Dune (1984 film)

This article is about the 1984 film. For other related films, see Dune (franchise) § Film adaptations.

Dune
File:Duneposter.jpg Promotional film poster for Dune
Directed by	David Lynch
Written by	Frank Herbert (novel) David Lynch
Produced by	Raffaella De Laurentiis
Starring	Francesca Annis Kyle MacLachlan Sting Max von Sydow Jose Ferrer
Cinematography	Freddie Francis
Edited by	Antony Gibbs
Music by	Toto Brian Eno (Prophecy Theme) Marty Paich (additional music)
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 14, 1984 (premiere)
Running time	Original cut 137 min. Altered TV Cut 190 min. DVD Extended Cut 177 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000
Box office	$29,781,000

Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles. It was filmed at the Churubusco Studios in Mexico City and included a soundtrack by the band Toto. As in the novel, the central plot concerns a young man foretold in prophecy as the "Kwisatz Haderach" who will protect the titular desert planet from the malevolent House Harkonnen with the aid of native Fremen.

After the success of the novel, attempts to adapt Dune for a film began as early as 1971. A lengthy process of development hell followed throughout the 1970s, during which Arthur P. Jacobs, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Ridley Scott, all tried to bring their vision to the screen. In 1981, David Lynch was hired as director by executive producer Dino De Laurentiis.

The film was not well-received by critics and performed poorly at the American box office at the time. Upon its release, director David Lynch distanced himself from the project, stating that pressure from both producers and financiers restrained his artistic control and denied him final cut. Fans of the Dune series are polarized by the movie, although the film has become a cult favorite, and at least three different versions have been released worldwide. In some cuts of the film Lynch's name is replaced in the credits with the name of a fictional director Alan Smithee, a pseudonym used by directors who wish not to be associated with a film for which they would normally be credited.

Plot

In the far future, the known universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV; the most precious substance in his sprawling feudal galactic empire is the spice melange, which extends life, expands consciousness, and is vital to space travel. The powerful Spacing Guild and its prescient Navigators use the spice to "fold space" and safely guide interstellar ships to any part of the universe instantaneously.

Sensing a potential threat to spice production, the Guild sends for a Navigator to demand an explanation from the Emperor, who confidentially shares his plans to destroy House Atreides. The popularity of Duke Leto Atreides has grown, and he is suspected to be amassing a secret army using sonic weapons called Weirding Modules, making him a threat to the Emperor. Shaddam's plan is to give the Atreides control of the planet Arrakis, the only source of spice in the universe, and to have them ambushed there by their longtime enemies, the Harkonnens. Informed of this plot, the Navigator commands the Emperor to kill the Duke's son, Paul Atreides, a young man who dreams prophetic visions of his purpose. The cryptic assassination order draws the attention of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, as Paul is tied to their centuries-long breeding program which seeks to produce the superhuman Kwisatz Haderach. Paul is tested by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. With a deadly gom jabbar at his throat, Paul is forced to place his hand in a box which subjects him to excruciating and increasing pain; he passes to Mohiam's satisfaction, withstanding more pain than anyone has before him. Meanwhile, on the industrial world of Giedi Prime, the sadistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen tells his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha about his plan to eliminate the Atreides by manipulating someone very close to the Duke into betraying him. The Atreides leave their watery world of Caladan for Arrakis, a barren desert planet plagued by gigantic sandworms and populated by the Fremen, mysterious people who have long held a prophecy that a messiah would come to lead them to true freedom. Upon arrival on Arrakis, Leto is informed by one of his right-hand men, Duncan Idaho, that the Fremen have been largely underestimated, as they exist in vast numbers on Arrakis and could prove to be powerful allies. Leto gains the trust of the people of Arrakis, proving to be a charismatic and just leader. But before the Duke can establish an alliance with the Fremen, the Harkonnens launch their attack.

