Title: Dune (1984)
Director: David Lynch
Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, Max Von Sydow, Dean
Stockwell, Sting, Patrick Stewart, Jurgen Prochnow, Jack Nance, Virginia
Madsen, Richard Jordan, Jose Ferrer, Brad Dourif
David Lynch’s Dune is a film that is hated by many but loved
by another many, it’s a film that divides people, a love it or hate it type of
thing, though if you ask me, there’s very little to hate about Lynch’s Dune. I’ve
loved this movie ever since I was a kid, I didn’t fully “get it” back then, but
there was something I liked about it anyways, my young mind recognized it as a
special film. Dune is a film that I have revisited many times over in my life;
it’s become one of those films that I will always love. Many years after I
first discovered it, I read the book and appreciated the film on a whole other
level. Considering the complexity of the book, I applaud Lynch for taking this
gargantuan story and transferring it to the big screen because it was never
going to be an easy job, the story that Frank Herbert weaved is epic, always
has been, yet Lynch took it upon himself to film the thing, he even wrote the
script himself! Many directors tried and failed for whatever the reason (Jodorowski
and Ridley Scott being two of the filmmakers that didn’t end up directing) yet
Lynch stuck to his guns and took the project head on. He even rejected an offer
to direct Return of the Jedi (1983) in order to make Dune! Can you imagine what
Return of the Jedi might have been like had Lynch directed it? Yeah, I know, the
idea of Lynch playing with the Star Wars universe boggles the mind, yet I’m
happy he ended up directing Dune instead because in many ways, Lynch was the
perfect director for this project, especially when it comes to the more
mystical aspects of the story, the telepathic abilities, Lynch had the perfect
sensibilities for the more “weird” aspects of the Dune saga.
Herbert’s classic science fiction tale of politics, witches,
religion and rebellion is one of those science fiction novels that any self
respecting science fiction fan should tackle at some point in their lives. It
really is one of the best designed fictional worlds; Herbert really constructed
a fascinating, complex universe you can easily lose yourself in, a world filled
with mysticism and inner dialog, of prophecies, false gods and abusive
governments. The story of Dune is an all encompassing tale that covers many
important aspects of our society, as you can expect, like all good science
fiction, our way of life is mirrored in the story. For example, one of the main
themes of the book revolves around religious fanatism, because after all, the
story of Dune is one about a messiah coming to free his people, but that’s just
the tip of the iceberg in this fantastic tale of liberation. You see, Dune is
one of those books that is so complex that Herbert created a unique lexicon
just for these books. So if you ever decide to read it, just remember your going
to be introduced to a whole glossary of words unique to the Dune books, in
fact, just in case you get lost, the book actually includes a glossary of Dune
words! Words like “Kwisatz Haderach”, “Benne Gesserit Witches” and last but not
least, the “Spice Melange”, but same as reading Anthony Burgesses’s A Clockwork
Orange which also created its own lexicon, all the new words will end up making
perfect sense to you by the time you finish reading the book. So I highly recommend checking this novel out
to all sci-fi fans out there. As with any book to film adaptation, the question
remains, was the film a good adaptation of the book?
I’d say that yes, it in deed was a good adaptation of the
book. In its essence, the film tells the story of the liberation of the Fremen
and the rise of Paul Moadib as ruler of the known universe. And this is coming
from me, a huge fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune books! I’ve read almost all of them
(still need to read the last one Chapterhouse: Dune) so I can say that yeah,
Lynch’s adaptation was faithful for the most part. The only area in which he
ended up changing things just a bit was in the last five minutes of film, but
the rest of the film is pretty much the book. Of course, quite a few things
were left out of the book in order to deliver a two hour movie. Speaking of which,
the only real problem for me with the film is that if you’ve read the books,
you’ll feel as if you’re seeing the story in fast forward. Truth be told, this
book has enough story going for it to make two movies, but what Lynch did with
the script and what the producers did when they edited the film themselves was
compress the whole story into one movie; a pretty daunting task if you ask me. At
the end of the day, the film kept the spirit of the book; even Frank Herbert
himself complimented Lynch on the film. Herbert mentioned that he was mostly
happy with the film, except for the ending which is where Lynch turned things
around towards the more theatrical. You see, in the book, Paul Atreides is a
man playing to be a god, without in fact being one; he recognizes the power
that being a god to the masses represents, so he uses that to the peoples
advantage. But the way the film ends, it makes him look like he is actually a
god with powers like making it rain on planet Arrakis. This is why Herbert
himself said that while he liked the film, he says that Lynch got the ending
wrong. “I have my quibbles about the film, of course. Paul was a man playing a
god, not a god who could make it rain” So this is really the only real
difference between the books and the film. Though the ending of the film has an
impact, and makes Paul Atreides a more powerful character, the problem with it
is that Lynch’s ending changes the whole character around going against the
actual message that Herbert was trying to put across with his book, that
religion is a powerful farce used to control the masses.
