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Summary: The Facts Of Life: Lynch Style
Review: The distinctive style of David Lynch with its disturbing imagery and concentration on the grotesque dominates this brooding, bizarre and thoroughly original film. The movie explores the frightening underside of a quiet American town - a college student investigates some criminal activity and his curiosity leads to a hellhole of murder, drugs, kidnapping and sadistic sex. The film unfolds with a sledgehammer intensity that's totally engrossing. Very unsettling and very scary.
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Summary: Living Large
Review: Blue Velvet is like one young man's giant fantasy come true. Think Summer of '42 - but ten times weirder and more sexual - and you'll get the picture.Kyle Maclachlan (Jeff) comes home from college and discovers a severed ear being eaten by ants in a field. He becomes embroiled in a mystery that he attempts to solve - and does. Along the way, he gets involved with two gorgeous women; one a cute-as-roses high school girl played sweetly by a young Laura Dern, the other a sultry nightclub siren who likes her sex rough and who is portrayed deliciously by the unforgettable (and nicely breasted) Isabella Rosellini. Using his boyish charm, he coaxes both to fall in love with him - and he manages to bed one of them. (Guess.) Both of their boyfriends get [angry]; one of whom beats him up - badly! Yet he recovers quite fully. Compared to David Lynch's more recent work, Mullholland Drive, Blue Velvet is fairly linear in its storyline. Both, in their fashion, push the envelope of acceptable male fantasies. In the '80's it was sado-masochism. Today, it's lesbianism. The story reaches a climactic conclusion. We get to see Miss Rossellini completely naked..., and we get to watch Jeff, our hero, blow Dennis Hopper's brains messily across the living room floor. Despite enduring a nude Isabella pawing him uncontrollably, Laura still loves him - and marries him. So everyone gets to live happily-ever-after. Blue Velvet - which uses the song poignantly - is unforgettable. Don't miss it!
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Summary: Violent, sadistic, outrageous, confused and fascinating
Review: This 1986 film, written and directed by David Lynch, is a real shocker. It takes a small town mystery and turns it into a film noir. The images are violent and sadistic. The story is weak. And the plot confused. At the end, I still wasn't sure what happened. And yet, it had a fascination to it and I just couldn't stop watching. There's young Kyle MacLachlan, newly home from college, who finds a severed ear in the woods. There's Laura Dern as his blonde and blue-eyed girlfriend whose father is a cop. There's Isabella Rossellini as a sultry nightclub singer with secrets galore. And then there is Dennis Hopper as and cruel sicko who abuses Rossellini. The acting is fine. And the story kept me interested. And yet it let me down. Because by the time I watched it all the way through I still wasn't sure of the plot. Rather, I came away with a feeling. One that haunted my dreams last night. It's isn't pleasant. But it goes to show just how far a director can go in films. And David Lynch sure did break boundaries in this one. By the end of the film I felt I was myself a victim of his violence against the audience. But, in spite of all its faults I rather liked it simply for its outrageousness and willingness to break boundaries. Recommended only for the brave few.
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Summary: In Dreams, I Walk With You...
Review: What can words say about this movie? It's already been said...this is my favorite Lynch flick, running head to head with 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'
What I can say about this brilliant DVD version, is that the colors are vibrant, gorgeous and vivid...I've seen this on the big screen, and many times on the small...but I never saw it in such vivid color....the Lynchian themes of light, and shadow, never looked so good...I've read that David originally wrote the Frank Booth scenes with Frank sniffing helium gas...and to anyone who's seen Dennis Hopper's scenes, can you just imagine those, with a Helium voice...? How scary, and more darkly comic, would that be?!
The 'extra' interviews, with Isabella and Kyle, are wonderful..
get this one, at all costs, if you are a Lynch fan...you won't be disappointed...
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Summary: One of the most important chapters in modern americancinema!
Review: Without doubt, one of the most important chapters of modern americancinema and along with Raging Bull stand as the one of the best films of the past 20 years!....David Lynch is definetly the father of modern surealism!
