Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: The Academy Awards are Sunday, so we’re looking back on times when an actor was nominated for the wrong film—and on the performance they should have been nominated for that same year.
Blue Velvet (1986)
Academy voters make mistakes for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes they simply demonstrate poor taste—collectively believing (or at least pretending to believe), for example, that Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close was among the finest cinematic achievements of 2011. Much more frequently, they overlook greatness that was unmistakable to others even at the time, ignoring, say, a performance that swept that year’s critics’ awards. (Most recently, Ethan Hawke in First Reformed.) Actors are nominated in the wrong category (Hawke again!), or recognized for patently subpar work via an ostensibly competitive Oscar that everybody knows is really a lifetime-achievement award, meant to atone for past mistakes (hoo-ah!). Dennis Hopper’s 1986 nomination for Hoosiers, however, may be the most singular aberration in AMPAS history. It’s perhaps the only time that voters were too squeamish to make the correct choice.
That’s not to suggest that Hopper doesn’t do fine work in the film, playing a lost soul who’s given a chance as an assistant high school basketball coach despite his struggles with alcoholism. The role’s sentimentality, however, made it ideal cover for what was then (and still remains, to a large degree, though things are rapidly changing) a very conservative organization, with a membership heavy on retirees. Honoring Hopper for playing Hoosiers’ Shooter Flatch allowed them to avoid honoring Hopper for playing Blue Velvet’s Frank Booth—a performance so horrific and demented that it can be uncomfortable to watch. The Golden Globes nominated him for both films (he still lost, to Platoon’s Tom Berenger), but that’s not an option for AMPAS, which has a dumb rule prohibiting multiple nods for one actor in a single category. So it went with Hoosiers, a cowardly decision that looks even goofier today than it did 35 years ago.
Still, one can empathize. Even more than David Lynch’s other films, Blue Velvet is expressly about Good and Evil, with Frank representing the latter in a way that allows for no comforting distance whatsoever. In lieu of banality, we get terrifying depravity. Frank’s first scene alone, in which he huffs nitrous oxide (or possibly something even more potent) while sexually assaulting torch singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), sees Hopper disregard any inhibitions to a degree rarely witnessed in mainstream movies. We’re asked to identify with the film’s wholesome, innocent young protagonist, Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan), who’s seeing his first indication of what lies beneath small-town America’s placid surface; that shock could have been achieved in any number of more conventionally violent ways, and it’s not at all difficult to imagine actors from Richard Widmark to Willem Dafoe playing a Frank Booth type. (Indeed, Dafoe would subsequently occupy more or less the same space in Lynch’s Wild At Heart.) But almost nobody would be willing to risk embarrassment, and maybe even ostracism, by pushing themselves as maniacally far as Hopper does. Had Blue Velvet been perceived as a failure, it might well have been a career-ender for him.
That wasn’t the case, thankfully. All the same, the idea of celebrating a performance that includes the loudly bellowed line “I’LL FUCK ANYTHING THAT MOVES!” clearly didn’t sit well with many Academy voters. While plenty of nightmarish turns have achieved Oscar glory, those characters tend to be fundamentally civilized; Anthony Hopkins would win Best Actor just five years later for playing a cannibalistic serial killer, but Hannibal Lecter is cultured, intellectual, refined—“so fuckin’ suave,” as Frank Booth would say. Hopper allowed himself to be truly unhinged, so that the moment in Blue Velvet when Frank equates himself with Jeffrey (while looking directly into the camera, i.e. at us), saying, “You’re like me,” makes you feel unclean. Who wouldn’t rather be like a drunk who redeems himself coaching kids?
Availability: Blue Velvet is currently streaming on FUBO. It’s also available to rent or purchase digitally from Amazon, Google Play, Apple, YouTube, Fandango Now, Redbox, AMC On Demand, and VUDU.
72 Comments
Frank Booth is an absolutely fascinating character. Beyond repulsive and loathsome but charismatic and funny enough to almost like. There’s nothing quite like him.4
“Let’s fuuuuck! I’ll fuck anything that moves!”What made him especially scary was how vulnerable he played it. Dangerously unstable.
He can turn funny to scary fast. Saying Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon is genuinely funny but the bar scene itself is unnerving.
This all day. And it doesn’t come off contrived either, the way say Tom Cruise would. You know who kind of has that but is a completely different actor? Timothy Olyphant.
I love him, he can go from funny to deadly, just get completely cold and serious at the drop of a hat. Especially in “Justified” in “Deadwood” he was angry pretty much all the time. Was nice seeing him chill out in “Santa Clarita Diet” and then get back to his marshal shenanigans in “Fargo”
This is frequently quoted among my friends whenever a Heineken is ordered.
I’ve always wondered if this film had anything to do with the resurgence of availability and apparent popularity if PBR 20 years later.
