User Guide

DUNE - THE FILM

1984

Directed: David Lynch

Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Jurgen Prochnow, Brad Dourif, Jose Ferrer, Kenneth MacMillan,

Linda Hunt, Sean Young, Sting, Max Von Sydow, Freddie Jones

Following the critical and box office success of Bladerunner in 1981, the film based on Philip K Dick’s sci-fi

classic ‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep’, took up the option to transfer Frank Herbert’s magnum opus to

the cinema. Ridley Scott, the director of the Bladerunner was linked to the script at one time, as was Roger

Corman and Alexander Jodorowsky. The job finally fell to David Lynch then known as the creator of the cult

classic Eraserhead and the man who wrote and directed Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and, most recently, Twin

Peaks. Lynch embarked on an ambitious $50 million attempt to screen the book with a star - studded cast.

Herbert and Lynch met and rapidly became aware that much of the film’s impact had been robbed by George

Lucas’s 1977 classic Star Wars, which seemed to owe a heavy debt to ‘Dune’. In fact the pair counted sixteen

points of similarity between the two films, though no action was ever taken. Ironically Lynch had been offered

the third of the Star Wars trilogy, Return Of The Jedi a year previously in 1984.

Kyle MacLachlan, now famous as Peaks’ Agent Cooper plays the young Paul Atreides in a film sprawling across

140 minutes, however producer Dino De Laurentiis wanted it to be longer and so did Herbert who favoured

a TV mini series. The writer was nevertheless brought in to advise during shooting in Mexico. A longer version

(190 minutes) was eventually re-cut for TV against Lynch’s wish.

Dune opens with a voice - over from the Emperor’s daughter Princess Irulan describing the cosmos circa 10,191

and the tactical importance of the planet before the film heads into a lengthy exposition about the characters

and feudal politics central to the plot. The second half contains much more swashbuckling action in an attempt

to balance out the rather slow first half. The breathtaking sets, constructed by Oscar winner Carlo Ramballi,

styling and costumes - based on feudal Italy - owe a great deal to the classic old Flash Gordon series but the

film struggles to significantly transfer the grand scope of the novel and is forced to omit a great deal. For the

full story read Ed Naha ‘The Making Of Dune’.

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