Dune

Year of release : 1984

 

Run time : 2h58min

 

Genre : Adventure / Sci Fi / Fantasy

 

Cast : Virginia Madsen, Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, Sting, Dean Stockwell

 

 

Dune is an epic space opera written and directed by David Lynch, adapted from Frank Herbert's book of the same name.

 

The movie starts with the daughter of the emperor Shaddam,a young Virginia Madsen, narrating the story.

 

After the Bene Gesserit make an appearance,giving us back story, we meet the emperor who has sinister plans for the House Atreides.

 

We then meet the House Atreides, and recognize some scenes,more or less, from the remake.

 

On Arrakis we see the Atreides adjusting to the new world, and being sabotaged by the Harkonnens, having a traitor among them . We watch again, a few scenes done better in the remake.

Chani has a father,who's the one fitting their suits before checking the spice fields, being killed later by the Harkonnens.

 

I personally didn't like it . The more I watched it, the more I felt like re-watching the remake.

 

The movie contains what the remakes Dune Part 1 and Dune Part 2 have,and more,giving more information. Considering I didn't read the books, as they are very expensive, one sole book is 100+ (22 dollars),I found one at 180 lei(!),which is 39,60 dollars, which is a lot in Romania(with 180 lei you can buy a winter coat in Romania), I liked the information I found in this 1984 version. Although, David Lynch apparently changed the source material (characters and story details) ,upsetting the fans.

It does say that the action of the movie takes a few years, thing not mentioned in the remakes.

 

The movie is made of four parts,if I'm not mistaken, or chapters, entitled Books.

 

The Harkonnens are ginger in this movie,their world is on an ugly green,just like their clothes. They don't look menacing at all,in fact they look like punks, and the flying Harkonnen looks like a joke.

Feyd Rautha is not scary, and doesn't look like a psychopath either. He's played by Sting.

 

The Bene Gesserit are bald, or at least the Reverend Mothers.

 

Doctor Yueh wears a mustache in this one,while Thufir Hawat has really bushy eyebrows.

 

There weren't many dream sequences or visions, and when there were, they weren't made well.

 

We can hear people's thoughts,even when there's no mind control involved or telepathy.

 

Paul's sister, Alia, appears too in the movie, she's a kid but has the powers of a Reverend Mother due to the poison Jessica had to ingest.

 

The visual effects were so and so ,mostly bad, and the shield design is bad because you can't see the actors fighting at all,it's just jelly. The fighting is pretty bad too. It made me laugh...

 

The soundtrack at times sounded good, but mostly not.

 

The movie had negative reviews and was a box office flop, grossing 30,9 million dollars from a 40-42 million dollars budget,having had 4 versions released worldwide. It is said David Lynch took his name out of the finished movie, or changed it to pseudonyms .

 

You can watch the full movie for free if you follow the link. This version is one completed ( edited very well) by a fan with the deleted scenes ,which they said made the movie make more sense : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faHQA_0d9Mo&ab_channel=GW

 

Rating : Could have been a contender !