You do not answer? 

HE'S CRYING,WHY IS HE CRYING?
Am I alive? 

Yes my Baron, you are alive.

I'M ALIVE, I'M ALIVE!

i saw this on tv in the early 90's and recorded it on VHS.......i loved this movie, it was so epic i wore our my VHS watching it, i agree with the wording device it was a bit superciliousness but i could see where maybe they were going with it...i agree with the article the Baron is brilliant just the right amount of nastiness and campness and the barons doctor is so well done .... the spic worms are a let down they could have been better and the cast is top notch.................i got the Blue Ray of it a while ago and it looks even better.

Seems like strong mixed reactions to the SciFi mini-series.  (The channel could still spell its own name back then.)  William Hurt was abominable, but it's still worth checking out if only to give you the foundation for the far superior Children of Dune mini, which helped to break James McAvoy and featured an awesome Brian Tyler score that's turned up in every epic film trailer since then.

I remember back in the early 90's they showed the original uncut version of the film and I found it to be much better..but it was long as hell.  It's my understanding that the people that own the rights to it refuse to release that version again though for whatever reason.  It's really unfortunate if that's still the case..I have yet to find it uncut on DVD anywhere though, so I'm assuming it is. 

The only movie that came with a "cheat sheet"

http://blastr.com/2011/02/found-dunes-studio-create.php

The big reason this movie didn't win the cult status it deserved (one of them) is  the timing.  I remember watching this around the same time as Tron and Ralph Bakshi's abomination "Lord of the Rings" fragment.  But hell, I always liked it.

Lynch's film premiered in 1984.  I watched in in 1987 and at age 11 and was expecting Return of the Jedi.  I wasn't dissappointed so much as confused.  I really had no idea what was going on.  Much later I watched the SciFi channel miniseries and really enjoyed it.  That prompted me to read the novel, which I loved.

You are absolutely right to say that Paul may not be the "hero" of the film.  That is pushed hard at the end of the novel and in later novels in the series. Nor is his "victory" at the end of the novel good triumphing over evil as his seating as the Kwisatz Haderach launches a holy jihad.

I have to admit I have no idea why Lynch added the "weirding module" sound guns.  I suppose just for a toy??

I love the move and I think it is odd how many parallels to the Taliban/Al Qaeda there are in it......
Paul is a Prince from a distant kingdom who goes to a desert to come into his own and lead.
(Very similar to the story of Osama Bin Laden)
The strongest imperial power has created this conflict to benefit themselves.
Paul leads the local militia to topple a much larger better funded empire.
Paul leads what is described in the book and movie a Jihad.
Paul's name that the Fremin give him is Usul - "The base of the Pyramid". Al Qaeda translates to The Base.

It just seems like  a incredibly fortuitous film for its time. Even without these odd coincidences I would still love the movie. I saw it as a kid when it came out and I understand your issues with it, but I very much think that it holds up and makes for a very interesting watch.

Also I like the longer piece.

I like the idea of longer think-pieces.   This one was fun to read.

But I don't like the term "think piece."  Please call it "a piece of think" from now on.

Seriously, though, do this again.  Maybe something by Bradbury.

READ THE BOOK, that is all.

Well, this is something new and exciting!

Hi, Perhaps my Lynchland page could interest you. Have a good day !

Roland K. / Lynchland

www.facebook.com/lynchland

True story: When I was about 15, I injured my leg really badly and was on large amounts of Codeine while recovering from it. One day, while lying at home in a (legal) drug haze, I was flipping through the channels and stumbled across Dune, which I had never seen (nor had I ever read the books). By the end, I was convinced it was the best movie I had ever seen, and that Kyle McLachlan was the hottest guy I had ever seen. I told my parents all about it that night and how "deep" and "amazing" the movie was, and how "hot" the lead actor was.

After I had recovered and was off the drugs, we decided to all watch Dune one night after dinner. Let's just say we have never spoken of that evening again and that I spent the next few days hiding in my room in shame, and trying to figure out how I could have been so deeply, deeply wrong about my assessment of the movie and Kyle McLachlan's appeal.

I have a similar story about Codeine and Mary Poppins being an allegory for the apocalypse, but I'll save that one for another time.

Each, the book and the movie, have aspects that work and others that do not.  

I wonder how our old friend Scooter Atreides would comment?

Anyone remember this article by James Daniels?

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/04/10_things_david_lynch_needlessly_added_to_dune.php 

Now this article, more than some others, feels like Topless Robot.

Weird. To this day I still like The Last Unicorn. Mostly for the nostalgia factor and that opening song by America.

I just rewatched Dune about two years ago before I got married, in one of the first nights at our new home before my wife moved in. To this day, I'm happy I spared her from that movie.

I like the idea of an in-depth discussion, even though the comments system here doesn't really lend itself very well.

