host is named Ben.
One of Frank’s henchmen is named Raymond. Raymond is played by Brad Dourif. Brad Dourif voices Chucky. In this house, we love the Chucky franchise.
Frank throws a tantrum about cold beer.
Hanging out with Frank is an emotional rollercoaster.
‘Here’s to your fuck. Cheers.’ Fucking. Iconic.
Frank terrorizes Jeffrey. Ben punches Jeffrey in the gut. This is the worst party ever.
Ben and Frank sneak off to do drug stuff. Dorothy gets to see her kid. Unfortunately, her young son rejects her. You can hear Dorothy desperately crying, ‘Mommy loves you.’ It’s heartbreaking.
Ben lip syncs ‘Mr. Sandman’ in a damn fine performance. Frank mouths along, utterly entranced.
I’m not trying to explain any of this. Just go with it.
I’m pretty sure Raymond is dancing with a snake he found somewhere.
Frank suddenly decides the party is over. Nobody questions him. Nobody is that stupid.
‘I’ll fuck anything that moves!’ Dennis Hopper deserved an Oscar for this role. He didn’t even get nominated.
Jeffrey is crammed in a car with a bunch of sketchy customers, Dorothy, and Frank. Frank does more amyl nitrate.
I was too young when I saw this for the first time. I clearly remember wondering if Frank had asthma or some other medical condition and needed the mask to help him breathe.
Frank messes around with Dorothy’s tits in the car. Surrounded by everyone. It’s disturbing, and once again not done in a way that feels exploitative. This is horrible. It’s portrayed as horrible. Jeffrey punches Frank in the nose.
Frank drags Jeffrey out of the car and screams at him.
If Frank screamed in my face I would never recover.
Frank smears lipstick all over his mouth like the Joker on ketamine. Frank kisses Jeffrey as if he’s using his mouth as a weapon. One day a therapist will make an awful lot of money off of our friend Jeffrey.
Frank warns Jeffrey away from Dorothy. Crams a piece of blue velvet into his mouth. Beats the unholy shit out of Jeffrey while Dorothy screams.
Cut to flames.
Jeffrey wakes up and immediately regrets his decision. He’s out in the lumberyard, bruised and bloodied. No one is around. It’s raining. He has to walk home.
Jeffrey has a meltdown thinking about everything going on with Dorothy. This college kid sits on his bed and you see all of this insanity roll over him in waves. He’s completely overwhelmed, out of his depth, and understandably terrified. It's a heart-wrenching performance by Kyle McLachlan.
Shit, now I feel bad for Jeffrey.
Jeffrey and Sandy agree he should tell her father what he knows about Frank’s Murder Funtimes. Finally.
Jeffrey sees the Yellow Man working at the police station. This seems important. Something you’d mention to people. And yet Jeffrey doesn’t mention it to anyone. Jeffrey operates on a frequency I can’t hear.
Jeffrey finally gets to Sandy’s house to speak to Detective Williams. Jeffrey shows Williams all his photos and notes. He’s Nancy Drew with an earring. Jeffrey doesn’t mention Sandy’s involvement. Or The Yellow Man.
Williams is not thrilled that Jeffrey and Sandy are hanging out. Fair.
Jeffrey waters the lawn in the same spot his father had a heart attack. He wears sunglasses, just like his father.
Jeffrey comes by the next night to pick up Sandy for their date. While at the house, Jeffrey notices someone come in the back door - the Yellow Man.
Williams and Jeffrey have a tense moment before Jeffrey claims he has no idea what’s going on. This is more true than Jeffrey would imagine.
Jeffrey insists to Sandy nothing is wrong. They go to a high school party in a wood paneled walls finished basement. The eighties, man.
Jeffrey and Sandy dance and it’s very sweet and pure and wholesome.
Sandy and Jeffrey confess their mutual love. Sandy and Jeffrey are deranged.
As they leave the party, lost in the bliss of true love, a car tries to run them off the road. It kills the mood.
Plot twist: It’s Mike, who’s way less frightening than Frank. Mike is like a mean drunk baby who wants to fight Jeffrey. Jeffrey’s had the shit beaten out of him by hell’s most unhinged overlord.
Before the fight can begin, Dorothy runs up to Jeffrey naked, bleeding, and beaten, into Jeffrey’s arms.
