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BFI Film Classics
Blue Velvet
For many, Blue Velvet is David Lynch's masterpiece. It crystallises many of his chief the evil and violence underlying the surface of suburbia, the seedy by-ways of sexuality, the frightening appearance of the adult world to a child's eyes. In this intricate and layered reading of the film, Michael Atkinson analyses Blue Velvet as the definitive expression of the traumatized innocence which characterizes Lynch's work.
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
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176 people want to read
About the author
Michael Atkinson
64 books21 followersA son of Long Island and a father of three, I love very good beer, shellfish of any sort, Italian opera in the summertime, and movies. I own more books than I do any other one thing. I love writing, though, making sentences. In addition to my books, I've written, and still write, film criticism, cultural attack, book reviews and essays for The Village Voice, The Believer, Sight & Sound, The Guardian (U.K.), In These Times, The Boston Phoenix, SPiN, Film Comment, Modern Painters, Moving Image Source, IFC.com, The Forward, Maxim, The Progressive, The American Prospect, The Poetry Foundation, The Criterion Collection, Turner Classic Movies (tcm.com), The L Magazine, LA Weekly, and elsewhere.
I have also written a certain amount of unproduced TV, and one pilot that was in fact shot and then vanquished, despite extraordinary notoriety,
BABYLON FIELDS, which can be easily Googled.
My first novel, set in 1956 Key West and ending up in the Cuban mountains with Che and Fidel, HEMINGWAY DEADLIGHTS is the first of a projected series, gallivanting around in the most famous literary biography of the 20th century with a nod to history but also a robust jones for truth, irony, cocktails and culprits.
The second volume, HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT, finds Hemingway investigating the very real murder of Jose Robles in 1937 Spain.
For #3... methinks Paris.
Not incidentally, at least not to me, I'm also a widely published poet, the winner of Word Works' Washington Prize in 2001, a runner-up for the National Poetry Series in 2001 and 1998, a selectee for The Best American Poetry 1993 (eds. Louise Gluck & David Lehman, Collier/Macmillan, 1993), a recipient of a fellowship in poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, 1988-89, etc. My poems have been in Epoch, Crazyhorse, The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry Northwest, Ontario Review, The Laurel Review, Poetry East, The Seneca Review, Cimarron Review, Chelsea, Chicago Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Seattle Review, Graham House Review, New Orleans Review, Kansas Quarterly, Mudfish, Willow Springs, Massachusetts Review, and many other journals.
Lastly, I find pride in the fact that my children can find Timbuktu on a map, I vote anti-imperialist whenever it is possible to do so, and I believe deeply in the existence of human stupidity.
I have also written a certain amount of unproduced TV, and one pilot that was in fact shot and then vanquished, despite extraordinary notoriety,
BABYLON FIELDS, which can be easily Googled.
My first novel, set in 1956 Key West and ending up in the Cuban mountains with Che and Fidel, HEMINGWAY DEADLIGHTS is the first of a projected series, gallivanting around in the most famous literary biography of the 20th century with a nod to history but also a robust jones for truth, irony, cocktails and culprits.
The second volume, HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT, finds Hemingway investigating the very real murder of Jose Robles in 1937 Spain.
For #3... methinks Paris.
Not incidentally, at least not to me, I'm also a widely published poet, the winner of Word Works' Washington Prize in 2001, a runner-up for the National Poetry Series in 2001 and 1998, a selectee for The Best American Poetry 1993 (eds. Louise Gluck & David Lehman, Collier/Macmillan, 1993), a recipient of a fellowship in poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, 1988-89, etc. My poems have been in Epoch, Crazyhorse, The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry Northwest, Ontario Review, The Laurel Review, Poetry East, The Seneca Review, Cimarron Review, Chelsea, Chicago Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Seattle Review, Graham House Review, New Orleans Review, Kansas Quarterly, Mudfish, Willow Springs, Massachusetts Review, and many other journals.
Lastly, I find pride in the fact that my children can find Timbuktu on a map, I vote anti-imperialist whenever it is possible to do so, and I believe deeply in the existence of human stupidity.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 4, 2022
You just never know with these little BFI books if you are going to get a writer who is friendly and funny and talks about the movie in the way a normal person would want to hear or a writer who is a hardcore film theorist who will kill your soul with references to scary European thinkers like Lacan or Foucault or Zizek, making you think you just haven’t done enough homework.
