Dune (1984)

Editor's Note The story behind the adaptation of Frank Herbert's massive, seminal science fiction novel DUNE is a well-known one, spanning 20 years and involving directors as diverse as Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott, before the job fell to David Lynch. DUNE tells a story set far in the future, in the year 10191, where factions war over control of the substance named "spice." The clan Atreides currently produces the spice, found on the planet Arrakis, but they are plotted against by the Harkonnens. After a stunning betrayal, it is revealed that Paul Atreides, heir to the clan, is actually the prophesized savior of the Fremen, who are native people of Arrakis. DUNE is famously an enormous, expensive production that was critically lambasted and ended up a financial flop. In part to recoup their losses, Universal Studio edited a longer edition of the film to be shown on television, but director Lynch disavowed this version. But in subsequent years the film has been reappraised and reappreciated, and the extended version has been coveted by fans worldwide. Both the original and longer cut of the film are available together in DUNE: EXTENDED EDITION.

	José Ferrer
	Linda Hunt
	Francesca Annis
	Kyle MacLachlan
	Sean Young
	Max Von Sydow
	Dean Stockwell
	Sting
	Virginia Madsen
	Jack Nance
	Freddie Jones
	Richard Jordan
	Everett McGill
	Max Von Sydow
	Leonardo Cimino
	Brad Dourif
	Silvana Mangano
	Alan Splet - Sound Effects Editor
	Antony Gibbs - Editor
	Bob Ringwood - Costume Designer
	Pierluigi Basile - Art Director
	Daniel Lanois - Composer
	Anthony Masters - Production Designer
	Brian Eno - Composer
	Freddie Francis - Director of Photography
	Toto - Composer
	Marty Paich - Composer
	David Lynch - Director

DUNE seemed to generally baffle audiences and critics when it was released. And rightfully so, as the finished version of the film condenses much of the detail in the novel so necessary to understanding the action in the movie. The result is one of the most brilliant failures in motion picture history. Lynch crams in so many visual ideas and gets the feel of the book so well that viewers don't want to admit to themselves that after the halfway point, the film seems to zip through the action so quickly that it's impossible to get all of what is going on. Still, it looks so amazing that it has certainly earned its somewhat fanatical cult following. Variety
"...Imaginative....Visually unique and teeming with incident....There's just about always something going on for the senses to appreciate....[The] cast is also first-rate..." 12/05/1984