David Lynch's seminal film Velvet was a nightmarish and surreal story that exemplified the 1980s, but its ending left a lot of questions. Released in 1986, Blue Velvet was Lynch's return to form after the misstep that was the 1984 adaptation of Dune. The film held up an eerie mirror of small town America and showed the seedy underbelly that writhed beneath. Although it was a bit of a box office failure, grossing only $8.5 million (via Box Office Mojo), it was positively received by critics and even earned David Lynch his second Best Director Oscar nomination.
Unlike Lynch's other films that delved entirely into the surreal, Blue Velvet was still very much a mystery story that was interspersed with the director's signature brand of otherworldly vision. Those traits made it one of Lynch's most accessible films, but also one of his most rewatchable movies as well and its popularity grew in the decades after its release. Blue Velvet continued David Lynch's collaboration with actor Kyle MacLachlan and also introduced Laura Dern into the director's stable of repeat performers. Although later films would offer a more unfiltered Lynch, Blue Velvet was the perfect marriage of the surreal and the cinematic.
What Happens In Blue Velvet's Ending?
After a wounded Dorothy was left in Jeffrey's front yard by Frank Booth's thugs, she hugged Jeffrey and referred to him as her "secret lover". Although that revelation caused Sandy to slap Jeffrey for his infidelity, he then asked Sandy to tell her father, a police officer, all the evidence they had uncovered. On Jeffrey's tip, the police raided Booth's compound and killed many of his men. Then, in one of the darkest scenes in a Lynch film, Jeffrey returned to Dorothy's apartment to find her husband and the man in the yellow jacket dead. Frank then arrived in disguise, and Jeffrey used a gun to ambush him.
Sandy and Jeffrey were reunited after his harrowing ordeal in Dorothy's apartment and the pair embraced despite their earlier falling out. The scene then faded out to white and revealed Jeffrey, presumably in the near future, lounging in his backyard until Sandy called him inside the house. Once inside, Jeffrey, Sandy, and Jeffrey's aunt then observed a bird sitting on the windowsill and Jeffrey's aunt exclaimed in disgust as it ate an insect. Dorothy was then seen watching her son play in the park, and she happily embraced him.
Who Were The Dead Men In Dorothy's Apartment?
During the climax, the film dropped a lot of information without necessarily explaining it, and the identities of the men in Dorothy's apartment weren't explicitly stated. Blue Velvet had many Lynch trademarks and his propensity for the tableau was exemplified during the climactic final showdown. The dead man who was tied to the chair was actually Dorothy's husband, and though little was shown of him throughout the movie, the fact that he was bound was the only clue given. Frank had been holding Dorothy's husband hostage as a way to keep her loyal to him, and the brutal way he met his end only helped to make Frank seem more evil.
The identity of the other man was a bit more obvious, and his bright yellow suit jacket revealed him to be the mysterious man in the yellow jacket that had been seen collaborating with Frank. The yellow jacket man was a member of Lumberton's police force, and Jeffrey had actually seen him in the police station when he went to present his findings to Sandy's father. Blue Velvet was Lynch's masterpiece because it showed he could do the surreal just as deftly as he could weave an intriguing mystery that was reminiscent of the best classic noir films.
What Happened To Dorothy At The End Of Blue Velvet?
Dorothy's literal ending, as seen in the movie, was a mixture of happiness and sadness as she was reunited with her son, but her husband was killed. In a more figurative sense, Dorothy bore the brunt of the film's punishment as it seemed that characters, like Jeffrey and Sandy, got away unscathed. The ending even revealed that Jeffrey's father had recovered from his health episode at the beginning of the film, and Jeff got the happy ending. Although Blue Velvet wasn't one of Lynch's weirdest films, it was his most moralistic, and it was clear that Dorothy didn't fit within the picturesque small-town image of Lumberton.
What Did The Birds Represent?
Throughout the film, references were frequently made to birds. In one scene, Sandy described a dream she had involving a world filled with darkness, and the sudden arrival of thousands of robins brought light and love to that desolate place. Robins represented love for the young and naive Sandy, and they represented her burgeoning relationship with Jeffrey in particular. In the world of Blue Velvet, robins became the symbol of incorruptible goodness which tied back to the pristine image of Lumberton (as seen at the beginning and end).
The opening scene revealed that millions of wriggling insects lived just below the surface, and the shot at the end of a robin eating the insect seemed to suggest that goodness had prevailed over evil. Far from being a hidden detail in Blue Velvet, the birds were one of the film's most overt images and that was most likely done on purpose. Lynch always layered his films with meaning, and the simple good vs evil message was merely a subterfuge for the much more complicated narrative that was being told elsewhere in the film. If anything, the birds were only a symbol for Jeffrey and Sandy and not Dorothy.
The Real Meaning Of Blue Velvet's Ending
Blue Velvet was both a moralistic look at small towns and the corrupting influence of the outside world, but it was also a clever skewering of the classic Norman Rockwell-like ideas about those small communities. The images of white picket fences and waving firemen weren't necessarily literal, but represented the clichéd view of what an ideal life was. Besides being one of the best mystery movies of all time, Blue Velvet also had a lot to say about the political direction that the world was taking in the 1980s, particularly its turn towards more traditional views of community.
Politicians and society at large began looking to the 1950s as a Golden Age, but Lynch's Blue Velvet served as a reminder that not everything was perfect in those sainted days. Although Jeffrey was the hero of the movie, the ending showed that he essentially got away unscathed in his pristine suburban life, while it was obvious that Dorothy had not. The young man's desire for adventure brought him into conflict with the real world, and he was able to stare into that darkness without having to exist within it. Jeffrey only confronted Frank Booth because he threatened the idyllic image, otherwise, things would have continued as they were.
