section_path: Film career/1980–1989: Populist surrealism
section_name: 1980–1989: Populist surrealism
paragraph_text: 1980–1989: Populist surrealism
  
  After Eraserhead ' s success on the underground circuit, Stuart Cornfeld, an executive producer for Mel Brooks, saw it and recalled, "I was just 100 percent blown away... I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. It was such a cleansing experience.": 88 Brooks viewed Eraserhead, and after coming out of the screening theater, embraced Lynch, declaring, "You're a madman! I love you! You're in.": 92–93
  
  Cornfeld agreed to help Lynch with his next film, Ronnie Rocket, for which Lynch had already written a script. But Lynch soon realized that Ronnie Rocket, a film that he said is about "electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair", was not going to be picked up by any financiers, and so he asked Cornfeld to find him a script by someone else that he could direct. Cornfeld found four. On hearing the title of the first, The Elephant Man, Lynch chose it.: 90–92 The Elephant Man ' s script, by Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian London, who was held in a sideshow but later taken under the care of a London surgeon, Frederick Treves. Lynch wanted to make some alterations that would deviate from real events but in his view make a better plot,: 95 but he needed the permission of Brooks, whose company, Brooksfilms, was responsible for production. The film stars John Hurt as John Merrick (the name changed from Joseph) and Anthony Hopkins as Treves. Filming took place in London. Though surrealistic and in black and white, it has been called "one of the most conventional" of Lynch's films.: 29–30 It was a critical and commercial success, earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.: 104
  
  After The Elephant Man ' s success, George Lucas, a fan of Eraserhead, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct the third film in his original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Lynch declined, saying that he had "next door to zero interest" and arguing that Lucas should direct the film himself as the movie should reflect his own vision, not Lynch's.: 113 Soon, the opportunity to direct another big-budget science fiction epic arose when Dino de Laurentiis of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group asked Lynch to create a film adaptation of Frank Herbert 's science fiction novel Dune (1965).: 113 Lynch agreed, and in doing so was also contractually obliged to produce two other works for the company. He began writing a script based on the novel, initially with both de Vore and Bergren, and then alone when De Laurentiis was unhappy with their ideas.: 115 Lynch also helped build some of the sets, attempting to create "a certain look", and particularly enjoyed building the set for the oil planet Giedi Prime, for which he used "steel, bolts, and porcelain".: 118
  
  Dune is set in the far future, when humans live in an interstellar empire under a feudal system. The main character, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), is the son of a nobleman who takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, which grows the rare spice melange, the empire's most highly prized commodity. Lynch was unhappy with the work, later saying: " Dune was a kind of studio film. I didn't have final cut. And, little by little, I was subconsciously making compromises".: 120 Much of his footage was removed from the final theatrical cut, dramatically condensing the plot.: 116–117 Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be as successful as Star Wars, Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it had cost $45 million to make, and grossed $27.4 million domestically. Later, Universal Studios released an "extended cut" for syndicated television, containing almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration. It did not represent Lynch's intentions, but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the original version. Lynch objected to the changes and had his name struck from the extended cut, which has Alan Smithee credited as the director and "Judas Booth" (a pseudonym Lynch invented, reflecting his feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter.
  
  Lynch was still contractually obligated to produce two other projects for De Laurentiis, the first a planned sequel to Dune, which due to the film's failure never went beyond the script stage.: 115 The other was a more personal work, based on a script Lynch had been working on for some time. Developing from ideas that Lynch had had since 1973, Blue Velvet was set in Lumberton, North Carolina, and revolves around a college student, Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan), who finds a severed ear in a field. Investigating with the help of his friend Sandy (Laura Dern), Jeffrey discovers a criminal gang led by psychopath Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who has kidnapped the husband and child of singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and repeatedly rapes her. Lynch called the story "a dream of strange desires wrapped inside a mystery story".: 138 Lynch included 1960s pop songs, including Roy Orbison 's " In Dreams " and Bobby Vinton 's " Blue Velvet ", the latter of which largely inspired the film. Lynch said, "It was the song that sparked the movie... There was something mysterious about it. It made me think about things. And the first things I thought about were lawns—lawns and the neighborhood.": 134 Other music for the film is by Angelo Badalamenti, who scored most of Lynch's subsequent work.: 130–132
  
  De Laurentiis loved the film, and it received support at some of the early specialist screenings, but the preview screenings to mainstream audiences were very poorly received.: 148–149 The film was controversial; Roger Ebert wrote that Rossellini "is asked to do things in this film that require real nerve … She is degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera." Rossellini responded: "I was an adult. I was 31 or 32. I chose to play the character... I think my character was the first time we did an abused woman, a portrait of an abused woman, but also she camouflaged herself behind what she was asked to be, which was sexy and beautiful and singing, and she obeys the order, and is also victimized it. That’s the complexity of Blue Velvet but also the great talent of David Lynch. I thought he did a fantastic film. I love Blue Velvet." Blue Velvet was a critical and commercial success, winning the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film and earning Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director. David Thomson recalls seeing it for the first time: "The occasion stood as the last moment of transcendence I had felt at the movies—until The Piano. What I mean by that is a kind of passionate involvement with both the story and the making of a film, so that I was simultaneously moved by the enactment on the screen and by discovering that a new director had made the medium alive and dangerous again." Pauline Kael praised Lynch as a "genius naïf" and predicted that he "might turn out to be the first populist surrealist—a Frank Capra of dream logic." She quoted a moviegoer as saying "Maybe I’m sick, but I want to see that again."
  
