Ads for American Beauty say "Look closer!" This same phrase could easily have been applied in 1986 to David Lynch's masterpiece, Blue Velvet. In fact, I believe that American Beauty borrowed heavily from Blue Velvet in a more mainstream way than what we see in Lynch's offbeat, surreal independent film.

Blue Velvet is framed with a shot of an American Beauty rose against a white picket fence and aquamarine sky, followed by a shot of middle-class American homes, a red fire-engine passing by with a waving fireman and Dalmatian, and yellow tulips against a white picket fence.

Lynch places these idyllic small-town symbols both in the beginning and at the end, all with Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" playing on the soundtrack. Immediately after the scenes of this normal American community we see an elderly gentleman watering his lawn. A traditional activity of many Americans, but Lynch puts a different twist on it as we see the hose get tangled and spurt water in the wrong places. We suddenly witness the man clutch his neck and fall to the ground—a stroke victim.

Next comes a great sequence, in which Lynch brilliantly gets closer to the grass and then even closer through the translucent green stuff until we begin to hear munching sounds and witness some beetles violently chewing up some prey. Lynch's visual painting ties in with the theme that American Beauty will later adopt about "looking closer." We are in store for a wild inside view of the strange world we live in—a world that may look perfectly normal to the casual observer but may indeed be extremely bizarre underneath its dark shadows.

Blue Velvet lies within the Technicolor tradition of film-noir, where evil continually lurks beneath the surface. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his hometown to see his father recovering from the stroke in the hospital, and begins to walk home, and that's where the plot begins to turn bizarre.

Jeffrey finds an ear. That's right—it's a human ear lying in a vacant lot, and Lynch captures a memorable close-up of the ear before Jeffrey takes it to the police and Detective Williams (George Dickerson). The forensics lab cannot tell if the ear came off a live or dead person but does determine that the ear was cut off with scissors.

Lynch does a nice transition here that made me jump just a tad. The next scene shows a sharp pair of scissors snapping a "Police Line—Do Not Cross" yellow tape, as officers rope off the lot and search for additional clues.

Jeffrey naturally becomes curious, and visits Detective Williams at his home. While there, Jeffrey meets his wholesome daughter, Sandy (aptly played by Laura Dern) outside the house. They both come from similar backgrounds—naive, small-town young people. Jeffrey is slightly older than Sandy, who is still in high school. They seem destined for a romance, but then there is this ear thing. They are both about to discover what a strange world it is.

Sandy clues Jeffrey in on what she's overheard in her home, so he becomes determined to meet Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Eventually, Jeffrey finds himself inside Vallens' apartment and that's where the offbeat plot turns completely surreal. Vallens discovers Jeffrey spying on her and threatens him with a butcher knife. She then orders him to disrobe and arouses him orally (don't worry—the sex is not blatant), until she is interrupted. Back into the closet goes Jeffrey and we are all about to witness one of the weirdest, most memorable, and most uncomfortable scenes in movie history.

Enter Frank (Dennis Hopper), who, we have learned, has apparently kidnapped Dorothy's son and has cut off her husband's ear. It turns out that he is a wacky, compulsive psycho, and he is using Dorothy for a sex slave. He demands that the lighting be a certain way, and it's obvious that he has demanded that Dorothy be dressed in blue velvet for just one of his sexual fetishes.

We join Jeffrey in the closet and see the abusive Frank and masochistic Dorothy in fine form. Without revealing all the wackiness, suffice it to say that Frank says "fuck" more often than De Niro does in Raging Bull, calls himself "Baby," refers to Dorothy's vagina as "Mommy," uses nitrous oxide for stimulation, displays extreme voyeurism but doesn't want Dorothy looking at him while inflicting physical abuse.

It is definitely a strange world that Jeffrey is exposed to, and suddenly he is torn between the unfortunate Dorothy and the innocent Sandy. The plot continues down its surreal path until the inevitable conclusion, but I'm not going to reveal any more of that. It is quite a trip.

It may not be a trip that everyone will want to take. It may be like what Sandy asks Jeffrey at one point: "I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."

