Dune (1984) – 3/5

It’s a decent film, but maybe in 1984 film technology was not ready yet for the material

„Dune“ is a co-production between Mexico and the United States from 1984, but I still wonder a bit where the Mexican component here lies in the production. Anyway, the film is of course completely in English and it will have its 40th anniversary next year or maybe it happened already depending on when you get here to read this review of mine. „Dune“ has of course been in the headlines lately too, a lot in fact, due to Denis Villeneuve’s take on the subject and he split the film in two and the second part we will be getting later this year. And these films were/are even longer than Lynch’s take on the story, so it shows you what is possible depending on your creative approach. It still surprises me a bit. I have seen Villeneuve’s first and that was two thirds approximately of this 1980s film we have here, so there might be some stretching for sure in the second part of the duology. But I liked Villeneuve’s first film and I like him as a director anyway, what he did earlier in his career, so I am not one bit worried that it will turn out a disappointment. Even if I say Lynch’s version is also good enough, I think the only major area where I would give it the edge compared to Villeneuve’s is the male lead. It was the very first film for Kyle MacLachlan and we all know that he became a regular then in Lynch movie in general and I liked his performance here. He was far from an Oscar nominee like Chalamet is, but that one is awfully overrated anyway in terms of the alleged range he supposedly has, so in fact it does not mean too much when I say MacLachlan was better. Let’s say he was worthy of playing a lead in this film while Chalamet was not. But today, we will talk about this older film here from 1984, which was of course a great year in terms of creativity. Oh now I see that this was filmed in Mexico, I guess this explains it then what I was wondering about earlier.

I already mentioned that this is a David Lynch movie and you can say that here he went a bit away from what would turn out his usual routine, namely films on mysteries (involving women) in smaller towns. It is not just „Twin Peaks“. But yeah, in the earlier years of his career, he wasn’t maybe fully there yet, but as I generally like his works more where he does not go the usual routine („the Straight Story“ was good too), I am not too mad. You could say he was almost in a similar spot like Villeneuve there, relatively young American filmmaker taking on a blockbuster. I have serious doubts though that Villeneuve’s career will go on like Lynch’s in the next decades. The base material is of course by Frank Herbert, who lived to see this film, but not much later despite not being too old at that point. The film runs for considerably over two hours and was nominated for an Oscar in the sound category and one of the nominees was Kevin O’Connell by the way, the guy who was nominated so many times until he finally won and for this film here it was his second nomination. Nobody really could have guessed there already how long this underwhelming streak would continue. Gotta thank Mel Gibson once again for breaking the streak. If we look at the cast, we see not only MacLachlan, but a whole bunch of actors that deserve being mentioned. I am a bit surprised that Virginia Madsen has the second credit here. I mean with the exception of her words during the opening of the film, she plays a total nothing character and only appears again in the last third of the film, but also just stands there and has no dialogue. She became an Oscar nominee later too. José Ferrer already had one win and two more nominations from decades earlier. Linda Hunt also plays a small role only, but this film is from the year when she won her Oscar, so she was maybe a bit underused here. Leonardo Cimino reached a really high age, but does not seem related to Michael Cimino. Jürgen Prochnow I found personally interesting because he is an actor from my country and back then, just like today pretty much, not too many Germans have made it big enough to play in films like this one and it is in fact even a pretty crucial character he portrays.

I don’t think I need to say anything about Patrick Stewart really. The man is an icon and this film is maybe what helped considerably in him finding his way into the Star Trek universe. Then there is Sting. Lynch also cast another musician, namely David Bowie, for one of his films, so it was nothing too unusual and I like them both Sting and Bowie and Sting’s role or at least the significance is much bigger compared to Bowie in the other film. Interesting to see Sting here, even if he probably realized soon that he feels more like focusing on music. Still a big star though 40 years later and every time he gives a concert the room is full no matter how high the ticket prize. He even has the final fight sequence here though. I was still a bit surprised by that I must admit because the main character says earlier that two people must die for him to stop fighting and in the end only one of the two is dead and the emperor is allowed to live apparently as he retreats. Oh and I forgot Brad Dourif from the cast, he surely deserves a mention too with all he has acted in over the years. His Oscar-nominated turn as a young man in Cuckoo’s Nest surely helped with that. MacLachlan, the lead, has also been as prolific as it gets in recent years. Also on the small screen. I guess I will just do some brainstorming now with this film: You can say that that the most memorable moments from this film here are the ones that are also among the most memorable moments in Villeneuve’s version. This definitely includes the scene with this lethal metal insect and how the protagonist manages to kill it. Or deactivate I could maybe say too. Not sure what is more accurate. Then there is the scene in which the original duke is about to die and his loyal helper (as he thought) gives him the chance to assassinate one of the bad guys. This attempt goes wrong though and here it goes even more wrong than in the new version where the bad guy is at least severely injured and here the dying duke is already struggling so hard that he attacks the wrong person. I am not sure how it was handled in the book as I have not read it, so I also cannot talk about parallels and differences between the movie and base material.

What becomes pretty obvious with this film here is that the level of visual effects was simply not yet good enough to do the story justice. We barely see the sandworms and if we do, then it is just really basic and no great attention to detail, but there you maybe have to blame time and progress (or lack thereof) and not really the maker(s) of the film. One reason why I deem Villeneuve’s version superior. On one occasion you could also feel like this old film here was really rushed, namely when the romance happens between the main character and the desert girl. I mean they have barely met and then they are talking already about eternal love, but oh well, again I don’t know what it was like in the book. Probably also a reason why it felt off was that we do not really see the protagonist’s dreams and visions of her here. One of the aspects I liked most from this film here were the shields that did not make the characters immortal, but helped their defense a lot. There the retro, almost arcade way they look like was something that worked really well. Cool stuff, also with the colors. Another scene and twist I liked that I also like in the new version was the scene in which the main character and his mother manage to use their mental strength to defeat the ones who hold them hostage. How easy it would have been to simply make sure the boy does not see anything either. Amateurs! Oh yes and of course the trial with this box of pain. That was good here, but from what I remember even more awesome in the new version where it went longer. I mean the entire film went longer, so no surprise there.

And I must mention Kenneth McMillan’s baron character here. He was just so disgusting with his whole physicality that it felt very memorable. In a good way. Sad to see the actor also died not a long time later at an age that was way too young. That is all then. What we have here is a good or decent film that is maybe closer to weak than to great, but as a whole I recommend watching it. You also have to say in its favor that it is pretty opulent at times in terms of the sheer amount of people that were cast here, even if only as extras, and also because of the costumes for sure. We see something special there in almost every scene from beginning to end. The film would have deserved an Oscar nomination in this department too I’d say. But it didn’t get it. And if you still need convincing that you wanna watch this movie, then let me help you there by saying that director and writer David Lynch himself also has a little role in here as he sometimes does in his films, even if it is only cameo territory. I have to give him props though for casting an unknown actor for the lead in this film and for sticking with him for years, no decades to come afterwards. By the way, I saw this film on the occasion of a David Lynch retrospective and I am glad I went. So you may wanna do the same when this is shown again here and there on the big screen on the occasion of the second film of the new duology or because of its 40th anniversary soon. I give it a thumbs up, which was never really in doubt.