The ending for Alan Smithees version of Dune (1984) This is a reassembly from the original 1984 release of Dune. Produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis and Directed by Alan Smithee. Executive Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Kyle MacLachlan was truly outstanding as Paul and is definitively the best part of the movie. How he transitions from young, curious and naive boy to the lider of a rebellion is flawless.
There are so many great moments and dialogues in this movie... I can't see how people are saying that the actong was bad... that is simply not true by any standards imho.
At 3:34 when Feyd does that really quick gesture at Chani, that always cracks me up. Sting was awesome in this movie. I wish he would do more films, as he actually has some acting abilities to go along with his singing talents.
I don't think I have ever read a more funnier post than this one ...............fantastic analysis of sting's acting ability flashkraft...................hilarious.............coked up iggy.....!!!!! and vivian...
it got bad reviews because people are too dumb for it. Movie is deep in diplomacy, manipulation and cunning. Three of the things the common folks lack in (they believe they are good at it, but they really aren't).
This movie was too ambitious for it's time. Longer version was needed but the studio (de Laurentiis) wanted a version that was more suitable for theaters.. And I think that David Lynch just gave up and after all these years, he can't admit that "Director's Cut" is what this movie needs. Like "Blade Runner"
Because it was cut to bits by the powers that be (in tis case dino de laurentis) and David Lynchs hard work was literally cut to bits. Quantity over Quality.
I agree with you! :) The costumes were extravagant and the whole movie had a sense of opulence and royalty about it... brilliant. Thanks for the comment!!
if i had a little sister i would make her follow me around, and then whenever i do anything amazing like kill sting or it rained, she would say " and how can this be... for he is the kwisatz haderach"
Now i kinda have a sweet spot in my heart for this movie the ending is stupid for anyone that has some knowledge of the book. Rain on Arrakis? Yeah goodbye all spice and worms...in a book paul actually blackmails the guild with saying that he has Fremen ready to pour water on almost every spice patch on the planet and completely destroy it...but here he just wrecks it anyway...
In this adaptation Paul is strong and calm, regal, I'd say. No unnecessary mimic or emotions, gestures. No cruelty, hatred or aggression - sheer determination and confidence.
I have always loved this movie. I had it on VHS for years. I use to watch it 2 or 3 times a week when I was a young man (early teens). It is in my humble opinion the greatest sci-fi/fantasy movie ever made. I have also read the book it is based on, it is true that alot of details from the novel are left out but still it is an EPIC movie!!!!
Loved the book, and this movie met the expectations to the full. Still looks so fresh and modern after withstanding the test of time. It is somewhat a blend of Flash Gordon and Star Wars. Thank you for sharing it. :-)
I adore this version of "Dune". The Weirding Way interpretation by David Lynch is excellent. A sonic weapon, derived from certain tonal qualities of words, that can cause such destruction. And Paul, being the Kwisatz Haderach, embodying that truth. "My name is a killing word." I will always
Although the 1984 version of Dune did not follow Frank Herbert's writing of the novel, it does hold a special place for me (and I LOVED all of the original novels); I think the visual style, casting, and even the music did much for Dune. I'm sad that Lynch despised his movie so, when it is a sci-fi classic.
It isn't just some abstract thing that he is viewed as a god only in the minds of his followers. In the original trilogy, Paul actually has very powerful supernatural abilities, swimming through the sands of Arrakis unaided just like a worm. His transition to godhood is felt lightyears away by other with the weirding way. When he swallows the water of life he is looking back through 20,000 years of mankind's memory and remembers things like Hitler and Washington D.C.
This movie looks so amazing, never saw all of it but going to buy it ASAP. Iv been reading up on it and even thought half the people say it was a fail, I think most people like it. It influwenced so much, games, book, other movies. It was a very important film. I never read the book so I do not know if the movie is acerate in the sence. It like many others was just one of those amazing movies from the 1980's.
Okay so who’s the righteous guy? Because he doesn’t appear anywhere else except for this scene which leads me to think he’s one of them Johnny Come Lately Fremen showing up at the last moment like they were always there.
