Dune (Widescreen)

This movie was panned by audiences and critics alike when its highly-anticipated release occurred in 1984, and since then it has become one of the legendary "bad films" of Hollywood (think "Heaven's Gate" or "Ishtar"). But the fact remains, DUNE simply doesn't deserve this treatment, as evidenced by its steadily growing popularity over the years. Misunderstood in 1984, DUNE is more and more being appreciated for the magnificent film that it is. It was ahead of its time, but its time has come. Why was this movie so despised? I believe that it's because it tried to be all things to all people. This movie disappointed the "typical" moviegoer who expected to see "Star Wars" but instead got a gothic, Shakespearian epic tale of political intrigue and messianic destiny. Hard-core fans of Herbert's fabulous novels were disappointed by the relatively underdeveloped characters and key omitted sequences, not to mention the un-Herbertian presence of David Lynch's stylistic elements (for example, the "heart plugs"). Hence, no one was pleased...and the movie bombed. But DUNE bombed undeservedly. Any objective eye in either of the camps mentioned above will realize that DUNE does a yeoman's job of compressing a far-reaching epic into two and a half hours (try filming War and Peace in under three hours), providing a taste for the epic tale. The medium of film simply does not provide good translations of great books in most cases (with a few exception), so DUNE the movie needs to be appreciated for its own sake. As to those who found this movie too complex, well, don't be offended, but maybe this kind of thing is above your head intellectually. This is the version to see (in my opinion the "Smithee" version(s) are so poorly edited that they aren't worth watching (although the added scenes are fascinating, especially as they relate to Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Halleck and the Fremen sequences). Hopefully, Mr. Lynch will realize what a great work he created with DUNE and return to produce a real expanded Director's Cut. Until then, though, this is your best bet...and by the way, consider investigating the books, both Frank Herbert's original six volumes and the new Brian Herbert-Anderson "prequel" series. All excellent.

TO SAY I LOVE ' DUNE ' WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT. Quite simply, the " Dune " series of books has captured my heart, mind and soul like no other series of books I have ever read in my life. Eune blends together science fiction, future history, religion, politics, psychology, family struggles, and personal human development and drama like no other series in history. It has been said before but I'll say it again, DUNE IS THE GREATEST SERIES IN SCIENCE FICTION HISTORY. I was 7 YEARS OLD when this movie came out, a smart little immigrant kid from Nicaragua who wasn't White, was learning to speak English and loved music. I had a boy crush on Sting back then because I loved his music and thought he was a great musician ( and still is ). So when I saw this movie for the first... I honestly can't remember the first time I saw because I HAVE LITERALLY SEEN IT OVER 100 TIMES, WHEN I SAY I HAVE SEEN IT OVER 100 TIMES I HAVE SEEN EVERY VERSION OF THIS MOVIE THAT EXISTS OVER 100 TIMES. I don't watch it for the fine piece of movie-making that it is, because it DEFINITELY IS NOT A GREAT FILM AND DEFINITELY THE