Dune. (12A.)
Directed by David Lynch. 1984.
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Jose Ferrer, Sian Phillips, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Sting, Virginia Madsen, Everett McGill, Jack Nance, Paul Smith, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, Freddie Jones, Linda Hunt, Kenneth McMillan, Richard Jordan, Jurgen Prochnow and Max Von Sydow. Available on Limited edition Blu-ray/ limited edition UHD/ Dual format limited edition Steelbook. 136 mins.
Dune is not a great film. It wasn't when it came out in 1984 and still isn't nearly four decades later. So why the hell am I still watching it? Why did the sound of the review disc of it dropping through the letterbox excite me more than the prospect of Denis Villeneuve's new big screen version? Because David Lynch's version of Frank Herbert's monumental Sci-fi classic is a maddening mix of brilliance and rubbish and what is inspired in it is inspired to such a degree that it keeps you coming back. It's a terrible old tease: taunting and torturing you with glimpses of the remarkable. It sets your mind racing, imagining a whole film on a level with the best bits. I'm someone who prefers watching the Matrix sequels to the original; for me it's always the tease that stays with you, not the consummation.
First off, before we begin, can I just make clear: Dune, I'm taking it as read. Or if not actually read, known about. Spice, sandworms, the House Atreides, the Benny Jessieruts, I'm not rehashing plot.
1984
A theme going through the interviews with participants in the Extras is that the film was unfairly dealt with by critics when it came out, but it really wasn't. I remember paying big money to see it at The Empire Leicester Square and being shocked at how bad it was. There is also a line being pushed that Universal didn't get behind it but it should be remembered that, in the UK at least, 1984 was also the Christmas of Ghostbusters* and Gremlins, so the competition for screens and audiences was intense so getting it into one of the biggest screens in London was a decent effort. At that time Dune was being talked of as one of the most expensive films ever made but what disappointed me most was how cheap much of it looked.
(* In those days it was common for Brits to have to wait over half a year to see big Hollywood films, the thinking being that over here Christmas rather than Summer was the peak cinema-going time.)
The Good.
What's good in Dune is primarily the production design, headed up by Anthony Masters. Take the first scene where the Emperor of the Known Universe (Ferrer) is visited by a Third Stage Guild Navigator, a giant hideous deformed slug with a bulbous skull delivered in a giant glass box, accompanied by a group of men in long leather trenchcoats who have to clean up after it and one of whom translates its words through a 1930's radio microphone. All the dialogue is plodding exposition but the sumptuous noir baroque design of everything is so overwhelming you are hooked. All the many, many sets used in the film have something to catch and enrich the eye, even if it's a soldier having to squeeze past people at desks in the narrow corridors of their base on Dune. There's never a dull moment in the film, even though it's probably quite boring objectively.
Nothing though is quite as fantastic to look at as the scenes featuring the baddies, the Harkonnens. Th establishing shot for their home planet Giede Prime is of what looks like the open-mouthed face of a giant concrete goldfish protruding from dark industrial shadows. Though the distinctive Lynch touch may seem absent from the larger-scale action sequences, all the scenes with the Harkonnens are very clearly the work of the man who made Eraserhead, full of industrial menace and corporeal disgust.
The Bad
What's bad in Dune is primarily the special effects and the storytelling. The film is fantastic in its interiors, horrible in exteriors. Cinematographer Freddie Francis gets to live out some Lawrence of Arabia fantasies shooting a few sumptuous desert landscapes but for the most part, any exterior that requires special effects look horrible. The matte shots are obvious and though Carlos Rambaldi's designs for the sandworms would have looked impressive on paper any scene with them is B-movie shonky. And yes, it was a long time ago, before the slick shorthand of digital but this was after the whole Star Wars trilogy and Close Encounters and Blade Runner so audiences would've been justified in expecting something a lot more impressive.
The other major problem is the storytelling. The reason Herbert's novel is so acclaimed and loved and utterly compelling to read is that it does the thing that most sci-fi sets out to do but rarely does – create an alien world that seems to have as much depth as our own. There are some fairly obvious allegorical elements in this tale of the tribal people of a desert land that is exploited by callous empires for its precious natural resources. (Coupled with Herbert's tendency to use Arabic words the story now looks like an outer space version of an Islamic messiah arising to lead them in a jihad against the rest of the world.) But beyond the obvious political and ecological parallels, it is a rich and detailed society. It feels real, lived in.
