Dune

Rating:
Summary: Great movie an director's vision!
Review: I watched the movie at the theaters when I was barely 14, it still amazes me how inspired was David Lynch when he commited to this film project. I have read the book many times, and the first time it only took me one day to finish it, I just couldn't put it down!! I have also seen the Dune TV Series, which left me with mixed feelings. Lynch's film succeeded absolutely in portraying us the rise of the messiah, the awakening of the sleeper, the chosen one, something that even the book did not accomplish. The quality of the film and the special effects are great by 80's standard, but today it may seem a little outdated. The casting was great, every leading role was portrayed perfectly, Duke Leto, Gurney Halleck, the Baron, the emperor, Paul's mother Sarah, chani (played by Sean Young), unlike the TV Series, here you see a Paul Atreides that changes into the man he is destined to be and more (played by Kyle McLachlan), his sister Lia who shows her extraordinary powers in such an excellent way that is it almost disturbing watching her. Also the music score is of such an excellent quality (played by Toto) that can be compared to the best music scores ever written for a movie.

Lynch's film version of Dune is not as close to the book as the TV Series, but then, how could it possibly be in a 2,5 hour film, this is as close as it can get, and again, being close to what it is written in the book doesn't guarantee an innovative and inspiring vision, take for instance the TV Series, which is very close to the book and the political intrigues that were depicted in the book, but at the same time so far away to the spirit of the book that one can sense after reading it.

There is an scene that I completely love and that is when Paul goes to the desert to drink the water of life in order to become something more or perish in the attempt, the worms then appear and seem to be feeling Paul's journey, as well as the Bene Gesserit witches. Paul then understands the role of the spice and his role among the Fremen and then awakens to his true power. There is so much mysticism in this scene that you could almost relate the Sufi's tradition of the awakening of men. What we have here is an scene that was completely made up and had nothing to do what it is written in the book, but adds so much to the rising mysticism that you start feeling from the half of the movie and into the end.

To my opinion both versions of the Book (Lynch's movie and Harrison TV Series) were a good effort, and they are worth watching. What happened to me was that I saw the TV Series and never watched it again, didn't want to, better off reading the book again, but I still enjoy watching Lynch's Dune.

For the uninformed: this is a movie that it is hard to watch, you will have to see it a couple of times in order to understand it, and then a couple more times to really enjoy it. But then if you really sense the spirit behind it you will always be coming back for more. For me this is a definitive must-buy, a movie that you have to keep in your personal collection of the best all time movies!!! Enjoy!!!

Rating:
Summary: Worst Sci-Fi Film I Have Ever Seen!!!!!
Review: This is about as bad as a sci-fi film can possibly get. The story makes very little sense (I haven't read the book). Also, the script is very poor and makes it hard for an otherwise fine cast not to appear ridiculous. The film had a $50 million budget and yet its special effects are quite bad even by 1984 standards. David Lynch is a great director and thus one can wonder how he managed to create a travesty like this. Do yourself a favour and stay far away from this piece of ****!

Rating:
Summary: Commercial Lynch flop
Review: David Lynch and commercial films don't usually go together. However there are some exceptions ( Blue Velvet ) but this was one of those flops. It's hard not to see why. Dune is such a huge book to cover that it would take 8 hours to film ( as Lynch once said ) and naturally film goers didn't get it. I've watched it and I have to admit, I was close to calling this a [weak] movie because it was so tedious and preposterous but I gave it time and it came around just in the nick of time ( the last 30 minutes ) but having watched it a few times more it does tend to grow on you and is a surprisingly good film

New Lynch fans should probably start at Mullholland Drive - start from his latest and work their way down.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Movie!!!
Review: After finally seeing this movie, i'm going to have to update my personal favorites list by a huge margin. I dont understand what everyone has against this movie, I thought it was great. I've never read the book. Perhaps if I would've read it before and loved it, I might not feel so much regard for the movie like I do. Either way, I still think its awesome. The music, the production design, the costume design, the photography, and the acting were all at least 90 percent, if not more. The movie is all about these different powerful families vying for control of a planet called Arrakis. Arrakis is a desolate planet, but consists of the galaxy's most important import, spice. It also consists of the galaxy's most lethal animal, worms, very huge worms.

