Dune

1984 "A world beyond your experience, beyond your imagination."
6.3| 2h17m| PG-13| en
Details

In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 7-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
lauri-aysto One of the fundamental errors in the film is that a great novel of ~600 pages with appendixes on planetary ecology, religious systems etc. has been boiled down to a 2 hour movie. The story is told way too quickly, and several great discoveries in the novel are just given away in the film. At some point it felt like I was watching a trailer for a tv series... Stuff that is essential to the original story has been left out, e.g. Paul's visions on the coming jihad and his struggle with it, the death of Paul's son, etc. The resulting gaps have often been filled with totally idiotic crap.If you are interested in the Dune saga, please read the books. Do not be led to believe that this movie is what the saga is about. I would have rate 1/10 but for the great scene with Patrick Stewart and a pug.
Robert McElwaine Based on the first book in renowned sci-fi author; Frank Herbert's sprawling, epic saga; Dune was a project that had been through some considerable development going back as far as 1971. With Arthur P. Jacobs, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Ridley Scott separately vying to direct with their individual visions of how to bring the classic novel to life, executive producer Dino DeLaurentis eventually settled on hiring avant garde film-maker; David Lynch who had gained critical and commercial notoriety for his 1980 biographical period hit; The Elephant Man to helm the project. With a budget of $40 million (a costly sum for a big budget picture at the time) and fevered anticipation that came with the film, due to it's cult fan base there was a much riding on it's financial success. Lamentably however it was anything but; merely raking in $30.9 million at the world-wide box office after opening to scathing reviews which would later lead Lynch to distance himself from the movie; a cowardly move in my personal estimations given that being not only the director but acting as screenwriter in transferring the epic tale from page to screen. In short, the buck had to irretrievably end with him. At only 131 minutes in length with it's source material being 412 pages in length and embracing an insurmountable wealth of characters, too numerous to count ; even with it's opening introductory monologue from the entrancingly beautiful Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan (daughter to the Emperor) laying the basic foundations of the plot; it does little to prevent if from descending in to incomprehensible pap. Many scenes involving much needed exposition, that would have laid out crucial plot details were clearly left discarded on the cutting room floor, and it was left to predominantly superlative cast of actors to bravely struggle to salvage any kind of discernible meaning from it. To their credit they for the most part give it their all; with Kyle MacLachlan admirably conveying the young Atredies heir personal dynamic from wide-eyed, cocky young buck to the self-confident, charismatic religious icon that is Muad'Dib with ease. With slightly varied support from Jürgen Prochnow as his noble, sage father with Patrick Stewart, Freddie Jones and Dean Stockwell offering further wise, informative words of counsel as members of the Atredies entourage. With Francesca Annis making a demure, reserved and assured presence as the Lady Jessica, mother and concubine to Paul and Duke Leto they neatly round up the caste of their home world of Caladan. Starkly contrasted via mainly decent turns from a range of actors that include the late Kenneth McMillan, the versatile Brad Dourif, Paul L. Smith and pop icon; Sting, they portray the insidious ruling member of the House Harkonnen. McMillan is a revoltingly repugnant presence as the corpulent Baron with Dourif a wily if relatively short lived addition as the deceitful and cunning Mentat; Piter defries. Smith is the dim-witted, brutish ( a fitting term seeing as he played Bluto in Robert Altman's cinematic live action version of; Popeye) "Beast"; Glossu Rabban. Finally there Sting who aesthetically fits the role well with his sharply intense feature, slender frame topped with a fiery mane of red hair. Given the overall short screen time and minimal dialogue he had; he pretty much chews the scenery as he hams it up immensely. What you make of the acting depends I suppose on your personal predilections what with it's operatic, declamatory style but it's arguably one the few redeeming features; and there's very little beyond the phenomenal art deco and the spectacular grandeur of the planetary and intergalactic scenery. The editing is periodically ropy; a clear indicator where potentially vital scenes may have been dropped. It's only Toto and Brian Eno's evocative and spectacular score which resonates a mythological robustness in it's more bombastic moments; and a soothing tranquility in it's quieter moments that remind you that offers anything resembling relief from the tedium. The themes of religious fanaticism and political intrigue and corrupt machinations ultimately feel hollow, without enough meatiness to the narrative to fit the void that is woefully apparent. Not even some of the later scenes on Arrakis which include the then; and I suppose even now are impressively rendered; Giant Worm scenes offer much respite from the disjointed incomprehensibility. And that's including any key scenes with the native Fremen, which offer core exposition of Paul's journey in to manhood as he grows in to the position of religious messiah and warrior leader. Try as they might; co-stars Sean young as his future lover, the dutiful Chani (who is adequate enough) who and Everett McGill who fares better as her honourable and temperate father; the Bremen leader Stilgar can do nothing to elevate proceedings. A failure of monumental proportions; it has perplexingly gained some recognition given that it still manages to earn a moderately respectable score of 6.6 on IMDB; (god only knows why) Lynch even goes so far as to ignore some of the pertinent lore from the novel where upon he gives what is supposed to be a a rousing finale, but is contextually nonsensical. However with some much relevant information lost; I doubt many audience members with noticed or for that matter cared. And that concisely says it all.
robertmaybeth "Game of thrones" in space, 12 years before it was ever written. We are told the rough cut ran 4 hours, Lynch wanted it to be at least 3 but the studio ordered it cut so as to allow more screenings in the theaters (a common thing in American cinema). But I have the impression the film would still have come out much the same regardless of the finished length... this film aims high, nearly achieves it yet ultimately can't achieve what the filmmakers set out to do. There's much to admire about this film and so many things about it that are ultimately pointless and frustrating. I had never read "Dune" so I had no expectations; even so it's clear there must be a lot of the book behind the dialogue and film elements. There's plenty of mythos present for "game of thrones in space" that it appears to be nowadays, and the film makers manage to convey a lot of it in a way that makes you want to know more. But that's the problem with this film adaptation - there's just enough back-story to make it a compelling watch but too little is adequately explained to make it satisfying. We have a classic rivalry with good guys (House Atreides) and bad guys (the emperor, House Harkonnen) along with a small but powerful group that will need to have it's loyalties adjusted (the Fremens) if the conflict (the fight for the vital spice "Melange" that grants its user almost magical powers). The good guys include Baron Atreides (Jurgen Prochnow) and his son Paul, (Kyle Machlachlan, making his film debut)squaring off against the evil (not to mention thoroughly vile) Baron Harkonnen and his trained killer Feyd Rautha (Sting, in a baffling but still convincing choice of casting). The Atreides must travel to the planet Arrakis, the only source of the vital spice in the universe. Little do they know the emperor and the Harkonnens have plotted to let them get settled on the planet then destroy them - particularly Paul, who the emperor has been ordered, (by some squishy squid villain or another that lives in a giant aquarium) to murder. All the elements for a great story are there, and for the most part, the film-makers live up to it. If oyu can ignore the often ponderous, pretentious and illogical dialogue, the voice overs that seem like they were written 5 minutes before the scene was shot, and the muddy continuity, this film delivers in a big way. There haven't been production values this good since "Star Wars", and the sets truly create the impression that we are looking at a totally different universe - and manages to sustain that for the entire film. And that's where they take you and leave you, since the story-telling can't live up to the rest of the film. All the elements of an epic story are in place...but where the film ultimately falls on its face is continuity. The characters all have clear motives, all are painted in appropriate shades of dark and light, and the film makers push every emotional button to make you root for team Atreides and against the evil Harkonnens. But sometimes the dialogue just doesn't work, and it doesn't help things when some of the characters deliver their lines as if they were reciting Shakespeare instead of having a simple conversation. In short, I really like this film, have rewatched it more then once, and wish it were better then it is. But the biggest problem with "Dune" is the murky telling of the story, and there are gaps a sand-worm could fit through.. You can't help the nagging idea that somehow, something got lost in translation during production. As it happens, audiences just couldn't relate to this film, which did so poorly at the box office that plans for two sequels were simply dropped (which is unfortunate, since you get the feeling that Lynch might have gotten the story right with just another sequel or two).
nzswanny When you begin to look for movies in every crack of the wall you get to see strange movies like this, which is supposed to be based on a famous source material that I have not read yet. This film is really good because of the fact that it's incredibly bizarre and follows a pure Twin Peaks sort of style to it, and beware bland normal "good popcorn fun" blockbuster fans, this is not a normal fantasy film like how apparently it's source material is. It's incredibly weird, and that is what is so good about it, and it contains surrealist visual effects and picture-perfect cinematography, holding some of the most memorably weird moments in a movie I've seen in a long time. The special effects are brilliant yet strange, and although they may be a bit too weird for some I think others looking for a mind screw will love the uniqueness of this movie. It's a surreal space epic with an 80's soundtrack and an imagination that'll leave you gasping; I watch movies specifically to see weird things like this that I wouldn't see in real life and to be captivated into such a strange world like this is really interesting. Before I think I complimented on the picture-perfect cinematography too minor and I'd say that it has some great movement and angles with the camera photography, so I recommend you analyze that if you give this a watch. You want escapism? This is the real deal.