I finally finished reading Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic yesterday, which gave way for me to watch David Lynch's adaptation of the novel. I had heard many negative things about it before, such as the ethos that anyone who went into the film without having first read the novel would hate it by default (that is, of course, the reason why I read it), and that it was just terribly filmed.

But I didn't think it was terribly filmed at all. It may just be one of the best sci-fi films I've ever seen, and I'm putting it up there with Blade Runner and A New Hope, of which only the former manages to surpass Dune in superiority.

The battle scenes were beautiful, and I was particularly enamored at the contrast between the dark stillsuits worn by the Fremen and the golden sand dunes on which they fought. The whole sequence where Paul is training the Fremen had to be one of my favorites in any film of the genre.

Same goes for the 'splosions.

The opening was brilliant, preceding any opening credits and musical scores, and featuring the beautiful Virginia Madsen as the narrator. "A beginning is a very delicate time".

Something else I liked was seeing Lynch regulars through the film. Here's a random image of two of them together:

I grant Dune a 9.5/10. I'll eventually watch the infamous extended version, but I'll just ignore that for the time being, as I've seen how it begins and I don't want ti to taint my vision of this cut.

In my experience, it's actually the opposite : people who didn't read the books have higher chances of liking the movie.

It's my case : I liked it when I saw it in theatre as a teenager, but after reading the book I thought it was terrible. The sets and costumes are excellent and it's a beautiful film, but it's pretty terrible at illustrating the themes of the book.

The Fremen look like a bunch of shy, homeless extra actors, all the conservation of water, how the Fremen were ruthless, all the political complexity totally disappears... the Baron is all wrong, we have Frank Booth instead of the sophisticated felon, all the secondary plotlines disappear (the one about the Kwisach Haderach sound like religious mystical babble when it's actually genetic selection from Bene Gesserit), Paul's character is all wrong, by the end of the movie he should be a freaky Fremen tyran that even his friends hardly recognize... all the ethnical, economical, political content that made the book disappear behind pretty images and simplistic, cheap, "summer movie" action.

It's a terrible SF film. But man, is it gorgeous. It's a great help to imagine everything when you read the series again.

Bleep you, & bleep the establishment, and bleep all of you who are trying to make me part of the unestablished establishment.

I haven't seen Dune since I was a 'teen' many moons ago...and unfortunately decent quality versions of this film seem very hard to come by. In the last few days I have been lucky enough to receive a German Edition Blu-Ray version of this epic. (theatrical version)  Whilst not being a typical pristine 'blu ray' image that you get with more modern films...I was still very pleased with the overall quality and look of the film and this is probably the best that this film has looked since its cinematic release.  The set design (awesome neo-baroque styling) and costumes look absolutely stunning and the HD DTS audio was a major highlight, giving rich sound to the music and effects...although visually some of these effects are left wanting. (pity they didn't get someone like Doug Trumball in and also use front as opposed to rear projection etc) 

As to the character performances...I really liked Ken McMillan 'Baron', Sian Philips as Rev Mother, Paul Smith as Rabban and I would've liked to have seen more of Max Von Sydow. I have to confess that I wasn't too keen on Kyle's 'Paul Atreides'...he was just far too one-dimensional for a messiah...although I do appreciate that he was supposed to have a degree of innocence and idealism, it was just too 'comic book' for my taste.  I had no problem with the 'voice over' telepathy (Alia excepted...WTF happened there!) and I quite enjoyed that aspect to be honest.

All in all...I don't think Lynch's Dune is anywhere near as bad as people have made out (yes I know there are a few cheesey bits)...I have to say that I really enjoyed it this time around and I do claim to be an avid 'sci-fi' enthusiast too...Lynch did manage to pull off some stunning looking worlds that weren't the standard 'antiseptic' type found in so many 'sci-fi' films. But for studio interference...we can only imagine what might have been, nevertheless viewers will find many of the Lynchian touches that we know and love.