Lynch's screenplay, or what remains of it in the finished film, has boiled down Herbert's world to a few key ideas and phrases – the sleeper will awaken, is Paul the Kwisatz Haderach - that get repeated endlessly. The thing about Dune is that the more you try to simplify it, the less sense it makes. Perversely, when the actors are delivering lines full of words and concepts that the audience – those that haven't read the book – do not know, it makes a lot more sense. Because, just as in the book, we are experiencing a world that is deep and full and that we can only begin to penetrate the surface of. I think you respect the not knowing.
It is also dreadfully po-faced. Everybody, except the Harkonnens who are laughing maniacally all the time and at anything, is very very serious absolutely all the time. As such, I think we should recognise that the acting in Dune is actually pretty good. They all play it straight and sound like they understand what they are saying. There is something marvellous about the film's last line “And how can this be? For he is Kwisatz Haderach!” delivered by an 8-year old Alicia Witt.
Ugly.
This edition of Dune sports a 12 certificate but previous DVD editions had gotten the score all the way up to 15. I'm sure this version isn't the same as the one that was a PG (or maybe we were still using the “A” certificate then?) in 1984 cinemas. But it isn't greatly different and some of it is very strange, shots of foetuses and the sadistic murder of a flower boy by Baron Harkonnen.
We look at Dune now and wish the producers Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis had just gone with Lynch's vision. Easy to say when it's not your $40 million at stake. When they were making it they still felt that this would be a cash cow, a Star Wars for grown-ups. I used to fantasise about a black and white version, made in the style of his only two previous films The Elephant Man and Eraserhead. It would be totally surreal and just immerse itself in the world of Dune with no concessions to the audience. But now I think you'd miss what the colour brings to the production design. It's a pity that Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis didn't Lynch make his full three hour version and that his vision was compromised but they handed him one of the biggest productions in film history after making just two films, one of which, Eraserhead was basically a student production that took five years to finish. Overall, I think we should just be grateful for what we have.
Extras.
When the Villeneuve version was announced I was expecting this to get a new re-release and I am so glad it was done by Arrow. They have gathered up stuff from various previous releases and added a few more of their own: a featurette on the toys and merchandising produced for its cinema release and a documentary on how the band Toto left the rains down in Africa to compose the film's terrific score.
Of course, Lynch has completely disowned the film so there's no three-hour director's cut, which is a shame and the deleted scenes section is disappointingly brief.
• Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative
• 60-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing on the film by Andrew Nette, Christian McCrea and Charlie Brigden, an American Cinematographer interview with sound designer Alan Splet from 1984, excerpts from an interview with the director from Chris Rodley's book Lynch on Lynch and a Dune Terminology glossary from the original release
• 100-page perfect-bound book featuring original pre-production concepts and designs by Anthony Masters and Ron Miller, and an interview with Masters from the film's press kit
• Large fold-out double-sided poster featuring original theatrical poster artwork
• Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
• Limited edition SteelBook housed in Deluxe rigid packaging, both with original theatrical artwork
• Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by film historian Paul M. Sammon
• Brand new audio commentary by Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast
• Impressions of Dune, a 2003 documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with star Kyle MacLachlan, producer Raffaella de Laurentiis, cinematographer Freddie Francis, editor Antony Gibbs and many others
• Designing Dune, a 2005 featurette looking back at the work of production designer Anthony Masters
• Dune FX, a 2005 featurette exploring the special effects in the film
• Dune Models & Miniatures, a 2005 featurette focusing on the model effects in the film
• Dune Costumes, a 2005 featurette looking at the elaborate costume designs seen in the film
• Eleven deleted scenes from the film, with a 2005 introduction by Raffaella de Laurentiis
• Destination Dune, a 1983 featurette originally produced to promote the film at conventions and publicity events
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots
• Extensive image galleries, including hundreds of still photos
• Beyond Imagination: Merchandising Dune, a brand new featurette exploring the merchandise created to promote the film, featuring toy collector/producer Brian Sillman (The Toys That Made Us)
• Prophecy Fulfilled: Scoring Dune, a brand new featurette on the film's music score, featuring interviews with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro, and film music historian Tim Greiving
• Brand new interview with make-up effects artist Giannetto De Rossi, filmed in 2020
• Archive interview with production coordinator Golda Offenheim, filmed in 2003
• Archive interview with star Paul Smith, filmed in 2008
• Archive interview with make-up effects artist Christopher Tucker.
