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A Major Disappointment

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One can never really compare a book to a 2-3 hour condensation of a book. This is an awesome attempt. A CLASSIC of the period. Incredibly good especially considering its age. We're talking 1984! Well worth the watch. Fav for me.

This could have been a great movie! The beginning and really, all of the footage up until the Baron is introduced, even the poor casting of Piter, is really great. The movie went completely downhill for me with the introduction of the Baron Harkonnen. In the book he is hugely obese and requires the suspensors to hold up his weight as his legs can no longer carry his weight. He is described in the book as: "grossly and immensely fat' with a "basso voice." He is ruthless and cruel, but also extremely intelligent and cunning and talented at manipulating others and exploiting their weaknesses. In this movie, for some unknown reason, he is given these horrific sores and a character called 'the doctor' added to disgustingly pick at and suck out the nastiness, which the Baron then flies up to the holding tank of this and lets the contents of his sores pore over his face. GAH!! WTF?? I didn't know those terms when I saw this movie when it first came out. But wished that I had. I saw absolutely NO reason for what they did to the character of the Baron. It was one of the things that really went a long way toward ruining the film. Things that saved it were some of the scenes that so closely followed the book...like the desert scenes with the worms. I was so excited to see the movie because I had read the book in high school and was so anxious to see it brought to life. Then they added the 'heart plug' nonsense. It is like they thought us so stupid that we couldn't accept the fact that he was a horrible person without giving him sores. I don't know if this is what people have called a homophobic attempt to make him disgusting because he was homosexual, or if it was simply an attempt to make him even more disgusting than weighing 1000 pounds or so would make him, but both his character and Beast Rabban were made so ridiculous, that when they are plotting together and the Baron tells him to squeeze the population of Dune, he says, "yes, Baron" almost like they are villains on a very poorly written episode of the original Batman TV show complete with BooHooWaaahahahaha laughter. Also, the casting of Sting was ridiculous. We got no background on his character at all other than what the Baron wanted for him. None of the scenes that showed him to be a flawed but important adversary for Paul. They are supposed to be approximately the same age. In the book, Paul is 15 at the beginning of the story, 17 by the end and Feyd is approx. the same age. They were supposed to be a mated pair in the Bene Gesserit breeding program and would have been if Jessica had not had a male baby instead of a female as directed. I didn't care for the 'weirding modules' either. Once again another attempt at complicated simplification because the weirding way described in the book is more a form of martial arts and David Lynch didn't want 'Kung Fu' on the sands. Still, that was another thing that I could overlook. However...the ending. Paul making it rain...PLEASE! Especially when I learned that the ending had been filmed as written...with Paul marrying the Princess Irulan (only in name, as Chani was still Paul's mate and became his 'concubine' as Jessica had been his father's true love, but not his wife), the Emperor exiled to his own prison planet, and Paul becoming the new Emperor of the known universe. It sets up the next chapter in the series and is so important. Paul did fulfill the Fremen's prophecy, but he was not a God. He couldn't make it rain. He fulfilled the prophecy, because it had been implanted in the Fremen culture by the Bene Gesserit generations earlier just in case the Kwizatz Haderach (sp) appeared somewhere down the line. The missionaria protectiva as it was called in the book. It was Bene Gesserit practice to create religions to suit their own ends and the Fremen were set up to receive a 'super being.' His ability to see into the future was his power. He was genetically manipulated to be able to do this. All of this being ignored and the ridiculous scene of it raining at the end. I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen!! All that aside, when I saw the extended version on television the first time it was run, I was stunned by how much better it made the movie. So many things that had been left out, making the movie that much more confusing. The fact that all of these scenes were shot, and then cut tells us that those in charge of cutting the final film weren't interested in telling the best version of the story, but in time constraints. I don't blame Lynch for being absolutely appalled at the final cut of the movie and the betrayal of any vision or collaboration between him and Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert was mostly just satisfied to see his creation brought to life, but was dismayed mostly by the same things that I was...especially the ending. When you consider all of the money spent to make this movie and all of the sets and a fine cast (who did a really good job with what they were given), it is just appalling that the final cut is what it is. So many of the important scenes that were left out, were shot!! That is the thing that is the most distressing. I wish that Lynch would make a directors cut. I would watch a 4 hour version. Happily! I would love to see the correct ending restored. I know that there wasn't an alternate Baron shot, but I could get past that. One other scene always makes me mad. The scene where Paul and Jessica are getting out of the crashed 'thopter' in the desert and Jessica says, completely randomly and having no relationship to anything happening, "A million deaths are not enough for Yueh!" That line actually comes from one of the little poems or short references to one of Irulan's future history books as introductions to each chapter in the book. So to insert that dialogue completely out of any context was another WTF moment! Also, making Jessica so whiny. She was Bene Gesserit and although distraught at the death of the Duke, she holds it together until she and Paul are in the tent after they are relatively 'safe' for a brief time before they meet the Fremen. Then she lets her grief out, but her stumbling after Paul was just infuriating. Her character was so much more complex than they made her. Paul was, too. So much potential...it could have been a great movie! As is it is only mediocre. I still always watch it if I stumble across it and reading that there has been an extended version released on DVD, I will probably buy it and just skip over the scenes with the Baron, as I always do when I watch it. I usually turn if off after the Baron is sucked into the worm as well. Not in the book, but fitting...especially the changed Baron as depicted in the film. .