To be fair, Mike stops being an asshole once he sees what condition Dorothy is in.
Dorothy is either drugged or concussed. She’s all over Jeffrey - and still naked. When they arrive at Sandy’s house, Sandy realizes pretty quickly that Dorothy and Jeffrey have something going on.
It helps that Dorothy identifies Jeffrey as ‘my secret love.’ She’s not subtle.
Sandy is devastated.
Sandy’s mom tries to call the police. Dorothy freaks out. It’s all deeply troubling.
Dorothy manages to tell them that ‘Don hurt his head.’ She begs Jeffrey to help him.
Dorothy keeps telling Jeffrey to ‘put his disease in me.’ It’s not improving the situation with Sandy. At all.
The ambulance comes to take Dorothy to the hospital.
Sandy slugs Jeffrey and tells him to go with Dorothy.
Approximately five minutes later Sandy tearfully forgives Jeffrey.
Because she’s in high school.
Jeffrey asks Sandy to tell her father everything.
Alone and crying in her bedroom, Sandy asks, ‘Where’s my dream?’ It’s a fragile, lovely moment. Interesting contrast to the moment Jeffrey cried in his room.
Once again Jeffrey climbs the darkened stairway to Dorothy’s apartment.
He walks in on a strange scene. A man is tied to a chair.
There’s a smashed TV. The Yellow Man stands even though he has a bullet in his head. A gun hangs useless in his hand.
Don is dead. Tied naked to a chair. Ear missing. With a piece of blue velvet in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the police raid Frank’s place.
Jeffrey tells the two dead men, ‘I’m going to let them find you on their own.’
The change from the music playing in Dorothy’s apartment to the hollow silence of the apartment hallway is disturbing.
As he walks downstairs, Jeffrey sees another one of Frank’s colleagues arrive at the building - a man with a mustache.
Jeffrey hurries back up the stairs to avoid the man. Unfortunately Jeffrey is not good at being discreet.
Jeffrey sprints upstairs to Dorothy’s apartment and locks himself in with the dead bodies. He uses a walkie talkie to contact Detective Williams.
The man with the mustache is Frank in disguise.
Jeffrey realizes Frank has a walkie too, and will know where he is. He tells Detective Williams he’s in the bedroom.
Realizing he’s in danger, Sandy runs down the street to help Jeffrey.
Frank breaks into Dorothy’s apartment. He’s at peak fury levels.
Once again, Jeffrey hides. But instead of the bedroom, Jeffrey hides in the closet.
Frank shows up waving a gun and screaming. He thinks Jeffrey is in the bedroom and searches it.
Jeffrey is not in the bedroom. Frank is upset.
While Frank is yelling at an empty room, Jeffrey takes the Yellow Man’s gun and returns to the closet.
Frank shoots at the Yellow Man. This doesn’t improve his mood.
Frank sees Jeffrey through the slats in the closet. He does some amyl nitrate to celebrate.
Before Frank can get to him, Jeffrey pulls the trigger. The bullet goes right the fuck through Frank’s head.
Sandy and her dad show up seconds too late.
Frank is dead on the floor. The blue velvet robe is clutched in his hands.
Sandy and Jeffrey reunite in the hallway. It’s very sweet.
So I guess we’re just ignoring the whole thing with Dorothy.
Another sort of an ear. Only this one is attached to Jeffrey, and he’s very much alive.
Jeffrey’s lying in a deck chair with his eyes closed. He opens them. It’s a beautiful, blindingly brilliant day, and Jeffrey is relaxing in the middle of an immaculately manicured garden. Jeffrey looks up and sees a robin.
Inside, Sandy is bonding with Jeffrey’s mother. A robin lands on the windowsill.
Jeffrey joins them. The robin flies up to the window.
The robin holds a bug in its beak. The bug was one of millions feasting on the ear at the beginning of the movie.
Jeffrey, Sandy, and his mom look at the robin.
Cut to the same shots the movie started with, only now it includes Dorothy and her son playing together in the park. They both look happy.
The camera pans up through the trees out into a blue sky.
Things are dark out there, friends. But Blue Velvet walks us through the dark. Shows us it’s possible to emerge from them. Battered and bruised, but alive and still walking forward.
Maybe stumbling towards Bethlehem, but who can tell these days.
So I’ll end this piece with Laura Dern’s speech about the robins.
The robins are on their way.
//cj//