Dune (1984) review
Dune was not well-reviewed when it premiered, with Roger Ebert calling it the worst movie of the year, though it has since become a cult classic. I recently read the book and had never seen the movie, so I decided to check it out.
I understand the criticism; parts of it feel rushed, and there are many little things from the book that are incorporated into the movie but aren't fleshed out very well. However, having read the book, and therefore being able to piece together the things that were glossed over in the movie, I thought it was pretty great.
The costume design, spaceships, sets, and sand worms were all executed well, though they are obviously dated by today's standards. Those things all contribute to the overall mood of the movie, which I thought matched the book nicely.
They took some liberties with the villain, the Baron Harkonnen, who they gave a skin condition and the ability to float around, which aren't present in the book (or at least were a small enough part that I don't remember them), and I thought were a little too over-the-top.
Overall, I rate the movie 8/10, but I don't expect it would hold up that well if you haven't read the book.
It's explained in other books that the Baron was poisoned by the Bene Gesserit which is why he's all fat and pus-sy. His appearance in the film is pretty close to canon, at least as much as I remember it. The Baron used to make a big deal of his physical appearance and worked out a lot to keep himself in shape - hence why he worships Feyd-Rautha (and why the Bene Gesserit's punishment of being overweight is so apt).
I suggest everyone seeks out a copy of Spicediver's fanedit of the movie - "Dune: The Alternative Edition, Redux", which is three hours long and makes a LOT more sense than the butchered version the studio make Lynch release. It's really, really good.
Then of course there's the greatest movie never made - Alejandro Jodorowsky's version of the story, starring Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles & Mick Jagger, music by Pink Floyd, design by Moebius AND Giger (a lot of Giger's design work made it into Lynch's version)
There's an alternative universe out there where George Lucas didn't get to make Star Wars and Jodorowsky's Dune was the biggest sci-fi movie blockbuster of the 1970s.
Hang on, do I know you? Did you do some work on a django-powered photo-sharing site in the mid-2000s?
If so, sorry for how that all turned out. Hope there's no hard feelings and you got properly paid in the end. Total fucking shambles on our part.
Oh - that was unexpected :-) If it is who I think it is then yes. Seems a very long time ago now. Hope all is well with you.
I'll check out the fan edit, thanks. Have also not gotten to the other books in the series, yet.
iirc the Baron's state only comes up in one of the direct Dune prequel trilogy (House Atredies, House Harkkonnan and House Corrino) which I suggest you only read if you're a HUGE fan of the series and can look past how terrible they are, which is pretty difficult. The other books by Frank are great though.
I don’t think the Brian Herbert books are terrible per se. Had there been no Frank Herbert originals they would probably be considered a decent science fiction series. IMO, it’s only by comparison to the sociopolitical masterpieces that are the original two trilogies that they appear so weak, superficial and lacking.
With that said, I have read the Frank Herbert originals about 5 times now over the years and only read the Brian Herbert books the once, so take from that what you will. ;)
I've read most of the Brian books and enjoyed a lot of them, but the first three are by far the worst imo. House Atredies is particularly weak. Lots of good lore (mostly from Frank's notebooks) but the writing is awful. I am glad Brian decided to wait until he'd got more practice before tackling the original series finale, because those were OK. Not amazing, but not awful.
The far-past ones were really good, around the time of the Butlerian Jihad.
Gosh. I love the original Dune series, didn't even mind Hunters, or Sandworms too much, and I watched Dune (1984) as a book fanboy. It's been about a decade since I last watched it, so mainly one thing still sticks out to me:
It was far too short. Dune is roughly 180k words, and the film is just over two hours long. The Fellowship of the Ring is 177k, the extended cut was nearly four hours, and the film still left out so much. Dune is effectively two, three-act plots in one novel; Paul meeting the Fremen marks the end of one and the beginning of the other. The film was so rushed and disjointed because David Lynch was trying to compact a long, dense story into a standard length film. It doesn't work. It didn't work. The movie didn't make any damn sense because in a film with so much necessary worldbuilding the audience needs time to breathe, and get a feel for what's going on. Dune is filled to the brim of fantastical future elements and intrigue in an extraordinarily complex political environment. I remember having trouble following along, and I knew the plot already. Even if somebody other than Lynch directed, it would still feel surreal simply because of its breakneck pace. Most of my problems with this movie could have been avoided if it were longer, or split over two films, so the story could have properly stretched its legs.
Oh, two films you say?
After the amazing job he did on Blade Runner 2049 I'm moderately excited about Villeneuve's upcoming project.
Also do check out the fanedit I mention in my other comment on this thread. It's explicitly split into three hour-long acts and it works pretty well.
Why not a television series? Maybe 12 episodes could do justice to the book.
There was a TV series around 2000. Not half bad with a decent cast (I think it was a US/German/Czech production) which covered the first 3 books. Special effects were TV budget CGI quality of the time but IIRC they followed the books fairly well.
Indeed. And James McAvoy killed it as Leto II in the Children of Dune follow up miniseries (which was much better produced than the first) as well.
I'm fairly sure Harnkonnen is described in the book (IIRC, we only see him once at the very beginning) as much too large to walk around, and suspended by anti-gravity devices
I haven't seen since I was a kid and it was re-running on sci-fi (i.e., pre-syfy) but I remember not hating it. I tend to be pretty picky on my book to movie adaptations as well
I loved how David Lynch's Dune movie looked and sounded. The costumes, creatures, miniatures etc were all absolutely spot on. If you want to watch a really dumb sci-fi movie with a flying fat man and magic words that kill people, this is your movie.
The studio-mandated changes were obviously to try and turn Dune into a slightly more lighthearted and accessible sci-fi movie, as was the style at the time. I don't resent that. However, Dune is about two things: ecology and religion, and the ending managed to snub both of them at once. Not only do we no longer get the morally ambiguous morality and depiction of Paul and his religious war, but it fucking rains for no reason. Even asides from the fact that there's no reason to believe that's even possible, it totally destroys the potential for any sequels (not that there were ever going to be any, but you'd think the studio would want to leave the possibility open).
I really do love the costumes, sets and creatures from this movie. There's a new Dune on the horizon, and I think Denis Villeneuve's trademark visual style could risk making the movie pretty boring. This, we end up with two Dune movies, one pretty and dumb, the other clever and boring. Pick your poison.