Blue Velvet was the critical sensation of the 1980s. When the decade came to a close, it was seen as the best film of that decade. Some distance has made that claim more disputable, with films like Do The Right Thing or (my pick) Raiders of the Lost Ark. If podcasts were around back then, I can only imagine the number of deep dives that would’ve been produced, especially with Lynch being so tight-lipped about how his films are made. 40 years later, some stories have been retold and are considered true, while a number of behind-the-scenes details are cinematic speculation.
Lynch was coming off Dune and was thrilled to have complete creative freedom, even with a small $8 million dollar budget. This cemented what a David Lynch film looked like, he was still an unknown and potentially reckless talent at the time, which is why he had trouble securing the music rights to “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton and “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison. The official word is that Lynch found a way to legally use “In Dreams”, but there’s no more details. Orbison said he learned about it when he saw the movie, and luckily he was pleased with its use.
That scene is perhaps the film’s most iconic moment and certainly the day I would want to be on set. It leads to another bit of speculation. In the script, Ben is holding a microphone, but Lynch changed it after he saw Stockwell holding a worklight during a “lighting session”. Was the session a makeup test for Stockwell’s look? Was it done on set maybe during rehearsals? Stockwell was also in Dune, so was it even done for this movie? The point is you want to see Lynch’s face when he sees Stockwell holding the light and the idea comes into his brain. The spark that creates one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time.
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