• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

RTTP: David Lynch's Dune ('84 film)

Status
Not open for further replies.

Cosmozone

Member
I still like the surrealistic feel of the movie and the internal monologues. Terence Malick must be a fan of this film, heh.
 

eot

Banned
I think I'll get around to watching this movie soon. I love Dune and going through Twin Peaks has made me curious to see some of Lynch's other work.
 

Cosmozone

Member
I think I'll get around to watching this movie soon. I love Dune and going through Twin Peaks has made me curious to see some of Lynch's other work.
Have fun. Just keep in mind, that Lynch didn't have full creative control over this one and it was a contract work. In an interview, he said something like "never again". It's still very individual, IMO.

Edit: The hate probably mostly comes from book purists like usual. It's still an interesting film.
 
Always wanted to watch this film but i also want to read the books. I feel if I read the book first i'll hate the movie, but if i watch the movie first i'll have less of a desire to read the book.
 
I think I'll get around to watching this movie soon. I love Dune and going through Twin Peaks has made me curious to see some of Lynch's other work.

if you want to get some of that twin peaks feel watch blue velvet first.

and if you liked that then mulholland drive.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Always wanted to watch this film but i also want to read the books. I feel if I read the book first i'll hate the movie, but if i watch the movie first i'll have less of a desire to read the book.

Read the book, then watch the film. Perhaps you will hate the film, perhaps you will appreciate what it tried to do, and why it didn't really succeed.

Really, i think the story of the book is good enough you should know it first.
 

Fritz

Member
I love that film. So much excellence from a design perspective. And I too think it captures some of the key themes of the book while or because it does take some liberties. Mainly the absolute dreadfulness that dominates that universe.
 

Ecto311

Member
DUNE: The Insanely Complete 3-Hour Fan Cut

I have heard this is really well done compared to the original. I don't have time or remember the original enough to compare but I did like the movie. When I was young we got a new computer that came with a CD game collection. One of those was dune and I played the shit out of that original game. Then I moved on to the movie and still have not read the book. Always been a fan of it more than star wars or other big deal sci-fi franchises.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Visually it's unbelievable. The elegance of the Emperor's palace is RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING and like you mentioned, the contrasts between the different houses was amazing. That soundtrack. Everything was pretty fuckin' righteous. I enjoyed the director's cut more, added something like 45 minutes.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Ah, pretty sure there is no director's cut. One of the issues with the film...

Eh, it was all cut together. I remember it well - it wasn't just a smattering of deleted scenes, because the version I saw (on Disney of all channels, years ago) were knit together in the movie itself. You could easily tell because the Fremen didn't have blue eyes, they never finished production on it. It showed a lot of dope shit, like a baby sandworm being born and a lot of other stuff.

I don't know if it ever got released as such, but someone put the deleted scenes in order and it aired on TV.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Yeah, that's the TV cut. Lynch didn't like it, it was made without asking him. (Pretty sure he doesn't like the whole film, apparently he declines to talk about it. Understandable, i guess.)
 
David Lynch is my favourite artist in the world and even though he wasn't pleased with how this film turned out I still enjoyed lot of it for the Lynchian aspects that you can get from it.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, that's the TV cut. Lynch didn't like it, it was made without asking him. (Pretty sure he doesn't like the whole film, apparently he declines to talk about it. Understandable, i guess.)

Aw hell! That kinda sucks to hear. :(
 

EGM1966

Member
It was great, average, awful and terrific by turns and sometimes at the same time.

I love it for reasons I couldn't even articulate even as I dislike it.

One of the oddest films to come out with that kind of money behind it which I guess with Lynch (who I adore generally) is probably not a surprise.
 

thebeeks

Banned
I fucking love this movie. Don't get me wrong, it's riddled with flaws, but I love it. It's so weirdly accurate to the book in a way that most adaptations aren't.


That being said, I'm so happy Jodorowsky's version never saw the light of day. Nothing about any of that concept art screams "Dune" to me.


