Blue Velvet Questions

[Murderous Squad]

aight i just watched Blue Velvet and i have no idea what the hell was goin on....i watched half of it when i was high but i understood it so that cant b the reason for the confusion but whats the reason for frank kidnapping that womans husband and kid?? is there a reason? and who is the yellow guy isnt he a cop that worked wit frank?? then why was he dead at the end?? and why does he always breath into the mask and get all weird n shit?? whats his reason for doin it does it make him horny or somethin?? i duno i was confused as hell so if u can try n break it down for me thanks peace

[DawnOfTheDead]

Very cool flick, here... to answer your questions I would have to say... that I can't answer your questions. I don't think anyone can. BUT, I will tell you that Frank did the things he did (inhaling the gas, freaking out, etc) because he was purely and simply a lunatic. He got off on pain, and had a few really strange fetishes aside from that. He probably kidnapped the kid just to further his gratification both sexually (by using Isabella Rossellini for sex) and mentally (the pain and torture he puts her through). As for the Yellow Man... I couldn't tell ya. David Lynch is a weird character. If you wanna be even more confused by a movie, try Lynch's "Lost Highway". It makes Blue Velvet look commercial.

[KcMsterpce]

Originally posted by Murderous Squad
aight i just watched Blue Velvet and i have no idea what the hell was goin on....i watched half of it when i was high but i understood it so that cant b the reason for the confusion but whats the reason for frank kidnapping that womans husband and kid?? is there a reason? and who is the yellow guy isnt he a cop that worked wit frank?? then why was he dead at the end?? and why does he always breath into the mask and get all weird n shit?? whats his reason for doin it does it make him horny or somethin?? i duno i was confused as hell so if u can try n break it down for me thanks peace

Dude, this movie is a mystery that isn't solved in the end. You have to figure it out yourself. I'll try to give hints as to what I think is going on:

******SPOILERS******SPOILERS********

Notice how everyone in Lumberton wears neutral colors. That's a sign of the exagerrated 'fakeness' of life in Lumberton. No one is realistic at all. They lack emotion, and seem like cardboard cut-outs. Except of course for Sandy, who wears all pink signifying an overexagerrated sense of girlishness. She's more of a girl than a normal girl really is.

Then you meet the cop in the yellow suit. He's really really yellow, because he's trying to fit in with the people of Lumberton, but he's actually one of the bad guys, so he's overdoing his efforts of fitting in with the people of Lumberton by the color of his suit.
Jeffery is in a completely different world in Dorothy's appartment. Everything is very dark the moment he enters her place, and the colors are deep (heavy red, blue velvet) meaning that Jeffery sees this world as hyperrealistic.

Throughout the movie Jeffery tries to solve the mystery that plagues Dorothy's world, but I think he's way off track from what the real mystery is.

Dorothy is into S & M and she likes to play rough sex games. She met Frank and thought that he was into playing sex games, too. Turns out Frank was a little more than she expected, and he took her son hostage to use her as a sex slave. She still likes to be treated badly. If you see the scene when Frank is 'raping' her ("Daddy likes to fuck") you'll notice that she's smiling. She LIKES it. That's why she wanted Jeffery to hit her later in the movie. That's how she gets off.

Frank is a really mean dude. However, I think he's over-the-top and nearly comedic in his actions, because that's how Jefferey sees him; as a scary bad man, so you see his actions the way Jeffery sees it; over the top. I'd say that Ben (Dean Stockwell) is even worse because you don't know WHAT he's capable of, and you see how much Frank worships him. He's a wierd dude. But he's truly dangerous.

So what's up with the Yellow Man comatose with a broken TV and his mashed up head in the conclusion of the movie? I don't know. lol I haven't seen the movie in quite a while.

If you happen to see this movie again, try not to follow what Jeffery's ideas are as to what's going on, cause he's probably wrong. Remember when the blind guy guessed how many fingers Jeffery had, and Jeffery said "I STILL don't know how you do that"? Obviously the blind guy's friend tapped his shoulder four times, but it's Lynch's way of telling the audience 'don't follow Jeffery's theories, because he doesn't look deep enough into a mystery'.

I could say more, but this is probably enough to help out a little bit with the confusing mystery this movie contains.

[Elgyn]

KcMsterpce - I agree with everything you said. I LOOOVEE this movie!

The suave Ben (Dean Stockwell) gives me the creeps to this very day....I always wonder what exactly he was up to.....

IMO, the yellow suit guy was a crooked cop in cohoots with Frank.

"In dreeeaaams.....
I walk....
With you.."

[Cronos]

Its odd because i watched this and understood most of it and didnt find it confusing or hard to understand

[Murderous Squad]

yeah with the info u guys gave me i just watched it over and its one of lynch's best work in my oponion...i liked it a lot thanks for all the replies peace

[Jack_Cheze]

I think it is Lynch's best work. It's trippy but coherent, the script is awesome. The one liners rival ANY movie


You're so f*'ing suave man

[Elgyn]

"Here`s to your fuck, Frank."

[Vedus Hate]

Heiniken? Fuck that shit. PABST BLUE RIBBON!

