Dennis Hopper's "Out of the Blue"

Thursday, November 14, 2024

I have known the late Dennis Hopper since I was a child, and whenever one is in a room with him, it will be a good time. I remember his laugh and how he looked at your eyes- from his blue eyes and his concentration at that moment. There was nothing laid-back about Dennis whatsoever. His intensity, one felt, must have been attached to a hidden battery somewhere on his body. Dean Stockwell was another actor we knew, and whenever I saw one of his early films or TV guest appearances from my childhood, it seemed he was playing a role.

On the other hand, Dennis never seemed that different on the screen or TV set from real life. Whenever I see Dennis in a film, such as Blue Velvet or Apocalypse Now, I think, "Oh, that is Dennis." Dennis took a specific part of his character and expanded on it for whatever role he played in a film. It's always recognizable, and it could only be Dennis, including his role as Don in Out of the Blue.

In this film, which he also directed and took part in writing the script, Hopper plays an out-of-control alcoholic with a wife, who is a functioning junkie, and a daughter devoted to both Johnny Rotten and Elvis. The highlight of his actions is slamming into a school bus full of children and killing everyone on that bus. His daughter was in the truck with him, and there are scars on her face to mark the physical tattoos of such behavior from her father. He ended up in prison for five years, which seems to me a very short time after killing so many people. Nevertheless, It is one of the few films I have seen that conveys rage at its emotional core. It also reminded me of the fellow who killed my dad in a car accident. As I watched the film, I immediately thought of Spike, who was on the Topanga highway, drunk and stoned, and his truck was facing the wrong direction as my dad headed toward his vehicle around a curve. Spike only served three months in jail after being sentenced to six months.

I know that Don (Dennis Hopper) is not Spike, but I’m still putting peroxide on the open wound, and seeing Out of the Blue, rightfully or wrongly, reinforces my memory of pain. Which comes to mind? How many films out there trigger someone’s mental and physical pain or comment on their misery? I’m presuming that there is a large audience that feels the same, and Out of the Blue is a work or a representation of a life that many have experienced but perhaps couldn’t articulate the depression and misery.

One of the reasons I write is to articulate something vague in my consciousness and express it with words. I’m seeing a lot of chaos, and sometimes it is good, but when the brain and body get too much of it, like a sugar rush, it’s best to tame or control the madness, and writing does that. Out of the Blue is impressive in that I think Dennis needed to define, shape, and articulate the form of madness that he sees in this film. It’s an exceptional work, and many will feel the presence of these characters, but to give utterance to a bleakness is one of the reasons it is art. I can’t put aside my pain, but if I allow art to come in, it soothes the burning feeling and makes me stand back and look at it as what it is, or hopefully was.

As of now, one can see Out of the Blue here.