Throughout his films, David Lynch presents the truth of the depths of the American life. While it may be surreal and absurd, it’s its absurdity that allows it to be realistic. The majority of David Lynch’s films are set in small towns, but even through these small towns we see a deep dark hidden secret in which we can tell these towns don’t have the same safe all-knowing neighborhood which would be accustomed to a small town. Instead we have a dark, violent, underworld and many parts of our common culture that shows the reality which many Americans choose to ignore. Through David Lynch’s films we can understand that this is not just a dark secret that outsiders would think the big city would only face, but more it is a reality of life anywhere and everywhere in America. Through this paper I will be discussing instances of this through mainly the film Blue Velvet and partially connections to Wild at Heart which truly show the deep underbelly in all parts of America in relation to culture, music, and geography.
David Lynch spent his childhood growing up in small towns. Lynch’s father had agricultural work that took him across the country as he was moved from job to job as requested by the Department of Agriculture. In his documentary, The Art of Life, David Lynch stated that in his childhood he saw the world as two blocks, and it was up to his imagination to create an entire world out of these two blocks. This childhood imagination of the world he lives in makes sense if you consider the world he lived in at the time. David Lynch was growing up right as suburban American culture was gaining traction through the 1950’s. A world full of conspiracies of communism, atomic bombs, and racism was his normality in day to day childhood life in middle-class suburban America. It only makes sense how an imaginative child can make such a surreal absurd view out of what is already seemingly surreal and absurd. David Lynch’s world now is set in his movies and the creations of the worlds within towns that they represent, besides the 1980 biopic The Elephant Man and 1984 sci-fi disaster Dune. To be more specific they are not set in exactly now but more of a Lynchian version of now which is the absurd definition of reality. In this Lynchian universe though the main truth that draws it away from not is the weird connection to the 1950’s. The 50’s never quite ending seems natural for a bizarre childlike director who grew up during those times; it’s pure nostalgia, and nostalgia of an era which led towards a dark layout for which is the future. In this era Lynch, as a child could only imagine the world, out of true fear for the world, as dark and full of secrets, and through this understanding he allows it to relate to culture in the future.
The darkness of Lynch’s depiction of America relate fully to this repression of nostalgia and the seemingly stereotypical nature of the culture in his films. The nostalgia that is birthed in Lynch films come from the fear and uncertainty of the world today and a longing for the ‘simpler times’ when life was ‘easy’. This is what allows each film to relate to the culture of when it was released, each generation of adults thinks the world is getting scarier and people are getting worse, but in reality, it was there all along. Through Lynch’s movies he helps us understand the reality of what’s going on around us in the world, and the people and forces who allow it. He gives us hints towards the answers of mysteries in small-town America and why they seem strange.
Lynch’s connection with the 1950’s is something he’s spoke very much on throughout the years. In an interview with Alice O’Keefe, Lynch stated “In the 1950s, everything had a very beautiful façade. There was optimism in the air and a feeling of moving forward in a good way. But, looking back, we realize all the sicknesses and perversions, distortions, all these things were there,” (“A History of Violence” pg. 38). This shows Lynch’s realization with the cultural problems throughout every generation. While he may look back on the 1950s with nostalgia, he sees the darkness that was in his culture. Lynch then goes on to say, “They were covered over. No one talked about them; no one looked, really. But in the time since then, the sicknesses are being revealed, and everyone says, ‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness’ – but it was always there. So, it’s a good thing. It’s there and they examine it, and maybe try and find a way to cure some things,” (O’Keefe, “A History of Violence” pg. 38). He goes on to speak about how people in the moment won’t notice the small things which can show themselves as evil, but instead look back on it in shock as to say, ‘I can’t believe that was happening.’ He then goes on to talk about examining and finding a cure for the sickness. With this I have trouble rationalizing. When they try to find a cure, a cure is never going to be there and if it is there is just more problems to come with it. There is no inherent cure for the sickness of the human nature and the mind of ill-will. Throughout generations there will be one problem and another, but if he’s talking about curing these problems that’s never going to happen. There is the more rational approach in which he is talking about simply curing the problems then and there, and while that is possible, what good will it do as a problem will just show itself at the next waking moment. Through this is what we find absurdity; the absurdity of the condition of human life.
The absurdity in this problem is that if there’s a problem, why fix it? Another is just going to arrive anyways. That is though what we have to deal with through our daily lives. This absurdism is presented in Wild at Heart. Through Wild at Heart, Sailor is hit with more and more problems each scene of the film. But why does he continue? Any rational person would just change lifestyles or find a different girl with not so many issues, right? This in full is just the absurdity of the American mindset. As Americans we’re stubborn, we’re told to never give up and love who we want and do what we choose. This is the absurdity of our culture at a focal point. Lynch also shows this in Blue Velvet, throughout the film Jeffrey faces challenges he got himself into out of curiosity and can easily get himself out of, but as the film goes on does he choose to give up? No, he presses on in order to fulfill something only he requires. This satisfaction is the epitome of American culture and our fulfillment to this absurdism. Why do we do it? We don’t know. It’s just how we’re taught, and Lynch shows that throughout his catalogue of films.
