Dune (DVD)

Before David Lynch was honoured with the creative ability to do pretty much whatever he wanted with his movies he embarked on one of the movie industry's biggest projects at that time (not forgetting the awful Heaven's Gate of course), the task he set himself was to transform Frank Herbert's epic novel Dune into a movie. This grandiose movie looks as epic as Star Wars, but has something dirtier, menacing and almost sadomasochistic about it. Set in the year 10991 Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Jose Ferrer) feels threatened; one of his servant races (Atreides) is rising in status and strength. Choosing not to trust House Atreides he sends them to the planet ...  Read the complete review

"The book is always better than the film. Discuss." Even after over twenty years, Dune is still a very very weird film. Cult director and probable insane genius David Lynch helmed this 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's doorstop science-fiction novel. Specific gripes first: my copy of the DVD is a bit glitchy. The transfer seems to have been a pretty ropy job in places with freezes, pixellation and skipping (that might just be my copy) and the sound is out of sync with the actors by up to about half a second in some scenes (which is probably the same for everyone). I only paid £3.99 in a clearance sale, but even so. Also, this ...  Read the complete review

Author Frank Herbert’s complex and fascinating vision of the future has only gained in popularity since the first publication of the epic ‘Dune’ in 1965. Combining classical fantasy themes and innovative science fiction concepts and yet still highly tuned to contemporary concerns, a Hollywood motion picture adaptation was, at the very least, inevitable. Herbert’s futuristic vision is incredibly detailed and involved, and even leaving aside the numerous sequels to the first novel, Dune’s vast scope and descriptive, expensive-sounding imagery deterred production companies and crews from pushing the project forward. A balance needed to be found between the complexity of the ...  Read the complete review

Anyone who has ever read any of Frank Herbert's Dune novels will realise the mammoth task which stood before David Lynch when he attempted to translate the first into a respectable movie. Well mammoth task or not he set about trying and the result is well erm...questionable, but at the same time still a damn fine movie. Does that make sense? Well probably not, and neither does the movie to be fair...UNLESS you have read the novel first, otherwise you will undoubtably find youself very very lost. I am not even going to go into the story very deeply because it is simply going to lose you otherwise. Read the book. Bascically, there is a planet where a mineral ...  Read the complete review

After reading the book of Dune it was only in my curiosity of seeing Lynch’s adaptation of the novel, which I had briefly seen as a teenager and like Blade Runner (which was eventually to become my favorite film) I didn’t appreciate it. In fact after watching the film directly after completing the novel I was not only dumb founded at the mere mess of a film that Dune was but the fact that one of my favorite directors could even make mistakes (something I think he wasn't in control of from the very beginning). Stated by Lynch himself that it is his worse film, the director is nothing more than self critical, which puts my mind at rest. The main ...  Read the complete review