BLUE VELVET. David Lynch’s Twisted World Explained

You never know where danger lurks or when it will strike. Appearances are deceiving. Seeing the surface layer, you do not see what is hidden beneath. In the thicket of a beautifully manicured lawn lurks the ruthless world of insects. Zoom in, and the lawn is enveloped in horror. But we don’t see it. Only the blue sky, yellow poppies, and red roses. The sound of a falling tree welcomes us to Lumberton, a seemingly idyllic town, peaceful and orderly at first glance. In Lumberton, we feel genuinely positive – the sky pulsates with vibrant blue, lush sweet gardens, smiling, normal residents. A mood of lulling normality. Until the ear is found. Blue Velvet.

Jeffrey is a very fitting hero for the picture presented in Blue Velvet. He is simple, sensitive, well-mannered, and upon finding the ear, curiosity awakens in him—a detective instinct. The ear is a catalyst for new experiences and desires. It is an element of chaos introduced into a completely normal and even saccharine structure. Jeffrey decides to conduct an investigation. He also involves Sandy, the girl next door, who becomes his informant. She is the embodiment of innocence and later of pure love. This pair of “Lumberton” representatives unknowingly steps into an extremely different, irrational, devalued, and hideous world. However, it is placed here and now, in the same place, invisible to people leading an earnest small-town and happy life. Jeffrey is gripped by passion, intrigued by the mystery. Every step he takes will lead him further into the second world, sinking deeper and deeper, uncovering new macabre faces of his town. The mystery attracts; it is an escape from monotony, a risk and adrenaline, but it also draws you in and does not let go. Jeffrey eventually becomes a permanent element of it, increasingly defenseless and dependent on the course of unexpected events. He loses control over his actions, begins to flirt with madness and death.

The ear leads to the singer Dorothy Vallens. The fun continues. The first meeting takes place in a nightclub. Dorothy sings a sentimental song about blue velvet, and fascination arises in Jeffrey. The second meeting provides many new facts and clues. A sick, perverse bond develops between Dorothy and Jeffrey. The boy enters a new, violent, and brutal world of feelings. From this moment, Dorothy becomes the extreme alternative to the bond formed between him and Sandy. The latter is based on romantic love and partnership, pure and normal. The relationship with Dorothy is fallen and distorted; love is replaced by perverse sex, sick dependencies, and sadism. This dualism is strongly marked in Blue Velvet. Jeffrey emotionally operates on two antagonistic planes of feelings. He gets to know a side he never even suspected existed. Two women. Two extreme worlds coexist and fight against each other. The curtain slowly lifts, and the anti-Lumberton crawls into the light.

During the second meeting, Jeffrey also meets Frank. Dennis Hopper creates one of the most outstanding psychos in cinema history. Frank represents absolute perversion and evil. While Dorothy can function as an opposition to Sandy’s innocence and normalcy, Frank is the same to Jeffrey, to rationality in general. He is a man obsessed with a song about a sugary-colored clown called the Sandman and blue velvet, feeding on and breathing suffering, sadism, simply evil. A kind of demon of the dark side of the world, representing all that is most hideous and vile. We never even see a hint of humanity in him. He is pure evil, building his ruthless, bizarre world on Dorothy’s pain and suffering. During the second meeting, many enigmatic threads become clearer. Jeffrey learns the truth and the characters of this hell. He goes further, deeper, becomes emotionally involved. The second meeting with Frank ends with a crazy ride with the demon, a brush with death, and learning the rules of the newly discovered world.

Watching Blue Velvet, we partly become the main character; we feel him. The director relatively facilitates this reception for us. Jeffrey is very simple and stereotypical because he is normal. He is driven by curiosity. An enigmatic ear. Drastic. The viewer is infected with the same curiosity. Intriguing. The film generally follows the rules of a crime drama, in which Jeffrey solves the mysterious issue of the abandoned ear. We follow the clues given to us along with him. In scenes where Jeffrey hides in the closet, we hide with him, watching through the gaps in the doors in suspense. Then, together with him, we discover the unknown. It catalyzes trauma and shock. There is a drastic collision of worlds. We are torn from the environment of normality and suddenly jump into a night of madness and savagery. Everything, the whole world, is gradually verified, illuminated, and ruthlessly exposed.

Together with the hero, we explore the deepest pits of hell on earth. Jeffrey is a seeker, wants to solve the mystery, and is ready to take risks. Unlike the depicted world, lulled in its calmness, happiness, and ignorance. He wants to know all the faces of the world; he collides with its brutality and madness. He gets to know the other side. He is a hero who provides actual insight into the state of the world. Here, however, its faces are not mixed. They are sharply and extremely outlined; there is no neutrality. Jeffrey has no intention of locking himself at home and continuing to live a monotonous and happy life. He undergoes an existential journey, descends into hell, to become a receiver of the world, to know it. He seeks the truth, but it is strange, frightening, and unacceptable.

Lynch creates a world of innocence and supposed normalcy. By finding the ear, Jeffrey discovers a new world that absorbs him. Murders, kidnappings, drug dealings, corruption, blackmail, rape. These do not fit into the norms. But also, as Lynch is known for, the new world is governed by its peculiar irrationality and perversion. The people inhabiting it are exaggerated, sick, bizarre, demonic. We experience this in Ben’s club, during the crazy night ride, or during the fallen sick orgy, watched through the crack in the closet door. Noticeable is that Lynch also divides the course of events into day and night. Daytime is normal; the nightmare temporarily disappears; there is time for cool reflection. It is then that the dimension of law operates, then Jeffrey talks with Sandy. At night, there are further meetings with Dorothy and Frank, further clashes with the distorted demonic force, further penetration into the intriguing mystery, which gradually becomes a trap.

The dualism persists, glaring and visible, only with the resolution of all mysteries in Dorothy’s house does the nightmare get defeated. We experience something like a return to the world before the shocking events. The world, its creator, and the mystery are annihilated and closed. The characters return to their normalcy. The symbolic thrush announces the arrival of pure love. In Sandy’s dream, all the birds of love were locked away; now they have returned. Normality has returned. We can again enjoy the idyllic surface; the curtain has been drawn again. But we have seen what lies behind it. We are aware of the dualism of the world, its illusions, and its true faces. Blue Velvet jumps from one extreme to another, making us realize that everything has its opposite, that besides beauty, there is also horror, besides good, also savagery, besides normality, madness, and perversion. That everything is drastic, everything is a mystery, that there is misfortune, and that you never know what might be happening in our neighborhood.