David Lynch's Dune
Having seen the Sci Fi Channel’s Dune miniseries a couple of days ago, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the 1980’s David Lynch version of the story in order to compare the two.
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I first saw this film some ten years ago, when I was in college. I had just read the book, and was in a kind of “Arrakkis trance”. The book is so rich that you don’t really read it—you inhabit it. When I saw the movie, I had already been exposed to David Lynch’s style (through Eraserhead and the Elephant Man) and had very high expectations.
To my unschooled eyes. Lynch’s Dune seemed to get the style of the book right but not the substance—there was very little of the mysticism and richness of the story. In their stead, there were incredibly lush visuals and the trademark Lynch penchant for the bizarre/macabre. (Beast Rabban casually ripping the lips off a cow’s corpse and then devouring it raw, for example.)
In other words, the movie seemed to be all surface. This is a problem that the Sci Fi Channel’s production seemed intent in correcting, and given the six-hour miniseries format they at least had enough time to get the spirit of the story right. However, the SFC version lacks the rich production and visuals of the Lynch version.
I don’t think a book as complex as Dune can be presented successfully in a two-hour movie format, and the Lynch production can be commended for trying and at least getting an entertaining yarn out of it. I also don’t think that a made-for-cable miniseries can devote the kind of resources necessary to achieve the high production values of a major motion picture. After seeing both versions, I’m convinced that the perfect movie version of this story would be a combination of the two: one with the bizarre and lush Lynch esthetics, and with the expanse and story richness of the SFC production.
