Blue Velvet is a 1986 American neo-noir, mystery and thriller film written and directed by David Lynch. The film features Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. The title Blue Velvet is taken from the Bobby Vinton song of the same name.

Set in the small town of Lumberton, North Carolina, the film tells the story of college student Jeffrey Beaumont, who discovers a severed human ear in a grass field behind a neighbourhood. Jeffrey decides to investigate the case himself, with the assistance of Sandy Williams, a high school student and daughter of Lieutenant John Williams, town sheriff. Sandy provides Jeffrey with information she overheard from her father's office which aids them in their investigation of the ear. Jeffrey is eventually drawn into an underworld, home to Frank Booth, a sociopathic criminal, and leader of a gang involved in murder, rape and drug addiction.

Blue Velvet opened to widespread critical acclaim and was a moderate box office success, considering its limited release in theatres across the United States. The film earned director David Lynch an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The film has become a cult classic.

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home from college after his father (Jack Harvey) suffers a near fatal stroke. While walking home from the hospital, he cuts through a vacant lot and happens upon a severed ear and puts it in a paper bag. Jeffrey takes the ear to local investigator Detective John Williams (George Dickerson). When he returns to the Williams house later to discuss the incident further, Jeffrey meets the detective’s daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). She tells him details about the ear case and a suspicious woman, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Increasingly curious, Jeffrey devises a plan to sneak into Dorothy’s apartment that involves posing as a maintenance man. Dorothy becomes distracted when a man dressed in a yellow suit (played by Fred Pickler) knocks at her door, and Jeffrey steals Dorothy's spare key.

Jeffrey and Sandy attend Dorothy's nightclub show at the Slow Club. While Dorothy performs at the nightclub, Jeffrey sneaks into her apartment to snoop. He hurriedly hides in a closet when she returns home. However, Dorothy, wielding a knife, finds him hiding and threatens to hurt him. When she realizes he is merely a curious boy, she assumes his intentions are sexual in nature, and is turned on by his voyeurism. She makes him undress at knifepoint, then fellates him. Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) interrupts their encounter with a knock on the door. Dorothy urges Jeffrey to return to the closet and he then witnesses Frank's bizarre sexual proclivities, which include erotic asphyxiation, dry humping, and sadomasochistic tendencies. Frank is an extremely foul-mouthed, violent sociopath whose orgasmic climax is a fit of both pleasure and rage. When Frank leaves, a saddened and desperate Dorothy tries to seduce Jeffrey again. She demands that he hit her but when he refuses she demands to be left alone. Jeffrey again observes Dorothy's nightclub show at the Slow Club, where she performs Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton. Frank is also present at the nightclub. Later, in the car park, Jeffrey watches Frank and his cohorts drive away before going to Dorothy's apartment again.

Frank catches Dorothy and Jeffrey together, and forces them both to accompany him to the typically Lynchian house of Ben (Dean Stockwell), a suave dandy and partner in crime. In a bizarre scene Ben mimes the singing of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", sending Frank into maudlin sadness, then rage. He takes Jeffrey to a milling yard and savagely beats him to the overture of "In Dreams". Jeffrey wakes the next day and goes home, where he is overcome with guilt and despair. He decides to go to the police. At the police station, Jeffrey notices that Sandy's father's partner is Gordon — the Yellow Man. Later at Sandy's home, her father is amazed by Jeffrey's story, but warns Jeffrey of the danger of the situation. Jeffrey and Sandy go to a dance party together, profess their newfound love and embrace. When they're tailed on their way home, Jeffrey is relieved to discover that it's only Sandy’s football-playing ex-boyfriend. A confrontation is avoided when they see a naked and distressed Dorothy waiting on Jeffrey’s front lawn.

From the hospital, Jeffrey tells Sandy that he must return to Dorothy's apartment and tells Sandy to send her father there immediately. When he arrives back at Dorothy’s apartment, he finds the crudely lobotomized Yellow Man and dead body of Dorothy’s husband, who is missing an ear. When he tries to leave, he sees The Well Dressed Man coming up the steps and recognizes him as Frank. Jeffrey talks to Det. Williams over the police radio but lies about his location inside the apartment. Frank enters the apartment and brags about hearing Jeffrey's location over his own police radio. When Frank fails to find Jeffrey in the bedroom, he returns to the lounge. Jeffrey shoots Frank with the Yellow Man's gun. Det. Williams arrives with Sandy in tow. Days later, we see Jeffrey and Sandy together, with their lives back to normal, and before the credits, Dorothy and her son playing happily in the park together.

