The movie certainly feels trimmed. There’s a lot of narration, particularly at the beginning where we have not one, but two extended scenes of exposition, one with Virginia Madsen’s disembodied, disappearing and reappearing head, the other a telecommunications dispatch explaining the roles of the various kingdoms involved in interplanetary intrigue. Things move fast, sometimes too fast. Throughout the film we hear the thoughts of the characters on-screen, which fill in, sometimes too pointedly, exactly what's happening. One of the largest complaints from the critics of the time was that the movie was completely incomprehensible, particularly for those who hadn’t read the novels.
I’ve never read any of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels. Perhaps it’s that I went into the movie knowing its reputation, or perhaps it's having a lot of experience with other David Lynch projects and knowing the unusual voice he's become, but I found the movie entirely comprehensible. I imagine it probably helps having taken in a fair amount of Lynch, as one feels freer to let go of the strict plotting and enjoy the feel of the movie, its rhythms and imagery. Although the editing of the film is in great contention, it is effective. The movie builds at a great pace, feeling at times both epic and intimate.
The film’s greatest achievement is its design. Lynch doesn’t just create one new world, he creates many, building their surroundings out of their natural habitats. The movie feels other-worldly in the best way possible, as though all of these massive societies have sprung up on their own after centuries of development. Everything has been imbued with a deep sense of history and tradition.
The film is gorgeous, even when it’s hideous. The world of the Caladan, the home of House Atreides, is austere and beautiful. The desert planet of Arrakis, where the famous spice is mined, is massive, imposing and stunning in its sparsity. The world of the villainous Harkonnen is truly revolting, filled with disease and bodily fluids and dripping with substances whose origins you probably don’t want to know. Some of the effects are absolutely stunning and surreal, like the shots of the emerging birth of Paul Atreides' sister. Others look absolutely cheesy even for the time, like old Ray Harryhausen effects. But Ray Harryhausen is beloved even today because his effects were charming and effective, as are the cheesier effects in Dune. Even if they don’t look like the most believable effects, what is happening behind them is engrossing, and so the lack of polish, at least for me, can be easily forgiven.
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Article comments
1 - sambo
I love Dune... I actually saw it the first time when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I didn't really get what was going on at the time, but I remember liking it a lot. I then saw it again in my early teens and didn't have much trouble understanding it either. I didn't read the book til a couple of years ago and I personally think Lynch did a great job with it. I would LOVE to see the 4 hour cut, but alas... I hear the extra footage was destroyed, never to be seen. BAH.
2 - Jerome Pokracki
There is so much to be said about Frank Herberts vision. A singular force of nature, that was Frank the author,visionary.
It was an interesting idea to ask David Lynch to do the film.I have a cassette tape of the two, Frank and David being interviewed on the set of the movie,sharing thoughts about the process of making the film.They get along and even cause each other to chuckle and agree about certain aspects of the film.
I believe that Dune is arguably the finest science fiction book of the twentieth century,and as such, any film treatment of it will be found lacking.Still If you love Dune the book, then you have to see Dune the movie.For all its failings,David has successfully retained the dichotomy of the main protagonists dilemna.Paul Atreides of Caladan,whom transforms into something infintely larger than his human self,is akin to a butterfly.Yet he is trapped by his coming omniscience.Seeing iinfinite possible futures,all dark, he chooses,reluctantly, the least dark of all of them,and in doing so,becomes a galactic tyrant.He hates himself while fulfilling an ancient alien prophecy of dark messianism and political oligarchy.
Get the movie,turn down the lights,turn off your cell phone,and lose yourself in this epic film.Damn the critics, what do they know anyway,right?