DUNE (1984) @ 40

 

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.