Random, rich sounding narrator's voice that hasn't even been heard until now: "Muad'dib had become the Hand of God." What? Who the Hell are you? I thought I was watching a sci-fi action movie; suddenly I'm watching a religious docudrama on the History Channel?
His point was that Paul was not a god. He was a man that became a god in the minds of the people who rallied to him, and he was trying to show just how dangerous that can be
@Johnlindsey289 True, it was far from the books... but, this was a "happy" sensational ending. I think it's a different interpretation that turned out quite beautifully, even though it was alien to the books. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It really touched me (not in a molestation way) when I was a child.
@daricsoldar Yep, she was Virginia Madsen, she played Princess Irulan. In the book, she's also the historian who wrote the books concerning Muad Dib's historical dids, I think that's why they choose her to do the narratives in the film. :)
Aaaaaaand with summoning rain for the first time on Arrakis, Paul Muad Dib Atreides singlehandedly fucked everyone in the universe over. For with rain and excess water the sandworms will die; with the sandworms gone, there'll be no more new spice; with spice shortages spreading galaxy wide, the spacing guild will eventually be unable to operate space travel thus everyone will be stranded on their planets; with panic spreading, the people both high class and low start to turn on each other either being killed or by inevitably succumbing to the fatal withdrawals of spice addiction which includes Paul's fremen, his family and himself... Thus symbolic scene literally undoes everything Paul fought for...
@Hunpecked it was said, that because of the spice, their body god deformed - as they used those tanks, they didn't need to move, so then their hands and legs got reduced, while heads expanded for the developing brain. But afaik it was more clearly defined in the prologue books (battle for Corrin (o))
@philippines1987 correct. The date I was referencing to was from a book called Harlan Ellison's Watching who in 1989 was the only critic who commented favorably to this fantastic epic. Thanks for pointing that out.
@mandaclair nope because in the book Paul say's "we must remember the spice" and therefore "dune will always be the desert planet" the rain was just a symbol.
I watch this movie every few years. I have the DVD in my bottom draw, the last two books of the Frank Herbert run, which was finished by his son, and kevin is among the best fiction ever written (sand words of dune and hunters of dune, second only to what was written by Frank Herbert himself).
lol... I agree it made no sense at all :) It was the same with many pieces added to the movie such as "the weirding module"... It was a Bene Gesserit fighting style, not a killing device as such. It's a shame De Laurentiis didn't make a trilogy of it rather than a 3 hour movie. So many important events were missing in this version which is why I'm guessing they relied on opulence and sensationalism for its success... :)
I love this edit with ultra eyebrow dude staring at the ceiling then within two shots he vanished. Obviously not to happy about standing next to Sting.
@churchdudeman …"God damn movie"? I think you got that right. Shai Hulud would have damned it. Leto II would have damned it. Luckily Frank Herbert didn't live to see it. If it was meant to be hated then it is certainly a masterpiece. I hated every minute of it until I saw the sandworm open its mouth. That is when I realized that it must be a farce. So either you can appreciate the humour or you can't but it is really not worth hating.
I look at this movie today with much more sympathy than I did in 1984. There’s no doubt the settings and décor are the best ever for SF movies. It’s just that the film tries to compress far too much into its allotted time span. Great and profound moments in the book are tossed off in an instant, making them seem silly, and even unintentionally humorous. Despite the ‘star’ castthere are miscastings. Paul Muad’Dib entirely lacks expression or charisma. He seems like an android. The little actress playing Alia is a fabulous, twinkly little soul, but quite miscast. We need a real CLG (Creepy Little Girl) avatar like Dark Alessa (after a bath), Alma Wade (ditto) or Samara Morgan (ditto again) to play the part of the future St. Alia-of-the-Knife. Pity Dakota Fanning was born 10 years after the film came out. At 8 or 9 years old she would have been ideal.
@Gazzl33t I believe it refers to an extended cut released years later on laserdisc. It's not a director's cut as Lynch had nothing to do with the re-editing, and in fact his name is usually removed from this version and replaced with "Alan Smithee."