  After Eraserhead ' s success on the underground circuit, Stuart Cornfeld, an executive producer for Mel Brooks, saw it and recalled, "I was just 100 percent blown away... I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. It was such a cleansing experience.": 88 Brooks viewed Eraserhead, and after coming out of the screening theater, embraced Lynch, declaring, "You're a madman! I love you! You're in.": 92–93
  
  Cornfeld agreed to help Lynch with his next film, Ronnie Rocket, for which Lynch had already written a script. But Lynch soon realized that Ronnie Rocket, a film that he said is about "electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair", was not going to be picked up by any financiers, and so he asked Cornfeld to find him a script by someone else that he could direct. Cornfeld found four. On hearing the title of the first, The Elephant Man, Lynch chose it.: 90–92 The Elephant Man ' s script, by Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian London, who was held in a sideshow but later taken under the care of a London surgeon, Frederick Treves. Lynch wanted to make some alterations that would deviate from real events but in his view make a better plot,: 95 but he needed the permission of Brooks, whose company, Brooksfilms, was responsible for production. The film stars John Hurt as John Merrick (the name changed from Joseph) and Anthony Hopkins as Treves. Filming took place in London. Though surrealistic and in black and white, it has been called "one of the most conventional" of Lynch's films.: 29–30 It was a critical and commercial success, earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.: 104
  
  After The Elephant Man ' s success, George Lucas, a fan of Eraserhead, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct the third film in his original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Lynch declined, saying that he had "next door to zero interest" and arguing that Lucas should direct the film himself as the movie should reflect his own vision, not Lynch's.: 113 Soon, the opportunity to direct another big-budget science fiction epic arose when Dino de Laurentiis of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group asked Lynch to create a film adaptation of Frank Herbert 's science fiction novel Dune (1965).: 113 Lynch agreed, and in doing so was also contractually obliged to produce two other works for the company. He began writing a script based on the novel, initially with both de Vore and Bergren, and then alone when De Laurentiis was unhappy with their ideas.: 115 Lynch also helped build some of the sets, attempting to create "a certain look", and particularly enjoyed building the set for the oil planet Giedi Prime, for which he used "steel, bolts, and porcelain".: 118
  
  Dune is set in the far future, when humans live in an interstellar empire under a feudal system. The main character, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), is the son of a nobleman who takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, which grows the rare spice melange, the empire's most highly prized commodity. Lynch was unhappy with the work, later saying: " Dune was a kind of studio film. I didn't have final cut. And, little by little, I was subconsciously making compromises".: 120 Much of his footage was removed from the final theatrical cut, dramatically condensing the plot.: 116–117 Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be as successful as Star Wars, Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it had cost $45 million to make, and grossed $27.4 million domestically. Later, Universal Studios released an "extended cut" for syndicated television, containing almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration. It did not represent Lynch's intentions, but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the original version. Lynch objected to the changes and had his name struck from the extended cut, which has Alan Smithee credited as the director and "Judas Booth" (a pseudonym Lynch invented, reflecting his feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter.
  
  Lynch was still contractually obligated to produce two other projects for De Laurentiis, the first a planned sequel to Dune, which due to the film's failure never went beyond the script stage.: 115 The other was a more personal work, based on a script Lynch had been working on for some time. Developing from ideas that Lynch had had since 1973, Blue Velvet was set in Lumberton, North Carolina, and revolves around a college student, Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan), who finds a severed ear in a field. Investigating with the help of his friend Sandy (Laura Dern), Jeffrey discovers a criminal gang led by psychopath Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who has kidnapped the husband and child of singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and repeatedly rapes her. Lynch called the story "a dream of strange desires wrapped inside a mystery story".: 138 Lynch included 1960s pop songs, including Roy Orbison 's " In Dreams " and Bobby Vinton 's " Blue Velvet ", the latter of which largely inspired the film. Lynch said, "It was the song that sparked the movie... There was something mysterious about it. It made me think about things. And the first things I thought about were lawns—lawns and the neighborhood.": 134 Other music for the film is by Angelo Badalamenti, who scored most of Lynch's subsequent work.: 130–132
  
  De Laurentiis loved the film, and it received support at some of the early specialist screenings, but the preview screenings to mainstream audiences were very poorly received.: 148–149 The film was controversial; Roger Ebert wrote that Rossellini "is asked to do things in this film that require real nerve … She is degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera." Rossellini responded: "I was an adult. I was 31 or 32. I chose to play the character... I think my character was the first time we did an abused woman, a portrait of an abused woman, but also she camouflaged herself behind what she was asked to be, which was sexy and beautiful and singing, and she obeys the order, and is also victimized it. That’s the complexity of Blue Velvet but also the great talent of David Lynch. I thought he did a fantastic film. I love Blue Velvet." Blue Velvet was a critical and commercial success, winning the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film and earning Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director. David Thomson recalls seeing it for the first time: "The occasion stood as the last moment of transcendence I had felt at the movies—until The Piano. What I mean by that is a kind of passionate involvement with both the story and the making of a film, so that I was simultaneously moved by the enactment on the screen and by discovering that a new director had made the medium alive and dangerous again." Pauline Kael praised Lynch as a "genius naïf" and predicted that he "might turn out to be the first populist surrealist—a Frank Capra of dream logic." She quoted a moviegoer as saying "Maybe I’m sick, but I want to see that again."