In retrospective, considering how much of the story Lynch actually
shot, they should have taken the opportunity to film two movies back to back. Lynch
filmed enough of the story to make a four hour long movie! That’s right my
friends, Lynch’s original cut of Dune was four hours long! So they might as
well have split the thing in two and released it as two movies, kind of like
what Tarantino did with his Kill Bill movies. But no, instead the producers
decided to take the film away from Lynch and edit it down to two hours and
seventeen minutes, which is one of the reasons why Lynch disowns this movie. It’s
the one he considers a ‘failure’ in his career. In my opinion the resulting
film is not a bad one and very far from being a failure. Lynch had shot too
much good stuff for it to be bad; the result was going to be good no matter
what. But obviously, had Lynch had final cut of the film, it would have been
better. This is the main reason why Lynch has always denied participation in any
of the dvd releases of the film. I’m wondering if maybe one day we’ll get a director’s
cut of the film; which simply put, would be awesome! But considering how Lynch
refuses to even talk about this film, well, I’m guessing we’ll never see that
happen. As of my typing this review, there are three versions of the film, each
varying in length. There’s the theatrical cut, the extended cut you get to see
on television and then there’s the special edition version. The most complete
one is the special edition version because it includes many scenes that were
deleted from the original theatrical cut, which is a nifty extra for any Dune
fan. But out of all the versions, I still prefer the original theatrical version
best, it’s the one I have always known and loved. But true Dune fans will get a
kick out of seeing all those scenes that were left out of the original
theatrical cut.
Lynch considers it painful to even talk about Dune! I can understand
why, here’s a movie that took three years of Lynch’s life to make! This was a
huge, huge production. Funny how gargantuan productions like this one often
times end up in failure! To have so much of your life invested in a film that
would ultimately end up not being truly yours can be a huge let down for any
director, but such is the nature of big budget productions; it’s
the producers or the studio who have the final say, they put up all the millions so that should not suprise anyone. Speaking of which this here movie cost something
around the vicinity of 40 million dollars, yet strangely enough, it looks more
expensive than some of today’s 200 million dollar movies. The art direction is
truly impressive on this film! Dune was made in a time when sets were
completely built, not half way digitized like most of today’s films. The film
required a crew of 1700 people! 80 sets were built in 16 sound stages! I mean
this movie was huge in every way you look at it; and what about that cast? So
many amazing actors! And here’s this big budget movie being made by a director
used to working on small budgets. The film proved to be too big for Lynch who
obviously works better with smaller, more personal material. Still, if you ask
me, I think the film we ended up getting is a great slice of science fiction.
Speaking of the different adaptations of Dune, there was a
mini-series from director John Harrison which was actually extremely faithful
to the books. From a fans point of view, John Harrisons take on Dune was an
extremely complete adaptation, he even went further than Lynch’s films and
adapted both Dune Messiah (the second book in the series) and Children of Dune
(the third book in the series) by making a second mini-series entitled Children
of Dune (2003), which by the way was also pretty good. These television mini-series,
though faithful, lack the lavish production values of Lynch’s film, which is
one of the things I love the most about Lynch’s Dune: how big budget it is!
Speaking of the cinematic future of the Dune series, director Peter Berg (Hancock,
The Kingdom) attempted a remake a while back and was actively involved in it
for more than two years, but stepped down in order to direct Battleship (2012).
I know that doesn’t make much sense but that’s what happened! My take on it is
that Berg was probably trying to make a commercial film that would make tons of
money so that he could then go on and make Dune, unfortunately, Battleship was
a huge ass loud flop! So those plans went down the drain. As I type this Pierre
Morel, the director behind Taken (2008) and District B-13 (2004) was the last
director attached to the project, but so far nothing has come of it, here’s
hoping it happens, I’d love to see the Dune universe resurrected for a new
generation.
Rating: 5 out of 5
FOR A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF ALL THE TIMES DUNE WENT IN AND OUT OF PRODUCTION, AND ALL OF THE DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS THAT FAILED TO MAKE THIS FILM ADAPTATION BEFORE LYNCH GOT A HOLD OF IT, VISIT RADIOATOR HEAVEN WHERE MY BUDDY J.D. LAFRANCE GIVES A DETAILED REPORT ON THE WHOLE STORY IN AN ARTICLE ENTITLED: DUNE: IT'S NAME IS A KILLING WORD.
Keep your eyes peeled for David Lynch's cameo as one of the Spice Miners!