Dune (1984)

nTitle: Dune (1984)

nDirector: David Lynch

nCast: Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, Max Von Sydow, DeannStockwell, Sting, Patrick Stewart, Jurgen Prochnow, Jack Nance, VirginianMadsen, Richard Jordan, Jose Ferrer, Brad Dourif

nDavid Lynch’s Dune is a film that is hated by many but lovednby another many, it’s a film that divides people, a love it or hate it type ofnthing, though if you ask me, there’s very little to hate about Lynch’s Dune. I’venloved this movie ever since I was a kid, I didn’t fully “get it” back then, butnthere was something I liked about it anyways, my young mind recognized it as anspecial film. Dune is a film that I have revisited many times over in my life;nit’s become one of those films that I will always love. Many years after Infirst discovered it, I read the book and appreciated the film on a whole othernlevel. Considering the complexity of the book, I applaud Lynch for taking thisngargantuan story and transferring it to the big screen because it was neverngoing to be an easy job, the story that Frank Herbert weaved is epic, alwaysnhas been, yet Lynch took it upon himself to film the thing, he even wrote thenscript himself! Many directors tried and failed for whatever the reason (Jodorowskinand Ridley Scott being two of the filmmakers that didn’t end up directing) yetnLynch stuck to his guns and took the project head on. He even rejected an offernto direct Return of the Jedi (1983) in order to make Dune! Can you imagine whatnReturn of the Jedi might have been like had Lynch directed it? Yeah, I know, thenidea of Lynch playing with the Star Wars universe boggles the mind, yet I’mnhappy he ended up directing Dune instead because in many ways, Lynch was thenperfect director for this project, especially when it comes to the morenmystical aspects of the story, the telepathic abilities, Lynch had the perfectnsensibilities for the more “weird” aspects of the Dune saga.

nHerbert’s classic science fiction tale of politics, witches,nreligion and rebellion is one of those science fiction novels that any selfnrespecting science fiction fan should tackle at some point in their lives. Itnreally is one of the best designed fictional worlds; Herbert really constructedna fascinating, complex universe you can easily lose yourself in, a world fillednwith mysticism and inner dialog, of prophecies, false gods and abusivengovernments. The story of Dune is an all encompassing tale that covers manynimportant aspects of our society, as you can expect, like all good sciencenfiction, our way of life is mirrored in the story. For example, one of the mainnthemes of the book revolves around religious fanatism, because after all, thenstory of Dune is one about a messiah coming to free his people, but that’s justnthe tip of the iceberg in this fantastic tale of liberation. You see, Dune isnone of those books that is so complex that Herbert created a unique lexiconnjust for these books. So if you ever decide to read it, just remember your goingnto be introduced to a whole glossary of words unique to the Dune books, innfact, just in case you get lost, the book actually includes a glossary of Dunenwords! Words like “Kwisatz Haderach”, “Benne Gesserit Witches” and last but notnleast, the “Spice Melange”, but same as reading Anthony Burgesses’s A ClockworknOrange which also created its own lexicon, all the new words will end up makingnperfect sense to you by the time you finish reading the book. So I highly recommend checking this novel outnto all sci-fi fans out there. As with any book to film adaptation, the questionnremains, was the film a good adaptation of the book?

nI’d say that yes, it in deed was a good adaptation of thenbook. In its essence, the film tells the story of the liberation of the Fremennand the rise of Paul Moadib as ruler of the known universe. And this is comingnfrom me, a huge fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune books! I’ve read almost all of themn(still need to read the last one Chapterhouse: Dune) so I can say that yeah,nLynch’s adaptation was faithful for the most part. The only area in which henended up changing things just a bit was in the last five minutes of film, butnthe rest of the film is pretty much the book. Of course, quite a few thingsnwere left out of the book in order to deliver a two hour movie. Speaking of which,nthe only real problem for me with the film is that if you’ve read the books,nyou’ll feel as if you’re seeing the story in fast forward. Truth be told, thisnbook has enough story going for it to make two movies, but what Lynch did withnthe script and what the producers did when they edited the film themselves wasncompress the whole story into one movie; a pretty daunting task if you ask me. Atnthe end of the day, the film kept the spirit of the book; even Frank Herbertnhimself complimented Lynch on the film. Herbert mentioned that he was mostlynhappy with the film, except for the ending which is where Lynch turned thingsnaround towards the more theatrical. You see, in the book, Paul Atreides is anman playing to be a god, without in fact being one; he recognizes the powernthat being a god to the masses represents, so he uses that to the peoplesnadvantage. But the way the film ends, it makes him look like he is actually angod with powers like making it rain on planet Arrakis. This is why Herbertnhimself said that while he liked the film, he says that Lynch got the endingnwrong. “I have my quibbles about the film, of course. Paul was a man playing angod, not a god who could make it rain” So this is really the only realndifference between the books and the film. Though the ending of the film has annimpact, and makes Paul Atreides a more powerful character, the problem with itnis that Lynch’s ending changes the whole character around going against thenactual message that Herbert was trying to put across with his book, thatnreligion is a powerful farce used to control the masses.

