I should have known, and actually did expect that the movie, at a little over three hours, couldn't do justice to the Frank Herbert novel that ran nearly eight hundred pages. This was one of those rare occasions where I recently read the book and called up the movie within a short period of time so that a reasonable comparison could be made. Yes, there were many elements of the novel that appeared in the film, though nearly as many elements that weren't, and merely thrown in to fascinate the viewer. One such was the appearance of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan), portrayed as a floating gas-bag with a face pock-marked with pus filled pimples that made him look grotesque. Or the Mentats, described here as human computers, whereas they were more effectively characterized in the novel as elite assassins. Characters in the novel like Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis) had a much larger role in the story that took place, and were much more influential in the mystical development of Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan) as the youth who eventually replaced his father to lead the Fremens against the Harkonnens on the planet Arrakis.
So it puzzles me to learn that Frank Herbert was actually fond of the David Lynch treatment of his celebrated work, hailed by many as the ultimate work of fantasy fiction. For some, maybe so, but for me it doesn't hold a candle to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and if you extend that argument to cinema, the same holds true. Perhaps the best thing I can say about the movie was it's casting of principal characters. Kyle MacLachlan was a good choice for the role of Paul Atreides, maybe a tad too old to portray a fifteen year old future monarch, but I don't think an actual teenager would have been right to pull off the part. Jose Ferrer imparted the proper gravitas for the Padishah Emperor, and Jürgen Prochnow made for a suitable Duke Leto Atreides. One of the miscasts though had to be Patrick Stewart as Paul's adviser Gurney Halleck, mostly because he didn't have all that much to do and had no impact on the story. There were any number of scenes in which he was left just standing around as part of the scenery.
On adapting such a well known and admired book as "Dune", director David Lynch has been quoted as saying, "You've got to be either stupid or crazy to try something like this." With all due respect to someone who's had his share of success in filmdom, a remark like that makes one too easy of a target.
So it puzzles me to learn that Frank Herbert was actually fond of the David Lynch treatment of his celebrated work, hailed by many as the ultimate work of fantasy fiction. For some, maybe so, but for me it doesn't hold a candle to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and if you extend that argument to cinema, the same holds true. Perhaps the best thing I can say about the movie was it's casting of principal characters. Kyle MacLachlan was a good choice for the role of Paul Atreides, maybe a tad too old to portray a fifteen year old future monarch, but I don't think an actual teenager would have been right to pull off the part. Jose Ferrer imparted the proper gravitas for the Padishah Emperor, and Jürgen Prochnow made for a suitable Duke Leto Atreides. One of the miscasts though had to be Patrick Stewart as Paul's adviser Gurney Halleck, mostly because he didn't have all that much to do and had no impact on the story. There were any number of scenes in which he was left just standing around as part of the scenery.
On adapting such a well known and admired book as "Dune", director David Lynch has been quoted as saying, "You've got to be either stupid or crazy to try something like this." With all due respect to someone who's had his share of success in filmdom, a remark like that makes one too easy of a target.