Incidentally, “Let’s fuck! I’ll fuck anything that moves!” is the title of Hopper’s autobiography.
His “well-dressed man” disguise (at least as MacClachlan calls it) is hilarious.
You are right on all counts. Blue Velvet is a masterpiece. I remember watching it, and my mom walking in and saying, “You do what you want, but I don’t want your sister watching this.”
Your mom was right!
VHS didn’t have a boss-button, but you could change the channel to static if you could find the remote. ha!
I could suggest Don Logan (in Sexy Beast, as played by Ben Kingsley), except while he’s repulsive and loathsome and charismatic and also terrifying, he’s not that funny.
Don Logan is the closest other example. Except he never feels remotely reasonable. He is funny in that tense kinda way. Shouting no like 20 times or his comment about skin and making a suitcase out of someone. Its memorably unique.
Don may have been a bit too over the top to compare to Frank Black – and that’s no slight to Ben Kingsley’s great performance.The funny thing is, even though every scene he’s in is tense and potentially dangerous, Don isn’t even remotely the scariest character in Sexy Beast. Ian McShane (I forget his character’s name) is fucking terrifying.
Frank Black
I love this typo so much.I do remember McShane’s character, but mostly in the abstract– it’s been a while since I watched the movie. Maybe I’ll remedy that this weekend.
It’s not a typo… I often compare film villains to random members of the Pixies.
Dennis Hopper had a weird appearance on SNL a few months after the release of Blue Velvet. The sketch in the link, although heavily dependent on whether you saw the film, is anchored by Hopper’s sheer, Whatthefuckisthis performance. https://welcometotwinpeaks.com/lynch/frank-booth-dennis-hopper-saturday-night-live/Roy Orbison was the musical guest. Of course he did “In Dreams”
The moment he appears onscreen, you realize Frank Booth is completely unpredictable as a character. Just absolutely batshit and capable of anything. It’s so unsettling, and effective. You can’t look away.I feel very lucky that the first time I saw this movie was at a theater screening a few years ago. It’s one of my favorite films now.
I saw this in the theater when it was first released, and it’s still one of my favorite films.It was a bit rough for a first date movie for a couple of teenagers, but she wasn’t put off by my choice & stuck around for almost 4 years.
I was sold a ticket at age 12! I loved that 5-plex near me growing up. They didn’t give a shit about letting kid me see all sorts of depravity. This, Angel Heart, Evil Dead II, Cannibal Holocaust…and maybe the sickest of all, Road House.Eric Theatres is to blame for my fuckuppery.
I don’t remember ever seeing an R rating enforced at any theater in the ‘80s.
90s either, really, at least in the suburbs, at least in my experience. I mean mall theaters were mostly staffed by other high school kids who you either knew or who were too stoned or too timid to give a fuck.
theaters were mostly staffed by other high school kids who you either knew or who were too stoned or too timid to give a fuckToo stoned, timid, apathetic, or actively working against their employer – I had a couple of theater-employee friends who’d make sure one of the fire exit doors wasn’t quite closed, and anywhere from 2-12 freeloaders would file in once the house lights went down. Extraordinary quantities of popcorn would be “discarded” in a similar manner. Once I left for college & had to start paying for every movie I wanted to see in a theater, my movie consumption dropped dramatically.
Our local theater tried in the 1980s, but we harassed the ticket seller so much (sorry, ticket sellers, you didn’t get paid enough for our disdain) they just dropped the effort. You’re enforcing a rule that no one cares about and should be about covering your butts in case mom and dad get upset that you saw that “Candy Colored Clown” film.
At my first movie-theater job a mom tried to sue use for selling her 15-year-daughter a ticket to Rain Man, possibly the mildest R-rated movie ever.
AMC did. I was denied Reform School Girls and The Fly.
They did by me. But my parents would buy me a ticket to anything, so it did not matter.
Cannibal Holocaust at that age…. lord.
I was sold a ticket at age 12!BARTON FINK! BARTON FINK!
Ha. I took a first date to Wild at Heart. That did not end well for me.
Ha. I took a first date to Wild at Heart. That did not end well for me.Yeah, that one was probably best suited for a first date with a *very* specific type, or after you’ve been nekkid together a few times.
Sorry to hear that… did it at least go well for your date?
he’s a pure agent of chaos. he has no discernible goals. no inner life. he’s just pure mayhem. to an almost animalistic, inhuman extent.
They chose…poorly.
Blue Velvet is undeniably the better movie and undeniably has the better, more iconic Dennis Hooper performance, but you know what? I’ve seen Blue Velvet like twice, the last time being close to 30 years ago, but I’ve probably seen Hoosiers 20 times over the years (conservative estimate). Although I recognize his genius, I’ve just never been able to be a “David Lynch guy.” My favorites of his are The Straight Story and The Elephant Man, if that tells you anything.