Directed by David Lynch. 1984.
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Jose Ferrer, Sian Phillips, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Sting, Virginia Madsen, Everett McGill, Jack Nance, Paul Smith, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, Freddie Jones, Linda Hunt, Kenneth McMillan, Richard Jordan, Jurgen Prochnow and Max Von Sydow. Available on Limited edition Blu-ray/ limited edition UHD/ Dual format limited edition Steelbook. 136 mins.
Dune is not a great film. It wasn't when it came out in 1984 and still isn't nearly four decades later. So why the hell am I still watching it? Why did the sound of the review disc of it dropping through the letterbox excite me more than the prospect of Denis Villeneuve's new big screen version? Because David Lynch's version of Frank Herbert's monumental Sci-fi classic is a maddening mix of brilliance and rubbish and what is inspired in it is inspired to such a degree that it keeps you coming back. It's a terrible old tease: taunting and torturing you with glimpses of the remarkable. It sets your mind racing, imagining a whole film on a level with the best bits. I'm someone who prefers watching the Matrix sequels to the original; for me it's always the tease that stays with you, not the consummation.
First off, before we begin, can I just make clear: Dune, I'm taking it as read. Or if not actually read, known about. Spice, sandworms, the House Atreides, the Benny Jessieruts, I'm not rehashing plot.
1984
A theme going through the interviews with participants in the Extras is that the film was unfairly dealt with by critics when it came out, but it really wasn't. I remember paying big money to see it at The Empire Leicester Square and being shocked at how bad it was. There is also a line being pushed that Universal didn't get behind it but it should be remembered that, in the UK at least, 1984 was also the Christmas of Ghostbusters* and Gremlins, so the competition for screens and audiences was intense so getting it into one of the biggest screens in London was a decent effort. At that time Dune was being talked of as one of the most expensive films ever made but what disappointed me most was how cheap much of it looked.
(* In those days it was common for Brits to have to wait over half a year to see big Hollywood films, the thinking being that over here Christmas rather than Summer was the peak cinema-going time.)
The Good.
What's good in Dune is primarily the production design, headed up by Anthony Masters. Take the first scene where the Emperor of the Known Universe (Ferrer) is visited by a Third Stage Guild Navigator, a giant hideous deformed slug with a bulbous skull delivered in a giant glass box, accompanied by a group of men in long leather trenchcoats who have to clean up after it and one of whom translates its words through a 1930's radio microphone. All the dialogue is plodding exposition but the sumptuous noir baroque design of everything is so overwhelming you are hooked. All the many, many sets used in the film have something to catch and enrich the eye, even if it's a soldier having to squeeze past people at desks in the narrow corridors of their base on Dune. There's never a dull moment in the film, even though it's probably quite boring objectively.
Nothing though is quite as fantastic to look at as the scenes featuring the baddies, the Harkonnens. Th establishing shot for their home planet Giede Prime is of what looks like the open-mouthed face of a giant concrete goldfish protruding from dark industrial shadows. Though the distinctive Lynch touch may seem absent from the larger-scale action sequences, all the scenes with the Harkonnens are very clearly the work of the man who made Eraserhead, full of industrial menace and corporeal disgust.
The Bad
What's bad in Dune is primarily the special effects and the storytelling. The film is fantastic in its interiors, horrible in exteriors. Cinematographer Freddie Francis gets to live out some Lawrence of Arabia fantasies shooting a few sumptuous desert landscapes but for the most part, any exterior that requires special effects look horrible. The matte shots are obvious and though Carlos Rambaldi's designs for the sandworms would have looked impressive on paper any scene with them is B-movie shonky. And yes, it was a long time ago, before the slick shorthand of digital but this was after the whole Star Wars trilogy and Close Encounters and Blade Runner so audiences would've been justified in expecting something a lot more impressive.
The other major problem is the storytelling. The reason Herbert's novel is so acclaimed and loved and utterly compelling to read is that it does the thing that most sci-fi sets out to do but rarely does – create an alien world that seems to have as much depth as our own. There are some fairly obvious allegorical elements in this tale of the tribal people of a desert land that is exploited by callous empires for its precious natural resources. (Coupled with Herbert's tendency to use Arabic words the story now looks like an outer space version of an Islamic messiah arising to lead them in a jihad against the rest of the world.) But beyond the obvious political and ecological parallels, it is a rich and detailed society. It feels real, lived in.