Lynch has admitted to certain autobiographical content in the film:

"Kyle is dressed like me. My father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture in Washington. We were in the woods all the time. I'd sorta had enough of the woods by the time I left, but still, lumber and lumberjacks, all this kinda thing, that's America to me like the picket fences and the roses in the opening shot. It's so burned in, that image, and it makes me feel so happy."

The actual story of the film originated from three ideas that crystallized in the filmmaker's mind over a period of time starting as early as 1973. The first idea only "a feeling" and the title Blue Velvet. The second idea was an image of a severed, human ear lying in a field. "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...The ear sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt perfect," Lynch remarked in an interview. The third idea was Bobby Vinton's classic rendition of the song Blue Velvet and "the mood that came with that song a mood, a time, and things that were of that time."

Lynch and Roth pitched the script to Warner Bros. Pictures, who showed interest in the project. Lynch eventually spent two years writing two drafts, which he stated, were not very good. The problem with them, Lynch has said, was that "there was maybe all the unpleasantness in the film but nothing else. A lot was not there. And so it went away for a while."

After finishing The Elephant Man in 1979, Lynch met producer Richard Roth over coffee. Roth had read and enjoyed Lynch's Ronnie Rocket script but did not think it was something he wanted to produce. He asked Lynch if the filmmaker had any other scripts but the director only had ideas. "I told him I had always wanted to sneak into a girl's room to watch her into the night and that, maybe, at one point or another, I would see something that would be the clue to a murder mystery. Roth loved the idea and asked me to write a treatment. I went home and thought of the ear in the field."

Lynch wrote two more drafts before he was satisfied with the script of the film. Conditions at this point were ideal for Lynch's film: he had cut a deal with Dino De Laurentiis that gave him complete artistic freedom and final cut privileges with the stipulation that the filmmaker take a cut in his salary and work with a budget of only $6 million. This deal meant that Blue Velvet was the smallest film on the De Laurentiis' slate. Consequently, Lynch would be left mostly unsupervised during production. "After Dune 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." Because the material was completely different from anything that would be considered mainstream at the time, Laurentiis had to start his own production company to distribute it.

The scene where Dorothy appears naked outside after being raped and beaten was inspired by a real-life experience Lynch had in his childhood when he and his brother saw a naked woman walking down a neighborhood street at night. The experience was so traumatic to the young Lynch at the time, it made him cry and he had never forgotten it.

Principal photography of Blue Velvet began on February 10, 1986. The exterior scenes of Lumberton were filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The cast of Blue Velvet included several relatively unknown actors, including Laura Dern. Isabella Rossellini had experienced some recognition for her Lancôme ads in the early 1980s. Dennis Hopper was the biggest "name" in the film, having starred in Easy Rider (1969) and Apocalypse Now (1979), while Kyle MacLachlan had played the central role in Lynch's Dune (1984), a science fiction epic based on the novel of the same name, a critical and commercial failure. Blue Velvet's dark script and low budget limited the number of big names that Lynch could attract. The part of Frank Booth was originally offered to Robert Loggia, then Willem Dafoe and Richard Bright, all of whom turned it down because of the character's vulgar and intense personality. In contrast, Dennis Hopper — Lynch's third choice — accepted the role, reportedly having exclaimed, "I've got to play Frank! I am Frank!" Hopper confirmed this in the Blue Velvet "making-of" documentary The Mysteries of Love, produced in 2002 for the special edition of the film.

For the role of Dorothy Vallens, Lynch met Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant, and she accepted the role. Lynch only had one choice for the role of Jeffrey Beaumont: Val Kilmer, who turned the role down, deeming the script he read as "pornography". Kilmer later said he would have done the final version of the film; having become very fond of it. Chris Isaak was offered the role of Jeffrey Beaumont, but he turned it down. Lynch used two songs from Isaak's 1985 debut album Silvertone in the film. Kyle MacLachlan, who had previously starred in one film directed by Lynch, Dune (1984), was asked to play the role of Jeffrey. He instantly agreed. For MacLachlan, who appears in nearly every scene in the film, the intense shooting schedule was exhausting. In an interview, Lynch said that he initially wanted Molly Ringwald, then widely known as a "teen idol", to star as Sandy Williams; but Ringwald's mother objected to her starring in the film due to the graphic content, believing that it would tarnish her then-successful career in the film industry.

