When I saw David Lynch’s “Dune” in the theater, back in 1984, it was just another in a seemingly endless line of space fantasies that flooded cinemas, all of them hoping to suck on the dregs of “Star Wars’” boffo box office. It’s interesting to ponder that, in the wake of Lynch’s critical success as director of “The Elephant Man,” “Star Wars” creator George Lucas approached him with an offer to direct “Return of the Jedi.” Lynch turned it down, later stating that he had “next to zero interest” in the project.
But “Dune” was different. Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel was held in high regard for its political, religious, and ecological insights, and not least, for its immersive world-building. Lynch confessed he’d never heard of it, but when producer Raffaella De Laurentiis (daughter of Dino) approached him to direct the film adaptation (after Ridley Scott left the project), he read it, and he loved it. As one cast member observed, the producers thought they were going to make “Star Wars” for grown-ups.
Personally, I think Lynch was mostly into the sandworms (who wouldn’t be?), the hallucinatory effects of imbibing the Water of Life, and the grotesquerie of the Harkonnens (who at one point force a prisoner to milk a hairless cat – decidedly NOT in the book!). No doubt about it, if Lynch had directed “Return of the Jedi,” it would have been one very strange trip.
The talent that was assembled for him, both before and behind the camera, is insane. The cast alone includes José Ferrer (albeit phoning it in), Max von Sydow, Jürgen “Das Boot” Prochnow, Linda Hunt, Dean Stockwell, Brad Dourif, Richard Jordan, Silvana (Mrs. Dino De Laurentiis) Mangano, Siân (formerly Mrs. Peter O’Toole) Phillips, Sean (always a cipher, but somehow in everything back then) Young, a pre-“Star Trek” Patrick Stewart, Paul “Midnight Express” Smith, Kenneth “Rhoda” McMillan, Sting, and at least three future “Twin Peaks” players, including lead Kyle MacLachlan, “Big Ed” Everett McGill, and Lynch’s good luck charm, Eraser Head himself, Jack Nance. That’s a lot of spice!
Like Scott, Lynch wanted to make it into two films, but was told to tamp it down. His original cut ran to three hours, before the effects were added. Again, he was made to compromise. Sequels were envisioned and everyone had their hopes set on a franchise, but the film tanked at the box office. It’s been described as the “Heaven’s Gate” of science fiction.
Returning to “Dune” 41 years later is an interesting experience, especially having reread the book and seen Denis Villeneuve’s superior adaptations. (Unlike Lynch, Villeneuve was allowed to do it in two parts.) In some respects, the film is very much of the mainstream of its era, especially as it sands off a lot of the book’s moral complexities to turn it into a straightforward fable of rebellion against the black hats and evil imperialists; in others, it’s crazily subversive, with what can only be described as hypnotic Lynchian interludes.
It’s not as incomprehensible as I thought the first time around (even though I had already read Herbert’s novel, I was just a kid), but it is an awful lot of information to ingest. Because of the time limitation, they had to condense reams of exposition and jargon, and Lynch made it even busier by interweaving strange voice-overs. All said, he did the right thing to follow his quirky muse back away from the mainstream, as his next film, “Blue Velvet,” was clearly much more in line with “Eraser Head” and after that, he just kept beating his own woozy trail.
I’ll leave the rest of my observations for tomorrow night, when Roy and I shake the sand out of our bathing suits while discussing “Dune,” on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We’ll be counting on you to provide the extra spice for our mulled cider in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
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