Dune (1984) Review

Title: Dune
Year: 1984
Director: David Lynch
Country: US
Language: English

In 2021 Dennis Villeneuve directed Frank Herbert's Dune to critical and (hopefully) commercial success. I recently watched it in the theatre and was impressed by the epic feel of its immense cinematography and booming score by Hans Zimmer. The first onscreen adaptation, not including Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt, was David Lynch's Dune. Considered "unfilmable" due to the complexity of its plot, Lynch's adaptation missed the mark with audiences and did not perform well with critics either. 

In this, a Duke's son (Kyle MacLachlan) leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.

Fresh from the success of The Elephant Man, Lynch had free reign to work on any project he wished, including Return of the Jedi, which he turned down. . Producer Dino de Laurentiis convinced him to work on Dune, which ended up causing a class between studios and Lynch's strange style of film-making.  Lynch, with only two films to his name at the time, couldn't resist signing with a major studio and ended up spending a regrettable 3 years on this picture. 

Unlike the 2021 adaptation, it isn't clear if Lynch had any real passion for the source material as the story bounces all over the place, plot points are left hanging, and characters have no real development. I felt very disoriented by a picture that felt far from epic. Paul, who Lynch attempts to give a messianic aura to, feels bland and uninteresting. The special effects, like many sci-fi from the 80's, are extremely dated. If the CGI was not bad then, it sure is now!

It is quite refreshing that we have a true adaptation of Frank Herbert's material in Villeneuve's Dune. David Lynch is a remarkable director- when he is given free reign on his own material. It is unlikely this book could have been adapted by ANY director prior to the 2010's. Even Steven Spielberg was smart enough not to touch this "unfilmable" piece of literature. 

0 Stars