While the Atreides had anticipated a trap, they are unable to withstand the devastating Harkonnen sneak attack, supported by the Emperor's elite troops, the Sardaukar, and aided by a traitor within House Atreides itself, Dr. Wellington Yueh. Captured, Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate the Baron Harkonnen using a poison gas capsule planted in his tooth by Dr. Yueh. Leto's concubine Jessica and his son Paul escape into the deep desert, and with Jessica's Bene Gesserit abilities and Paul's developing skills, they manage to join a band of native Fremen. Paul emerges as Muad'Dib, the religious and political leader the Fremen have been waiting for. Paul teaches the Fremen to use the Weirding Modules and begins targeting mining production of spice. In the span of two years, spice production is effectively halted. The Emperor is warned by the Spacing Guild of the situation on Arrakis, and the Guild fears that Paul will consume a substance known as the Water of Life. These fears are revealed to Paul in a prophetic dream; he drinks the Water of Life and enters a coma that disturbs all Bene Gesserits in the universe. Awaking, Paul is transformed and gains control of the sandworms of Arrakis. He has also discovered the secret to controlling spice production; water kept in huge caches by the Fremen can be used to destroy the spice. Paul tells his army of Fremen "he who can destroy a thing controls it." Paul has also seen into space and the future; the Emperor is amassing a huge invasion fleet above Arrakis to regain control of the planet and the spice.

Upon the Emperor's arrival at Arrakis, Paul launches a final attack against both the Harkonnens and the Emperor at the capital city of Arrakeen. His Fremen warriors, armed with Weirding Modules and riding sandworms, defeat the Emperor's legions of Sardaukar, while Paul's sister Alia kills the Baron Harkonnen. Paul faces the defeated Emperor, and avenges his family in a duel to the death with Feyd-Rautha. After defeating Feyd, Paul commands rain to fall on Arrakis. Alia reveals to everyone that Paul is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach.

Cast

File:Kyle MacLachlan Dune.jpg

Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides

Sting as Feyd-Rautha.

In credited order:

• Francesca Annis as Lady Jessica
• Leonardo Cimino as The Baron's Doctor
• Brad Dourif as Piter De Vries
• José Ferrer as Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV
• Linda Hunt as the Shadout Mapes
• Freddie Jones as Thufir Hawat
• Richard Jordan as Duncan Idaho
• Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides
• Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan
• Silvana Mangano as Reverend Mother Ramallo
• Everett McGill as Stilgar
• Kenneth McMillan as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
• Jack Nance as Captain Iakin Nefud
• Siân Phillips as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
• Angélica Aragón as Bene Gesserit Sister
• Jürgen Prochnow as Duke Leto Atreides
• Paul L. Smith as The Beast Rabban (credited as Paul Smith)
• Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck
• Sting as Feyd-Rautha
• Dean Stockwell as Dr. Wellington Yueh
• Max von Sydow as Dr. Kynes
• Alicia Witt as Alia (credited as Alicia Roanne Witt)
• Sean Young as Chani
• Honorato Magaloni as Otheym (credited as Honorato Magalone)
• Judd Omen as Jamis
• Molly Wryn as Harah, Jamis's wife

Production

The film is an adaptation of the first of a series of novels (see Dune, by Frank Herbert) and incorporating some elements from the later novels. The pre-production process was slow and problematic, and the project was handed from director to director.

Early stalled attempts

In 1971, the production company Apjac International (APJ) (headed by Arthur P. Jacobs) optioned the rights to film Dune. As Jacobs was busy with other projects, such as the sequel to Planet of the Apes, Dune was delayed for another year. Jacobs' first choice for director was David Lean, but he turned down the offer. Charles Jarrott was also considered to direct. Work was also under way on a script while the hunt for a director continued. Initially, the first treatment had been handled by Robert Greenhut, the producer who had lobbied Jacob to make the movie in the first place, but subsequently Rospo Pallenberg was approached to write the script, with shooting scheduled to begin in 1974. However, Jacobs died in 1973.

Pre-release flyer for Jodorowsky's Dune

In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights from APJ. Alejandro Jodorowsky was set to direct. In 1975, Jodorowsky planned to film the story as a ten-hour feature, in collaboration with Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Alain Delon, Hervé Villechaize and Mick Jagger. The music would be composed by Magma, Henry Cow and Karlheinz Stockhausen or Pink Floyd. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction periodicals, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Moebius began designing creatures and characters for the film, while Foss was brought in to design the film's space ships and hardware. Giger began designing the Harkonnen Castle based on Moebius' storyboards, and Dali was cast as the Emperor with a reported salary of $100,000 an hour. Jodorowsky's son Brontis Jodorowsky was to play Paul Atreides. Dan O'Bannon was to head the special effects department.

Dali and Jodorowsky began quarreling over money, and just as the storyboards, designs, and script were finished, the financial backing dried up. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship.

De Laurentiis's stalled attempts

The rights for filming were sold once more, this time to Dino de Laurentiis. Although Jodorowsky was embittered by the experience, he stated that the Dune project changed his life. Dan O'Bannon entered a psychiatric hospital after the production failed, and worked on 13 scripts; his 13th became Alien. In 1978, De Laurentiis commissioned Herbert to write a new screenplay, but Herbert's 175-page script was rejected – an average script is 90 to 140 pages long.

De Laurentiis then hired director Ridley Scott in 1979, with Rudolph Wurlitzer writing the screenplay and H.R. Giger retained from the Jodorowsky production. Scott intended to split the book into two movies. He worked on three drafts of the script, using The Battle of Algiers as a point of reference, before moving on to direct another science fiction film, Blade Runner (1982). As he recalls, the pre-production process was slow, and finishing the project would have been even more time-intensive:

But after seven months I dropped out of Dune, by then Rudy Wurlitzer had come up with a first-draft script which I felt was a decent distillation of Frank Herbert's. But I also realised Dune was going to take a lot more work — at least two and a half years' worth. And I didn't have the heart to attack that because my older brother Frank unexpectedly died of cancer while I was prepping the De Laurentiis picture. Frankly, that freaked me out. So I went to Dino and told him the Dune script was his. — From Ridley Scott: The Making of his Movies by Paul M. Sammon

Lynch's screenplay and direction

In 1981, the nine-year film rights were set to expire. De Laurentiis re-negotiated the rights from the author, adding to them the rights to the Dune sequels (written and unwritten). After seeing The Elephant Man, Raffaella De Laurentiis decided that David Lynch should direct the movie. Around that time Lynch received several other directing offers, including Return of the Jedi. He agreed to direct Dune and write the screenplay even though he had not read the book, known the story, or even been interested in science fiction. David Lynch worked on the script for six months with Eric Bergen and Christopher De Vore. The team yielded two drafts of the script before it split over creative differences. Lynch would subsequently work on five more drafts.

On March 30, 1983, with the 135-page 6th draft of the script, Dune finally began shooting. It was shot entirely in Mexico. With a budget of over 40 million dollars, Dune required 80 sets built on 16 sound stages and a total crew of 1700. Many of the exterior shots were filmed in the Samalayuca Dunes in Chihuahua.

Editing

Upon completion, 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 7th and final draft of the script) was three hours long.

However, Universal Pictures and the film's financiers expected a standard, two-hour cut of the film. To reduce the run time, producers Dino De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, and director David 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 popular rumors, Lynch made no other version of the movie besides the theatrical cut; no three to six hour version ever reached the post-production stage. However, several longer versions have been spliced together.

In the introduction for his 1985 short story collection Eye, Frank Herbert discussed the film's reception and his participation in the production, and listed scenes that were shot but left out of the released version. Herbert stated he was satisfied with the final release, but expressed disappointment that some of the scenes he saw on the rough cuts of Dune failed to make the theatrical cut.

Release

Dune's premiere was on December 3, 1984 at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and was released worldwide on December 14. Publicity for Dune was extensive before its release, not only because it was based on a best-selling novel but because it was directed by David Lynch, who had success with Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. Several magazines followed the production, and published articles praising the film before its release, all part of the advertising and merchandising of Dune, which also included a documentary for television as well as items placed in toy stores.

Reception

In his review, critic Roger Ebert gave Dune one star out of four and wrote "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." Ebert added that "The movie's plot will no doubt mean more to people who've read Herbert than to those who are walking in cold," and later named it "the worst movie of the year." On At The Movies with Gene Siskel and Ebert, Siskel began his review by saying "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." The film was later listed as the worst film of 1984 in their "Stinkers of 1984" episode. Other negative reviews focused on the same issues as well as on the length of the film.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times also gave Dune a negative review of one star out of five. She said that, "Several of the characters in Dune are psychic, which puts them in the unique position of being able to understand what goes on in the movie" and explained that the plot was "perilously overloaded, as is virtually everything else about it."

The staff of Variety gave Dune a more favorable, but still negative review stating "Dune is a huge, hollow, imaginative and cold sci-fi epic. Visually unique and teeming with incident, David Lynch's film holds the interest due to its abundant surface attractions but won't, of its own accord, create the sort of fanaticism which has made Frank Herbert's 1965 novel one of the all-time favorites in its genre." They also commented on how "Lynch's adaptation covers the entire span of the novel, but simply setting up the various worlds, characters, intrigues and forces at work requires more than a half-hour of expository screen time." They did enjoy the cast and said that "Francesca Annis and Jurgen Prochnow make an outstandingly attractive royal couple, Siân Phillips has some mesmerizing moments as a powerful witch, Brad Dourif is effectively loony, and best of all is Kenneth McMillan, whose face is covered with grotesque growths and who floats around like the Blue Meanie come to life."

Richard Corliss of Time magazine gave Dune a negative review, stating that "Most sci-fi movies offer escape, a holiday from homework, but Dune is as difficult as a final exam. You have to cram for it." He noted that "MacLachlan, 25, grows impressively in the role; his features, soft and spoiled at the beginning, take on a he-manly glamour once he assumes his mission." He ended by saying "The actors seem hypnotized by the spell Lynch has woven around them — especially the lustrous Francesca Annis, as Paul's mother, who whispers her lines with the urgency of erotic revelation. In those moments when Annis is onscreen, Dune finds the emotional center that has eluded it in its parade of rococo decor and austere special effects. She reminds us of what movies can achieve when they have a heart as well as a mind."

While most critics were negative towards Dune, critic and science fiction writer Harlan Ellison was of a different opinion at the time. In his 1989 book of film criticism Harlan Ellison's Watching, he says that the $42 million production failed because critics were denied screenings at the last minute after several re-schedules, a decision by Universal that, according to Ellison, made the film community feel nervous and negative towards Dune before its release. Ellison eventually became one of the film's few positive reviewers.

The few more favorable reviews praised Lynch's noir-baroque approach to the film. Others compare it to other Lynch films that are equally hard to access, such as Eraserhead, and assert that in order to watch it, the viewer must first be aware of the Dune universe. In the years since its initial release Dune has become a cult favorite, and has gained more positive reviews from online critics and viewers.

As a result of its poor commercial and critical reception, all initial plans for Dune sequels were cancelled. It was reported that David Lynch was working on the screenplay for Dune Messiah and was hired to direct a second and a third Dune film. In retrospect, Lynch acknowledged he should never have directed Dune:

I started selling out on Dune. Looking back, it's no one's fault but my own. I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them in. There was so much room to create a world. But I got strong indications from Raffaella and Dino De Laurentiis of what kind of film they expected, and I knew I didn't have final cut.

Although Universal has approached Lynch for a possible director's cut of the film, Lynch has declined every offer and prefers not to discuss Dune in interviews.

Departures from the novel

The film makes some departures from the novel, most notably in the case of the weirding way, which in the novel is a form of training that allows Paul to move with lightning speed and have near-perfect dexterity. In the film it is replaced with "Weirding Modules", sonic weapons that resemble small video cameras and amplify the user's voice into a destructive force, a controversial choice among Dune fans. The film grants the Bene Gesserit telepathy, while the novel notes their keen, nearly superhuman awareness. Some of the novel's central themes were simplified for the adaptation, including the intricate political interplays at work in Herbert's universe, the use of religion to control the populace, and Herbert's ecological themes. The film's ending with rain falling on Arrakis also contradicts the science of the novel, which makes it clear that water is poisonous to the sandworms, and that a wet environment on Arrakis would eradicate them and end the spice cycle. This would, however, fit in with the lead character's stated aim to end spice production.

There are several distinctive visual and aesthetic choices made in the film that are not directly inspired by Herbert's novel. In the film, the heads of the Bene Gesserit are hairless after they become Reverend Mothers, the Mentats have enormous eyebrows, Stillsuits are brown, and Baron Harkonnen is afflicted with bubo-like blisters. Ornithopters are depicted as jet- or rocket-propelled aircraft, rather than the flapping-winged aircraft described in the novel, and the Harkonnens and their followers (including the Baron himself) are given "heart plugs" that can be pulled out to kill them.

Versions

Despite a scathing overall reception, the movie has achieved a respectable cult status of which at least three other versions outside the original theatrical cut have been released. In grand total, five versions of Dune are known.

Theatrical cut

Released worldwide in 1984, it was edited by 37 seconds in the UK to pass PG rating, at a total running time of 137 minutes. Though this 137-minute version was not David Lynch's intended cut, it is the only director-approved version and the only official version he ever made of the film for release. It is widely available on both VHS and DVD. In 2006 it was remastered for a special DVD release, and as of late 2006 has been released on HD-DVD with many of the special features seen on other discs.