All of these families are obsessed with controlling this planet and the spice within. Not only do these families have to contend with each other, but they also have to contend with the worms. From the very beginning you know you are watching an epic when you see this film. It starts out with a comic book-like narative, introducing all of the characters, then closely looks at each family, the Harkonnens and the Atreides, and later we get into the action. Duke Atreides's son, Paul, is obsessed with the worms on Arrakis. Paul and his mother have some sort of telepathic powers.

A bizarre guild with black leather-clad men, who have a huge brain-like creature for a leader, want Paul dead. We learn this in the beginning, but we, along with the characters, don't understand why they want this. It later turns out that Paul has the secret to Arrakis, and is a threat to the trade. The Harkonnen family invades the colonies on Arrakis and conquers the Atreides family. Paul's father, the Duke, dies, but Paul and his mother manage to overcome their captors in mid-flight over the "Dunes" of Arrakis and crash-land safely.

Paul and his mother come across a native tribe on Arrakis, and Paul eventually becomes their leader. After much training, Paul and the tribes launch an invasion on the Harkonnen held minning colonies on Arrakis. Paul vowes to get revenge and destroy the Harkonnens.

This movie has an all star cast with such names as, Max Von Sydow, Kyle Machlachlan as Paul (in one of his earlier roles), the lovely Sean Young, Freddie Jones, Brad Dourif, Patrick Stewart, the beatiful Francesca Annis, Linda Hunt, Jose Ferrer, and many many more. The best thing about this movie is that its so complicated that you have to watch it again in order to fully understand it; which is a good thing. Eventhough this movie is nearly four hours long, you still crave more when its over. I think this movie ruled, and I think its very underrated. Do yourself a favor and see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Missing scenes?
Review: This is one of my all time favorite movies. Every time I watch it I pick up something new. I've seen it on tv several times and I've rented this version many times, and on several occasions I've seen some scenes that are'nt in this DVD version. Such as one scene with the baby worms where they are extracting the water of life, plus a few others. I thought this was supposed to be the "uncut" version? Can some one explain this to me. If there really is this "longer" version out there I would love to own it , thanks.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good except...
Review: This is a pretty good movie, aside from the fact that it has very little to do with the actual novel. The idea of a an auditory weapon to be used by an army, while creative, is nowhere to be found in the novel. There are many inconsistencies if you compare the two. However, if you look at the movie on its own as its own entity, it is quite good. I recomend it to anyone that isn't picky about movies sticking to the book or people that haven't read Dune.

Rating:
Summary: Great mvoie, lousy condition....
Review: This video would have gotten 4 or 5 starts if it had been in better condition when I received it. This is the ORIGINAL, David Lynch version of the story, which seems to have a LOT more "warmth" or "soul" than the recent Sci-Fi channel version. The casting is excellent, bang-on, in fact, and I would have LIKED it if more key scenes from the book had been put in in, but all in all, the story of Paul and Jessica Atreides gets told quite well by this dream-like production. Even though this movie supposedly bombed at the box office, fact is is that just about every cast member went on to bigger and better things: Voila...

Patrick Stewart - Your friendly neighborhood Capt. Picard
Kyle MacLachlan - Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks, and a good movie career to boot
Brad Dourif - A lucrative run as the voice of Chucky in the "Child's Play" movies and various TV sci-fi roles
Everett McGill - Nice run of movies where he played people very different from the noble Stilgar
Francesca Annis - Much work for the BBC
Alicia Witt - "Cybil", various movies.
Dean Stockwell - A career completely revived by his work with David Lynch, starting with this movie

So, maybe it didn't set the B.O. on fire, but it still stands as one of the better movies of the 80s and one of the few translations of an epic sci-fi novel to the big screen. Buy it, but make sure you get a better vendor than (( I ))did!!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, lousy condition....
Review: This video would have gotten 5 out of 5 starts if it had been in better condition when I received it. This is the ORIGINAL, David Lynch version of the story, which seems to have a LOT more "warmth" or "soul" than the colder, somewhat blander Sci-Fi channel treatment. The casting is excellent, bang-on, in fact, and I would have LIKED it if more key scenes from the book had been put in it, but all in all, the story of Paul and Jessica Atreides gets told quite well by this dream-like production. Even though this movie supposedly bombed at the box office, fact is is that just about every cast member went on to bigger and better things: Voila...