LOW POINT OF DAVID LYNCH'S CAREER, even though Mr. Lynch is a certifiable genius and for the life of me I cannot fathom why he couldn't make this work, but everybody I speak to who knows " Dune " and knows david Lynch always agree: To bring a masterpiece like " Dune " to the silver screen, a special kind of director was needed, and that director could have only been DAVID LYNCH. Quuite honestly, the things I hate the most about this movie deal with the pace and constant repetitiveness that takes place throughout this movie. While the book itself flowed like a well-played song played on Gurney Halleck's basilet, the movie was plodding and slow, at times shoddily shot, dark and full of ceaseless babble, pyscho-drivel and messianic visions of a future that some '60's hippie from San Francisco on LSD could have only come up with. Paul Atreides ( played by Kyle Maclachlan ) was always having strange visions about his future, and although these visions were central to the movie because Paul was " The Kwisatz Haderach ", the Universe's Super-Being the audience doesn't know that, and NOBODY who has never read the books will even know the F is going on, they'll probably turn it off within the first 15 minutes. It's not everybody's type of movie, it's not a movie you take a date to, it's not a movie where you stand up and cheer, or laugh, or cry, quite simply you sit there and take it all in. It's a story plain and simple, a narrative account of how a priveledged young man who seems to just be a normal person has a special destiny in him that he neither chose nor wanted but ultimately has to accept ( like Jesus of Nazareth, and the allusions and similarities to Jesus Christ couldn't be more obvious ). The names in the movie are alternative spellings of various Islamic, Hebrew and Christan names, and in the other Dune books, particularly the " Butlerian Jihad " series of books the Islamic references are very apparent, like the progenitor of the Fremen, whose name was ISMAEL. Many times I have seen this movie only for the BREAT SOUNDTRACK BY THE 80'S BAND TOTO, OF " Africa " and " Rosanna " fame, and more than once I have sat through the movie to hear the final, memorable, haunting piece of music at the end, the masterpiece of instrumental music known as " Take My Hand ". THIS MOVIE IS FROEZN IN TIME FOR ME. THIS IS A PIECE OF MY CHILDHOOD THAT I WILL ALWAYS CARRY WITH ME THROUGH MY LIFE AND HAS BEEN LIKE A VERY DEAR FRIEND TO ME. EVEN TO THIS DAY I COME TO AMAZON OR TO THE LIBRARY TO PICK UP THE NEWEST ' DUNE ' BOOKS BY BRIAN HERBERT AND KEVIN J. ANDERSON, AND ALTHOUGH I'M ANGRY THAT BRIAN HERBERT WANTS TO MILK ' DUNE ' FOR ALL IT'S WORTH HE HAS SOME GOOD IDEAS AND MANAGES TO FLESH IT OUT MORE AND MORE. Sadly, like everything in life " Dune " can't live forever, and one day the series will finally end but I STILL REMEMBER EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, FROM ' DUNE " to Messiah, Children, God Emperor, Heretics, Chapterhouse, House Atreides, House Harkonnen, House Corrino, Bulerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, Battle of Corrin... YES, I HAVE READ ALL THOSE BOOKS, OVER 100,000 PAGES OF DUNE!!! I haven't read " Hunters " or " Sandworms " but I know what they're about, and the new ones are just the last drops of milk from Mr. Herbert's cash cow, but I'll always be a fan and I will always love " DUNE ". LONG LIVE THE FIGTHERS!!!!!!!!!

A Sci-Fi classic! Frank Herbert's breakout novel about the future with frighteningly familiar behaviors and problems. The movie's technology is spot on considering it was produced in the early 80s. Characters are drawn from the past such as Jose Ferrer and Max Von Sydow with new and up and coming stars like Sting and Patrick Stewart. As Gurney Halleck says, "Behold, as a wild ass in the desert, go I forth to my work" to watch this excellent movie!

David Lynch's film version of Dune became a highly controversial work. Although it is considered one the most impressive failures of film history, it has also become a cult film among many "Dune" fans. Even today, almost 20 years after it was made, opinions towards it are most of the times polarized. In the early 80's, Lynch was a young director who had just made himself a name with "The Elephant Man". Curiously enough, instead of relying on a mature director, Dino de Laurentis offered him the direction (and the writing of the script) of his next big production: "Dune". Lynch at those times had not even read the novel!. The charge of the production was to be given to another relatively new comer: Rafaella De Laurentis (Dino's daughter). Lynch was given tons of resources to make a classic: a tremendous cast, excellent technicians, magical special effects (for that era), shooting on live locations and many, many etceteras. What resulted from all this was almost great...almost. Yes, the task of translating Frank Herbert's Magnus Science fiction opus to a film has to be considered gargantuan, nevertheless, the film fails not in the "gargantuan" aspects, but in its finesses. Specifically, I consider that the film fails due to its blurred script. Probably it was an error to let Lynch write the script. The issue maybe was that at that time he was not "immersed" enough in the Dune universe so as to achieve a clarity that could make the general public grasp what was going on this complex story. We can give thanks to Lynch that we did not get a kind of "Star Wars" plot that would have been far worse, but as it is, the film remains clueless to many common spectators. I also consider that some of Lynch's added personal details like the heart plugs of the Harkonnen soldiers, the bloody scenes of the Baron, and the terribly awful rain ending are negative points that to my humble opinion can be considered of simply bad taste. Cheap errors that the great cast would have managed to surprass in the case that they would have been given a congruent and effective script. Taking this aside, we can consider "Dune" an impressive achievement in many fields; let's just mention some of them: * An excellent cast lead by a consistent (with the Herbert book) Paul Atreides played by Kyle MacLachlan (whose career unfortunately never went too far), a majestic Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis), an excellent noble Duke Leto (Jurgen Prochnow), a superb Gurney Halleck (a young and impetuous Patrick Stewart!), a loyal Duncan Idaho (Richard Jordan), a tough Stilgar (Everett McGill), a mysterious Dr. Keynes (Max Von Sydow), a wise Thufir Hawatt (Freddie Jones) and we could go on and on. The casting question mark was definitively Sting unconvincingly playing Feyd-Rautha: he never fits along the great group of actors that were around him. Also, to my personal feeling José Ferrer is quite stiff playing the Emperor Padishah. * Nicely developed creatures by Carlo Rimbaldi (take for example the navigator and the worms...considering 1980's standards) and credible special effects lead by Kit West. * A beautiful music score by Toto who managed to create a distinctive "Dune" feeling with an effective synthesis of classic and pop elements. A track by Brian Eno (The Prophecy Theme) added even more weight to the musical part. * Well chosen desert filming sites (it was in Mexico), exuberant costumes and beautifully created and constructed stages (for example the Emperor's Throne Room, The scenes inside Sietch Tabr main room, the Arrakeen and Caladan palaces, etc). Overall, this is a magnificent production marred by an erratic script, which nevertheless is worth viewing.

The DVD Arrived In Perfect Condition & Plays Well. It’s A Cool SciFi Movie Starring Sting.

One of my more controversial opinions, no doubt due to childhood influence and lots of drugs, is that Dune is a good movie. Flawed? You betcha. Heavy-handed? From David Lynch I'd expect nothing less. Existentially bizarre? I'd be disappointed if it weren't! I remember this film from my earliest years, usually commented on by my parents as a bad film, but as others have said, Dune is one of those quintessentially eighties movies that defines the time by tone and mood. And, delving at last into Frank Herbert's classic novel, it strikes me how faithful this film is to the book, which is probably why the movie didn't work for so many. The Dune novel is set in the year 10,191, in a distant future few of us can conceive, and a universe that is so alien with touches of the familiar. Also, Herbert's work is on a truly grand scale, a tale of feuding, feudal houses that rule whole planets, and a complex intergalactic political and economical system, intersections of religion, politics, economics, ecology . . . honestly, it's a wonder Lynch was able to put it into one film at all. The storyline, once you understand the basic plot (which is explained fairly clearly in Irulan's opening voiceover and the Emperor's meeting with the third-stage Guild Navigator (the gross pink think floating in the black container, the thing that clearly has a woman's genitalia for a mouth), is coherent and adheres to the general plot of the novel, with of course the David Lynch touch added. Critics at the time slammed the film for being "dark" and "ugly" but considering it's a tale filled with death and betrayal, I question how critics would expect something lighter. In any case I love this movie, flawed or not.

An epic tale of prophecy and redemption. Incredible performances by an international cast of actors. From the very beginning of the movie, an exquisitely spoken monologue by a young Virginia Madsen, you are pulled into an alternate reality. No explanations, no backstory, no nothing. You're in. Other reviewers have commented at length on how closely the film resembles Frank Herbert's original book. But I don't think that matters. What matters is that director David Lynch took Herbert's work and turned it into a deeply engaging masterpiece of cinema. One of the two or three best science fiction movies ever made.

David Lynch's mind is weird and the movie doesn't exactly follow the novel but it's definitely worth the $5. A star studded cast, amazing sets, gorgeous score by Toto!

Solo la compre por los 2 minutos que sale Ernesto Laguardia.

Lu au collège sur recommandation d'un enseignant... nostalgie?

this dvd does not play on a uk dvd player as it is the wrong region and posting it back is a rip off

Special effects were amazing

I wanted to see it again and was pleased but I do not think I will buy the sequels. One can only strech a story so fard.