Now talking on Blue Velvet, I’d like to address the underbelly of the quaint town of Lumberton, USA. The dark sides of this suburbia can be seen fairly quickly through the breaking of the regular, “These adventures will necessitate breaking Lumberton’s social codes. Leaving home for a short stroll, Jeffrey is quizzed by his aunt: ‘You’re not going down by Lincoln, are you?’ He replies: ‘No, I’m just going to walk around the neighbourhood. Don’t worry.’ At this stage, there is a clear separation between the respectable area where middle-class families like the Beaumonts reside and Lincoln Street,” (Martin, “Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 241). This shows a realization by the characters of a less well-off part of town where non-respectable people live like Dorothy. This shows a clear separation between what is normal and what is abnormal in this rich suburbia America. Though they live close Jeffrey doesn’t consider the areas neighborly. This focus on what is a good neighbor that you associate with and which is a bad neighbor whom you don’t consider close in relation, stems a lot from the conservative culture and Ronald Reagan era of the time Blue Velvet came out, 1986. Richard Martin shows some of the quotes of the times by stating, “‘The success story of America’, Ronald Reagan declared in 1982, ‘is neighbor helping neighbor’” (“Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 235). Richard Martin goes further to ask, “However, its unspoken implications remain highly contentious. What constitutes a neighbour? Who is excluded from this category? Where are these neighbours located?” (“Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 236). Martin then goes on to state, “Indeed, upon its release, Lynch himself described Blue Velvet as a ‘neighbourhood picture’” (“Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 236). With Lynch stating that it is a neighborhood picture in the times goes in line to show how well-off American society saw those that they wanted to live close to, due to affluence, as neighbors and those they didn’t want to live close to, due to poverty, as not neighbors. This allowed affluent suburbia to find a reason to be disconnected to actual issues going on in their small-town, due to disinterest. If they didn’t care about whom the issues were happening to, why would they find interest to acknowledge it? Martin even touches on this by writing, “By contrast, suburbs, particularly in their post-war form, are more likely to be associated with alienation, isolation and mindless consumption” (“Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 238). Suburbs find a way to disconnect themselves from the real problems in their communities, and Lynch shows this by showing a disinterest of these truths to all characters except the ones involved in the storyline. Martin gives the perfect description of it by writing, “In Blue Velvet, Lynch doubly subverts his peaceful setting by switching attention from the human suffering upon the turf to the insects festering beneath it. Evidently, small towns such as Lumberton are not as perfect as they seem; these lush lawns harbour processes usually ignored” (“Neighbourhoods or Nothing?” pg. 240). The town of Lumberton shows that even in environments which it is unwanted, these dark forces can easily find a way to infiltrate and prove them vulnerable to corruption, due to its ability to be easily ignored. This is even actively stated in the film when Jeffrey says to Sandy that he “is seeing something that was always hidden.”
Another component to considering these communities and their aspects are through geographical and musical aspects. While Blue Velvet’s geography seems to be south but looks more like Midwest and music is more nostalgia driven, Wild at Heart is the complete opposite. Wild at Heart is very unapologetically southern and its music strives off of metal and Elvis. This more open culture in the movie may be the disconnect of modern culture in Blue Velvet compared to the very apparent cultural scenes in Wild at Heart. The iconography of the music is something Mike Miley has discussed thoroughly by writing, “Looking at Wild at Heart in this context reveals that the film uses rock music, clichés, and iconography as more than a cynical stylistic reference in a pop-nostalgic lovers-on-the-run romance but rather as a structuring principle or code” (“David Lynch at the Crossroads” pg. 42). By showing this we realize this differs in the nostalgia driven soundtrack of David Lynch’s past in Blue Velvet but more of a structural integrity for the films characters. Lynch uses these sort of clichés and iconography to depict the trials and tribulations of these two lovers. The ideal of art, especially rock ’n’ roll as seen in this, promotes a force of essence in this world, which simply isn’t there in Blue Velvet. Miley further goes on to state, “Martha Nochimson explains, “Wild at Heart . . . is built on the inevitability of [the viewer’s] subconscious connection . . . with the materials of the mass media.” Anahid Kassabian would call this “subconscious connection” to rock iconography an “affiliating identification,” which relies upon the viewer’s knowledge of music outside the context of the film” (“David Lynch at the Crossroads” pg. 43-44). This shows how the film allows for the viewer to grow a connection to the soundtrack due to prior knowledge. This allows the familiarity of the concepts in this film to be pushed even further.