Review of Blue Velvet (1986) by Forrest P — 13 Sep 2010

A little overly sexually explicit at times, Blue Velvet is nonetheless a great addition to the filmography of writer/director David Lynch. It's a tense, eerie, and compelling mystery that starts with the find of a chopped-off ear.

Now, about the sexually explicit part... When I watched this movie at home, I had to nearly mute parts of it out of fear that my neighbors would think I was watching a very bizarre pornographic film. A lot of this, though, comes from the film's fantastically over-the-top villain, Frank Booth as portrayed by none other than Dennis Hopper. This villain is horrendously evil. He tortures his victims over long periods of time purely for a sexual stimulus and has definitely been known to kill people. That's a villain that audiences are not often given in the movies.

I also loved Lynch's direction and the film noir style of the picture. This modern film noir style is something I don't see too often. It was certainly appreciated here.

One thing that I thought might have been a bit of a detractor from the movie was the ending.

***Warning: Here There Be Spoilers***.

At the end of the movie, Lynch decides to simply have the main character kill off the villain. This is an ending that usually feels too easy, but what I liked about it here was that it resulted in our lead character becoming a more intelligent and courageous person. This feels like a newer approach and it was appreciated.

***.

There's not a whole lot I can complain about with this movie. I think the biggest thing is the fact that a lot of the sex scenes really do take away from the plot quite a bit. But David Lynch is an excellent director and he knows what he's doing. Audiences will not be let down by this thrilling mystery.

8/10.