Based on the first book in renowned sci-fi author; Frank Herbert's sprawling, epic saga; Dune was a project that had been through some considerable development going back as far as 1971. With Arthur P. Jacobs, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Ridley Scott separately vying to direct with their individual visions of how to bring the classic novel to life, executive producer Dino DeLaurentis eventually settled on hiring avant garde film-maker; David Lynch who had gained critical and commercial notoriety for his 1980 biographical period hit; The Elephant Man to helm the project. With a budget of $40 million (a costly sum for a big budget picture at the time) and fevered anticipation that came with the film, due to it's cult fan base there was a much riding on it's financial success. Lamentably however it was anything but; merely raking in $30.9 million at the world-wide box office after opening to scathing reviews which would later lead Lynch to distance himself from the movie; a cowardly move in my personal estimations given that being not only the director but acting as screenwriter in transferring the epic tale from page to screen. In short, the buck had to irretrievably end with him. At only 131 minutes in length with it's source material being 412 pages in length and embracing an insurmountable wealth of characters, too numerous to count ; even with it's opening introductory monologue from the entrancingly beautiful Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan (daughter to the Emperor) laying the basic foundations of the plot; it does little to prevent if from descending in to incomprehensible pap. Many scenes involving much needed exposition, that would have laid out crucial plot details were clearly left discarded on the cutting room floor, and it was left to predominantly superlative cast of actors to bravely struggle to salvage any kind of discernible meaning from it. To their credit they for the most part give it their all; with Kyle MacLachlan admirably conveying the young Atredies heir personal dynamic from wide-eyed, cocky young buck to the self-confident, charismatic religious icon that is Muad'Dib with ease. With slightly varied support from Jürgen Prochnow as his noble, sage father with Patrick Stewart, Freddie Jones and Dean Stockwell offering further wise, informative words of counsel as members of the Atredies entourage. With Francesca Annis making a demure, reserved and assured presence as the Lady Jessica, mother and concubine to Paul and Duke Leto they neatly round up the caste of their home world of Caladan. Starkly contrasted via mainly decent turns from a range of actors that include the late Kenneth McMillan, the versatile Brad Dourif, Paul L. Smith and pop icon; Sting, they portray the insidious ruling member of the House Harkonnen. McMillan is a revoltingly repugnant presence as the corpulent Baron with Dourif a wily if relatively short lived addition as the deceitful and cunning Mentat; Piter defries. Smith is the dim-witted, brutish ( a fitting term seeing as he played Bluto in Robert Altman's cinematic live action version of; Popeye) "Beast"; Glossu Rabban. Finally there Sting who aesthetically fits the role well with his sharply intense feature, slender frame topped with a fiery mane of red hair. Given the overall short screen time and minimal dialogue he had; he pretty much chews the scenery as he hams it up immensely. What you make of the acting depends I suppose on your personal predilections what with it's operatic, declamatory style but it's arguably one the few redeeming features; and there's very little beyond the phenomenal art deco and the spectacular grandeur of the planetary and intergalactic scenery. The editing is periodically ropy; a clear indicator where potentially vital scenes may have been dropped. It's only Toto and Brian Eno's evocative and spectacular score which resonates a mythological robustness in it's more bombastic moments; and a soothing tranquility in it's quieter moments that remind you that offers anything resembling relief from the tedium. The themes of religious fanaticism and political intrigue and corrupt machinations ultimately feel hollow, without enough meatiness to the narrative to fit the void that is woefully apparent. Not even some of the later scenes on Arrakis which include the then; and I suppose even now are impressively rendered; Giant Worm scenes offer much respite from the disjointed incomprehensibility. And that's including any key scenes with the native Fremen, which offer core exposition of Paul's journey in to manhood as he grows in to the position of religious messiah and warrior leader. Try as they might; co-stars Sean young as his future lover, the dutiful Chani (who is adequate enough) who and Everett McGill who fares better as her honourable and temperate father; the Bremen leader Stilgar can do nothing to elevate proceedings. A failure of monumental proportions; it has perplexingly gained some recognition given that it still manages to earn a moderately respectable score of 6.6 on IMDB; (god only knows why) Lynch even goes so far as to ignore some of the pertinent lore from the novel where upon he gives what is supposed to be a a rousing finale, but is contextually nonsensical. However with some much relevant information lost; I doubt many audience members with noticed or for that matter cared. And that concisely says it all.

This is an incredible and above all visually stunning adaptation of what is in many science fiction lovers' opinions, including my own, the greatest SF/fantasy novel ever written.The movie is not quite as amazing as the novel, with David Lynch giving it the "David Lynch treatment" and twisting it into an even more fantastical story. What you can't say is it's not interesting. Love it or hate it your eyes will be glued to the screen and you will certainly never be "bored" by any of the visuals you will see.And what visuals they are!The effects were definitely way ahead of the game for their time and in my opinion should have earned the Academy Award that year (the movie did receive one nomination).Check it out if you haven't seen it.