Contrasting Themes in “Blue Velvet”
The subconscious psyche is one of the most fascinating and almost completely inexplicable aspects of human behavior. Even more intriguing than merely the subconscious is the notion of a darker, more repressed side that many individuals refuse to acknowledge exists within them. In David Lynch’s film “Blue Velvet,” the director attempts to explore the psyche of a young man named Jeffrey Beaumont, most notably the clash between his darker side and “good” side for the first time in his life. Using themes that sharply contrast one another, Lynch provides insight into the character of Jeffrey and the struggle that he is faced with. Jeffrey is in a transitional period of his life, not very old, and is on a journey of both sexual and emotional growth. Lynch uses different forms of symbolism to comment on the character of Jeffrey, and each is contrasted with something else within the film, conveying the conflict within Jeffrey’s mind. Jeffrey’s hometown, Lumberton, is depicted as a normal town yet it contains an unseen, largely ignored criminal underworld full of sexual deviants and murderous drug dealers. Lumberton is used as a metaphor for Jeffrey throughout the entire film, as it represents two sides of one object, much like Jeffrey’s mind. The idea of love versus lust is also explored and contrasted in this film as it pertains to Jeffrey and his sexual choices, with a staircase often utilized as a symbolic representation of this battle. Finally, there is the issue of Jeffrey and Frank Booth, the man who represents all that is dark within Jeffrey’s mind, and is an indication of what Jeffrey could eventually become.
The opening sequence of “Blue Velvet” immediately establishes the various contractions throughout the film. As the film opens, the song “Blue Velvet” is heard distinctly on the non-digetic soundtrack and there is a shot of a pristine, clear blue sky. Tilt down from the sky to reveal blood red roses, immediately establishing a contrast in regards to colors. Dissolve to a slow motion long shot of a firetruck driving on the street with a smiling, waving fireman holding onto the side of the truck. Another dissolve takes place to a long shot of a crossing guard and children crossing the street, and then dissolve again to an establishing shot of Jeffrey’s house. Next, there is a long sho...
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...ty.” At one point, Frank even sticks the object of his fetishism, a piece of blue velvet, into Jeffrey’s mouth. Frank is introducing Jeffrey to a side of himself that he largely chooses to ignore through homosexuality and sexual fetishism. The darker side of Jeffrey’s psyche is being represented by Frank in that homosexuality remains largely unexplored by Jeffrey, as does violence, but in Jeffrey’s encounters with Dorothy, the film demonstrates that anything is possible as Jeffrey progresses. Jeff is constantly in a battle with himself not to give in to his instincts and yet Frank is in direct contrast as he gives in to them and even lets them control his life.
“Blue Velvet” does an excellent job of exploring the uncharted regions of the human mind. Through the use of various visual symbolism, Lynch achieves his goal of entering into Jeffrey’s mind and discovering just exactly what anyone is capable of. The dark side of Jeffrey is revealed, and while he explores it himself, Jeffrey ultimately rejects it and chooses a normal life with Sandy. The film’s goal is achieved and yet, as it ends, shows that perhaps the dark side of the mind is just waiting to be discovered in all of us.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” utilize character responsibilities to create a sinister plot. For Hawthorne, protagonist Young Goodman Brown must leave his wife at home while he partakes in a night journey. For Poe, ancillary Fortunato covets a pretentious manner towards his wine tasting skills, and after being ‘challenged’ decides to prove his expertise by sampling Amontillado. Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting, characters, and fate of entrapment.
... artistic vision and the disorganization relating to the Hollywood mob. Ultimately, Tod can no longer recuperate from the brutal crowd and the cacophonous sound of the siren. Instead, he loses his artist status by conforming to the status quo, more specifically, becoming like all the people he wants to paint.
The films, The Thin Blue Line and Cloverfield are both alike and dissimilar in different film aesthetics. The aesthetics that are presented to the film’s viewers vary in many ways ranging from the type of camera used to the lighting in the films. Despite the differences both films present truths about the world using aesthetics. I think these certain aspects helps the audience give a full, undivided attention to what is currently happening in the movie. When the movie has our full attention that is when we fully understand the truths that are being presented to us from the two films, The Thin Blue Line and Cloverfield.
Undoubtedly, Michael Tritt uses a psychological strategy to critically analyze “Young Goodman Brown”. He carefully constructs his criticism through quotes from other critics and the short story. Sigmund Freud is also quoted because he theorized the projection process.
During the establishment of the film Jeffries clearly possesses the power in the relationship, with Lisa submitting to his needs and demands. The power begins to shift during the middle of the file as Lisa implements her ‘sex appeal’ and demonstrates her intelligence in an attempt to seduce Jeffries. Finally, when Lisa shows her sudden burst of bravery and adventure, Jeffries’ admiration for her grows and she becomes possessive the power within their relationship. At the beginning of the film Jeffries is represented as a caged lion, with a fierce personality, he is trapped as the result of a photography accident, which has left him with one leg in a plaster cast. At the end of the film, Jeffries had two plaster casts due to a further accident perpetrated by the murderer, suggesting now that he is more seriously involved with Lisa perhaps he has become even more trapped. This shift of power is confirmed when Lisa switches the travel book she is reading while Jeffries is awake to a fashion magazine which insinuates that she has the power and has him wrapped around her
The texts I chose for this essay are Fuentes’ Aura and Thomas Ligotti’s The Last Feast of Harlequin. Both are dark tales that are full of symbolism. Interpreting some of this symbolism may tell us why the main character acts the way he does and what his mental state is throughout the story.
