It is not little that Denis Villeneuve achieved with his adaptation of ‘Dune’, because it was a garden of care in which he got into. But he once again came out on top of an impossible challenge – ‘The Arrival’ also had a reputation for being an inadaptable novel and ‘Blade Runner 2049’ managed to live up to an unbeatable classic -, maintaining the essence of Frank Herbert’s novel while doing a lavish blockbuster that dared to swim against the current of trends of this class of big budget films.
However, it can be said that it is as successful as it is very clever in ironing out some extravagant aspects of the source material, preventing the average viewer from being scared out of this world. Basically, what already happened to the previous adaptation of ‘Dune’ made by David Lynch, very vilified even by its author but not exempt from certain virtues that the Canadian version lacks.
desert power
This 1984 film, which we can watch streaming through Amazon Prime Video in addition to Filmin and Movistar+, featured a production as ambitious as it is chaotic, which is possibly one of the big reasons Lynch disavows the end result. The director came on the back of the great success of ‘The Elephant Man’, and could even afford to reject other great science fiction projects such as ‘Return of the Jedi’ before opting for ‘Dune’.
But it was not to be a bed of roses. The book had already been in the process of being adapted for years by Dino De Laurentiis, who strangely saw here a direct competition against Star Wars, and another extravagant author with a lot of personality like Alejandro Jodorowski had fallen out of it. Lynch also had the almost impossible task of adapt the entire first book and condense it into a two-hour movie (something that Villeneuve was clear from minute one that it was a horrible idea and that is why his decision to make two parts).
Furthermore, Lynch himself later acknowledged his lack of connection to the source material, that he was more fascinated by the possibility of making an outlandish piece of science fiction. All elements for a perfect disaster, and that’s how his ‘Dune’ has been seen for a long time. And it is undeniable that it is a movie with problemsfrom his decision to transfer almost literally passages and even interior monologues -here in the form of voice-over- that completely disrupts his rhythm, to that montage that tries to compress the immense story in less than two and a half hours.
‘Dune’: from lost to the river
This does not mean that there are no things to appreciate. In the purely aesthetic sense, it is a commendable film with a lot of personalitywho is also not afraid to pick up the most extravagant elements of the book, those that Villeneuve omits or tries to capture with somber elegance.
You can see Lynch’s intention to make a science fiction that does not avoid being strange and even grotesque (specifically everything that has to do with the Harkonens), instead of something free of harshness and discomfort for the viewer. There is also a texture to the atmosphere, to the effects and to the sets that show fabulous craftsmanship.
It is true that many visual aspects, such as the designs, were already in Jodorowski’s unfinished project. But it is one thing to conceive it and quite another to display it properly on screen. Lynch manages to do just enough to make the film fascinating to watch, partly offsetting several of his problems. It also has a cast more than apt for their respective roles, who add some solidity to this work as irregular as ambitious. One that wasn’t afraid to be outrageous as she sought to be epic.