Well, Clan McClarey, as is our custom, will be toasting the new year by watching Dune (1984), a film so spectacularly bad that is entertaining, a true train wreck of the filmmaking art. Director David Lynch in the above video explains just how much a disaster the three years the film took to make became for him. In a 1985 interview, below, he is, unsurprisingly, somewhat more circumspect, although he seems haunted by the ordeal he has just put behind him.
– and yet, if I had to rewatch any of the three David Lynch movies I’ve seen (Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, and this one), it’d be Dune.
– Am I imagining it, or did he damn Kyle MacLachlan with oblique praise? He said that they were looking for certain qualities and never found them – that statement could be the result of editing, though. He also said that everyone else on the set was impressed by him.
– Just seeing those clips reminds me of a description of Lord Voldemort: he did great things. Terrible, but great.
Don’tknow too much about Dune, but we’re there two different film versions? Is this the one with Sting?
Yes this is the one with Sting. Sci Fi channel had a TV version mini-series in 2000.
“– Just seeing those clips reminds me of a description of Lord Voldemort: he did great things. Terrible, but great.”
John Hurt doesn’t so much steal that scene as the whole scene steals the movie, maybe the entire series of movies. Everything that happens after that point is just tying up loose ends.
It was atmospheric, and many individual scenes were effective. It was also ridiculously over-the-top. Who on earth thought David Lynch would be the right man to adapt someone else’s work? The Bear likes everything Lynch has done, from Straight Story to Inland Empire (Eraserhead, not so much.) But he’s got to be doing his own thing, where he can add rabbits living a dull existence in a dingy apartment if he wants to.
Mr. McClarey: my sister also liked the movie. Likened it to a train wreck, so bad it was good. Best wishes for the New Year.
Just goes to show the best doesn’t always have to be good!
Same to you DJH!
Pinky, watch The Elephant Man. It is one of the few films in recent decades that makes use of overt Christian imagery.
Dune (in all of its incarnations) has long been a favorite of mine. For the David Lynch one, the Judas Booth version, which adds nearly an hour, is a personal favorite.
Interestingly enough, the mountain ranges south of Juarez, where many of external desert scenes were filmed, look strangely familiar.
For those who have not read any of the expanded Dune universe by Frank Herbert’s son, Brian Herbert, I highly recommend them. There is a literal ton of back story to the overall saga.
Any thoughts on the new SYFY miniseries of Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke? I just saw the first episode- The Overlords. Seems more timely than ever!.
I have seen only bits and pieces thus far, not enough to make a judgment.