For me, Dune will always be problematic.  I read the book before seeing the movie, and thought it did a pretty good job of bringing a lot of the book to the screen.  However, the book is huge, and everyone's inner thoughts are crucial to understanding what's going on.  (There's a great parody I read in Asimov's, which consisted of nothing but inner monologues of characters misinterpreting each others' slightest gestures and words.)  I think it's like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (or, most HP movies, for that matter): there's too much to squeeze into a couple of hours, so no matter what you do, it's only going to scratch the surface.  The channel that shall not be named had the right idea with a miniseries; too bad it was so godawful, making Lynch look downright restrained and sane, and making Kyle MacLachlan look like Brando.

I think where I don't give the movie enough credit is the visuals and the way it brought the story to the screen.  That it did so at all is an accomplishment, doubly so in the way it brought a consistent and fantastic yet sensible vision to everything.  Again, the miniseries stands as an example of how it can all go horribly wrong (I know some here like it, and I wanted to like it and thought it did some things better, but ugh).  Sure, the movie had more money.  But it's what you do with it and the choices that you make, and Lynch made so many great choices that I can't argue with. 

Even as early as the gom jabbar -- that shows the difficulty of making this happen.  As filmmaking, I can't help but think it's cheesy.  Yet it's necessary.  You can't just show Paul wincing or in agony or whatever without showing the hand.  You have to viscerally know what kind of agony he's going through or you lose the point completely.  It's something that's easy to make happen with the written word, but difficult to film.  Dune is a gargantuan novel of that.  The book has its own glossary.

That said, the changes.  There were lots of little changes.  I guess that's to be expected, especially since it was filmed in the day where any source material was considered a suggestion.  But many of the things you mentioned in the article didn't happen in the book, or happened differently, or were developed in different ways, which always provokes some sort of nerd crisis.  I think of all of it I liked the Harkonnens the least.  They were too cartoony, too over the top.  It was the one instance where making their evil more visual for the screen diminished them.

All those changes make the movie its own thing, which in a way makes it even more difficult.  The movie can't exist without the book.  Yet, for those who never read the book, it must hold together on its own.  There is no way that a novel of this size and complexity can be packaged in three hours and make everyone happy.

So, at the end of the day, I appreciate it for what it is and what it brought, even if there are some pretty big issues.  Compare it to, say, Green Lantern, which took a familiar and conventional idea and made it unwatchable.  Dune took the unfilmable and had the ambition to make something out of it, bringing a whole new universe to the screen.  It may not have my love, but it has my respect.

The mini-series is a better representation of the book than this movie. But Mini series can do what movies never can. 

Pretty cool article.  There is so much potential with this idea.

the only way that Dune would have been better - if comicsnix wrote and directed!

disneyland in the worm's anus (which is probably where the spice came from - you know you were thinking it, admit it)

May I suggest reading the books?

Alia was just as creepy in the book, what would you expect from someone gained not only sentience, but all the knowledge of all her female ancestors before even being born?

The fact that Paul fell in love with Chani before even meeting her fits in perfectly with the fact that by the time he dies, he is living a life that he has already seen.  At first, seeing the future was a gift, it gave him his love, but later, it gave him eternal boredom and the nightmare of what he must become.

He also was a hero, but the things done in his name, and the names of his loved ones make him to be a horrible person.

That soundtrack by Toto was just dreadful..........But then again, just a year later we had The Alan Parson's Project (Ladyhawke) and Tangerine Dream (Legend).........

Remember folks, David Lynch picked doing this movie over Revenge Of The Jedi...............

There are always two things I have to say about the Dune film.

1) It's great, but it hits the fast forward button on the 3rd fourth of the book making 100 pages about 15 minutes long so when they were doing such a GREAT job of translating book to film up to that point the sudden burst of speed, and then slow down back to the rate of progression for the films first half is a bit jarring.

2) Much like Blade runner, Dune was made at a time where "I" think Special effects had achieved cinematic perfection. that "Larger than life" look to structures, the early CGI used well, the fog. it all looked great, then by Jurassic Park we were "all CGI all the time" and special effects looked lame again.

I have not seen this movie all they way through since my butt was parked enthusiastically (as the movie wore on, less and less so) in the theater seat in '84. I can remember a guy sighing loudly throughout the film - kind of annoying since I was truly giving the film my best shot at enjoying it - and then his stunned "Oh.My.Gaaaaawd" repeated several times at the very end. By that time, I was on board with him and pissed off.

And yet my love for most of Lynch's other work has made me want to watch the film again, but...yeah. Haven't mustered up the courage. About time to re-read the book though.

I love both the frank herbert books as well as the lynch movie.  one clarification, the atreides are shown to be more benevolent than the harkonens  on a number of occasions (although these might be in the smithee or some other version) such as when jessica bans the selling of scrap water or whatever outside the palace and ordains that free water will be given to anyone who shows up and when leto is show to care more about his men than the spice and harvester. 

They're working on a remake of The Last Unicorn.............