Blue Velvet

After watching Blue Velvet I feel that it was truly a mystery thriller with elements of Film Noir splashed throughout the movie. What I am having trouble with is coming to a realization about why this movie pertains to The Cold War. The small town of Lumberton, in which Jeffrey Beaumont calls home, is the picturesque, ideal 1980’s town that we usually associate now days with the incredibly nostalgic Reagan Era. The Car that Jeffrey Drives, Sandy’s high school, and the little Diner that the couple always goes to reminds me of the 1950’s, and something that closely resembles the movie Grease. At first glance no audience would suspect that there is something horribly wrong going on in this town as there is an unknown and sinister criminal underworld that has gone undetected. Jeffrey Beaumont happens to stumble across a random human ear in a field by his house and then he decides to take the ear to the authorities. I myself would have just kept walking and disregarded it totally. David Lynch does an incredible job by taking the plot into territory that no one first watching this movie would have expected. We see Jeffrey infiltrate Dorothy Vallens apartment disguised as an exterminator and he later returns to be caught red handed in his attempts at espionage. He witnesses the psychotic and sadomasochistic character in Frank Booth and realizes that there is something horribly wrong going on in his small town. The movie does a 180 from a beautiful small town with no problems at all into a vicious, immoral underworld that at some points seems invincible through Jeffrey’s eyes. Animal life is a theme that is present throughout the entire movie and symbolizes the defeat of Lumberton’s dark criminal activity. Lynch’s use of insects symbolizes the criminal underbelly of Lumberton. In the beginning of the movie we see the severed human ear covered in ants representing who might have done the crime. Jeffrey, with the help of Sandy disguises himself as an exterminator, symbolizing that he would eventually rid the town of the criminal infestation. Sandy expresses that she had a dream about a bunch of Robins symbolizing Love and peace and that she was comforted by the dream. Sure enough at the end of the film they see a Robin on the windowsill with a bug in its mouth, symbolizing a time of peace, and the death of the antagonist Frank Booth. Everyone then lives happily ever after. The use of insects was an interesting symbol used by Lynch to characterize immoral men in the shadow of a peaceful small town like Lumberton. The plot which disguises itself at first as a modern interpretation of a typical American small town turns into a Post-Modern example of immorality, drug use, and criminal activity. In the article Po-Mo Puritan, the author talks in great length over the Ideologies and motives of David Lynch in his films and his life. The author says that Lynch was influenced by Zoroastrianism and recognizably the struggle between good and evil. His antagonist Frank Booth is a prime example of a Demon, showing not one bit of morality or compassion. The article compares Puritan writer, Cotton Mather, to Lynch’s movies now days. Mather wrote about the influence of the devil hidden among the Puritan settlers in the darkness of the woods. Lynch depicts the influence of devil like characters hidden underground in small town America. Did you like this detective thriller and expect the plot to be anything like it was. Do you believe that the 80’s Reagan Era although similar to the 1950’s could never be like that generation due to the overbearing effect of post modernity? Did you like the connections to insects that I made in this blog?