I love this movie.  I think it is brilliant...and I love the book, too.

For the life of me I never undertsand why some people don't like this movie.  I read all the complaints...but they don't bother me.  The movie is a classic as far as I am concerned.  I only wish they would have let DL do his 3 hour cut he originall wanted to do!

As there has been a lot of talk about film vs. book, this interview is very interesting: http://io9.com/5458417/new-evidence-that-frank-herbert-loved-david-lynchs-version-of-dune?autoplay=true

It seems that Frank Herbert actually really liked Lynch's film.

Hebert fully supported Lynch and his interpretation.  Before production began, he said, "we finallly found the right director to do the movie."

Lynch was impressed by the dream sequences and inner meanings in the book.  He loved it.  It was the studios that weakened the movie by making him edit it shorter than he originally intended. 

 Patrick Stewart got to see the original WORKPRINT at a viewing for the cast, which had all the shot material in it, along with a few place cards for stuff that hadn't been done yet.  Afterwards, he said it was the best Sci-Fi film experience he had ever seen.

I love the film, but you know you're outnumbered when even the director takes his name off the film (at least for a short time)

Actually, are director credits still going to Alan Smithee on new copies of the DVD?

This is a FORMICA table... GREEN is it's color!

DL only asked for his name to be removed from the extended 'television' version of Dune, which is credited to Alan Smithee. As awful as the tacked on prologue is, it does make everything that follows slightly more enjoyable.

I keep coming across articles of the 'did Frank Herbert like Dune?' variety, which is a bit of a cheek IMHO. The general consensus seems to be that Dune's problems arose from the screenplay/adaptation but I suspect they're more fundamental than that.

Dune looks beautiful but I don't like the characters, the plot or the dialogue and Frank Herbert irritates me. In the documentary on the 2-disc Sanctuary release Golda Offenheim says she'd ask Herbert what things mean't and he'd wave her away and say 'Oh it's in the index'. In the end she concluded he didn't know what they meant. I'm with Golda on this one... 

My respect for Dune continues to rise...thought I'd take this opportunity to mention the soundtrack by Toto.  The 'stand-outs' being 'Paul Meets Chani' & 'Final Dream'...they are bordering on transcendental magic and I absolutely adore them....just thought I'd share that with you all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gFN6LD_WMI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvjBsF1OUws

I've long loathed Dune as basically the worst thing David Lynch ever did. Much to my own amazement, however, I recently found myself on Youtube watching the "novel cut" in utter rapture. I don't know why it suddenly hit me this time (though I had consumed a modest amount of alcohol prior to watching it) but superior image quality certainly helped, because the version I used to watch was a horrible 4:3 video transfer.

There's a lot about this movie that I still find rather clunky, if not plain nauseating, but I also recognize its qualities more clearly now than I used to. Some of Dune's cheesiest parts really seem to resonate with me on an almost personal level, especially the interior monologues, the movie's mesmerizing pace and the almost mythological sense of predestination in the story. I particularly like the middle part dealing with Paul's initiation into the Fremen culture, with its dream-like atmospheres and biblical overtones.

The casting is very good too. I agree that Kyle's Paul is rather one-dimensional but I think he's supposed to embody an archetype. In fact I love how the Atreides characters seem to have been cast for their ability to project justice and nobility (Prochnow, MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart,...). Kenneth McMillan is also very good as Baron Harkonnen but his performance is largely overshadowed by his "effects-driven" appearance (the floating suit, the repulsive make-up). One thing I also noticed is that David Lynch has a very good ear for voices (Virginia Madsen, Sian Phillips, Kenneth McMillan, Everett McGill).

I'm not sure why Toto's contribution to this movie is so often derided either, btw. I think they did a beautiful job, delivering a score that's both majestic and mysterious. I agree with Bluefrank that the "final dream" theme is particularly stirring.

So yes, all in all, I have to admit that I've grown somewhat fond of this movie, despite its flaws.