Michael Atkinson is a Freudian. This is a funny thing about film criticism. I found a damaging admission in another film crit book. It said:
Freudian psychoanalysis is largely disregarded and even discredited by contemporary psychology and neuroscience, although it remains part of film studies.
I wondered why that would be. Perhaps the Freudians are stuck like hapless flies to their webby grand theories and like Michael Atkinson are condemned to blurt comments about the Oedipal drama and the Primal Scene at regular intervals until death mercifully closes their eyes.
The ear is the film’s launching leitmotif in more ways than one, reoccurring not only as an image (or an absence), but as a channel into the film’s aural experience, and its ambiguous status as an internal (psycho-emotional) sequence of events.
Questionable depictions of gender conflict notwithstanding, Blue Velvet is truer to Lynch’s unironic, childlike view of life than postmodern theory permits, since it is remarkably free of judgements, and therefore of “placements” of blame, culpability or oppressive intent.
Its lack of a convenient moral viewpoint has disturbed some.
Maybe by "questionable" he means that Blue Velvet is one of a long line of movies made by men which portray women characters who like to be beaten up by men.
Michael Atkinson is a Freudian. This is a funny thing about film criticism. I found a damaging admission in another film crit book. It said:
Freudian psychoanalysis is largely disregarded and even discredited by contemporary psychology and neuroscience, although it remains part of film studies.
I wondered why that would be. Perhaps the Freudians are stuck like hapless flies to their webby grand theories and like Michael Atkinson are condemned to blurt comments about the Oedipal drama and the Primal Scene at regular intervals until death mercifully closes their eyes.
The ear is the film’s launching leitmotif in more ways than one, reoccurring not only as an image (or an absence), but as a channel into the film’s aural experience, and its ambiguous status as an internal (psycho-emotional) sequence of events.
Questionable depictions of gender conflict notwithstanding, Blue Velvet is truer to Lynch’s unironic, childlike view of life than postmodern theory permits, since it is remarkably free of judgements, and therefore of “placements” of blame, culpability or oppressive intent.
Its lack of a convenient moral viewpoint has disturbed some.
Maybe by "questionable" he means that Blue Velvet is one of a long line of movies made by men which portray women characters who like to be beaten up by men.
August 21, 2025
A good look at the bizarre cinematic experience that is Blue Velvet.
Lynch's surreal, otherwordly work of art is dissected by Atkinson and he explores many themes including (intended or otherwise) self-representation by Lynch, sadomasochism, teenage development to maturity, the American idea of traditional family and the psychological aspects of ultra-masculine men, violent men.
Admittedly I didn't enjoy the reading of this one in the BFI film series quite as much as others but it's still a very interesting read.
Lynch's surreal, otherwordly work of art is dissected by Atkinson and he explores many themes including (intended or otherwise) self-representation by Lynch, sadomasochism, teenage development to maturity, the American idea of traditional family and the psychological aspects of ultra-masculine men, violent men.
Admittedly I didn't enjoy the reading of this one in the BFI film series quite as much as others but it's still a very interesting read.
November 2, 2022
‘Lynch’s chronic pursuit of doubt feels existential, not cultural, and that may be why he cannot be interrogated or measured by political fashion or even read as a mere crafter of symbologies that begin somewhere in primary life. Hidden in the bad dreams, there is an ethical urgency.’
February 20, 2021
5 star book for a 5 star film.
I've never hidden my love of David Lynch, and predictably have seen Blue Velvet many times. Whilst it's impact never lessens, this little BFI Modern Classic does bring up a few little elements that I had either not addressed fully, or not really considered before, shining more light on this masterpiece. It's easy to over-intellectualise Lynch's work, and that is where this works, Atkinson will take it to that level of analysis, but then just pull back enough to make interesting points.
To paraphrase the man himself '...if just felt right'; and sometimes that's all you need.
Interestingly Atkinson is quite down on Lynch's cultural behemoth 'Twin Peaks' and wonders if Blue Velvet will be his 'Citizen Kane'...possibly something he would have thought even more when 'Lost Highway' came out shortly after this book was released...but then 'Mulholland Drive' happened...
