Marking
the 40th anniversary since its premier is acclaimed director David
Lynch's third feature film, Dune, which had its first public screening
on December 3rd, 1984. Attempting the near impossible task of adapting
Frank Herbert's epic novel for live action, it's a deeply flawed, yet
visually inspiring interpretation that has, regardless of its issues,
still managed to become a beloved cult classic.
Frank
Herbert published Dune in 1965, and it quickly became a game changer in
the world of science fiction novels, introducing a deeply textured,
complex and densely integrated world spanning epochs of time after
humanity left for the stars to colonize a myriad of worlds, each with
its own distinct attributes - from environments to cultures. The book
even includes a detailed appendix of terms and definitions essential for
comprehending its structure and story. As such, the process of
adapting it into a story for the screen, big or small, required a
Herculean effort in order to try to present it in a way that could make
sense to viewers, particularly when many would have no concept of the
book upon which it was based. Yet the success of the novel was enough
to set off a protracted series of fraught attempts to bring it to life
on the screen. It's a struggle that would even go on for generations
after Lynch's troubled version hit theatres.
Beginning
in 1971, film producer Arthur P. Jacobs optioned the rights on
agreement to produce a film within nine years, but he died in mid-1973,
terminating that attempt. Next, in 1974, the option was acquired by a
French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon, with surrealist Mexican film
maker, Alejandro Jodorowsky, attached to direct. He'd made a name for
himself with cult films like El Topo and The Holy Mountain, and saw in
Dune the opportunity to use the film's narrative as a way to elaborate
on his own metaphysical beliefs and mysticism. His vision for the film
rapidly bloomed into outrageously ambitious overreach that included
grandiose efforts to involve the likes of Salvador Dalí as the Emperor,
Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha, Udo Kier as
Piter De Vries, David Carradine as Leto Atreides, Jodorowsky's son
Brontis as Paul Atreides, and Gloria Swanson. Jodorowsky also
approached Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music, Dan O'Bannon for
the visual effects, and artists H. R. Giger, Jean Giraud, and Chris Foss
for set and character design. The plans for the film ballooned to the
point where it collapsed under the weight of its ambitions, with the
budget evaporating at the proposal for a 10-14 hour film! All of this
history is wonderfully captured in the remarkable 2013 documentary,
Jodorowsky's Dune.
By late
1976, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights for Dune
from Gibon's consortium. De Laurentiis commissioned Frank Herbert to
write a new screenplay in 1978; the script Herbert turned in was 175
pages long, the equivalent of nearly three hours of screen time. De
Laurentiis then hired director Ridley Scott in 1979, with Rudy Wurlitzer
writing the screenplay and H. R. Giger retained from the Jodorowsky
production. However, the death of Scott's older brother Frank from
cancer put Ridley in a state where he wasn't prepared to commit to the
project and backed out. By 1981, the rights to the book were about to
expire, so De Laurentiis renegotiated with Herbert for a deal that added
rights to sequels based on any other Dune books Herbert would write.
After
seeing The Elephant Man (1980), producer Raffaella De Laurentiis
decided that David Lynch should direct the movie. De Laurentiis
contacted Lynch, who said he had not heard of the book. After reading it
and "loving it", he met with De Laurentiis and agreed to direct and
write a new script. Lynch worked on the script for six months with Eric
Bergren and Christopher De Vore. The team yielded two drafts, but split
over creative differences. Lynch then worked on five more drafts.
Initially, Lynch had scripted Dune across two films, but eventually it
was condensed into one.
When it
came time for casting, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh and
Val Kilmer either auditioned or were screen-tested for the role of Paul.
Kilmer was the top choice until Kyle MacLachlan screen-tested and
snagged the lead, making this his feature film debut. The cast was
filled out with Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Virginia
Madsen, José Ferrer, Sean Young, Sting, Linda Hunt, and Max von Sydow.