@LORDTIGERBLOOD I watched this in '87 when I was a wee lad. being in the Bahamas I didn't get my hand on the Novel until 1997. Read it three times since then. Watched the DVD in 2007, won't watch it again until next year.
you know if they put there minds to it and made a MMO for this movie i wounder how many would play it!! hell i remember when i was a kid i loved it on the big screen and the board games for it and later PC... HELL the remakes of it and TV show even pawned just as much
by the fourth book arrakis has great patches of green with only the deep desert reserved for the worm, but after the death of leto arrakis starts to become a desert again.
@intermender It's Smithee, and it's used by ANY director when they don't want to take credit for their work... it was used from the early 60s into the mid 80s or early 90s if i'm not mistaken
@Purrfectstranger Directors use Alan Smithee when the released version is not what they intended (usually the studio messes with the film). It's their way of removing their name from the project.
No hun, it didn't rain but the point I think David Lynch was trying to get across was that the face of arakis had change and rain being the ultimate force that would destroy arakis, they put it in. :)
Yes it does but I think Smithee and Laurentiis added it to the movie as a symbolic dramatized feature more than anything. The Atreides reign changed the face of Arakis not through controlling the weather but more so in a political and spiritual sense.
Did you mean Paul Atreides controlled the weather? Feyd (Sting) Rautha was Baron Harkonnens nephew. It did rain in the movie but in the book there was no mention of it.
Hey, guys. Please, can someone say the name of theme playing after Alia calling Paul a Kwisatz Haderach? I've tried to search but just can't get any result.
@Johnlindsey289 when I told my mom who saw it back when she was younger, she was like, "Didn't they want water?" I told her, "That would kill all the worms mom."
Was this the second version with the painted posters at the beginning of the movie and a man in the vocal intro instead of the emperor's daughter? love both versions btw. thank you.
one thing that i didnt quite understand, the Fremen Praised and honoured the Worms, the worms helped them in battle, acording to the books and stories, Rain is Poisioness to the worms, it rained in the end and everyone was happy. Why, werent they afraid for the worms might die? or am i missing something?
@GrandFunker "Alan Smithee" is a pseudonym directors use to distance themselves from films. Lynch simply edited his own work. There is no actual Alan Smithee.
@M8DMAN I think the same. It's like the Lord of The Rings, they had to adapt it. And also think some of Lynch's ideas were genius, they are not in the book, but fit well, like the weirding module and folding space. The novel doesn't deal with this issues in the same way :) Some purists think not, but I agree, the original is unfilmable
@Johnlindsey289 If you're talking about the 4 part miniseries...then only the last two parts are any good. But god, the costumes, they will make you cry. Now, on this movie, at least those were cool and made sense. the perfect dune movie might have to be made by the fans...lol
@hivelocity100, it's just too bad that Dune is just too damned involved to make into a movie. I've heard Lynch wanted this, at one point, to be shown as a six hour mini series. It's still an amazing movie. I watched it with my girlfriend the other night (her second time, my 10th or so), and I nearly cried during the some scenes because the music and visuals are so stunning.
Alan Smithee? There's no such person, at least not in the entertainment industry. "Alan Smithee" is a pseudonym used when a film director wishes to disown a project.
@M8DMAN Indeed. There are some descriptions of the clothing in the books, Lynch's film is closer to that, the miniseries was too "fashion" to me, it doesn't depict functional clothing like the movie does. perhaps they consulted Jean Paul Gaultier, like they did in "The Fifth Element! XD
And with the coming of the rain in the end Arrakis will now be ruined. The worms will die, the spice will cease to flow, the ruination of everything people have fought and died for will come to an end... bad form!
@takethat925 It's called the worst movie because the audience had to really pay attention to it. The fans of the book loved it, calling it one of the best adaptations of a novel. I have never read the book and it took me a second viewing of the film for me to fully understand it. However, i think it's one of the best Sci-fi films ever made.
Well this WAS written in the 1960s, when people in the US thought of the middle east they simply though of Laurence of Arabia, silly men in bedsheets, pyramids (thats what they thought even if its wrong) and camels. Also they are words like Jihad and Hajj in the book. Really look into it.
Spice was a metaphor for oil, after all. And Frank Herbert did do his research. In universe, the Fremen are descended from Sunni wanderers who colonised the planet Arrakis millennia ago. So it came by the Arabian feel honestly.