David Lynch is a fascinating artist, we are lucky to have him, and this book presents a very interesting look at one of his greatest works.
I've never hidden my love of David Lynch, and predictably have seen Blue Velvet many times. Whilst it's impact never lessens, this little BFI Modern Classic does bring up a few little elements that I had either not addressed fully, or not really considered before, shining more light on this masterpiece. It's easy to over-intellectualise Lynch's work, and that is where this works, Atkinson will take it to that level of analysis, but then just pull back enough to make interesting points.
To paraphrase the man himself '...if just felt right'; and sometimes that's all you need.
Interestingly Atkinson is quite down on Lynch's cultural behemoth 'Twin Peaks' and wonders if Blue Velvet will be his 'Citizen Kane'...possibly something he would have thought even more when 'Lost Highway' came out shortly after this book was released...but then 'Mulholland Drive' happened...
David Lynch is a fascinating artist, we are lucky to have him, and this book presents a very interesting look at one of his greatest works.
January 29, 2018
My second read from the pile of BFI classic film books my wife bought at a library sale, Atkinson's mostly worthwhile and entertaining close read of Lynch's Blue Velvet stays near to the text, using what's in the frame and on the screen to make his interpretations and connections. Atkinson leans a little too heavily on Freudian oedipal theory for my taste, but he does a solid job backing up most of his analysis with evidence drawn from the film's form, images, sounds, and dialogue.
As much as I enjoyed the book, I have to point out some quirks in Atkinson's prose that rubbed me the wrong way. Whenever Atkinson brings up any supporting actors who are even slightly overweight, he always describes them as "fat," even when making points that have nothing to do with their physical characteristics. He occasionally describes the clothes of some of the women in the film as being "slutty" or "sluttish." He also takes a couple condescending cheap shots at the Roy Orbison and Julee Cruise songs on the soundtrack. The book is 20 years old, and Atkinson may have grown up a little since then, but someone should have told him to knock it off.
He also makes some bizarre assumptions and absolutist statements whenever he veers too far away from his close reading of the film's style. Fortunately, this is mostly confined to the first few and last few pages. (Two of the weirdest: He makes the astute point that Blue Velvet seems to exist in a blend of the '50s and the '80s where the '60s and '70s never happened, and then says it's interesting that the film stars two actors so tied to the counterculture '60s in Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell. So far, so good, but then he writes this: "However Lynch intended it, it seems that perhaps he was unable to find a role as well for Bruce Dern, and opted for his daughter instead." Huh?? At the end of the book, Atkinson tracks the film's influence on '80s and '90s culture and weirdly gives the film credit for the Velvet Underground's brief 1993 reunion. What??) I realize I spent more of this review bitching about the book than praising it, but I did find it an enjoyable read overall.
As much as I enjoyed the book, I have to point out some quirks in Atkinson's prose that rubbed me the wrong way. Whenever Atkinson brings up any supporting actors who are even slightly overweight, he always describes them as "fat," even when making points that have nothing to do with their physical characteristics. He occasionally describes the clothes of some of the women in the film as being "slutty" or "sluttish." He also takes a couple condescending cheap shots at the Roy Orbison and Julee Cruise songs on the soundtrack. The book is 20 years old, and Atkinson may have grown up a little since then, but someone should have told him to knock it off.
He also makes some bizarre assumptions and absolutist statements whenever he veers too far away from his close reading of the film's style. Fortunately, this is mostly confined to the first few and last few pages. (Two of the weirdest: He makes the astute point that Blue Velvet seems to exist in a blend of the '50s and the '80s where the '60s and '70s never happened, and then says it's interesting that the film stars two actors so tied to the counterculture '60s in Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell. So far, so good, but then he writes this: "However Lynch intended it, it seems that perhaps he was unable to find a role as well for Bruce Dern, and opted for his daughter instead." Huh?? At the end of the book, Atkinson tracks the film's influence on '80s and '90s culture and weirdly gives the film credit for the Velvet Underground's brief 1993 reunion. What??) I realize I spent more of this review bitching about the book than praising it, but I did find it an enjoyable read overall.
February 26, 2025
I had some trepidation picking this one up since I often feel Lynch’s work speaks for itself and attempts made to analyze and over-explain his films often just fall flat and defeat the intent in the first place and… yeah, this book confirmed that fear for sure.
