In the far future the universe is ruled by powerful houses overseen by an emperor. When the emperor (Jose Ferrer) believes House Atreides Duke Leto (Jurgen Prochnow) is becoming too powerful and well liked he hatches a plot with their sworn enemies House Harkonnen to destroy them. In the resulting chaos Leto’s son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan) will escape and build his powers whilst living with the Fremen, the native people of planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. 

David Lynch’s attempt at bringing Dune to the big screen is quite frankly bonkers. My attempt at a synopsis above has drastically oversimplified the plot which also takes in mind altering drugs (the spice mined on Arrakis), giant sand worms and a witch like religious cult who can use telepathy and are hell bent on controlling the universe through selective breeding whilst waiting for their messiah. In an effort to squeeze as much as he could from the book onto the screen in a running time of 137 minutes the film becomes quite a mess. Characters are introduced and promptly disappear for long periods or never return. Whilst storylines fleshed out in great detail in the book get a quick passing over with perhaps some narration to explain them a little more. 

Dune’s set design and costumes feel like a cross between Star Wars (1977), Flash Gordon (1980) and the not yet released Brazil (1985). It is futuristic, camp and grimy all at the same time. The special effects have also not aged well, particularly the shield suits that the Atreides wear when fighting which reminded me of video games of the era. The soundtrack from rockers Toto and Brian Eno are also very much of the era and reminiscent of Flash Gordon’s Queen soundtrack. 

The cast is rather eclectic as well. It is perhaps saying something that the opening credits do not once mention any of the actors involved instead choosing to honour the creature designers, costume designers and composers. They do get a slightly more ornate mention at the end of the film. Kyle MacLachlan is frankly wooden in his first ever feature film, quite an issue given he is meant to be the heart of the movie. Whilst the stand out is probably the craziest performance of them all from Kenneth McMillan as the insane Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The likes of Brad Dourif, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell and Max Von Sydow all make appearances as well. Stewart’s performance reminded me of Timothy Dalton in Flash Gordon whilst Sting mostly just makes weird faces whilst topless. Sean Young is also completely wasted as Chani, Paul’s wife.

I have to admit to being bored by the halfway point when the film decides to rush through so much Dune lore as to become incomprehensible. Something perhaps the upcoming film will avoid by virtue of the fact that it stops at that point. 

In my anticipation of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming film I have now revisited the book and film I have not consumed since I was a teenager and I have to say I am slightly concerned as to whether Villeneuve can pull it off. I hope that some artistic changes have been made for the sake of modernising the story to create a sci-if epic. This film on the other hand is now more of a curiosity in the conversation of all of the other failed attempts at bringing Dune to the big screen.