The Dennis Hopper movie that left Bob Dylan in tears: “I cried three times”
Bob Dylan has been at the forefront of everyone’s mind recently after the release of A Complete Unknown, with people delving into his formative experiences as an artist and gleaning insights into the man behind the legend. However, while the biopic acts as extensive coverage of every gig he played during his rise to fame and his infuriating relationship with Joan Baez, there was no mention of his love for other creative mediums, with the singer also having an eclectic and rather surprising taste in cinema. This was revealed after Dennis Hopper described a strange encounter between him and the elusive artist, with Dylan praising two roles of his.
After the tragic passing of David Lynch, many film lovers and fans have been revisiting his collective body of work, trying to reconnect with his truly brilliant mind and the wonderful stories that came from it. From the opening sequence of Twin Peaks to the nightmarish ending of Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s filmography contains a kaleidoscopic number of iconic moments that have shaped popular culture and cinema as a whole, something that Dylan was moved by in his own way after watching Blue Velvet.
Blue Velvet marked the first collaboration between Lynch and Kyle Maclachlan, with the pair forming a fierce friendship and on-screen partnership that led to the iconicity of Twin Peaks, sparking the actor’s career through his involvement in the dizzying mystery of Laura Palmer. The 1986 film follows a young man called Jeffrey who finds his perception of his clean-cut hometown disturbed after finding a severed ear in a field. As he embarks on a quest to discover the truth, he finds himself entangled in the relationship between a singer and a drug-addicted sadist.
Many people have pored over the cryptic details in the movie and the layers of subtext that hint towards the greater meaning in Lynch’s filmography, with the director often highlighting the hidden evil in suburban neighbourhoods and the illicit desires of people who live all around us, critiquing the nuclear family and the idea that we should question everything. Nothing is as it seems, and this is a common thread in Lynch’s work as every image finds new meaning before our eyes.
This is something that was not lost on Dylan when he first watched the film, with the singer having a few words of strange feedback for Hopper, saying, “I saw Blue Velvet, and I thought I’d spent a weekend with you in Taos.”
In addition to this, Dylan also had a few words of encouragement about one lesser-known work of Hopper’s, describing his love for the 1986 film Hoosiers. The movie follows a failed college coach who is given a chance at redemption to teach a basketball team in Indiana, struggling to do so alongside his temperamental assistant coach and notorious alcoholic. This type of role naturally lends itself to Hopper, who had a similar reputation for being fuelled by many substances during his performances.
When describing the encounter that he had with Dylan, Hopper said, “Bob Dylan said a very funny thing to me last week. He said, ‘I saw Hoosiers, and I cried three times.” While this is a lesser-praised film within Hopper’s body of work, it just goes to show that anything can have an impact on somebody and that Dylan has an unexpected soft spot for sports dramas.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.