Sure, Blue Velvet has a major psychosexual element going on but to boil the whole thing down to just 70ish pages of Freudian analysis is just horribly reductive and insulting.
Sure, Blue Velvet has a major psychosexual element going on but to boil the whole thing down to just 70ish pages of Freudian analysis is just horribly reductive and insulting.
June 16, 2024
Very Freudian! Walked away with a greater respect for a film I already admired, though I don’t know if I’ll ever like it
June 28, 2016
A little before halfway through this book, Atkinson writes, "A sound indication of the degree to which the ambience of Lynch's universe is so successfully contrived is that we often don't know why it works," with no apparent irony regarding the fact that this is presumably the exact problem which he's been tasked with addressing. It's this essentially uncurious and non-inquisitive nature of Atkinson's writing that is most unappealing; even if the reader were to accept the premise that there is no "solution," that Lynch's technique is fundamentally impossible to understand, the exploration of this impossibility alone could have made an intriguing book. Instead, Atkinson uses the lack of obvious connection between the film and the response to it as an excuse to do little exploration at all, and to cut it short whenever he feels like it. He embraces the unconventionality of the film, and is an effective writer, employing carefully chosen vocabulary and metaphors, and even includes some interesting tidbits about material left in the editing room (though alongside some commonly familiar such examples), but at times seems overly hostile toward any critical or academic response to Blue Velvet, as if one should only be permitted a gut-level reaction to this film (or perhaps any). Atkinson seems especially dismissive of feminist theory, and theorists in general, to the degree that it seems almost as if he is using this opportunity as a vehicle for a stealth populist reclamation of the art film; unfortunately, it takes on the guise of near-anti-intellectualism, despite the academic tone. I got the sense at times that he felt compelled to position his book in opposition to established criticism, as if by doing so, he could avoid having to give the book a point of view of its own. At the end of the bulky middle section (the book is awkwardly structured like a parody of an undergraduate's first draft--three chapters: one a brief introduction, one a brief conclusion, and one the ungainly and unfocused middle), Atkinson does manage to make an effective and coherent point (not one supported by the length or even all of the content of much of the chapter, but still), that he immediately and unfortunately undercuts with the superfluous, tacked-on third chapter.
November 2, 2023
The BFI Film Classics book on Blue Velvet falls into the trap so many titles in the series do: it begins to function as a glorified plot summary. Granted, Michael Atkinson does provide some not negligible added value in his plot summary, but there is simply not enough insight to justify the read. Furthermore, Atkinson's hagiographic praise of David Lynch in the early pages raised some red flags for me. He says some insane (and blatantly wrong things) like suggesting that David Lynch was responsible for the death of the cult film. I'm sorry, Mike, but I suspect the double-whammy of Jaws and Star Wars did much more to kill the cult film than Lynch ever could.
July 18, 2023
Great movie. Not a great book. The author is too brilliant to embrace. Is that his wish? Too many words. Too many big words. I am not a moron, but why? Why do I need a dictionary to get through an 80 page book about a film.
November 3, 2015
Mommy baby wants to fuck!
November 2, 2020
Desconstrução interessante do clássico filme Veludo Azul. O crítico interpreta o filme como um bizarro coming-of-age do personagem principal, que desperta como adulto ao tornar-se um voyeur em um mundo de opressão sexual, insanidade e violência. Os argumentos psicológicos da confusão de violência com sexo, prazer sexual com dor são sólidos, numa reconstrução dos heróis, vítimas e vilões da narrativa como mães, pais e crianças; o argumento do mundo depravado penetrar na classe média americana (estilizada como dosa nos 1950 como fonte de mal, exemplificado até pelas marcas de cerveja consumidas pelos personagens ser um retrato conservador tem sido eternamente debatido. Infelizmente é curto e pouco se aprofunda em qualquer coisa que se propõe, sendo mais uma mera curiosidade do que uma análise densa que faça jus a importância do filme.
December 30, 2023
94
My assessment of this is the same as the book for Eraserhead except that this one serves itself better by keeping itself grounded in a more accessible form of psychology to assess this book. It also goes more into the cultural effects of this movie on the culture at large which I was looking for more of in the previous book. Also, it's just well written and it has its own opinion and sticks to it which is more than what the other book did. It also packs it's argument in more effectively over fewer pages and its a very brisk read. If you are interested in picking this up I'd highly recommend it! Happy Whidbey Vacation day to me!!