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Summary: Mediocre DVD Release of an Important Film
Review: I rarely comment about DVD quality unless there is a glaring issue. In the case of this DVD, there are several. The sound track is extremely, extremely important in this film; much of the dialogue is played at near-whisper and the sound effects are much more important to the impact of the film than in most others. Unfortunately, the sound quality here is just muddy enough to undercut the overall effect. The visuals are also surprisingly weak, heavy with digital pixilation that is particularly noticeable in the film's shadowy scenes--of which there are a great many. As for the bonus material, any one purchasing this "special edition" for them may be disappointed: the documentary is so-so (and I might add that the picture quality there is often flatly atrocious), but the "deleted scenes" indicated are simply not there. These scenes have never been recovered, and the DVD offers only a handful of sequences recreated from still photographs and without dialogue of any kind. Although I am not a great fan of David Lynch per se, I do indeed recognize the importance and influence of both this film and his overall vision, and frankly BLUE VELVET deserves much better than it receives here. All of that said--I saw this film in its first theatrical release, and at the time I did not like it; it struck me as incredibly pretentious and wildly derrivative of numerous European directors, particularly of Hitchcock, Bunuel and Fellini. (Indeed, I recall remarking to a friend that it was very much like Fellini meets Chuck Waters.) I had no intention of revisiting the film until a friend expressed an interest in seeing it--and so, rather reluctantly, I agreed to sit through it one more time. And on this occasion I was pleasantly surprised. It wears extremely well. That is not to say that there are not problems with the film. Kyle MacLachlan is a remarkably wooden actor; the plot frequently falls apart; and Lynch's bursts of surrealism are occasionally miscalculated and actually tend to get in the way of any coherent statement. But what BLUE VELVET does well, it does very, very well indeed. The story is a bit convoluted, but in general it concerns a young man (the eternally wooden MacLachlan) who comes home from university when his father is taken ill. While walking to the hospital he discovers a severed human ear--and when the police fail to give him information re his discovery his own curiosity leads him into investigation. His investigations center on beautiful singer Dorothy Vallen (Isabella Rossellini), who is rumored to be involved with local underworld figures--and in the process he becomes directly involved with both Vallen and the dark forces that surround her. David Lynch uses this storyline as the hook on which to hang his dark statements about the nature of sexual awakening, moral choice, and the deadly evil to which we strive to remain oblivious but which nonetheless lurks very close to the surface of otherwise ordinary lives. And while many aspects of the film can be justly criticized, in this the film is entirely--and unnervingly--successful. In BLUE VELVET, sex and violence are ruthlessly connected, and both are forever simmering just under the skin. At the time of its release, and even today, BLUE VELVET was extremely, extremely controversial for its nightmarish depiction of sexual attraction and violence--and deservedly so, for the film repeatedly focuses on a horrific sexual humiliation of the mysterious Dorothy Vallen by the predators that surround her; the rape sequence (which is genuinely horrific), her endurance of repeated physical and sexual assault, her sado-masochistic edge that implies a certain complicity in her own abuse are front and center throughout the film and is all deeply disturbing. Strangely, however, the film contains considerably less nudity and graphic violence than one might expect; much of the effect arises more from the on-going dark, surrealistic visuals and disquieting sound effects than from any one single scene. With the exception of MacLaughlin, the cast is very fine here. Laura Dern has seldom been so effectively used in any film as she is here, but the real standouts are Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper; Rossellini was a relative newcomer at the time, but she gives an incredible performance, and Hopper virtually re-invented his languishing career in the role of her psychotic tormenter, and Dean Stockwell's against-type cameo was so startling that it drew tremendous critical fanfare. But now we come to the final question. Do I like the film? No. Even though I can now watch it and appreciate it, and although I certainly recognize its importance and influence, and although I grant it status as art, I still do not like BLUE VELVET and I remain dubious about director David Lynch in general. It seems to me that he lacks the discipline to create a cohesive statement. But do I recommend it? Absolutely. Those who admire Lynch admire him with a passion, and you may be among those. And even if you are not--BLUE VELVET is an important film in so many respects that no one seriously interested in film can afford to miss seeing it at least once.
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Summary: Blue Velvet...
