Violence/Gore: Lots of battle scenes, and one nifty scene of the Baron Harkkonen exsanguinating a kid.

Sex/Nudity: None, unless you count Sting in those flying underpants.

Best Line: “Because he IS the Kwizatz Haderach!”

Score: (OK, so I’m biased)

Everyone has a movie or two that they remember from childhood - movies that can lift them up and take them back, not because they’re high art, or even particularly good, but because they’re your movies, and regardless of what other people think of them, you’ll love them no matter what. For me, David Lynch’s DUNE is one of those movies.

Frank Herbert’s DUNE books are second perhaps only to LORD OF THE RINGS as the most-loved sci-fi/fantasy series of all time. As such, any filmmaker who would attempt to commit such a sweeping work of fiction to film would be faced with two problems: one, that Herbert’s complex vision of a future universe would require an unconcionably vast budget to represent properly, and two, how does a screenwriter condense hundreds of pages full of plots, sub-plots, and dozens of primary and secondary characters into feature film length?

The twenty years it took to see DUNE brought to the big screen were unfortunately up in the ’80s, one of the most tawdry, faddish, and tacky decades ever to hit Hollywood…which is saying something. However, David Lynch’s vision and imagination make this movie different from other science fiction films within its limited sphere. The costumes and design give the movie the feel of high Victorian drama, and the music - although performed by the ’80s group Toto - has a New-Agey, mystical feel entirely unlike the soundtracks of the other big-budget sci-fi/fantasy films of the decade. Also, Lynch’s use of Herbert’s descriptions to fuel his bizarre visuals produced a spectacle relatively independent of special-effects wizardry. However, Lynch’s unconventional, self-congratulatory style was too polarizing, alienating Herbert fans by taking liberties with the material, and driving off mainstream audiences by being too ‘edgy’ to be a box-office success.

The film’s messianic themes can be easily viewed as having application in today’s world. Water shortages, commodities shortages (spice = oil, duh), government and corporate corruption, the imprudence of mixing religion and politics, the power of ancient grudges, and the need for society to preserve the value of individuality over that of the mob are all just as important now in 2004 as they were in 1984, and in 1965 as well.

Enough pseudo-intellectual bullshit, though. This movie rocks. Yeah, so they’re not in the book, but the weirding modules are great, and a really plausible extension of the Bene Gesserit Voice. Patrick Stewart (pre-Picard) makes an unbelievably wonderful Gurney Halleck, and Brad Dourif is awesome, as always, as the creepy Piter (even though every time I shut my eyes and listen to him, I open my eyes expecting to see Chucky). OK, so most people regard it as one of the biggest-budget flops in movie history, and Lynch himself sees it as a failure. So what? I love it, and you can’t stop me. So nyah.

DVD Extras: The new British Special Edition of DUNE released last year has many more extras than the one available here in the States, including a 40 minute ‘making of’ documentary, a BBC interview with Frank Herbert, the original promotional film for the movie, the trailer, and the movie itself in all its anamorphic widescreen glory. There’s a special edition finally on the way here as well.

SS