Blue Velvet. Why most American males want to marry their mothers, and call their sons Bro.
September 13th 2007 02:50
'I think it's an ear.' 'Yes, Jeffrey. That's an ear.'
I found a really interesting, if somewhat wacky, article about David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet on a US website titled Horse Dicks & Fairies.
Link provided.
I’m not into politics so I’ve got no idea if the people running the site are left-wing, right-wing or just plain in-between breast men who like the juices of KFC dripping down the front of their ‘My Name is Earl’ shirt.
Since the people running the website claim to be Americans, and into film, I’ll consider them breast men of no particular political persuasion (and disregard the white hoods and Swastikas, and other Freemasonic and Jewish propaganda on their website). Although I did like their U-Tube link. I didn’t even know George W Bush had ever met Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.
If you haven’t seen the film Blue Velvet, it’s a film about the exterior morality of Americans and their seedy underbelly. It’s by an American, so I guess Lynch would know. Who am I to judge? I’m an Australian.
The film starts off with a lovely, quaint little scene of an idyllic American logging town called Lumberton, focusing mainly on the white picket-fence of one particular house, and people making their way to work in the crisp morning American air with not a sign of smoke from the tree-lopping factory which gives the town its meaning, subsistence and existence.
You see the fire engine go on a trial run down the main street and the pretty if somewhat effeminate fireman (who looks like he’s finally escaped from the Village People) wave to the pretty young American citizens of both genders in the street. I gather he’s bisexual.
Then you see the local citizens making their way to work in the non-congested traffic as is typical in American towns, and hear the local DJ wake the commuters up on the airwaves in that welcoming, schmaltzy way Americans are famous for, accompanied by a schmaltzy jingle.
Like I said. Lynch is American. I guess he knows what he’s talking about.
Meanwhile, back at the white-picket house symbolic of the American dream, a pretty little dog is on the front lawn snapping at the water coming out of the garden hose, while the American male house owner dutifully waters his lawn to get another idyllic day on the go.
Why Lynch then includes an extreme close-up of the lawn and has guttural sounds to indicate demonic activity is beyond me. I guess he knows what he’s doing with film.
Suddenly, the focus of the film is on the water system. Is there a bubble in the pipe? We’re not sure. All we know is the idyllic all-American father is tangled up in the hose wrestling with it. Then he has a heart attack and collapses. Why could this be? Surely there’s nothing wrong with his diet.
While he is wrapped up in the hose, about to become a vegetable, the pretty little dog continues to lick at the water.
Then we see the father’s son. He’s concerned about his father’s health. As you would be. He tells him mom he’s going to visit him.
The next time we see the father, he’s in a hospital bed. His body is suffocating in metal clamps. He can’t speak. His dutiful son is visiting him.
I got the feeling Lynch was taking the piss out of his own society seeing this. Only because I couldn’t stop laughing. But the characters treat it so seriously. It’s such a deadpan film. A lot of people don’t get it. They think it’s silly. I reckon they’ve missed the entire point of the film. It’s a piss-take.
The concerned son, leaves the dramatic hospital scene and walks home. On the way he picks up stones to throw at an old shed. He’s not very coordinated. He can’t even hit the side of a barn with a rock. He’s obviously not going to get a Harvard scholarship. He’s not a jock.
But having that great American spirit of ‘never say die till your enemy does’, he bends down to pick up another stone, and finds a human ear.
All this happens within the first couple of minutes of the film.
What happens next? You’ll have to watch it. But if you haven’t already? Just remember it’s a piss take. Don’t go, ‘Huh? I don’t get it. This film is stupid.’ If that’s your attitude? Sign up for the Marines or become a blogger.
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Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
One of my favouriite opening scenes ever.
I always saw the lawn shot as an analogy of the underbelly of the town. All is idyllic and sweet - picture perfect in fact - on the surface, but below, where most people can't see and never think to look, is a whole world of seething and sinister undercurrent. And while most don't know it's there, it still as the potential to have a devastating effect upon the picture-perfect worl above the surface.
'...she wore bluuuuue vel-vet.... ahhh-ah...'
Very eerie.
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Of course it was a piss take. You'd think that would be glaringly obvious...but I guess not.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Now where is that oxygen mask?