[KcMsterpce]

Originally posted by Vedus Hate
Heiniken? Fuck that shit. PABST BLUE RIBBON!

Yeah, that's one of my favorites, too.

Damn you guys! I haven't seen this in about a year, and I'm stuck in summer school in Wisconsin and don't have the DVD! I can't just fly to Hawaii and back just to watch it, so I have to wait at least a month! I'm so upset!

Well, that's ok, you guys still rock. It's just so depressing.

[angelinwhite]

I remember when Blue Velvet came out, a lot of people just didn't get it. Because Lynch was introducing a new genre of filmaking and storytelling, the film was in every way groundbreaking.

Now, jump almost 20 years ahead and now we have Mulholland Dr., one of my alltime favorites! Compare the two films and Blue Velvet, although still a monumental film and story, seems tame in it's approach to unfolding the story for the audience.

I think what this comparison shows is just how much of a genius Lynch really is. He continouisly broadens the scope of the audience's perception and powers to observe. It's almost as if he's been leading us, the audiences for his films, down a road in which he slowly reveals more and more to us in the art of filmmaking and storytelling.

Just can't wait for his next offering.

[KcMsterpce]

I once did a list of directors that I like, or just seen lots of movies that they made. It had about 40 or 50 names. Then I wrote down all the movies in my head that I could think of them making (I was at work, really bored, trying to have WordPad save the day).
After that, I rated each movie from * (poor) up to **** (excellent) for how much I liked them.

After that, I averaged the directors' rating as an overall director by <number of movies>/<total number of * rating from all movies>
and realized that David Lynch got 3.75 stars.

That's the highest rated average of all the other directors. I guess next on the list was Rob Reiner I think with 3.5 stars. Or Richard Donner. I forget.

Anyways. I love David Lynch. It seems like he's perhaps my favorite director. Haha. Kinda surprised. But then, I'm kinda not.

[Xipe Totec]

Yeah, no one makes movies quite like Lynch.

People tend to say that without almost any gore, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was one very shocking movie. I didn´t think it was that shocking. But Blue Velvet, now that`s what I call shocking.

[keepmusicevil]

***************SPOILERS**************************



The "Yellow Man" is Detective Gordon, whom Jeffrey glimpses earlier working at his desk at the police station. The other dead man (with his ear missing) is Dick Green, Dorothy's husband. The corrupt dead detective is guarding the dead husband. The Yellow Man is dead, yet remains standing, as if frozen in time.

Previously, Jeffrey explains to Sandy that he saw the Yellow Man enter a building with Frank Booth, then exit with the "Well Dressed Man". In the ending sequence Frank Booth becomes the "Well Dressed Man" - their characters literally merge. The meaning is multi-layered here. The most obvious implication is that the world of Blue Velvet is quite surreal, but there are plenty of other clues to suggest this. We get the impression, also, that corruption remains "standing" even after death, that there is no true solution to the problem depicted in the film.

After Jeff discovers the dead bodies, we see a sequence of the police raiding Frank Booth's headquarters, probably killing Frank's most direct associates. Jeff, later, kills Frank. Although the direct assailants are killed, Ben's fate is never clarified. Remember, Ben's nature is so amoral that even Frank respects him: he is the true representation of the darkness in the town of Lumberton.

At the end we are left with the impression that everything has returned to normal. But has it? At the beginning of the film the "darkness" is represented with the insects under the lawn, then at the end a robin (more accurately: the puppet of a robin) eats an insect. Obviously, the "solution" to the problem was an artificial one. The insect is destroyed by a mere puppet. Nothing has been solved. The darkness still remains. Ben is still alive. The Yellow Man is still standing. Despite all this, the characters of Lumberton live out their lives in happiness, as if blind to the evil that lurks deep down below. Only Dorothy is aware - for the violence and depravity have touched her directly.

The message here is clear: humans will live out their entire lives with the illusion of safety, of warmth, of goodness all around and inside them. "It's a strange world," Sandy says at the end of the film. We are perfectly happy pretending that people like Ben don't exist. Only when someone like Frank confronts us directly do we do something, but destroying him is an entirely artificial solution, as long as the true evil around as well as inside us remains. Most importantly, though, just as Jeff, we do not realize that we are all very much like Frank, and that pretending otherwise will not change that fact, but result only in sickness (as symbolized by Jeff's Father's illness - which is miraculously cured after the darkness of the film is seemingly dissolved).

[KcMsterpce]

Awesome reply, keepmusicevil...

Lots of typing. I made a 1 hour presentation on this movie once for a film class. I also made a report explaining my justification of this movie being perfect neo-noir. Won't get into that...


*****SPOILERS*******
I like how Dorothy isn't truly happy in the end with her son as he's playing on the playground. A flock of birds (robins?) flies overhead as she's taking her son into her arms, signifying the darkness of her past that will never leave her.

I also like how grandma is talking about how she can't stand looking at the bug in the bird's mouth as she's eating something that looks disgusting herself (and is wearing a shirt that looks as if it has bugs on it)...
*****END OF SPOILERS*****


Ah shit, Lynch is a genius. I love his movies. Every time you see one of his flicks, you catch something else you didn't catch befor.