Dune

Dune (1984)

Runtime: 137 minutes

Directed by: David Lynch

Starring: A great cast, including Kyle MacLachlan, Jurgen Prochnow, Dean Stockwell, Everett McGill and Francesca Annis

From: Universal

I finally saw this cult classic, and it having that status now is no surprise to me:

I now need not wonder what Lynch's version of the Sarlacc Pit would have been like.

As sometimes happens, a conversation online inspired me to watch this film. Naturally, this has been discussed as of late alongside all the news of Denis Villeneuve's upcoming adaptation-tentatively coming out Thanksgiving weekend of next year with a murderer's row of a cast-and several people mentioned that I should see it. I have not read Frank Herbert's novel before so that was a reason why I have only watched this for the first time now, along with how the movie was deemed to be so impenetrable to those unfamiliar with the source material that some screenings passed out cheat sheets that explained certain parts of the plot and the world's vocabulary... that did leave me wary but I might as well give this a shot, right? I mean, look at the director and what was a murderer's row of a cast for the time. Plus, even on Letterboxd opinions are all over the map so that does spark curiosity.

Virginia Madsen provides quite the infodump to start off the movie; then again, Star Wars has its opening crawls so I can't really complain. For not really being familiar with the plot beforehand, most of this was not too difficult to follow, and the director kept things linear instead of going all crazy. Still, there were times that I wish I had read the book before... why did one major character float? Did the novel have someone need to milk a CAT to survive? Anyhow, several groups of people are looking to control “the spice”, as he who controls it controls the universe... it allows for space travel and precognition, so that's why it is so important. One clan overthrows another (in part due to a betrayal) to regain control of a planet, but they did not count on Kyle MacLachlan being The Chosen One.

I do not to presume that all the internalized monologue stuff was at the insistence of the producers and Lynch was against it, but for me those moments were too often and while sometimes it did help fill in the blanks, other times it explained things that were patently obvious and should have been even for the most dim-witted viewer. I do know that this was the only time Lynch did not have Final Cut and he will forever be bitter at how this turned out... and how the length was solely determined as anything longer would have meant one less screening per day. I imagine I would have rated this higher had he not been hamstrung the entire way and he could have more control over the finished product.

For something not in his wheelhouse, Old David did a fine job with a big budget production that included several action scenes. The world looked great (full of imagination) and was convincing due to the effects, only some of which look dated by modern standards. Famously, he turned out the request of Lucas to direct Return of the Jedi; he may have been great as the leader of that film, although it would have had to have been at least a little stranger than what we got. As for Dune, a quality cast was assembled, delivering performances that were at least fine. The combination of Toto and Brian Eno sounds bizarre (especially for a film soundtrack) and yet it manages to be a success. If only this could have been longer and wouldn't have rushed certain things-especially in the final act-as that would have been an improvement. I guess there's always the 2000 miniseries...

But at least I now know why this became a cult favorite and what I know of the new adaptation, the old sins shouldn't be repeated... unless it totally bombs, there will be a series of films and the story will be further expanded upon. At least what I saw I can say was good overall, even with its flaws. I have heard the book is great and is greatly complex, which I know a film or series of films will never fully capture, for obvious reasons. And who knows what Jodorowsky's version of the story would have been; apparently he wanted to make numerous, critical changes that Herbert was against so fans of the book may not have liked the aborted movie.

One final note: tomorrow night I won't be posting any reviews: instead, I will watch a 3 hour version of this film that a fan compiled which has footage from the longer TV version that Lynch disowned, along with a few deleted scenes. This is despite it not being 100% legal... it is not too terribly hard to find. Anyway, I will talk about that here in a separate post.