Seriously, just try to fight the goosebumps as Kyle MacLachlan rides a huge ass worm and the theme blasts your soul out of your body. The themes they brought to the table will never be erased from you mind once you hear them. The final secret weapon to Dune is the unforgettable score from the band Toto. A genius move really, considering there's a ton of ground the film has to cover. You basically can’t say ‘What the hell is happening?’ because it is all laid out there for you. It becomes a peek inside their true intentions and feelings and helps us grasp the outlandish nature of the piece for those uninitiated. The vibe of Dune will always stick with you because they enhance the film with crazy voice over work-an inner dialog often whispered by damn near every character you encounter. (Yes, I am aware of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s hustle, but we’re on a Lynch kick here, so, moving on.) While CG has definitely made huge leaps since 1984, there is nothing like a beautiful painting or a physical model to sell depth on a production of this scale which at the time was a huge deal, taking years to pull off. Matte paintings, made to sell the various planets’ scale, and hand-built model shots for spacecraft and creature design, like Star Wars before it, round out the look of the piece and for my money this the only way to fly when bringing FX-driven cinema to the masses. I can’t imagine the world of Dune without this weapon and just love the creative audacity to add something new to the already elaborate world Frank Herbert established.
An addition to the film that is nowhere to be found in the novel is a weapon known as the Weirding Module, a device that uses the sound of your voice to fire and energy blast that can destroy solid rock and would reduce a man to pulp. So many crazy ideas lead to unique wonders as opposed to shoddy craftsmanship. Same goes for the weaponry and knife work on display, everything is other-worldly, which is obviously what you want to shoot for when making a film of this nature. Creative usage of early CG can be found in the form of blocky looking body armor that still looks awesome today because, while it feels alien and foreign, it is perfect for Dune’s settings.
The design of Dune is pretty damn impeccable for a 1984 production. All of this within the first hour! This combination of training and tragedy, of course, lays the foundation for a remarkable revenge story that will have you rooting for Atreides throughout. He goes through intense physical combat training, psychological trials designed to test his mental resolve. He gets rocked by a major death in the family, and his house overturned by a act of a traitor. In order to earn such a status, poor old Paul Atreides is run through the ringer in this film. Tucked within an unflinching hallucinatory journey is the solid arc of Paul Atreides, played by Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan, and his epic quest to get revenge and become a godlike being along the way.
Does it work as a motion picture? I say, 'Hell yes!' No sci-fi film, before or after, moves or feels quite like Dune. Mainly due to the fact that the film, despite the turbulent production, makes sense. Deliberately, I will focus primarily on the film (the theatrical cut) and not too much on what was left out of the book. Now, it is well known that Lynch had a horrible time making Dune and refuses to talk about it, but I am here to say I still think there is a special gem of a film in there. Lynch, one of the true visual artist in the medium, turned in some of the craziest dailies known to man, and it was impossible to erase his stamp from it.
The David Lynch-disowned monster, adapted from Frank Herbert's novel, still remains weird and brilliant because you simply can't extract the Lynch from it, and the studio tried.