Lynch's screenplay, or what remains of it in the finished film, has boiled down Herbert's world to a few key ideas and phrases – the sleeper will awaken, is Paul the Kwisatz Haderach - that get repeated endlessly. The thing about Dune is that the more you try to simplify it, the less sense it makes. Perversely, when the actors are delivering lines full of words and concepts that the audience – those that haven't read the book – do not know, it makes a lot more sense. Because, just as in the book, we are experiencing a world that is deep and full and that we can only begin to penetrate the surface of. I think you respect the not knowing.
It is also dreadfully po-faced. Everybody, except the Harkonnens who are laughing maniacally all the time and at anything, is very very serious absolutely all the time. As such, I think we should recognise that the acting in Dune is actually pretty good. They all play it straight and sound like they understand what they are saying. There is something marvellous about the film's last line “And how can this be? For he is Kwisatz Haderach!” delivered by an 8-year old Alicia Witt.
Ugly.
This edition of Dune sports a 12 certificate but previous DVD editions had gotten the score all the way up to 15. I'm sure this version isn't the same as the one that was a PG (or maybe we were still using the “A” certificate then?) in 1984 cinemas. But it isn't greatly different and some of it is very strange, shots of foetuses and the sadistic murder of a flower boy by Baron Harkonnen.
We look at Dune now and wish the producers Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis had just gone with Lynch's vision. Easy to say when it's not your $40 million at stake. When they were making it they still felt that this would be a cash cow, a Star Wars for grown-ups. I used to fantasise about a black and white version, made in the style of his only two previous films The Elephant Man and Eraserhead. It would be totally surreal and just immerse itself in the world of Dune with no concessions to the audience. But now I think you'd miss what the colour brings to the production design. It's a pity that Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis didn't Lynch make his full three hour version and that his vision was compromised but they handed him one of the biggest productions in film history after making just two films, one of which, Eraserhead was basically a student production that took five years to finish. Overall, I think we should just be grateful for what we have.
Extras.
When the Villeneuve version was announced I was expecting this to get a new re-release and I am so glad it was done by Arrow. They have gathered up stuff from various previous releases and added a few more of their own: a featurette on the toys and merchandising produced for its cinema release and a documentary on how the band Toto left the rains down in Africa to compose the film's terrific score.
Of course, Lynch has completely disowned the film so there's no three-hour director's cut, which is a shame and the deleted scenes section is disappointingly brief.
• Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative
• 60-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing on the film by Andrew Nette, Christian McCrea and Charlie Brigden, an American Cinematographer interview with sound designer Alan Splet from 1984, excerpts from an interview with the director from Chris Rodley's book Lynch on Lynch and a Dune Terminology glossary from the original release
• 100-page perfect-bound book featuring original pre-production concepts and designs by Anthony Masters and Ron Miller, and an interview with Masters from the film's press kit
• Large fold-out double-sided poster featuring original theatrical poster artwork
• Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
• Limited edition SteelBook housed in Deluxe rigid packaging, both with original theatrical artwork
• Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by film historian Paul M. Sammon
• Brand new audio commentary by Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast
• Impressions of Dune, a 2003 documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with star Kyle MacLachlan, producer Raffaella de Laurentiis, cinematographer Freddie Francis, editor Antony Gibbs and many others
• Designing Dune, a 2005 featurette looking back at the work of production designer Anthony Masters
• Dune FX, a 2005 featurette exploring the special effects in the film
• Dune Models & Miniatures, a 2005 featurette focusing on the model effects in the film
• Dune Costumes, a 2005 featurette looking at the elaborate costume designs seen in the film
• Eleven deleted scenes from the film, with a 2005 introduction by Raffaella de Laurentiis
• Destination Dune, a 1983 featurette originally produced to promote the film at conventions and publicity events
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots
• Extensive image galleries, including hundreds of still photos
• Beyond Imagination: Merchandising Dune, a brand new featurette exploring the merchandise created to promote the film, featuring toy collector/producer Brian Sillman (The Toys That Made Us)
• Prophecy Fulfilled: Scoring Dune, a brand new featurette on the film's music score, featuring interviews with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro, and film music historian Tim Greiving
• Brand new interview with make-up effects artist Giannetto De Rossi, filmed in 2020
• Archive interview with production coordinator Golda Offenheim, filmed in 2003
• Archive interview with star Paul Smith, filmed in 2008
• Archive interview with make-up effects artist Christopher Tucker.
