Plot
After finding a severed human ear in a field, a young man soon discovers a sinister underworld lying just beneath his idyllic suburban home town.
Release Year: 1986
Rating: 7.8/10 (69,885 voted)
Critic's Score: 75/100
Director:
David Lynch
Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper
Storyline A man returns to his home town after being away and discovers a severed human ear in a field. Not satisfied with the police's pace, he and the police detective's daughter carry out their own investigation. The object of his investigation turns out to be a beautiful and mysterious woman involved with a violent and perversely evil man.
Cast: Isabella Rossellini
-
Dorothy Vallens
Kyle MacLachlan
-
Jeffrey Beaumont
(as Kyle Maclachlan)
Dennis Hopper
-
Frank Booth
Laura Dern
-
Sandy Williams
Hope Lange
-
Mrs. Williams
Dean Stockwell
-
Ben
George Dickerson
-
Detective Williams
Priscilla Pointer
-
Mrs. Beaumont
Frances Bay
-
Aunt Barbara
Jack Harvey
-
Mr. Beaumont
Ken Stovitz
-
Mike
Brad Dourif
-
Raymond
Jack Nance
-
Paul
J. Michael Hunter
-
Hunter
Dick Green
-
Don Vallens
Filming Locations: 109 Keaton Avenue, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $6,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $789,409
(USA)
(21 September 1986)
(98 Screens)
Gross: $8,551,228
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
Goofs:
Continuity:
Ben receives his beer from Frank - in the next two shots Ben holds the beer in different places e.g. round the glass, then the handle and back to around the glass.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Radio announcer:
It's a sunny, woodsy day in Lumberton, so get those chainsaws out. This is the mighty W.O.O.D., the musical voice of Lumberton. At the sound of the falling tree, it's 9:30. There's a whole lotta wood waitin' out there, so let's get goin'. Nurse Cindy:
Mr. Beaumont? Your son Jeffrey's here to see you.
User Review
Strange, Beautiful American Classic
Rating:
In the early moments of "Blue Velvet" we see idealized small town
images - blooming red roses and immaculate white picket fences -
accompanied by the sounds of the gentle Bobby Vinton pop tune that
gives the film its title. If you sense something unsettling about this
perfection, that's only appropriate. "Blue Velvet" is a David Lynch
film, you see, and it won't be long at all before a clean-cut college
student comes across a rotting ear in an open field.
Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is the boy who finds the ear, and
Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) is the blonde policeman's daughter who
assists Jeffrey when he decides to investigate the truth about his
disturbing discovery. Sandy and Jeffrey link the ear to night club
singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and later, a deranged man
named Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper).
"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert," Sandy tells Jeffrey
when he decides to sneak into Dorothy's apartment. As Jeffrey becomes
sexually entangled with Dorothy, we can only cast similar doubt.
It's true that "Blue Velvet"'s dark mysteries have the power to
repulse. Voyeurism, rape, torture, and murder are all key to the plot.
Yet the film is also spellbinding in its beauty. Vibrant colors and
ominous shadows offer gorgeous contrast - call it Technicolor noir -
and the film is rife with unforgettable imagery. Moments big and small,
from MacLachlan playing with a child's birthday hat to Dean Stockwell's
show-stopping lip-synch of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", are as haunting
as anything you will see at the movies anywhere.
The acting is top-notch. MacLachlan is just right as the lost innocent
Jeffrey, and Hopper shreds the screen as his depraved counterpoint
Frank. Rossellini's performance as Dorothy is devastating and extremely
courageous: this is her defining moment as an actress.
"Blue Velvet" is perhaps the quintesstential David Lynch film. His
strange humor and painterly gift for creating stunning images are
prominently on display, and the film illustrates Lynch's contradictory
impulses toward unbridled nastiness and aw-shucks sweetness like no
other has. After all these years, "Blue Velvet" is still a shocker, and
deciding how one feels about it is still a challenge. It is a film to
be considered and then reconsidered, visited and revisited, the kind of
film that will never fade away. For serious cinephiles, then, "Blue
Velvet" is a film to be cherished.
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