In Praise Of… DUNE (1984)

As all good geeks are well aware, 1982 is considered a high water mark for genre films. It may not have translated into box office mojo, but that year gave us an unbelievable string of classics: Tron, Blade Runner, The Dark Crystal, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, E.T., The Thing, Poltergeist, and, yeah, OK, The Secret of Nimh. But I like to remember another special year of Hollywood Science Fiction and Fantasy, one that gets a little short changed in light of that roster of beauties, but holds a special place in my heart: 1984. Orwell’s signature year gave us Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Gremlins, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, 2010 and David Lynch’s much maligned box office bomb, DUNE.

Now, once again, I’m not here to go into the full history of trying to bring Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction masterpiece to the silver screen. I’m just here to tell you why I love it. Besides, there’s plenty of info out there to find, and it’s all pretty fascinating. (Let’s just say it’s a blessing and a shame we never got to see Jodorowsky’s version. Salvador Dali may well have been a genius, but his insistence on playing the Emperor while sitting on a huge gold toilet may have been a sign of the muse waving goodbye.) There are many who’ve always thought that the book was best left alone, that it was an impossible thing to translate into a motion picture. I disagree, they’re different animals, and with the proper care a “difficult” book can make the transition well. The same was always said about Watchmen, and I happen to think that Zach Snyder did an amazing job. It’s a miracle to me that he got to make an uncompromising version of the story, with R rated violence and non-heroic characters, all with studio money. Lynch was in over his head, no doubt. But I can’t imagine the insanity that must have gone on at the studio before, after and during the production of DUNE. And what came out the other side was probably as good or better than could have ever been expected.

None of that was on my mind when I went to the theater that day back in December of 1984. I’d known about DUNE mainly through my mother, who was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy from the time she was in her teens. I’d always gathered that it was probably too cerebral for me, and was probably more concerned with mythology than slam bang action and adventure. Earlier that year, around early May, I picked up a copy of the magazine “Fantastic Films”, and it was dedicated to the summer of ’84 movies and beyond. I used to pore over its pages every other day, I read every article and obsessed over the many photographs in the features. I was busting to see Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters, but DUNE was a close third. It was the last article in the magazine, and the pictures really did my head in. They seemed to be depicting a world I’d never seen before in a sci fi movie, and really captured my imagination. Plus, it had Sting in it, which I thought was pretty cool. (Come on, he was alright in The Police.)

When we walked into the theater, we were each handed a standard 8 1/2 x 11″ sheet of paper. I figured it was like a mini program, a flyer that told a bit about the film. (This is a now legendary piece of movie memorabilia, never before or since attempted. Talk about the people at Universal shaking in their boots!) When we got to our seats, we had a better look at it, and realized it was a glossary of terms used in the DUNE Universe. And it was double sided. Crap, I thought, this is just what I’d feared; this movie’s going to be too damn smart for me. I was 14 at the time, and was, ya know, an above average 14 year old. (I have two older brothers, there’s a nearly 10-year gap there, and consequently I grew up pretty quickly.) But with this one promotional item I was sure I’d be lost for the next 2 or 3 hours.

And then something amazing happened. A young Virginia Madsen showed up on screen, and speaking directly to the camera, gave us a quick history of the universe we were about to enter, it’s feuding houses, and most importantly, the Arrakis born spice, Melange. And then, from the moment the DUNE logo hit the screen and Brian Eno’s theme blared out at us, I was hooked. This was a different kind of story, a different kind of science fiction. This was epic, with characters and settings that truly were like nothing else I’d seen in a movie. I was as obsessed with the Star Wars galaxy as every other kid in the world, but by the time we got to the end of Return of the Jedi, it was so familiar and so often emulated in other works, that it became sort of “old hat” for me. This thing I was watching was taking me someplace else entirely, and it would seem, at just the right time.

Now, here’s where I’ll get side tracked a bit to give some peripheral information, and then I’ll get back to the reasons I like the movie so much. In hindsight it’s clear that Universal were obviously hoping for a Lucas-like franchise with this thing, especially as there is a series of books that Herbert had written about these characters, but god knows why. I mean, there was a bit of a merchandising bonanza for DUNE, which I find as intriguing as the mechanics of the film. It’s simply bizarre to me that so many companies wanted on board the DUNE wagon. There were coloring books, activity books, action figures, model kits, trading cards, story books, tee shirts, stickers, toy guns and best of all a big rubber sandworm toy, which is unintentionally hilarious. As my friend Brian Heiler of Plaidstallions.com is so fond of saying, “I can’t believe the studio thought Baron Harkonnen was going to be the next Darth Vader.” This was most definitely NOT a kid’s movie, which would appear to be just one of a dozen ways it was doomed from the start.