Lynch's original rough cut ran for approximately four hours. He was contractually obligated to deliver a two-hour movie by De Laurentiis and cut many small subplots and character scenes. He also made cuts at the request of the MPAA. For example, when Frank slaps Dorothy after the first rape scene, the audience was supposed to see Frank actually hitting her, instead it cuts away to Jeffrey in the closet, wincing at what he has just seen. This was removed to satisfy the MPAA concerns about violence. Lynch thought that the change only made the scene more disturbing. To this day, footage of the deleted scenes has never been found and only stills remain. David Lynch's final cut of the film ran one frame under two hours.

The Blue Velvet soundtrack is by Angelo Badalamenti. The soundtrack uses vintage pop songs, such as Bobby Vinton’s "Blue Velvet" and Roy Orbison’s "In Dreams", juxtaposed with an orchestral score inspired by Shostakovich. During filming, Lynch placed megaphones on set and in streets and played Shostakovich to set the correct mood he wanted to conveyed. The score makes direct quotations from Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, which Lynch had been listening to regularly while writing the screenplay.

Entertainment Weekly ranked Blue Velvet at #100 on their list of the 100 Greatest Film Soundtracks. Critic John Alexander wrote, "the haunting soundtrack accompanies the title credits, then weaves through the narrative, accentuating the noir mood of the film."

Lynch worked with music composer Angelo Badalamenti for the first time in this film and asked him to write a score that had to be “like Shostakovich, be very Russian, but make it the most beautiful thing but make it dark and a little bit scary.” Badalamenti's success with Blue Velvet would later go on to contribute to all of Lynch's future full-length films. Also included in the sound team was long time Lynch collaborator Alan Splet, sound editor and designer who had won an Academy Award for his work on The Black Stallion (1979) and been nominated for Never Cry Wolf (1983).

Track listing:
"Main Title" 1:27
"Night Streets/Sandy and Jeffrey" 3:42
"Frank" 3:34
"Jeffrey's Dark Side" 1:48
"Mysteries of Love" 2:10
"Frank Returns" 4:39
"Mysteries of Love" [instrumental] 4:41
"Blue Velvet/Blue Star" 3:14
"Lumberton U.S.A./Going Down to Lincoln" 2:13
"Akron Meets the Blues" 2:40
Bill Doggett - "Honky Tonk, Pt. 1" 3:09
Roy Orbison - "In Dreams" 2:48
Ketty Lester - "Love Letters" 2:36
Julee Cruise - "Mysteries of Love" 4:22

Blue Velvet was released in theatres in the United States on February 26, 1986. In its opening weekend, Blue Velvet grossed a total of (USD) $789,409 and was released in a total of 98 theaters in the United States. As of August 7, 2006, the film has grossed a total of $8,551,228 domestically. It was also released internationally, in Australia, most of West Germany, China, Canada, Hong Kong, Western Europe and Japan, followed by subsequent video releases. The film grossed (AU) $900,000 in Australia, which was a large and impressive amount of money for a film to gross at the box office in Australia, in that day, and (HKD) 450,139 in Hong Kong.

The film received an extremely positive reaction from critics in the United States. Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post said that "the film showcases a visual stylist utterly in command of his talents" and that Angelo Badalamenti "contributes an extraordinary score, slipping seamlessly from slinky jazz to violin figures to the romantic sweep of a classic Hollywood score," but claims that Lynch "isn't interested in communicating, he's interested in parading his personality. The movie doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end."

Janet Maslin, critic from The New York Times expressed her admiration for the film, and directed much praise toward the performances of Hopper and Rossellini: "Mr. Hopper and Miss Rossellini are so far outside the bounds of ordinary acting here that their performances are best understood in terms of sheer lack of inhibition; both give themselves entirely over to the material, which seems to be exactly what's called for." She concluded by saying that the movie, "is as fascinating as it is freakish. It confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as an innovator, a superb technician, and someone best not encountered in a dark alley."