On
March 30, 1983, with the 135-page sixth draft of the script, Dune
finally began shooting. It was shot entirely in Mexico, mostly at
Churubusco Studios; De Laurentiis said this was due in part to the
favourable exchange rate to get more value for their production budget,
and that no studio in Europe had the expansive capabilities they needed
for the production. With a budget over $40–42 million, Dune required 80
sets built on 16 sound stages, and had a total crew of 1,700, with over
20,000 extras. Many of the exterior shots were filmed in the Samalayuca
Dune Fields in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Filming ran for at least six
months into September 1983, and was plagued by various production
problems such as failing electricity or communication lines due to the
country's infrastructure, or health-related problems with the cast and
crew.
The rough cut of Dune,
without post-production effects, ran over four hours long, but Lynch's
intended cut of the film (as reflected in the seventh and final draft of
the script) was almost three hours long. Universal and the film's
financiers expected a standard, two-hour cut. Dino De Laurentiis, his
daughter Raffaella, and Lynch excised numerous scenes, filmed new scenes
that simplified or concentrated plot elements, and added voice-over
narrations, plus a new introduction by Virginia Madsen. Contrary to
rumour, Lynch made no other version than the theatrical cut. Any
subsequent versions were never approved by, nor involved Lynch, and he
insisted on his name being removed from the credits for those edits.
Ultimately, the lack of control in the process of finishing the film
would lead Lynch to distance himself from it forever afterwards, with
the director rarely commenting on the production, other than to lament
that he'd made the mistake of "selling out". The result of that
disconnect between the film and its director would become the central
flaw at its core, with the end product being a distant echo of what
Lynch had tried to create.
When
the film was finally released theatrically, despite heavy promotion and
merchandising, the movie was an unequivocal flop. Critics ravaged the
film with the consensus branding it as "the worst movie of 1984". Some
of the more scathing comments included those from TV's Siskel and Ebert,
with the former writing, "It's physically ugly, it contains at least a
dozen gory gross-out scenes, some of its special effects are cheap,
surprisingly cheap because this film cost a reported $40–45 million, and
its story is confusing beyond belief. In case I haven't made myself
clear, I hated watching this film." Roger agreed, "This movie is a real
mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into
the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all
time." Most other critics were similarly unkind.
Being
a fan of Lynch's work on Eraserhead and The Elephant Man, I went to see
Dune in the theatre when it was released, and was similarly baffled. I
didn't know Herbert's novel at all, so I was lost for the whole thing.
Yet there were things that struck me about the art direction and visual
effects, things that would become iconic soon enough in my mind. The
Guild Navigators were the most mind blowing. I loved the whole idea of
them, and the way they were realized for the film still impresses me to
this day. Then there was the majestic scale of the ships leaving
Caladan to fold space, where the enormous scope of it captured my
imagination. Then there was the grotesqueries of the Harkonnen, with
the vile ugliness of the Barron, his sadistic vulgarity, and the
hellscape of their industrial home world. These things stuck with me,
and as the age of home video rentals was hitting full steam, once the
movie came out on VHS, it was a popular selection for those extended
evenings of heavily altered states, where the movies with the most
bizarre visuals went down the best, and Dune surely had plenty of those
to keep it coming back to the VCR, again and again.
Over
the years, it became a movie I'd keep returning to, just to enjoy its
many assets, while most of its flaws became something of an amusement to
poke fun of or simply tolerate. The awful music by Toto was something
to simply put up with, but the constant whispering dialogue became a
source of ridicule and humour. Ultimately, the film has become
something I just love, warts and all. Even in the context of the very
successful and sophisticated new generation of films and TV series,
there are aspects of the Lynch version that will always be stamped with
his own, unequalled idiosyncrasies. Even though the director himself
has effectively disowned it as no more than a lesson learned when it
came to not selling your soul to big Hollywood money, I still have to
wonder if Lynch doesn't have a secret corner of his heart reserved for
it. I mean, you can't put so much work into such an astonishing failure
and not have some parental love and regret for it. Perhaps the pain of
the folly is why he never wants to talk about it. But I'll still keep
coming back to it every few years for another viewing, just to remind
myself of the flashes of brilliance that linger in its frames.
