On Dec. 14, 1984, David Lynch’s Dune was released into theaters for the first time. The feature-length film is riddled with problems ranging from productions, Lynch’s treatment from Universal, and the general mess the movie ended up as due to runtime cuts, disagreements, and story problem flaws. Both a box office and critical failure, the reputation that Lynch had been building up from his directorial success of The Elephant Man, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1981, started to crumble quickly. Lynch needed to reassess his ideas and go back to his roots. His infamous short stories and the now midnight cult classic Eraserhead (1977) were filled with surrealist, transcendental filmmaking ideas that had yet to be effectively brought to the big screen.
On Sep. 19, 1986, Blue Velvet was released in the United States and Canada. A psycho-sexual neo-noir film that shocked American cinema upon its release and continues to this day. A mood, an image, a song. The three core fronts of the creation of one of the most controversial and revered films of all time. An image, Lynch famously told the New York Times in an interview in 1986 that, “Jeffrey finds an ear in a field as the clue. I don’t know why it had to be an ear. Except it needed to be an opening of a part of the body – a hole into something else, like a ticket to another world. The ear sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt perfect.”
The haunting atmosphere and feeling Lynch provides through Blue Velvet was inspired by a song. The song, most ardently called “Blue Velvet,” specifically the rendition by Bobby Vinton. Evocative in nature, the song is at the forefront of the movie. It is featured in the movie, as well as being the title of the movie. Notably, Lynch stated his first ideas for the movie were simply a “feeling” and the title of the movie. This “feeling” was never specified by Lynch himself, and with the average movie go-er, it allows for the watcher to experience not only as a collective in a theater perhaps but as a singular entity of watching the characters go through an experience. Consequently, in comparison with the commercial and critical failure of his ‘Dune’ movie, Lynch’s artistic success of this movie can be credited to, once again, a feeling, “I was down so far that anything was up! So it was just a euphoria. And when you work with that kind of feeling, you can take chances. You can experiment,” Lynch said.
Movies have a simple formula: a beginning, an introduction, the middle with an important exposition, and then the climax following the ending, tying up the loose ends. Lynch’s work, the provocative “weird” nature of it is the moment, the gut-feeling of unease you may feel while watching the movie, short film, etc., that moment of your stomach tying up in knots because of the characters’ situation, or the setting juxtaposing the surrealist, sometimes beautifully tragic, situations of the characters. The ideas are so specific in execution, yet they are not something that can be easily interpreted abstractly or intellectually. How could a movie evoke laughter and giggles in one scene and then obscene brutality worthy of holding your breath next?.
‘Blue Velvet’ was deemed extremely controversial after its release, the uproar that it caused had it proudly displayed on its forthcoming movie posters as “The most talked about film of the decade.” People walking out of theaters, lines around the block, people demanding refunds, a laughably simple test-card response to the movie, “David Lynch should be shot.” Yet, throughout the test of time, he has earned his flowers gracefully as the movie ages. It is marked by David Lynch’s visionary comeback into Hollywood, and even Dennis Hopper’s return to acting. Several magazines, news, and movie critics hailed it as one of the best American films of all time, as well as the top five of the most influential movies to come from the 1980s.
Kyle MacLachlan, a famous actor most known for his work in several of David Lynch’s projects, most famously as Special Agent Cooper Dale, and Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet, shared a guest opinion piece with the New York Times his thoughts regarding David’s passing and his impact on his life.
“I think he found it natural to channel ideas through me. Sometimes it was as though I was a creation of his mind. I don’t just mean Jeffrey Beaumont or Special Agent Dale Cooper were David Lynch creations. I mean Kyle MacLachlan, too. This version of me doesn’t exist without him,” MacLachlan said.
To many, David Lynch’s death was an inspiration, whether his influence spread to other filmmakers, music artists such as David Bowie, or his very own actors like Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern who attribute their visions and success to the filmmaker. The surrealist, haunted, provocative ambiance of his films and short films was the start of a revolutionary change in film, and continues to revolutionize old and young aspiring filmmakers to this day, not only was he remembered fondly in life by those who were closest to him, as well as those who watched his movies. David Lynch may have not had the ability to live forever, but that irreplaceable “gut feeling” one receives watching his art will constantly linger throughout generations.