Distinctly Montana Magazine

82 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 I N DAVID LYNCH'S MASTERPIECE, Blue Velvet, the first object the viewer sees is a white picket fence, augmented by a row of red roses. The scene then shifts to a firetruck driving along the street, the fireman waving, as if in a parade. Kids walk in a crosswalk, overseen by the crossing guard, and a man waters his lawn. It's every stereo- type of Americana, but it doesn't take long to realize that this story is going to be much more complicated when the man's hose gets tangled in a bush, and in his effort to break it free, he falls to the ground. Lynch then brings his spe- cial brand of humor when a terrier leaps onto the man's chest and starts play- ing with the stream of water that's still spraying from the hose. And then we enter true David Lynch territory when the camera pans even closer, beneath the surface, where bugs and worms burrow into the soil. This simple sequence encapsulates what David Lynch did so well, which was to dig deep into every story he told, and reveal the dark underbelly of human nature, as well as American culture. Although Lynch was born in Missou- la, he only spent a few years in Montana before his parents moved away, but that hasn't stopped Montanans from claim- ing him as one of our own, and part of the reason for that might be because Lynch, who just passed away in January, displayed the independent spirit that Montanans have always admired. Lynch also held a certain fondness for Mon- tana, especially the ranch his grand- parents owned near Fort Benton, where Lynch talks in his memoir about riding a horse to the creek and wanting to slide down the horse's neck when it was lean- ing down to take a drink. I recently came across a brief clip where an interviewer asked Lynch for his opinion about the recent trend of films prominently displaying products in order to earn money to help finance their films. Lynch didn't hesitate be- fore responding, "I think it's fucking bullshit." He then repeated the phrase, and when an awkward pause followed, where the interviewer was clearly ex- pecting more of an explanation, Lynch looked at the camera as if to say "Was I not clear enough?" Lynch's ability to make fun of Ameri- ca while still celebrating what's unique about it was never more evident than in his most commercially successful proj- ect, Twin Peaks, a series that seemed to break every rule of television while also presenting some of the most intriguing characters we've ever seen. The murder of Laura Palmer provided the core storyline for Twin Peaks, but that was incidental to the real story, which was the fascinating dynamics of a cast of dozens. Although Lynch took each ste- reotype to an extreme, there was some- thing familiar about each of these people, from Sheriff Harry S. Truman, played by Michael Ontkean, to the local wait- ress, played by everyone's favorite Mod Squad veteran Peggy Lipton. There was the bad boy, Bobby Briggs, and the town seductress, Audrey Horne, as well as the misunderstood teenager, James Hurley. And of course there was Lucy, Sherriff Truman's secretary, with her girlish voice and her hilarious comments. Even Lynch himself made an occasional appearance as a stone deaf FBI agent. But at the center of it all, as he was for so much of Lynch's work, was Kyle MacLachlan, who played agent Dale Cooper, who liked nothing better than a good cup of black coffee and a piece of pie, as well as the mystery of what each day would bring. In a documentary about Lynch a few years ago called The Art Life, Lynch talks about his ongoing fascination with the creative process, but also with life in general, and you see this attitude in Dale Cooper, who despite in- vestigating a very dark crime—the mur- der of a high school student—and being surrounded by at least a dozen possible suspects, has an infectious optimism about the world around him. MacLachlan also starred in the only big budget film Lynch ever made, the original Dune, but it was Blue Velvet that established Lynch as a new and origi- nal American filmmaker. In Blue Velvet, MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont, a young man who returns to that idyllic by RUSSELL ROWLAND

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