Patrick Stewart - Your friendly neighborhood Capt. Picard
Kyle MacLachlan - Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks, and a good movie career to boot, which included "Blue Velvet", another Lynch vehicle, which had almost exactly the same cast as "Dune". (It also did much better at the box office!)
Brad Dourif - A lucrative run as the voice of Chucky in the "Child's Play" movies and various TV sci-fi roles. However, he generally plays psycho killers these days. Oddly enough, one of his first jobs was the lead role in an odd John Huston movie before this called "Wise Blood" and a scruffy chaffeur/gofer in "The Eyes Of Laura Mars". All three films, "Wise Blood", "Eyes" and "Dune" were more auspicious than the stuff he's KNOWN for. Go figure.
Everett McGill - Nice run of movies where he played people very different from the noble Stilgar. For instance, the corrupt Killefer in "License to Kill" and a belligerent, overbearing CO in "Heartbreak Ridge".
Francesca Annis - Much work for the BBC
Alicia Witt - "Cybil", various movies.
Dean Stockwell - A career completely revived by his work with David Lynch, starting with this movie.
Jurgen Prochnow - Unfortunately, this man has taken two very auspicious movies, "Das Boot" and this one, and parlayed it into a career not much better than Dourif's confinement to the horror ghetto. He has been in COUNTLESS 2 1/2 star or worse movies , generally playing villains or weirdos.
Freedy Jones: Worked with Federico Fellini in "..And The Ship Sails On". He was also in an underrated little fantasy movie called "Krull" with Francesca Annis. This is one which you should look up, BTW. It's a little tacky around the edges, but very charming.

For all you Vittoria De Sica [fans] out there, Silvana Mangano, Dino De Laurentis' wife and a former actress, makes a cameo appearance here as the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother of the Fremen. She's just about unrecognizable under the make-up.

So, maybe it didn't set the B.O. on fire, but it still stands as one of the better movies of the 80s and one of the few decent translations of an epic sci-fi novel to the big screen. I practically played the oxides off of my first copy in the eighties and early nineties and became very fond of the characters, particularly Stilgar, Muau' Dib and Jessica. Buy it, but make sure you get a better vendor than (( I )) did!!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Failure
Review: If you are not familiar with the book 'Dune' you will be lost in the narrative of this film. As one who'd read the book I was lost some of the time. Welcome to the mind of director David Lynch.

The script can't be blamed on him although I suspect somewhere in the editing room there are segments that would have made the story easier to follow.

There are a few reasons this is a worthwhile film.
a) it is visually interesting although it should be noted some effects seem terribly dated and/or ill suited for a Science Fiction film
b) if you can get past not understanding Dune the first pass it does become more comprehensible in future viewings.
c) the acting is wildly varied with Kyle MacLachlan's characterization of Paul Atreides being wooden while Kenneth McMillan's portrail of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is so over the top that you actually look forward to his pustule ridden face on screen.

When first seeing Dune in a theater I walked away being impressed with the visual and sound aspects of the film. It is very much a David Lynch film so if you don't like his directing don't bother. Part of the problems with Dune are the script which is asked to take a complex novel with many characters and subplots and boil it down to a couple hours of entertainment.

This has been done in the past but using Lord of the Rings 1 as an example, it took 3 hours to get the storylines and most of the characters together for a fine film. In Dune, Frank Herbert's novel, there was quite a bit of exposition on the politics and spirituality of the world he created. If pared down a good but incomplete story was possible. In the end this version of Dune chose to stay more comprehensive in plot with a loss of charater development and ability to comprehend the mostly linear exposition of the film.

When watching it a few times there is a plot but it is rendered nearly inconcequential as the film drives along by looks and a few Lynchesque touches to the novel's characters. The one theme that came though was the bad guys have all the fun. They are the only happy people in the film for the vast majority of it's running time.

Still, this is an enjoyable film and inventive where it can be. Consider it the anti-Star Wars.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a favorite
Review: I believe that this movie is fantastic. You need to first take into account that it was made in 1984. It doesn't have the excellent eye candy of 2000's but, for it's time, it was an incredible movie. Also, you're trying to squeeze the WHOLE BOOK (which is also an excellent book, I might add) into a couple of hours. Not happening.

This movie has a stimulating plotline, decent graphics, and decent acting. I give this five stars because it was put together so well. It gave a good face to the character and a good visual to the characters' experiences. So, I guess I would say that this movie is a wonderful accompaniment to the book as well as eye candy sans reading the book.

If you are looking for something closer to the book, try checking out the made for T.V. series, Dune, from England. It covers a lot that the movie missed and for die hard Herbet fans, it is a must see. Just realize that it is about FIVE hours in length and made for T.V. so the budget is not as high as the orignal movie.