EDIT: I forgot to mention the Inexplicable Atreides Family Pug! My both favorite and least favorite thing in the whole movie. Who decided that needed to be a thing?
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Toto fuckin' slaughtered it when the assault was going down. Totally badass.

Also liked Lynch's vision of the Sardaukar.
Ajcoc4L.jpg
 

flyover

Member
Perhaps the best thing the film is its quite good soundtrack (by Toto). Really powerful, and experimenting.
Admittedly also odd at times, but fits the film's general weirdness well.

It's amazing, and it seemingly has no right to be. It's probably my most-listened-to album of all time (in part, because I've had a copy for longer than just about any other album).

Apparently, Lynch played a copy of Shostakovich's 11th symphony for Toto's keyboardist, David Paich, and told him to make the score have that feel. It definitely does. Some parts are cribbed straight from the symphony. Lynch's only other rule was "no harps."

The movie itself is a mess, and I kind of love the whole thing. In many ways, it tries to hew too closely to the books, which just don't translate verbatim. And then the changes that were made don't help. Yet, I still think it's super-watchable.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Toto fuckin' slaughtered it when the assault was going down. Totally badass.

Also liked Lynch's vision of the Sardaukar.
Ajcoc4L.jpg

I love how Westwood used this look for the Sardaukar units in their Dune games.
Heck, how they used the whole aesthetics.
Suits the games wonderfully.
 

Fritz

Member
One shot I also love is when the Atreides arrive on Arrakis. The shot of the formations of soldiers in splendid order and Paul, Jessica and Leto marching up (or down?) the massive set of stairs in Arrakeen, looking isolated and helpless yet dutiful and composed all blurred through the scorching heat.
 

KPJZKC

Member
Also watching it today with "JIHAD!" is a little 'ouch' in terms of the world since then. I suppose the term being in there had nothing to do with the picking sides in the Iran-Iraq war or anything. Like, nothing at all....
it totally did

Uh...what? The term jihad was always present in the Dune novels, unless I'm remembering incorrectly. Both with the Butlerian Jihad (that resulted in the removal of advanced computers from civilisation) and the subsequent jihad in Muad'Dibs name.

The term wasn't just thrown in because it was topical...

EDIT FOR ON TOPIC.

Movie still has a very soft spot in my heart, visually it was absolutely incredible. Costume work was also incredible.
 
The term wasn't just thrown in because it was topical...
.

Quite the opposite, I would have expected them to remove the word if it was that topical.

Anyway, I have always liked the movie and of course Dune 2 the game. I also have the tv series version of the movie on DVD, but the pan and scan cut really hurts the visuals and some of the extra scenes dont work all that well.

The TV series that were made in late 90s or early 2000s were quite poor in comparison, even if they followed the books more closely. Well... I think I read only the first two or tree books at the time, the story of what happens after the beginning is not that great. The movie tells the best bit, even though the last third could have been spread out a little. Now everything happens a bit too quickly.
 

Verger

Banned
It was great, average, awful and terrific by turns and sometimes at the same time.

I love it for reasons I couldn't even articulate even as I dislike it.

One of the oddest films to come out with that kind of money behind it which I guess with Lynch (who I adore generally) is probably not a surprise.
That's probably the best summation of how I feel about this film overall. It's all over the place and you cannot help but love and hate it at the same time :p

The dreamy feel of the film is great. The acting is shoddy yet shakespearean. The effects are both timeless and clearly low budget. A film of contradictions indeed.

I always wonder though how it would have turned out had Lynch been given more money. Given the Epic nature of how it should be, definitely needed the full 3 hour run time at the least to realize such a vision. Don't know why a lot of scenes were cut which helped flesh out the world and characters, other than production values not being there to finish them.

But still, whose bright idea was it to cast Sting? I mean come on, one of the worst miscast acting performances ever.

Loved the Baron's death scene though of him having his heart-plugs? removed and being chomped by the worm in addition to being Gom-Jabbar'd. Too bad the worm's model looked so awful though :(
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom