David Lynch has been one of the most gifted filmmakers. Lynch has always been experimental and his narratives have been twisted to shake the core of viewers with intense thrill embedded in them. The director has several acclaimed titles to his credit including Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and his mystery thriller series Twin Peaks starring Kyle MacLachlan. But beyond his mind-bending movies and shows, the actor has always been fascinated by Frank Herbert’s evergreen sci-fi novel series Dune. The director made an attempt to make it a cinematic reality in 1984.
David Lynch’s Dune Was His Most Ambitious Project
Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides in Dune. Credit: Universal Pictures
David Lynch reimagined Frank Herbert’s Dune in his own eccentric and surreally beautiful stunning ways but adaptation of the novel on the screen was itself a Herculean task. Considering the time of its release, when the movie technology still had a long way to achieve the cinematic technological feat required to make Herbert’s delicate vision on the big screen, even the attempt to make the movie a reality deserves credit.
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However, Lynch was not the first filmmaker to make an attempt at adaptation of the acclaimed books. Alejandro Jodorowsky who directed the surreal fantasy adventure The Holy Mountain, made an ambitious attempt even before Lynch. As evident in the detailed chronicle of the event in the 2013 documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune, the avant-garde filmmaker wanted to make more than ten hours of cinema out of Dune in the ’70s. The ambition was not limited to the thinking of it alone, the project even had eyes on Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí, and Mick Jagger to be featured as cast with Pink Floyd and Magma’s soundtrack design. However, it was a hard pass as it was far from possible at the time.
Lynch, a kind of a similar filmmaker like Jodorowsky, in their surrealist approach to movies anyway, was successful to a large extent, at least in crafting the world of Dune in the visual narrative.
Reception of David Lynch’s Dune
Kyle MacLachlan in Dune. Credit: Universal Pictures
Lynch penned the movie as well, however, despite his efforts the movie was a huge failure. It took around $40–42 million to make the movie but underperformed at the box office grossing only $30.9 million.
Also, critics were not very kind to the movie as well, Lynch’s Dune received a 37% score on Rotten Tomatoes, far too downgraded when compared to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune franchise enjoying both critical and commercial success.
Still, Lynch’s Dune was very crucial to the very evolution of the franchise, the director proved that Herbert’s books can be adapted for the screen. Eventually, the movie claimed fandom and cult classic status.
David Lynch’s Regretted Making Dune
Kyle MacLachlan in Dune. Credit: Universal Pictures
Lynch, for the most part, did not get what he wanted as he attempted to be close to the essence of the book. Lynch deeply regretted making the 1984 sci-fi movie movie, one of the reasons, as he stated, was because he didn’t get the final cut of the film. “Dune I didn’t have final cut on it’s the only film I’ve made that I didn’t have,” Lynch said in an old interview. “So it was um it was a slow dying the death and a terrible terrible experience,” he added.
The director was also not happy with condensing the movie for theatrical release demand, “it was squeezed because in those days um the maximum length they figured I could have is two hours and 17 minutes,” he said. “And that’s what the film is so they could get they wouldn’t lose a screening a day and so it’s again money talking and not for the film at all and so it was like compacted and it hurt it, it hurt it.”
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In another interview, the filmmaker admitted that making the movie was a nightmare, “I loved Mexico City, I was down there for a year and a half, Dune took three years to make, start to finish but it was a nightmare, and … it was a nightmare.”
Brad Dourif who played the Harkonnen Mentat in Dune, said, “some of the special effects and so forth got very cheap and they ran out of money.” Also, the actor revealed that in a lot of those cases, Lynch “didn’t get what he wanted.”
The movie stars Fallout actor Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides alongside a roaster of talents Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino, Patrick Stewart, and co.
Lynch’s Dune is now streaming on Netflix.