If you’ve never read the book, I can tell you, it IS dense. It’s something akin to The Lord of the Rings in that Herbert created a language and mythology that went back thousands of years. It’s also very long. Trying to make a commercial blockbuster out of it while retaining the qualities that made it legendary to begin with would have been headache number 7 on that “doomed” list for Lynch. It’s written so that characters are constantly talking to themselves in two and three page long inner monologues. A lot of information is conveyed this way, so the film script would have been never ending. Lynch’s solution was to let us hear the character’s thoughts as scenes played out, which was jarring for audiences. But I think they were lost long before the first monologue played out. There is an awful lot of information to keep track of.

So, back to the film. I’m not gonna say it’s a stone cold classic. It’s not a “great” film. It’s not in my Top Five, or Top Twenty. The effects are a bit dodgy, some of the acting and writing is “wooden”| for certain, and the climax is so rushed you can practically hear the studio accountants ripping huge chunks out of the script. But there’s something about it that I absolutely love. It’s kind of bat shit insane (one of many reasons I’m obsessed with Flash Gordon. That article will be coming soon, oh don’t you worry…) Let’s start with the producer, the legendary Dino De Laurentis. The prolific Italian is better known for his failures and questionable choices than he is for quality, but no one could accuse the man of a lack of passion. The set and costume design is mind blowingly good, starting with the Emperor’s throne room and the meeting of the Spice Guild Navigators, who’s leader, the Third Stage Guild Navigator, is a giant slug like creature floating in a tank, with a mouth shaped like, well, a vagina. (This is the first “proper” scene in the film, and god knows what weird movie people thought they’d wandered into.) But let’s get to the main cast: the whole story rests on the capable shoulders of then unknown Kyle MacLachlan, but he handles the burden nicely, and is fortunate to be supported by the likes of Jurgen Prochnow, Jose Ferrer, Kenneth McMillan, Patrick Stewart, Max Von Sydow, Francesca Annis, Brad Dourif, Linda Hunt, Sting, Richard Jordan, Dean Stockwell and Sean Young. (And if you look closely, you’ll even catch David Lynch himself making a cameo as a Fremen spice miner.) Holy crap! It’s like A Bridge Too Far for nerds! Clearly this was meant to be “event” movie making.

Obviously hoping to replicate some of Queen’s soundtrack success for Flash Gordon, Dino got pop group Toto to handle the chores. (Eh, let’s just say they’re no Queen.) The previously mentioned costumes were designed by Bob Ringwood, who a few years later would dress the Batman for Tim Burton, and every set seems to be made of marble and brass. But I’m not doing any of the dressing justice; everything is just different. Nothing in this universe looks like anything we’d seen before in a science fiction film. The guns look like rectangular bronze and black “boxes”; Feyd and Rabban’s outfits are like S and M meets rock star; the ships are in Moebius territory and put most sci fi vehicles to shame; and the sandworms (though effects wise are incredibly dated) were designed by the great Carlo Rambaldi, responsible for Elliot’s best friend, E.T.

With a script adapted by Lynch himself, (with many “Lynchian” moments snuck in; the Baron getting the pus extracted from his facial blemishes, fondling and then murdering a slave boy comes to mind), and the peripheral character actors in the film are extraordinary, very Fellini-esque, there’s no way any of the above should work at all. It’s like a bunch of great athletes from different sports got together and decided to start playing jai lai professionally. But it DOES work. This dense, epic story translates into a 2 hours plus movie with style. It’s compact when it needs to be, and it earmarks the key moments of the book just fine, and if you’re on the ride with it, it never drags. It never feels like all out escapist fare, but then again the source material wasn’t. The mistake anyone would make in going into it (as Universal must have been hoping), is thinking it’s going to be another good guys vs. bad guys adventure like Star Wars, or Avatar. It will take you to other worlds, but it’ll make you think while you’re on the trip. I know Sci Fi Channel attempted to improve on Lynch’s vision by making mini series out of the first two Herbert books, but, while not awful, they’re hopelessly studio bound and clearly “made for TV”. A re launch has been in the works for years, with director after director jumping ship, due to “creative differences” and studio madness. Frankly, I think people are finally catching up with the Lynch film, and trying to figure out how to attempt anything better than what we’ve already been given. If this is the only version of DUNE we get, as far as I’m concerned, it’s THE version of DUNE. And I love every spiced up, Eno sound tracked grain of sand in it. If you’ve never given it a chance, or hated it years ago and have dismissed it, I beg you to give it another spin. For me, it’s as unique a vision of science fiction and fantasy as anything George, Ridley or Peter have come up with, and I think it’s time David was let in from the cold and joined their club. Be seeing you…

– Jason Lenzi

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