The Straight Story is so good. It sort of gets dismissed as a footnote in Lynch’s filmography: his normal movie.
What kind of beer do you like?
Heineken!
Fuck that shit! PABST. BLUE. RIBBON.
I still casually say that when I see the blue ribbon being advertised.
HEINEKEN!? Fuck that shit! PABST BLUE RIBBON!![…and thank you for playing along]
That rule prohibiting multiple nominations for one actor may not seem so dumb once you consider vote splitting. Hopper may have gotten that Golden Globe if he only had one nomination.
In it’s first year a actor would have have every film they appeared in that year be up for one nomination.
Thank you. I thought that was the case but couldn’t find a reference. I’m guessing the studios quashed that because they didn’t want to share credit. It seems like a better system though.
There was a third Dennis Hopper performance in ‘86 that he should’ve been nominated for: Lefty in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.“I’m the lord of the harvest!”
I saw Bio-Dome before I ever saw Blue Velvet. In Bio-Dome there’s a scene where Pauly Shore and Steven Baldwin get high on nitrous and Pauly Shore has a line where he says, “I’m Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet! ‘Oh, I’m slutty! Oh, I’m slutty!’”When I finally saw Blue Velvet I kept waiting for him to say, “Oh, I’m slutty! Oh, I’m slutty!” and he never did.That’s all.
In 1993, on the other hand, Dennis Hopper mainly embodied evil.
One of the great movie villains of all time. Every moment he’s on screen is full of anxiety and dread.
Basically, the academy said “Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!”
LET’S HIT THE FUCKIN’ ROAD!
Ah, Hoosiers, the constant stand-by film for those days when the teachers just didn’t feel up to teaching. “Class, we’re going to watch a movie today”. [Students look up with interest…] “It’s about basketball, but also about life.” [Ah, damnit, not Hoosiers again!].
We did watch Hoosiers in gym class. Thats hilarious
HA! Yes!
I recall that’s how I saw it.
Look if Mike Pence loves it, then it may have issues.
“Class, we’re going to watch a movie today”. [Students look up with interest…] “It’s about basketball, but also about life.”
Heineken, fuck that shit! PABST BLUE RIBBON!
I just realized that the best career advice I ever received in high school was when I was Orin (the dentist) in Little Shop of Horrors and I was told to “be myself.”
I think Hoosiers was shown in a class of mine. I’m saying “I think, because I don’t remember Dennis Hopper at ALL, and Hopper was not the kind of guy you miss.”
I mean, yes, Blue Velvet is a better performance than in Hoosiers, but 1986 also gave us the ludicrously-underrated (although less so in recent years) Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, literally the only TCM film other than the original that needed to exist. Lefty Enright balances good and evil, a man seeking revenge after losing his nephew, but who has gone way over the line. Great movie, and while his performance may hardly be nuanced, it’s one of my favorite Hopper roles.
IM THE LORD OF THE HARVEST!!! I like to think anything with a chainsaw duel is a Texas Chainsaw 2 reference. Like Ash V Evil Dead or Resident Evil 7.
My name’s Paul…
I’m glad the article mentioned Willem Dafoe and “Wild at Heart” because that was also a hell of a performance.
I remember a tagline on a VHS for a Dennis Hopper movie … If Alan Rickman plays the types of characters you love to hate then Dennis Hopper plays the types of characters you just hate!I cannot remember what that film was … assume it was something from the 90s – he certainly has no shortage of memorable roles.
One of my favorite films. Roger Ebert was very, very, very wrong in his assessment of it.
Can we get re-edits of both films where Hopper’s roles are switched? Frank Booth is the assistant coach in Hoosiers, and his Hoosiers character (I don’t know his name, never saw Hoosiers) is the killer in Blue Velvet.
Joe Pileggi’s slightly more nuanced turn as Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead would have been about as deserved as Hopper’s for Blue Velvet, if you ask me.
I’M RUNNING THIS MONKEY FARM NOW FRANKENSTEIN AND I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE DOING WITH MY TIME!
“Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fuckin’ gun, fucker.”There are sooooo many good lines in Blue Velvet and almost all of them come out of Dennis Hopper’s mouth.
Just accept the fact that Shooter > Frank Booth. “Watch that purgatory they call a gym, no drive 12 foot in!”
Hopper was bizarre and out-there but what about Isabella Rossellini? She deserved praise for a role that required incredible commitment and vulnerability. She went as far as Hopper—and then some. However, the Academy didn’t give her kudos either. It kept to safe ground in the Best Supporting Actress category too—including Tess Harper and Piper Laurie, who were in just a handful of scenes in their respective films (Crimes of the Heart, Children of a Lesser God). And was one of the most famous magazine models in the world taking a risk if this film failed? Yes. Yes, she was.