Blue Velvet
(1986)
Gee, if Friday night's choice of Cool Hand Luke led to an odd coincidence of Harry Dean Stanton appearances on consecutive nights, how about the small role in Luke by a guy I didn't realize was on his deathbed, Dennis Hopper?So tonight I needed to reach for a tribute flick, and the fact is, I just don't have many Hopper films in my library. Aside from Luke, there's Apocalypse Now, full stop. But then there was this, sitting a long time on the DVR. And while I was a little resistant to the clichéd Hopper-as-psychotic-nutjob role, which he could of course mail in any day of the week (not saying he did, mind you, just that he could), I decided that Hopper + Lynch was a better fit than Hopper + Coppola.
Anyway. Good call, I think. I would never suggest that Hopper was a great actor, but to the extent that he had greatness about him, it was in the ability to project pure evil, as here, while at the same time projecting a pitiable vulnerability, also as here. We'll miss the strange motherfucker.
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