Alan Smithee version

The 189-minute "Alan Smithee" version was released in 1989. Prepared originally for syndicated television by Universal's MCA division (and later seen on basic cable television networks) for a two-night broadcast, it was prepared without either participation or authorization by David Lynch. It includes a new narrator and a new prologue with a montage of painted pictures. It also reinserts approximately 40 minutes of cut footage, extending some existing scenes and adding others that were, until this version, entirely unseen. This television version also includes some repeated shots throughout the film.

Lynch objected to this version and petitioned the Directors Guild of America to have his name removed from the credits (which were replaced by the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Judas Booth). This version was initially only released on laserdisc in Japan, but was also found as a poorly recorded VHS on the bootleg market. It is now available worldwide on DVD as the "Extended Edition", but 13 minutes shorter because it was originally presented on television in two parts, with the opening and closing credits repeated on the second night with a Part 1 recap. Only Universal's Region 1 release from 2006 presents the Smithee version of Dune in the film's original widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

KTVU Channel 2 version

In 1992, KTVU, a San Francisco, CA Fox affiliate, pieced together a hybrid edit of the two previous versions for broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is essentially the television version with all the violence of the theatrical version reincorporated into the film. It remains unreleased on DVD.

Region 2 DVD Extended Edition

An Extended Edition DVD version (Region 2) was released in Europe in November 2005. It includes, among its many extra features, an extended version of the film, credited to Alan Smithee, which is 177 minutes long. This is a cropped 4.3 transfer but is ultimately from same source that produced the Universal's widescreen Region 1 Extended Edition release in 2006. Neither the video nor the audio on this transfer is remastered, exhibiting a poor television-like quality. Although the cover states that the soundtrack is in mono sound, it is, in fact, in stereo.

Region 1 DVD Extended Edition

An Extended Edition was released by Universal Home Entertainment in the US on DVD on January 31, 2006. The DVD contains both Lynch's 137-minute theatrical cut and a 177-minute edit of the Alan Smithee television version (the latter being presented for the first time in its original anamorphic aspect ratio). It also features a documentary on the production design and special effects, as well as a supplementary section of outtakes and scenes not included in any previous version of the film.

Workprint version

After the completion of principal photography an assembly edit of the best takes was shown to the crew in Mexico, as well as to Frank Herbert. It ran approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes. Contrary to popular fan rumors, it was by no means the Director's Cut of the film and contained no effects shots or sequences. This workprint version is the basis of such rumors, but there was never a four-hour cut of the movie in its complete form. In the fan edit online communities, attempts have been made to re-assemble different versions of the film closer to David Lynch's intent or to the original novel by using the deleted scenes and fixing any technical errors from the Smithee version.

High-definition

Dune's original theatrical version was released on the high-definition format HD DVD in 2006, before that format was stopped. On April 27, 2010, it was released on Blu-ray Disc.

Influence on popular culture

File:Shaddam IV The Bastard.jpg

Emperor Frederick Corrino IV from Dune 2000

The film inspired the Cryo Interactive video game Dune, which used elements (such as the Weirding Modules) unique to the film. The character of Paul Atreides was designed to look like Kyle MacLachlan, and the CD version of the game included footage of the film.

The Westwood Studios Dune games (Dune II, Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune) were also visually influenced by the film. For example, the Emperor in Dune 2000 and the Reverend Mother in Emperor: Battle for Dune resemble the equivalent characters in Lynch's film.

File:Reverend Mother Holding Lady Elara Captive.jpg

The Reverend Mother and the Lady Elara from Emperor: Battle for Dune

Dialogue and music from the film have been sampled in various songs. On their album Machine Language, the techno-music DJ group Dynamix II's song "Get Out of My Mind" samples the Mohiam/Alia scene which features the titular line. Virginia Madsen's opening monologue is also featured in several songs by artists including Aphrodite, Astral Projection, and MFG. The Christian industrial/dance band Mortal samples from the film in their 1993 album Fathom, including featuring Baron Harkonnen's line "I'm alive!" in the song "Alive and Awake." The popular single "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim features the lyric "Walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the worm" pulled almost word for word from the film; a phrase spoken by Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan).

The 1990 production of "Spice" by Eon (musician) also contains dialogue from the Baron and Guild Navigators. The retro-swing band Rayzd, on their Dune-inspired album Fear is the Mind Killer, samples the Litany against fear and other audio clips on their song "Your Mind."

See also

• Dune (movie soundtrack), the soundtrack to Dune, composed by Toto
• Frank Herbert's Dune, TV miniseries (2000)

External links

• Dune at IMDb
• Dune at AllMovie
• Dune at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dune at Box Office Mojo