My assessment of this is the same as the book for Eraserhead except that this one serves itself better by keeping itself grounded in a more accessible form of psychology to assess this book. It also goes more into the cultural effects of this movie on the culture at large which I was looking for more of in the previous book. Also, it's just well written and it has its own opinion and sticks to it which is more than what the other book did. It also packs it's argument in more effectively over fewer pages and its a very brisk read. If you are interested in picking this up I'd highly recommend it! Happy Whidbey Vacation day to me!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2022
"The more lasting and trenchant value I find in Lynch, in his whole project as it has expanded over the decades, resides not only in the provocative density of his sensibility, but his devotion to doubt....favouring questions over answers, and embracing a lifelong habit of fundamental uncertainty" is one of the best summaries of what I love about Lynch's films (and find frustrating about some attempts to 'decode' them) that I've read.
August 30, 2025
Blue Velvet is one of my favourite films of all time and undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for this book. Michael Atkinson clearly is very passionate about the film but for most of the book it felt like a long winded plot summary without adding any meaningful details. What It did mention and discuss although brief was fascinating and I’d still recommend this to any fans of Blue Velvet.
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December 16, 2025Another BFI film essay. This was neat because it's written in the 90s, before Lynch would go on to make Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks The Return. The text walks through the film and contextualises the imagery, usually in terms of Oedipus, Freud and The Wizard of Oz. It's maybe not the best source of info on Lynch, but it's interesting to read how his films were perceived back in the 90s and to see the way that they disrupted and inspired "weird" culture in the 80s.
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June 16, 2017Movie (1986)
Isabela Rosselini
Kyle MacLachlan
Isabela Rosselini
Kyle MacLachlan
July 18, 2025
delightful n with a few little things I hadn't thought about before.
December 21, 2025
very accessible analysis of one of David Lynch’s best films. enjoyed this a lot and I suspect I’ll be rewatching Blue Velvet very soon
January 21, 2024
A good long essay deconstructing the brilliant Lynch film. Leans heavily on Freud and Perverted family relationships but the film makes a strong case for this interpretation. If nothing else, it’s a nice afterword to a film that’s worth watching for anyone who really cares about movies.
July 8, 2019
Michael Atkinson takes a look at David Lynch's classic film in BFI: Blue Velvet (1997). There is a brief introduction but this book is mostly a close reading of the film that sometimes strays into psychoanalytical territory. The theoretical discussions are short and relevant to the points he makes in the context of the film. I know I saw this film a few times in the 80s, but I probably haven't seen it in over 30 years. It was something of a cultural touchstone among my fiends in high school, with its reverence for Pabst Blue Ribbon over Heineken. He was one of the artists who was exposing the rot that lay under the surface of society in the Reagan years, much like the subversive music of punk and post punk bands that exploded on the scene in the 80s as well. So I'm inspired to re-watch it in context of more recent Lynch projects such as his most recent season of Twin Peaks, in which many of the tropes he developed in this film are still used-hypnotic slow songs in a seedy road house club, nefarious doings by villainous people, dreams, 50s era kitsch, and the like.
May 12, 2015
Excellent treatment of David Lynch's 1986 masterwork (in my opinion) Blue Velvet. All of the BFI Modern Classics volumes are thin, but Atkinson explores quite a lot in just 80 pages. I wish the book were longer, but that's what you get with this series. A must-read for anyone interested in Lynch's work in general and this film in particular.
July 24, 2012
A very nice criticism of Lynch's masterpiece. I was looking for more on the dream vs. reality argument that is clearly presented in this movie. Nevertheless, the Oedpial and perverse family arguments were well explained.
June 27, 2012
Could have delved much deeper. With many references to his earlier films, refers to Lost Highway (1997!!) as "in production" = needs new edition badly.
March 20, 2022
I’m presenting Blue Velvet to a movie club next week and found this book invaluable. Much smarter than I’ll ever be able to talk to the film but left me with lots of notes and thoughts.
May 2, 2023
STRAIGHT FROM MY HEART FUCKER
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews