Review: David Lynch's "Dune" is as singular as Lynch himself
Movie of the Week #26 surveys the late director's controversial adaptation
David Lynch was, until his death last week, my favorite living American filmmaker, as you’ll probably know if you’ve read or listened to my work for any length of time. I hope to write or record a longer-form tribute to him in the near future, but for now, I’m pulling up this review of his 1984 DUNE - from my book 200 Reviews, but not available here on Fade to Lack before - as our Movie of the Week, and a nod to a director so singular that even this, his most notable commercial ‘misfire’, is vital, fascinating, and unmistakably Lynch.
I’ll also note that this review was originally written before Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two was released, and before I re-evaluated Part One and found myself warming to it. So I don’t agree with everything I originally wrote here, though I think it was a fair reaction when all we had to compare was the first half of Villeneuve’s adaptation. And in my heart of hearts, there’s still a lot I prefer about Lynch’s take on the material. Enjoy…
Dune
1984, Dir. David Lynch
David Lynch’s Dune is many magnitudes more interesting a movie than Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and it really isn’t a contest. Let me tell you why.
First off, I should say that there are few if any directors I share as close a wavelength with as David Lynch. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Lynch partisan. His work speaks to me. And there’s a lot of Lynch in this Dune – more of his personality and preoccupations than I’d remembered from previous viewings, revisiting it now. The ‘space fold’ sequence, the Water of Life/birth of Aria scene, all the dream sequences…it’s a lot closer to Eraserhead, Twin Peaks: The Return, and Inland Empire (the most avant-garde points of his commercial career) than his other films.
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