Some Perspective on the Movie "Dune"

I first read the book "Dune" when I was a teenager while living in Southeast Asia. Reading back then held a special place in everyday life as this was long before people owned personal computers, or satellites beamed television programs and movies all over the world. In those days, that degree of isolation resulted in a much more immersive and exotic experience for those of us living halfway around the world from our home countries.

The news we got (at least the parts that weren't heavily censored by the government) was from newspapers and usually several days old. The local television station occasionally played ancient imported shows like Mannix or the original Star Trek, but their broadcast schedules were pretty much hit-or-miss. Even completing phone calls to the U.S. was erratic, not to mention very frustrating and expensive. The only consistent form of entertainment was derived from reading.

I'd never been much of a reader up until then, but without the other usual media distractions, I quickly discovered fascinating new worlds existing on the pages of books. And, there was no shortage of options. Throughout the expatriate community there in Jakarta, Indonesia, a large and robust mobile library of paperbacks steadily flowed through various households. As a result, we were exposed to a wide array of authors and genres. I remember reading "The Catcher in the Rye," followed by "Tai Pan," before starting on "Dune," all of which had been recommended by my father. "Dune" was complex, complete with a glossary of terms that have become familiar to fans over the years.

But the story of the fall of House Atreides instigated by the evil Baron Harkonnen, pulled me in like no other book I'd read before and I was hooked on the sci-fi genre for good. However, despite its popularity, "Dune" was largely considered to be un-makable as a movie due to its complexity and grand scope. Numerous discussions among studios took place, but no projects ever got off the ground. That is until a young experimental filmmaker named David Lynch was hired to give it a shot. Lynch's main claim to fame up until then was a strange and disturbing movie called "Eraserhead," complete with chickens dancing on plates while the confused protagonist stared in astonishment. And that wasn't even the weirdest scene in the movie. The idea that the person with such a warped imagination was about to be handed a hundred million dollars to produce an un-makable movie was almost as intriguing as the story itself.

Now there has been quite a bit of revisionist history concerning Lynch's version. In the last decade, the general consensus seems to be that it was a failure. I suppose viewing the movie through a nearly forty-year-old lens has skewed the public's opinion from earlier decades somewhat. However, at the time, fans of the book embraced the film. Even Frank Herbert (the author) endorsed Lynch's version. But, there were a couple of fatal flaws. The movie was way too long. The studio made Lynch cut a substantial portion of the story, which resulted in a somewhat rushed and choppy final act. The sandworms looked about as realistic and threatening as muppets. Audiences who weren't familiar with the book had no idea what was going on, and worse, just didn't care. As a result, outside of the book's fans, most of the world ignored the movie.

Fast forward to today and Denis Villeneuve's elegantly produced masterpiece-a work that most will consider the ultimate film version of Frank Herbert's classic. Thankfully, the grandness of the novel pops off the screen in every scene and accomplishes everything the book intended. The visuals, the acting, and the subtle way Villeneuve tells the story so that even the uninitiated are able to follow; all of it surpassed my expectations. It's been criticized for ending in the middle of the story, but that's precisely how its predecessor should have managed the enormity of the tale, instead of trying to cram it all in one showing. Villeneuve was too smart to fall into the same trap. Let's hope the sequel equals Part I.....VB