This may apply to the audience too. The bizarre plot may intrigue you enough to want to find out what is really going on in this small town. After all, your own small town has its share of weirdness that only the police and certain involved people may know about, so Blue Velvet could work for you on that level.

It may be stretching it to indicate that perverts will enjoy the plot, though I don't doubt that many would for their own limited reasons. But others who are interested in abnormal psychology may want to check out their theories on the various main characters here and see how well Blue Velvet works at this literal level.

If you primarily look at movies strictly in terms of the plot, and you're not especially curious about the situation (and are uncomfortable with seeing abuse), Blue Velvet may not be ideal for you. Dorothy is a pitiful character, and she has a most difficult time returning to a safe haven even when putting on her Wizard of Oz red shoes. Not only does she submit to Frank's bizarre abusive desires, but she actually begs Jeffrey to hit her. Fortunately, Lynch balances these scenes with a lot of humor, but this is no "feel-good" Hollywood-style film. Be warned.

Though curiosity may be enough to hook many people, I personally look for artistic merit in most of the films, to decide if they are worthwhile. There is a great deal to admire about David Lynch's work in general, and Blue Velvet has to be considered his masterpiece. If you've seen The Straight Story, you have seen his visual artistry and have seen how he can create memorable characters and set them loose with a homespun tale in small-town America.

Blue Velvet also stretches small-town life to its limits with memorable characters, but Dennis Hopper dominates every scene that he is in. Never again can you look at a Heineken the same way. Jeffrey's beer preference is turned into a humorous, off-the-wall comment that will live forever! Wait until you see Hopper's idea of a party scene, complete with a cast of lower-class misfits that must have missed the casting call for Night of the Living Dead.

There are a couple of humorous and memorable characters from that party at The Slow Club. There is the ultra-"suave" Ben (Dean Stockwell), who lip-synchs to Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" as Frank intently listens with a hint of homoeroticism. This scene is paralleled a little later, as one of the party girls dances to "In Dreams" on top of the car roof while Jeffrey is mockingly kissed and then pummeled by Frank and his gang. The scene is so surreal that it becomes humorous.

Though Hopper easily dominates his scenes, I still found myself caring about Jeffrey's dilemma, in spite of MacLachan's inferior and amateurish acting. This only testifies to the power of Lynch's screenwriting abilities and his visual imagery.

Jeffrey has a dream sequence that is absolutely astonishing. One of the images that really impresses me involves a close-up of the ear with a thundering sound much like a seashell makes. The whole sequence makes the separation between reality and illusion very fuzzy.

Lynch also works his Hitchcockian theme about blurring the lines between good and evil extremely well. The flickering flame in the dark is a recurring image. Is it a case of a small light attempting to shine through the darkness, or a case of darkness continually surrounding sources of light? Either way, we see this throughout Blue Velvet. The small town of Lumberton has a lot of positive things going for it, and many innocent and good people, yet when you look closer, there is a dark side. Even innocent robins may have a touch of the dark side in them.

For Jeffrey and for us, we may even find that dark side within ourselves. There is a scene in which Jeffrey has flashbacks about having violated his personal code, and may have found out that he has a "perverted" nature within himself. It is too much for him, so he breaks down and cries. Fortunately, he doesn't remain in that state of self-pity, but does grow from the experience.

Blue Velvet does introduce us to the darker, more seamy underbelly of American small-town life, and is not for everyone. There are certain scenes that will make any "normal" person feel uneasy. I can't say that I enjoyed the abusive scenes, but Lynch is such an artist that he balances them out with such humor that I could enjoy Blue Velvet overall.

Hopper's performance is so over-the-edge that I could enjoy Blue Velvet just by watching him. That and Lynch's camera work, which has images that are so strong that they remain ingrained within me long after seeing them. So much so, I had flashbacks when I saw similar scenes in American Beauty.

If you are serious about film, Blue Velvet is one classic that is required viewing for your visual repertoire. After all, "It's a strange world, isn't it?"