Cheap Dune (DVD) (Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen) (David Lynch) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Dune

Can It Please Hardcore Herbert Fans?
It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming 6-hour mini-series will compare to this ambitious undertaking. David Lynch and an excellent cast and crew tried their best to create a worthy version of the hard-to-film novel. Most of the actors are well-cast and the special effects run from quite good to lukewarm, even taking into account the relative age of this film. The Sandworms are well done and the costumes and sets are terrific. But the vehicle designs seem just plain wrong in the mind's eye of this Dune fan. And some of the optical shots of the Guild Highliner starships and the folding of space don't hold up well to Y2K viewers. The video transfer of David Lynch and cinematographer Freddie Francis' visions are faithful but any problems are inherent in the way the movie is photographed. Even with the fierce squinting of the actors in the day scenes, much of the film looks as though it is shot on an overcast day! If you want to know how to shoot a desert, just look at Lean's 'Lawrence Of Arabia' or even George Lucas' original 'Star Wars'. The only false note in the characterisations is the Baron Harkonnen. In the book, the Baron is a very intelligent and Machiavellian deviant. The Baron of this film is more deviant than cunning, making him more of a Lynch creation than a Herbert one. But most of the other characters are spot-on. At a running time of 140 minutes David Lynch was hard pressed to do the full story of the first Dune novel justice. But the proposed six hours of the mini-series may be excessive. Perhaps the happy dramatic medium is somewhere between. With some of it's excised scenes replaced and some of the opticals redone, David Lynch's Dune could be a 4 star motion picture. But this DVD is worth getting nonetheless.

---

Great movie an director's vision!
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!!!

---

Duned
Woh! I didn't know what to expect when I first sat down to watch 'Dune'. Not having read the novel, the first hour of the movie made me think I had Attention Deficit Disorder, I didn't know what was going on. After that first hour, I gradually left my efforts at understanding behind and just revelled in its sheer spectacle.

Poor David Lynch was driven to the brink of suicide while making this picture. The success of 'The Elephant Man' must have made him believe that adapting other people's work would be a much more successful venture than trying to develop anything on his own at this stage of his career. 'Dune' is full of Lynchian touches even if his commanding vision is sadly missing. The Emperor's court looks like something out of pre-industrial Europe in contrast to the Harkonnen culture of brutal industry and festering disease (Lynch would have been in his element here). Indeed the Baron Harkonnen's face bears some resemblance to John Merrick's in 'The Elephant Man', biological explosions bursting through the skin.

'Dune' would have made a pretty good T.V. series if it had been directed by Lynch, there certainly would have been wider scope for plot and character development. As it was left in it's 137 minute version Lynch had to cut entire scenes and have them explained in one line of voice-over dialogue instead. This makes much more of the profound elements of the film seem like excerpts from a daytime soap opera, the slow zoom into the static face as the voice-over speaks the thoughts of the actor.

Locked into producer Dino De Laurentiis's and writer Frank Herbert's vision, it's not surprising that Lynch returned to small-time film making as a way of retaining artistic control.