Review: A fantastic, action-filled intense Noir thriller about a "joe citizen" named "Jeffrey Beaumont" {"well, howdie neighbor"} is pushed to the brink of insanity, as he stumbles across the nightcreatures inhabiting the underside of a Norman Rockwellian North Carolina suburb. The counter-culture; the flipside. He comes upon a human ear decomposing in a field as he walks to & from from visiting his elderly relative in the hospital, who was seemingly attacked by his waterhose as he was watering the lawn one bright sunshiney day. The denizens lurking in the black earth are always prepared to take their due. This film really manages to present the polarities between seemingly "wholesome" Americana & "unwholesome" Americana, as it were {the Dream & the Nightmare}. Dennis Hopper portrays a most convincing sadistic crime boss addicted to nitrus oxide, who takes long, deep inhalations to magnify the thrill of the kill &/or sensual indulgence {often, one in the same}, which is always very graphic. He literally stuffs blue velvet in his victims' mouths as a calling card. Of his murders, the most notable was the execution of two Police officials - one with the material crammed in his mouth, & the other, standing dead with an electrical current running through the corpse. Now THAT'S creative! It rivals even Hannibal Lechter's imaginative killings. Isabella Rosellini plays a tasty nightclub {'The Slow Bar'} dish whose prime number is, not surprisingly, "Blue Velvet" - which, after you learn more of the character's traumatic personal life, becomes much more haunting, as she is indeed a tortured soul. She & "Jeffrey Beaumont" {MacLachlan} enjoy a tryst together, after she rapes him at knife-point, but he soon learns to compensate for his normalcy by indulging her fetish - sex & violence. Interspersing the more dramatic/climactic moments in the movie {there are many}, are telling appearances of a dancing flame vigorously flickering upon a black candle accompanied by magnified infernal sounds {the black flame of life}, the protagonist growling beastially in dream sequences, a raging wall of lustful fire igniting the kundalini. Very Satanic. Thus is director David Lynch's style, as can be seen in favorites such as "Twin Peaks" & "Lost Highway" {which includes a cameo by Rev. Manson}. Well, the villain discovers Jeffrey exiting from {Rossellini's} residence, after some particularly passionate sex, & takes them both for "a ride" {a Noir term meaning "swimming with the fishes", i.e., death}, but not before stepping by a favorite bar {what a sport!}. Of note, one of this author's favorite artists' song "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison is used as a prelude to the frivolity with Jeff. Jeffrey is subjected to mental as well as physical torture for a few hours, until beaten unconcious {not without good reason, of course}, & left in some desolate industrial section in the outskirts - he is truly fortunate to have not been executed. Also keep in mind that he was deceiving a hometown girl {sort of an inconsequential foo (played by Laura Dern)}, but he could not fool the experienced fox, who makes them both pay for their lies. {Dern}, a foo for sure, remains with him through the ordeal {that's true love!}. She represents the love interest / the "angel", whereas {Rossellini} represents the she-devil / succubus, or "lust interest", if you will. Between them both, is an amalgam of the "Madonna / Whore" dynamic analyzed by Freud. Two worlds collide, & he walks the fine line between them, experiencing the pains & the pleasures of both.
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Summary: Right brain vs left brain-> everyone wins!
Review: Lynch subverts the logical paradigm in high style with a lovely piece of neon noise starring the LOVELY Isaballa Rosellini. It is a beautiful mish mash of colliding worlds where no normal reconcilliation can be found. Crazy people doing CRAZY things behind every door, under every floor, where sanity is a sign of weakness, and love an article of trade. Not so much shocking as stimulating, not so much viscious as visceral... worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time.
Review: After seeing Mulholland Drive, I figured Blue Velvet and Lost Highway might be interesting as well. Boy was I wrong. Those two movies were horrible wastes of time and money. The acting was extremely poor, and the Angelo Badalamenti music is not only terrible, but plays at all the wrong times. David Lynch doesn't have a clue. Buy something else if you want a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: "It's a strange world, isn't it?"
Review: That line of dialogue from David Lynch's unquestioned masterpiece BLUE VELVET describes Lynch's film universe perfectly. With the new SPECIAL EDITION dvd out we truly get a glimpse inside the making of a great film and how it can immediately be misunderstood by someone like Roger Ebert. The behind the scenes documentary is great with interviews from many of the film participants. To enter the world of David Lynch is to cross into an unknown vortex of subconscious desires, fears, and dreams. The film brilliantly shows us the illusion of the perfect smalltown life vs. the city underworld right next door. The images stay with you long after the movie is over. Dennis Hopper is absolutely perfect in a harrowing, funny, and brutal psychopath filled with self loathing and anger. I just saw a revival showing at a theater in Los Angeles and I highly recommend to anyone to see it in a theater if possible. On the big screen the movie envelops you into its world from which there is no escape. BLUE VELVET is definitely not for everyone, and that's ok. Lynch wasn't trying to make a film for the masses, but rather as a complete personal expression in the movie art form.
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