I came at the movie as a David Lynch fan, so I think I got what I was looking for: “crazy David Lynch read this book once, and this is what it made him think about.” I saw Dune in the theaters, and to this day, I cannot picture Sting without that cat (frankly, not in a good way).
He still seems like the weirdest choice of director for that project, and I say that as someone who likes the book, and likes aspects of the movie. Wasn’t it supposed to be Ridley Scott, which feels like it would make more sense? Would he have been working from Lynch’s screenplay? There’s something very 80s about the whole thing, looking back on it.
I saw the Allan Smithee version of Dune on t.v. when I was 11 and I was blown away. The art sequence with the guy narrating at the beginning pulled me right in, I was hooked. I thought it was a kick-ass movie and it’s what prompted me to read the book.
I understand the criticisms and had I read the book first, I might not be able to enjoy Lynch’s movie at all.
I bought Dune on dvd, it said something about it being the director’s cut so I assumed it would be the movie I loved as a kid, 't wasn’t. I think it’s kind of a bummer that the version of the film I like best is the one that David Lynch refuses to be associated with.
I read several of the sequels and remember nothing about them save that I was disappointed. Dune and the Matrix have the same problem; you can’t set up a character as a messiah figure and have them rise to power in the first act because there’s really not a story after that.
The movie as a movie is just OK. I enjoy it, will watch it if its on, and can fill in the gaps. But there are much better movies out there.
However, the LOOK of the movie is spot-on. When I saw it (after reading the book) it was like Lynch had pulled the settings out of my head. It was exactly how I imagined everything would look.
Probably why I like the movie as much as I do. The SciFi versions, while much more faithful adaptations, don’t have the same draw for me. The seem too sterile.
It’s just a shigawire reader. It’s AI or anything like it that’s verboten, not all machines.
Me, I hated, hated, hated the Lynch movie. The only thing he does well is the worms - no, wait, I quite liked the shield effect, too. Everything else is just so much a display of his own fetishes. Made me feel dirty, like involuntary, forced voyeurism - what the fuck was the point of that bug-drink Rabban has? Or heart-oh-my-fucking-lord-plugs?
I think that’s a common theme throughout the series–despite the Butlerian prohibitions, people are STILL trying to come up with de facto AI. Hence the tiktoks (incredibly intricate clockwork robots) and the almost certainly illegal machines being built on Ix (which are the eventual reason that the God Emperor shapes his empire in the way he does–to protect humanity from such a machine threat).
I saw the movie before I read the novels and I’m glad of that because I probably would not have enjoyed the movie as much as I did if I read the novels first. I think I probably would have been annoyed that the Fremen in the movie defeated the Sardaukar because they had those “weirding modules” instead of highlighting the Fremen’s superior fighting abilities. I enjoyed reading the Emperor’s consternation that a group of Fremen children and old men fought off Imperial Sardaukar, the most feared fighting men in the known universe. But overall, the movie is pretty good. And it’s a lot better than most films out there.
I agree that the Dune novels are difficult to convert into a movie especially when much of the plot action is based on the “minutiae of observation” skills that the Bene Gesserit-trained characters use to decide which course of action to take. Most of what’s happening in the novels is difficult to faithfully show in a movie. In the miniseries, they had to exaggerate the Bene Gesserit “finger language” and made it look like sign language instead of a more faithful depiction since that language looks like idle finger movements which would not attract the attention of anyone watching through comeyes but that might confuse viewers of the miniseries who are not familiar with the novels.
I too am grateful to the movie for introducing me to the novels.
I’d pretty much second all of this. Loved the first book; was confused and/or bored by the sequels (and have not tried any of the prequels, having heard them blasted so roundly by fans).
I remember that President and Mrs. Reagan had Lynch’s Dune screened for them in the White House. I can only imagine how baffled they must have been by it all.
One of my favorites. Seen it dozens of times. I always found the Bene Gesserits to be very alluring, especially the Reverend Mother at the beginning. (The scene at the beginning with the Gom Jabbar and the burning hand is one of the most erotic I have ever seen.)
I thought the movie was a failure, but an honorable one. It was impossible to turn the book into a two-hour movie, but Lynch did the best possible job.
The problem with the movie is that 75% of it is static head-shots with overdubbed thoughts as audio. It’s lazy-man’s exposition – although, I don’t really know how one might have exposed things easier, outside of a mini-series on the SciFi Network … which was better than the movie.
I have to say that when I said it as a young lad, I was… totally confused. I was not at all unfamiliar with sci-fi, but I basically walked out of the room and turned off the VCR (no DVD’s then, and not in that order).
Years later I inadvertently bought an overpriced copy of Dune (long story) and enjoyed the book a great deal. I also enjoyed the sci-fi miniseries. But even then when I tried to look at the movie, it was confused as hell. It was just badly done, with no respect for the audience. The movie is only any good for ready-made fanboys, and impenetrable to anyone who isn’t.
I didn’t feel that way about the movie because I was pretty young the first time I saw it. I just read the book last month and I giggled on the inside when she made Paul put his hand in her hot box. So far as the movie went I thought Virginia Madsen was one of the most beautiful women ever. I was eight when I saw the movie.
I used to tell people that if you didn’t read the book first, the movie wouldn’t make any sense, and if you did, the movie would just disappoint.
I sort of liked the movie when it came out, but subsequent viewings were kind of painful to watch. I loved the novels (the first six), but you couldn’t pay me enough to read them again. They were really ponderous, and full of so many hard-to-pronounce names that it was a real chore getting through them.
Regarding the books, I feel the first four taken together make for a pretty good cycle. The last two books, on the other hand, seem completely directionless and rushed.
I loooved the Lynch movie when I was a kid. And even now, despite it’s datedness it feel epic to me. I had no trouble understanding it or following it. In my enthusiasm I tried reading the novel and found it to be kind of dry and boring and never finished it. I liked the Sci-Fi miniseries, especially Children of Dune, although having been introduced to the Lynch version first, the lack of certain things I hadn’t realized were made up by Lynch like the voice weapons felt a little odd.
