(Revisionist) Movie Review : Dune (1984)

There is no nuance when it comes to debating David Lynch’s artistic legacy. Either you’re into movies like Blue Velvet and Lost Highway or you aren’t. No one will ever tell you they were OK movies. Lynch is so committed to his crazy, surrealist creative vision that his films cannot be watched casually. They’re like hard drugs. But like most talented filmmakers in Hollywood, Lynch once made the mistake of accepting a job he shouldn’t have: directing the big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction novel Dune. It is by far the most debated film of his career. At first reviled, it gained a cult audience over the years. But is Dune good or not?

The answer is not that clear.

If you’re not familiar with Dune, it’s the story of two families fighting over the harvesting of the Spice (the most important substance in the universe): the Atreides and the Harkkonen. The emperor (José Ferrer) suspects that Duke Leto Atreides (Jurgen Prochnow) is raising a secret army to threaten his rules (which he kind of is), so he plans to give House Atreides the control of Arrakis and subsequently have the Duke murdered by a Harkkonen raid he engineered. The cunning bastard. He emperor also orders to kill the Duke’s son Paul (the immortal Kyle MacLachlan), who is the son of a Bene Gesserit sisterhood member. An order that’s been trying to breed a super being for centuries.

Is Dune a bad movie?

Not really? I understand why people were originally displeased with it, though. The best metaphor I can come up with is that Dune is that happens when you order a big, fat burger with a side of fries and the waiter brings you a plate of Gyoza dumplings. It is obviously not built to be a conventional big budget movie. It’s quiet, cerebral and makes you sit through many lengthy dialogue scenes. There’s also so much going on, it’s somewhat difficult to follow. It had everything to piss off Roger Ebert. People went in expecting another Star Wars and got a politically charged 500 pages novel.

But it’s not that complicated of a movie. It’s the story of a man learning he is the messiah, who has to lead a downtrodden tribe to the promise land. I’m sure you’ve heard that one before. What makes it different and interesting is that it is set in the midst of an intergalactic commercial war. There are no light sabres and breathless chase scenes. Dune is like Star Wars’ smart, nerdy little brother who is not good with girls. You have to pay attention, understand the characters’ motivations and it rewards you with more scenes where you have to pay attention and understand the characters motivations.

Is Dune a good movie?

Not really either and the reason why it’s not awesome have little to do with cinema.

1) David Lynch was obviously the wrong person to direct it. He was given the job by his old producer pal Dino De Laurentiis after the critical success of Elephant Man and no one really understood the whole Lynch persona thing back then. His most important films were well ahead of him and De Laurentiis thought he’d make the transition into big budget films like most young directors would. Apparently Lynch didn’t even read the novel prior to writing the script and voiced the fact that he wasn’t into science fiction all that much. His heart clearly wasn’t into it.

2) The official cut available on streaming platforms (where I watched it) are obviously butchered by an editors trying to make it more of a conventional, fast paced science fiction epic than it should be. The scene where Paul Arteides tames the sandworm is the best example of that. Paul and Stilgar (Everett McGill) are supposed to bond and it confirms Paul’s acceptance as the leader of the Fremen people of Arrakis. But the film keeps cutting to wide shots of the worm every time Paul and Stilgar look at each other, so they end up looking like they’re awkwardly falling in love with one another.

3) The original idea was to make “Star Wars for grownups” but the novel does not lend itself to that. Dune is more akin to Game of Thrones in its political complexity and it would lend itself to a series much better than it would to a movie. Universal was trying to fit a square pet into a round hole like big studios with a lot of money to spare always do. I really understand why Lynch hates talking about it.

I haven’t seen the David Lynch cut of Dune. Apparently it’s close to four hours long, makes a lot more sense, is incredibly boring and exists only on laser disc, which is about the Lynchiest possible way it could exist. But the original Dune was meant to be mediocre. Lynch was too talented to direct a disaster and the creative difference between him and universal were far too great for Dune to amount to anything coherent or exciting. Don’t believe the revisionist hype on this one, folks. This is the worst film of David Lynch’s career and it’s not even that bad. It’s just not the Lynch we love.

6.5/10