Roger Ebert said that Dune was the worst movie of 1984. A lot of other critics had similar things to say when it came out. I have to concede it's a mess of a movie but that was the year that Lars Von Triers released his tedious and dull The Element of Crime so Dune can't be the worst movie of 1984. Want more proof? Hot Dog the Movie came out that year, as did Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Man, the more I look into 1984 the more stinkers turn up. Double Plus Ungood. The IMDb says Dune is the 9th most popular movie of the year but they don't tell me where that rank came from. Yahoo Movies doesn't list it in the top 25 popular movies they list for 1984 but they do include Deathstalker at number 12. WTF? Dune was the 22nd top grossing film of 1984. With a $27 million gross and a cost of $40-45 million it didn't make it's money back that first year. People didn't rush out to see it and the ones that did go see it didn't tell their pals to get their butts into those theater seats. I went to see it in the theater and enjoyed it for for the most part. I was heavily into SF Fandom at the time and the fans I knew either liked David Lynch's version or they hated it. It's a huge book with a complicated story. Very hard to adapt. There were many versions of the script by several directors and producers before the one we finally see.
I was never a big fan of the novel by Frank Herbert. I read Dune in the summer of 1970 when I got the Ace paperback from a guy who was selling off a lot of his science fiction. I also got all the Ballantine Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs from the same guy. I never read past the 4th or 5th book but my mom read the whole 2 dozen. Kind of odd for her, she normally reads romance novels, though the books of the 21st century are much different than the Harlequins of the 1970's. I sold Dune and the Tarzan books, along with a lot of others, when I moved to the United States in December of 1978. A few years ago I collected a set of the Ballantine Tarzan books; first for the Richard Powers covers and secondly to finish reading the series some day. I'll let you know when I get to them. I didn't replace Dune and I don't plan too.
I had a laserdisc of the movie for several years before I bought the 2006 dvd. It's got the theatrical version of the movie on one side of the dvd and the Extended version on the other side. David Lynch still has his name on the theatrical version but he doesn't like to talk about it. He once said he didn't think he should have made the film. He took his name off the Extended Version when it was cobbled together for televison. It has a lot of the violence cut out and a few deleted scenes added. It starts with a long intro with some really crappy paintings. I don't mind the voice overs but the paintings they use are a sad thing. Lynch and his team did a great job bringing their interesting version of the world of Paul Muad'Dib to life. The movie looks stunning at times. Most of the special effects are pretty good and some of the sets are pure eye candy. The Emperor's throne room and the visit by the Navigator is one of my favorite scenes. Just a taste of the weirdness to come. I like many of the character actors; some of whom later turn up in Twin Peaks and other Lynch work. I still mostly enjoy watching the movie but don't need to see it that often. I'll put it on the top of the stack in a few years. I'll probably watch the two Dune tv miniseries first.
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