“Poor decisions and bad luck are contingencies of most horror films” (Wesley Morris). The 1960’s thriller, Psycho, is no exception. It has been acclaimed as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films because of its use of psychopathic elements to create what has come to be known as a “slasher films”, a subcategory of horror films. It evolved the horror genre from monsters and the supernatural to the human condition and the monster living inside. The motion picture Psycho tells the story of a Marion Crane, a secretary who flees Phoenix, Arizona with $40,000 she steals from her boss. Days later she arrives to the Bates Motel in Oregon. At the isolated, vacant motel, she meets the owner Norman Bates who shows her hospitality. Later, however, we find
...ntence. Some critics read the title of Faulkner's novel as a challenge to the reader, in that, as "a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing," the book defies traditional literary understanding. Faulkner ends the novel with Benjy howling, fulfilling the line from "Macbeth," but after that has an image of order. The form of narrative, and not the content of life, is the only chance for order in the world. A new framing device of literary technique replaces the conventional teleological frame. The novel moves from Good Friday to Easter, from the innocence of Benjy's opening section to the omniscience of Faulkner's (or Dilsey's) concluding section. While Perry Mason and Benjy's howl seemingly signify nothing, the precision of authorial control reveals the deep material of the past in each novel from which we can attribute meaning.
The mind is a complicated thing. Not many stories are able to portray this in such an interesting manner as in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". The haunting story of a man and his sister, living in the old family mansion. But as all should know, much symbolism can be found in most of Poe's works. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is no exception.
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a film which functions on multiple levels simultaneously. On a literal level it is a mystery-suspense story of a man hoodwinked into acting as an accomplice in a murder, his discovery of the hoax, and the unraveling of the threads of the murder plot. On a psychological level the film traces the twisted, circuitous routes of a psyche burdened down with guilt, desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy. Finally, on an allegorical or figurative level, it is a retelling of the immemorial tale of a man who has lost his love to death and in hope of redeeming her descends into the underworld.
American Psycho is a savage account of a wealthy investment banker in the late 80s that commits heinous acts of murder, rape, and torture. Although on the surface, American Psycho seems as though it is just another horror story, it actually has a much deeper message. This story is a harsh critique of a superficial Wall Street society in the late 80s that was rampant with materialism and greed. This is the society in which the main character Patrick Bateman lives–where appearance, material possessions, and status define a person. This superficial existence leaves him hollow and dead inside and turns him into a psychopathic killer. A society such as this, devoid of any morality, inevitably creates psychopaths such as Bateman. The film shows an excellent portrayal of a vacant, nihilistic killer with no feelings or emotions. However, there is something more to the story that the film did not quite capture. The book seems to not only be a satirical take on this society, but a tragedy as well. Recreating the dinner scene with his secretary Jean shows that underneath the surface Patrick Bateman is, indeed, a human being with real feelings and emotions, and that it is a great tragedy that this superficial society has turned him into a monster.
The capacity of sexual feelings within the individual is central to both the development and fundamental basis of any significant character. As observed in both 'One flew over the cuckoos nest' (AKA Cuckoo's nest) and 'A Street car named desire' (AKA. St. car) sexuality emerges as a principal device used in defining a character to the audience. By the reliance on and close association of the text with the stereotypical characters found within society, the characters presented to the audience can be made more identifiable with. The physical description of a character can therefore be said to be symbolic of its sexuality, "Broad across the jaw shoulders and chest"[1] and in likening a description to a stereotype "I fight and fuh..too much"[2] this can be greater reinforced.
In Red Harvest, in both his description of both “Poisonville” and it’s inhabitants, Hammett uses contradicting language, and often iconic reoccurring imagery to express the deterioration of American morals with the growth of underground crime, judicial politics, and the emergence of the femme fatal. The characters in the novel, including the operative himself are willing to lie, cheat, and kill in cold blood for their own personal gain. Although infidelity, greed, and self-preservation are expected from characters involved with the murders and inner crime ring; the story becomes more complicated when characters like the operative, and chief of police begin to get their hands dirty. Bringing the age-old crime ad punishment theme to a higher tier where the reader is unable to make an impulsive decision on who is a “bad guy”, and who is a “good guy”.
Color is a powerful tool in film making. What once was only black and white is now a full spectrum of vibrancy. But monochromatism is still an integral artistic choice in film. Blacks and whites in movies and television tend to represent the dark nature of scenes: death, evil, sadness, the macabre. Deep blacks, rich grays, and harsh whites tend to illustrate the Gothic influence of the piece as well as its tone. Adam Barkman, a writer famous for his analysis of films, explains the impact of color in film in his book A Critical Companion to Tim Burton “When we see a particular color, we immediately attach a particular set of meanings to it that is triggered by either our instincts or our memories” (Barkman
Entrails torn from the body with bare hands, eyes gouged out with razor blades, battery cables, rats borrowing inside the human body, power drills to the face, cannibalism, credit cards, business cards, Dorsia, Testoni, Armani, Wall Street; all of these things are Patrick Bateman’s world. The only difference between Bateman and anybody else is what is repulsive to Bateman and what is repulsive to the rest of the world. Bateman has great interest in the upper class life, fashions, and social existence, but at the same time he is, at times, sickened by the constant struggle to be one up on everybody else. On the other hand Bateman’s nightlife reveals a side of him never seen during the day. Bateman is relaxed, impulsive, and confident while torturing and killing. He doesn’t have to worry about being better than anyone else. The only competition he has is his last victim. Torture and murder are the two true loves of Patrick Bateman.