Dune (1984) Movie Review

Dune (1984)

Rent Dune on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Frank Herbert (novel), David Lynch (screenplay)
Directed by: David Lynch
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Brad Dourif, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell, Max von Sydow, Sean Young
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.

Verdict
This starts out as a complicated sci-fi world that's a bit campy. Two-thirds in it devolves to nonsense as there's no narrative build up. It's just quick scenes that I assume are included just to get us to the end of the book upon which it's based. The studio heavily edited the film, and I guess it was originally much longer. Even the first half isn't good. It's interesting, but the storytelling never does it justice. It only gets worse from there.
Skip it.

Review
After watching the new Dune, I had to go back to watch the original. The new one is a vast improvement, mainly because it takes more time to develop the story and characters. While this one provides a conclusion that the new one doesn't, it ends up being a detriment.

I saw this long ago. I didn't remember much about it other than not being overly impressed. After seeing Villneuve's take and being disappointed that I didn't reach 'the end', I had to watch the first one. It completes a lot more of the book in less time, but that's not a good thing.

Kyle MacLachlan plays Paul Atreides.

This starts with a lot of voiceover that's made worse because it literally is a talking head. A question I had from the 2021 version that's made more prominent by the voiceover in this version is that Paul (Kyle MacLachlan) is the messiah for the people of Arrakis.. Why is Paul the savior for a planet to which he's never traveled? Apparently the Bene Gesserit, a sisterhood to which Paul's mother belongs, implanted this idea into the Fremen of Arrakis though I'm still unclear why Paul is the savior of these people specifically.

This movie looks a bit low budget. In comparison, context is crucial. The new Dune is 37 years newer. The quality of Dune 1984 isn't terrible. It fits in with contemporary Star Wars production quality. While it's campy, it definitely seems worse looking at it now. Then again Aliens is a contemporary, looks better, and avoids camp.

I feel like I need to have read the books to understand what's going on. Having seen 2021 certainly helps my understanding, but it's clear this movie is cramming a lot of information into the story. It would have helped to streamline this and cut extemporaneous elements. I'm guessing it's a case of 'it was in the book so it's included.' I doubt all of these plot points will come up later.

Paul Atreides riding that desert worm.

There is a lot of inner thought voiceover, I assume it's an effort to get characters thoughts in the book on screen. This movie is stuck trying to be faithful to the book, and adapting to a different medium. You just can't do both. Mediums are different and the story should be modified to suit. This movie runs for forty-five minutes after the 2021 version ends. This one is less chosen savior and more distress on an alien world. I like that narrative better as 2021 really pushes the chosen one trope.

Having just seen  Dune (2021) it's hard not to compare the two. I really like the hand signals in 2021. Also, 2021 introduces narrative elements better. I understand what's going on better from 2021 than 1984. Narrative changes in 2021 work much better. 

I'm sure part of the problem is being bound by the book. This takes some giant leaps in moving the plot forward. This movie rushes to fit a conclusion into the runtime by dropping the narrative. There's a scene of Paul becoming a true Fremen, training troops, then attacking. There's nothing in between to link the scenes. Two years pass as this movie is flying through the plot on a rocket. This movie goes from kind of wanting the audience to understand what's happening to 'oh crap forty-five minutes left and more content than will fit.' The studio heavily edited Lynch's movie and I'm guessing the last half bore the brunt of editing to get this closer to two hours. I wouldn't be surprised if the editing is what hampers the understanding throughout. I don't mind this movie, but it devolves to nonsense.