Looking back in his Guardian/Observer review, critic Philip French felt that "The film is wearing well and has attained a classic status without becoming respectable or losing its sense of danger." Blue Velvet holds a 90 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and holds a consistently high rating on the Internet Movie Database. Peter Travers, film critic for Rolling Stone magazine, named Blue Velvet the best film of the 1980s, and referred to the film as an "American masterpiece". Film critic Gene Siskel included Blue Velvet on his list of the best films of 1986, at #6.

Nevertheless, Blue Velvet was not without its detractors. A general criticism from critics in the United States was the films often vulgar approach to sexuality and violence that detracts the film from having a serious side. Roger Ebert, noted film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, supported that view, however praised Isabella Rosselini's performance as being "convincing and courageous", yet criticized how she was depicted in the film, even accusing David Lynch of misogyny: "degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film." Ebert ended up giving the movie one star out of four.

The film received an array of nominations, ranging from independent awards to mainstream. Isabella Rossellini won an Independent Spirit Award for the Best Female Lead in 1987. David Lynch and Dennis Hopper won a Los Angeles Film Critics Association award in 1987 for Blue Velvet in categories Best Director (Lynch) and Best Supporting Actor (Hopper). In 1987 National Society of Film Critics gave the film Best Film, Best Director (David Lynch), Best Cinematography (Frederick Elmes) and Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) awards. In addition, David Lynch was nominated for the 1987 Best Director Academy Award. Dennis Hopper received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the film Hoosiers. At the time, it was believed that the Academy wanted to honor Hopper's portrayal of Frank in Lynch's film, but gave him the Oscar nomination for his appearance in Hoosiers instead because Frank was just too evil a character. Many feel that Isabella Rossellini was also snubbed by the awards for her performance in the film.

Although it initially gained a small theatrical audience and was met with controversy over its artistic merit, Blue Velvet became a cult classic since its theatrical debut, had a myriad of VHS, laserdisc and DVD releases, and marked the comeback of Dennis Hopper after a significant hiatus from work and the entrance of David Lynch into the Hollywood mainstream. Its success has helped propel Hollywood mainstream toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes, a similar case to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), to which Blue Velvet has been frequently compared.

Blue Velvet spawned countless imitators that borrowed elements instituted by Lynch in the film. Its dark, dream-like and symbolistic production design have served as a benchmark and its inspiration can be seen in many subsequent suburban-set thriller films and cinema in general, as well as television programs including The X-Files, Lynch's own Twin Peaks, American Gothic and Desperate Housewives, as well as films such as Heathers, X, Crash, Happiness, American Beauty, Donnie Darko and Lantana. Some posters for the video release dubbed it "the most talked about movie of the decade". An increasing number of critics continue to regard it as one of recent cinema's finest achievements, Lynch’s magnum opus, and one of the most effective thriller films, and credit the film with having revolutionized the genre. It has been recognized as one of the greatest films of all time by the following publications, among others:

Ranked by "Entertainment Weekly" as one of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time (December 1999).
The "The Guardian" list of the 100 Greatest Films.
Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films in the past 25 years.
"Movieline’s" 100 greatest films of all time.
Film Four's 100 Greatest Films.

The American Film Institute has awarded the film two distinguished honors in their lists: one on 100 Years... 100 Thrills in 2001, selecting cinema’s most important horror and thriller films, and ranked the film’s villain Frank Booth, as one of the 50 greatest villains in 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains in 2003. The film was ranked #84 on Bravo Television's four hour programme 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004). It is frequently sampled musically.

A number of films have referenced Blue Velvet:

