Dune (1984)

 

This film is actually responsible for my unadulterated love for the book series by Frank Herbert. As a child, this film fascinated me (especially the massive sandworms) so when I grew older, I wanted to read the books. 

That also led me to not like this film as much as I used to, because it is a hot mess. A fascinating hot mess with some excellent design choices, but a mess nonetheless.

In a far flung future, space travel, prolonged life and extreme mental capabilities are possible thanks to ingestion of the spice melange, a substance only found on one planet: Arrakis. It is extremely valuable, so of course there is much plotting concerned. To rid himself of a popular duke, the emperor of the known universe moves the Atreides family to take over Arrakis, knowing full well he will support the Harkonnens (mortal enemies of the Atreides) to depose and destroy house Atreides. 

However, there is more afoot as the son of the Atreides, Paul, already has an expanded consciousness that only gets broader as soon as he is immersed in the spice on Arrakis. The Harkonnens do attack and slay the duke, but Paul and his mother escape and find refuge with the Fremen, the local population whom the Harkonnens have always underestimated. Paul and his mother Jessica train the Fremen even further and eventually lead an assault on all spice production, forcing the emperor to come in person. 

This of course is what they were waiting for and they bring down the emperor and the Harkonnens, effectively making Paul not only the new emperor but also a supreme being known as the Kwisatz Haderach.

The summary does not do the full story justice, but that's why you still need to read a book from time to time. 

What this film absolutely has going for it, is design: every planet looks distinct in colour and shape and the costumes are opulent and grandiose. You can always find more details in the background and in fact a lot of the designs are quite iconic. Take the stilsuits for example, the outfit used to survive in the desert: they make sense (except for the colour, but beige against beige doesn't photograph well). It's grandiose in every way.

Oh, and the sandworms look awesome. Thanks again to Carlo Rambaldi, who did quite a lot of creature design. He made the xenomorph designed by HR Giger work as well, so you know he is no slouch. 

Some of the casting is also pretty spot on, in spite of some of the stilted dialogue and forced exposition they have to give. Kyle MacLachlan is a nice Paul, Jürgen Prochnow works as duke Leto and several of the supporting cast are also really good. Especially Kenneth McMillan as baron Vladimir Harkonnen nails it, as he is always creepy and unsettling. He is probably the most memorable of the lot.

But then there are quite a lot of actors/actresses that are just wasted. Sian Phillips has little to do as Reverend Mother Gaius Helena Mohiam and Brad Dourif is more of an afterthought. It's just quite a lot of characters shoehorned in and many don't get more than one or two lines. 

But you know what really makes this film flail about? It doesn't flow and they tried to cram way too much in without rhyme or reason. This feels as if the writers and even director David Lynch just picked some iconic scenes from the book, slapped them together and then saw if it stuck. It doesn't, which also explains the overabundance of exposition after exposition, even compounded by exposition through voice over. It just never stops and grinds the film to a halt every single time. If you have read the book, you'll know where to situate every piece, but if you haven't characters and situations will make little to no sense. 

See, that is why it helps if you read the book first as filmmakers. (yes, Denis Villeneuve, I'm glad you knew the story by heart)

This version of 'Dune' is flawed, even very flawed. But it still has this wicked charm that just makes you enjoy it, in spite of its many shortcomings. But there is a far superior version out there.