nIn retrospective, considering how much of the story Lynch actuallynshot, they should have taken the opportunity to film two movies back to back. Lynchnfilmed enough of the story to make a four hour long movie! That’s right mynfriends, Lynch’s original cut of Dune was four hours long! So they might asnwell have split the thing in two and released it as two movies, kind of likenwhat Tarantino did with his Kill Bill movies. But no, instead the producersndecided to take the film away from Lynch and edit it down to two hours andnseventeen minutes, which is one of the reasons why Lynch disowns this movie. It’snthe one he considers a ‘failure’ in his career. In my opinion the resultingnfilm is not a bad one and very far from being a failure. Lynch had shot toonmuch good stuff for it to be bad; the result was going to be good no matternwhat. But obviously, had Lynch had final cut of the film, it would have beennbetter. This is the main reason why Lynch has always denied participation in anynof the dvd releases of the film. I’m wondering if maybe one day we’ll get a director’sncut of the film; which simply put, would be awesome! But considering how Lynchnrefuses to even talk about this film, well, I’m guessing we’ll never see thatnhappen. As of my typing this review, there are three versions of the film, eachnvarying in length. There’s the theatrical cut, the extended cut you get to seenon television and then there’s the special edition version. The most completenone is the special edition version because it includes many scenes that werendeleted from the original theatrical cut, which is a nifty extra for any Dunenfan. But out of all the versions, I still prefer the original theatrical versionnbest, it’s the one I have always known and loved. But true Dune fans will get ankick out of seeing all those scenes that were left out of the originalntheatrical cut.

nLynch considers it painful to even talk about Dune! I can understandnwhy, here’s a movie that took three years of Lynch’s life to make! This was anhuge, huge production. Funny how gargantuan productions like this one oftenntimes end up in failure! To have so much of your life invested in a film thatnwould ultimately end up not being truly yours can be a huge let down for anyndirector, but such is the nature of big budget productions; it’snthe 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 somethingnaround the vicinity of 40 million dollars, yet strangely enough, it looks morenexpensive than some of today’s 200 million dollar movies. The art direction isntruly impressive on this film! Dune was made in a time when sets werencompletely built, not half way digitized like most of today’s films. The filmnrequired a crew of 1700 people! 80 sets were built in 16 sound stages! I meannthis movie was huge in every way you look at it; and what about that cast? Sonmany amazing actors! And here’s this big budget movie being made by a directornused to working on small budgets. The film proved to be too big for Lynch whonobviously works better with smaller, more personal material. Still, if you asknme, I think the film we ended up getting is a great slice of science fiction.

nSpeaking of the different adaptations of Dune, there was anmini-series from director John Harrison which was actually extremely faithfulnto the books. From a fans point of view, John Harrisons take on Dune was annextremely complete adaptation, he even went further than Lynch’s films andnadapted both Dune Messiah (the second book in the series) and Children of Dunen(the third book in the series) by making a second mini-series entitled Childrennof Dune (2003), which by the way was also pretty good. These television mini-series,nthough faithful, lack the lavish production values of Lynch’s film, which isnone of the things I love the most about Lynch’s Dune: how big budget it is!nSpeaking of the cinematic future of the Dune series, director Peter Berg (Hancock,nThe Kingdom) attempted a remake a while back and was actively involved in itnfor more than two years, but stepped down in order to direct Battleship (2012).nI know that doesn’t make much sense but that’s what happened! My take on it isnthat Berg was probably trying to make a commercial film that would make tons ofnmoney so that he could then go on and make Dune, unfortunately, Battleship wasna huge ass loud flop! So those plans went down the drain. As I type this PierrenMorel, the director behind Taken (2008) and District B-13 (2004) was the lastndirector attached to the project, but so far nothing has come of it, here’snhoping it happens, I’d love to see the Dune universe resurrected for a newngeneration.

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nRating: 5 out of 5
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n 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.
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