If you want an appreciation of the Lynch version, imagine yourself as a 12 year-old boy whose family is going to the movies. At the megaplex is an assortment of films. Everyone wants to go see A Passage to India. Dune starts at the same time in the next across the hall. Both films are about the same length, so ducking into that one instead of the Merchant/Ivory snoozefest poses no logistical problems. What do you do? What do you do?!?!?
You, of course, go see Dune, and come out quoting the Baron: “I’m alive! I’m ALIVE!”
Yes, David Lynch saved me from a worse possible fate…
Uh…granted, but ever seen a Jodorowsky film? At the time he planned to make Dune, he was mostly interested in symbolic metaphors and surrealism at the expense of plot. As I recall, his ending for the film would be Paul Atredies having his throat slit by Count Fenring’s wife, followed by a spontaneous forest spreading over Dune.
Also, he planned for the Emperor to be a wooden puppet voiced by Salvator Dali.
Not exactly-- he originally wanted Dali to play the Emperor straight, but Dali, being Dali, would only agree to appear in the film if he were “the highest-paid actor, ever,” wanting an outrageous amount per minute. Jadorowski figured he could afford one minute to establish him as the emperor, but in most of the emperor’s scenes he would be represented by the “decoy” – “for security purposes.”
I liked the mini-series. But take that in the context of watching it before reading the book. In other words, I’m not a dune fanboy, and though the bok was alright, but not great. I’d read it years ago, and thought it rather pretentious, though not in the same way as some modern “stars”. Hated the Lynch movie. Then I saw the mini-series, and I was hoked. I really saw the whole of the place. Then I read the book.
Then I read some other DUne books and decided it was a one-time flash of brilliance, but hey…
I really liked the novel, and I enjoyed the Lynch movie in terms of imagining how it could have been (not unlike the more recent movie A.I.), however I was really disappointed by the miniseries. I thought that the characters had been dumbed down and it therefore lacked the intricate politics I found so interesting in the novel.
The miniseries was excellent! I think one of my favorite details was the blue shimmering eyes of the spice addicts and Fremen. Also, thanks to a $30 million budget, the costumes were gorgeous, especially the princess.