Since the passing of David Lynch my local cinema's been showing a season of his films, and today I went to a theatrical screening of the 1984 Dune. I'm a long-time defender of Lynch's Dune, and I've seen every different cut of the film over the years. This was the theatrical cut, which is not my preferred version, but it was a good quality print and after years of watching it on a TV I enjoyed experiencing it in a different way.
Lynch's signature use of low-frequency sound was more powerful with the theatrical speakers, with the screams of the sandworms being particularly unsettling. Seeing the movie on the big screen made me appreciate the quality of its production design, which I'd rank alongside that of Alien and Blade Runner. Dune's overall quality falls short of those films, but its sets, costumes and art direction are worthy of comparison. It's an incredible looking movie and I find it to be one of the most artistically fascinating sci-fi films ever made. It has such a distinct look and sound, conjuring a nightmarishly dark ambience unlike any other movie I can think of. It's the closest I've seen a live action film come to capturing the feel of Warhammer 40k, which is hardly surprising as Dune – both the book and Lynch's movie – was a major influence on Games Workshop.
I still say the best version of Dune '84 is the SpiceDiver cut, which I believe is now an official version of the film as it was released on Blu-ray by the current rights holder, Lionsgate. You could argue it's not official as Lynch never endorsed it, but then Lynch never endorsed the theatrical cut either. If anyone's never seen Dune '84, or is tempted to revisit it, I recommend the SpiceDiver cut. It's available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/spicediverk
A while ago I read an excerpt from Lynch's unfinished script for his Dune sequel, adapted from Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah. It contained an interesting twist concerning the Baron's doctor from the first film, played by Leonardo Cimino. The sequel was going to reveal that the doctor was actually the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, who fans of Herbert's books will recognise as the main villain in Dune Messiah. Lynch's second film was going to begin with a flashback scene taking place after the death of Duncan Idaho. The script describes Duncan's body floating above the ground with his shield still active. Scytale finds him and takes his corpse to the Bene Tleilaxu, who use it to create the ghola Hayt. I don't know if Lynch intended for the Baron's doctor to be Scytale all along or if it was just an idea he came up with while writing the sequel, but it was an interesting way of connecting the two movies. I wish his Dune II had been made.
Speaking of Scytale, Batman himself, Robert Pattinson, is in talks to play the role in Denis Villeneuve's next Dune movie: https://deadline.com/2025/04/dune-3-rob-pattinson-1236363305/
Lynch's signature use of low-frequency sound was more powerful with the theatrical speakers, with the screams of the sandworms being particularly unsettling. Seeing the movie on the big screen made me appreciate the quality of its production design, which I'd rank alongside that of Alien and Blade Runner. Dune's overall quality falls short of those films, but its sets, costumes and art direction are worthy of comparison. It's an incredible looking movie and I find it to be one of the most artistically fascinating sci-fi films ever made. It has such a distinct look and sound, conjuring a nightmarishly dark ambience unlike any other movie I can think of. It's the closest I've seen a live action film come to capturing the feel of Warhammer 40k, which is hardly surprising as Dune – both the book and Lynch's movie – was a major influence on Games Workshop.
I still say the best version of Dune '84 is the SpiceDiver cut, which I believe is now an official version of the film as it was released on Blu-ray by the current rights holder, Lionsgate. You could argue it's not official as Lynch never endorsed it, but then Lynch never endorsed the theatrical cut either. If anyone's never seen Dune '84, or is tempted to revisit it, I recommend the SpiceDiver cut. It's available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/spicediverk
A while ago I read an excerpt from Lynch's unfinished script for his Dune sequel, adapted from Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah. It contained an interesting twist concerning the Baron's doctor from the first film, played by Leonardo Cimino. The sequel was going to reveal that the doctor was actually the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, who fans of Herbert's books will recognise as the main villain in Dune Messiah. Lynch's second film was going to begin with a flashback scene taking place after the death of Duncan Idaho. The script describes Duncan's body floating above the ground with his shield still active. Scytale finds him and takes his corpse to the Bene Tleilaxu, who use it to create the ghola Hayt. I don't know if Lynch intended for the Baron's doctor to be Scytale all along or if it was just an idea he came up with while writing the sequel, but it was an interesting way of connecting the two movies. I wish his Dune II had been made.
Speaking of Scytale, Batman himself, Robert Pattinson, is in talks to play the role in Denis Villeneuve's next Dune movie: https://deadline.com/2025/04/dune-3-rob-pattinson-1236363305/