In Haute Tension, a French slasher film, there is a shot-for-shot homage to the scene in Blue Velvet that introduces Frank's character.
In The Squid and the Whale, set in 1986, a group of friends decide to view Blue Velvet in the cinema, over Short Circuit, another 1986 film.
Blue Velvet is referenced in an episode of the television series Arrested Development. Wayne Jarvis comments on Gob's puppet Franklin, asking (in an imitation of Kyle MacLachlan), "Why do there have to be puppets like Frank?"
In the Capcom video game Resident Evil 4, a recurring treasure is named Velvet Blue.
In the video game Conker's Bad Fur Day, the famous "Do you want to go for a ride?" scene is mimicked at the end of the game.
The video game Metal Gear Solid contains an allusion to the "love letter" quote.
On June 14, 2007, the Village Voice printed a story about a devoted fan of the film, artist Christian Tomaszewski. Tomaszewski re-built most of the film’s set pieces, and re-created several of the film’s most important moments. He claimed, "So much a part of our language is the movie . . . so much a part of our behavior."
Rollins Band released a lengthy 'jam' song called "JoyRiding with Frank." The live version starts with Henry quoting Frank: "This Is IT!"
The beginning of the Fear Factory song "Concrete" from their album of the same title features a sample of Frank screaming "Next!" after Jeffrey punches him in the face.
Benediction wrote "Dark Is the Season," a song about Blue Velvet having lyrics directly referencing the movie. It is recorded on the Dark is the Season EP. The lyrics sheet further states, "See the film Blue Velvet by David Lynch, freak out & blow your mind!!!"
Iowa metalcore band A Well Dressed Man took their name from the disguise worn by Frank Booth, referred to by Jeffrey as "the well-dressed man disguise."
Mr. Bungle's self-titled album featured samples of dialog from Blue Velvet in the songs "Squeeze Me Macaroni," "Stubb (A Dub)," and "My Ass Is on Fire."
The San Diego band Deadbolt recorded the song "E Frank" with lyrics inspired by some of Frank Booth's lines in the film. The song, recorded live, appears on the B-side of a single issued by Trademark Records.
The band Anthrax wrote "Now It's Dark", a song about Blue Velvet on their State of Euphoria album. Many of the lyrics reference the movie, including the infamous "Don't you fucking look at me!"
The Pittsburgh d-beat band Drought has a song entitled "Don't You Fucking Look at Me!", named for Frank's line in the film.
A soundbite of Frank Booth screaming "Heineken? Fuck that shit!" is heard in the middle of the Green Day cover of "My Generation."
The Norwegian band Combichrist used "Fuck that shit" in the chorus to a song titled the same.
The CD accompanying Arthur Kroker's book "Spasm" contains a track that begins by repeating the line, "Stay alive baby. Do it for Van Gogh."
On the radio show Loveline, a quote from Frank Booth is often played when a caller admits to having an abusive home life, involving males.
In the television series Greg the Bunny, the entire plot of the film, as well as its most recognized scenes, are parodied.
In Bio Dome, while inhaling nitrous oxide from a tank with a mask, Pauly Shore's character says, "Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet: 'Oh I'm slutty!, Oh I'm slutty!'" referencing Dennis Hopper's character's crude sexual nature and the scene while Frank Booth gets high using a mask to inhale nitrous oxide.
In the film Tarnation, Jonathan Caouette staged a musical reenactment of Blue Velvet in his high school years.

Blue Velvet introduced several common elements of Lynch's work, including distorted characters, a polarized world, debilitating damage to the skull or brain and the dark underbelly of large cities, or in this case, small towns. Red curtains also show up in key scenes, which have since become a trademark of Lynch films.

Blue Velvet owes a debt to 1950s film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the femme fatale, a seemingly unstoppable villain, and the questionable moral outlook of the Hero.

Feminist psychoanalytic film theorist Laura Mulvey argues that the film establishes a metaphorical family — Jeffrey Beaumont (the 'child') and his 'parents' Frank Booth and Dorothy Vallens — through deliberate references to film noir and its underlying Oedipal theme. The resulting violence, she claims, can be read as symbolic of domestic violence within 'real' families. For instance, Frank's violent acts can be seen to reflect the different types of abuse within families, and the control he has over Dorothy might represent the hold an abusive husband has over his wife. Michael Atkinson reads Jeffrey as an innocent youth who is both horrified by the violence inflicted by Frank, but also tempted by it as the means of possessing Dorothy for himself.

Throughout the film, Frank Booth uses a mask to breathe a gas from a tank. Lynch's script specified helium, to raise Frank's voice and have it resemble that of an infant. However, during filming, Hopper, an experienced drug user, claimed to have insight into Frank's choice of drug and that helium was inappropriate:

"...I'm thankful to Dennis," Lynch said, "because up until the last minute it was gonna be helium — to make the difference between 'Daddy' and the baby that much more. But I didn't want it to be funny. So helium went out the window and became just a gas. Then, in the first rehearsal, Dennis said, 'David, I know what's in these different canisters.' And I said, 'Thank God, Dennis, that you know that!' And he named all the gases."

In The Mysteries of Love documentary on the DVD version of the film, Hopper claims that the drug was amyl nitrite an angina medication.