Blue Velvet Analysis

In the opening scene of the film Blue Velvet the calm, peaceful music started to play and the music was called Blue Velvet this song relates to the title. As the camera slowly moves down to show the blue sky, showing a colour match with the title and sky. The Red roses in the scene represent love that could be to symbolise the town in the upcoming scene. In the very first scene David Lynch shows a white picket fence, a red rose and the blue sky these three colours are the colours of the American flag representing patriotism and also, David Lynch uses this to show the typical 60s Americano town with a white picket fence. The peaceful music could also represent the nice, calm town that the film is based on. The roses dissolve into a shot of a typical suburban American life. In the next scene David Lynch shows a friendly neighbourhood by showing a friendly fireman going down the street, it then fades into some yellow flowers; this colour represents friendship, domestic happiness and is also to express sympathy. It then fades back into children walking across a street representing a safe neighbourhood.

In the next scene a man is scene watering his garden, and again is showing the white picket fences, it then cuts to a women in the living room watching television but we see a gun on the television which could represent upcoming danger in the film and shows a threat. David Lynch then shows the man watering his garden struggle with a tangled hose and a series of quick shots cuts between the man tugging on the hose and the tap, where water pressure is building up creating tension, and then the man grabs his neck and collapses. It cuts to the man lying on the ground with the hose still in his hand. This leads to a slow motion close up of the water spraying everywhere. There is then a wide angle shot of the man on the ground, while a dog is playing with the hose pipe, and a baby is at the driveway, this contrasts with the previous scenes as it had shown a nice, friendly neighbourhood and now there is a series of unfortunate events of a man having a stroke and a lonely baby at the drive way. There is then a cut into a close up of the grass and the camera zooms in more into a tracking shot through the blades of grass, and as the camera moves forward the “Blue velvet” song slowly fades away into a creepy crawling noise which then revealed as being beetles.

This opening scene is to represent the entire film and to show what the film is about, as it starts with a friendly nice neighbourhood but at the end there is danger and the close up on the beetles represents the friendliness above but underneath there is horrible things which could be about the town its self.