EXEGESIS AND
ANALYSIS
of
LYNCH’S DUNE
Volume 2
Exegesis and Analysis of Lynch’s DUNE
Volume 2
It may be Lynch's least favorite of his films, but is one of the three I cherish most, along with Inland Empire and Fire Walk with Me. It's absolutely gorgeous, the sound design is out of this world and the casting and performances could not be better. The characters are all memorably delineated, both dramatically and visually (so unlike Villenueve's recent dismally muddled version of the story.) While it is sadly truncated in places and could certainly be improved by Lynch if he were given the chance to re-edit, the theatrical cut is still the best telling of this tale so far produced. The critics of the time were wrong: Lynch is a brilliant storyteller.
I deciced I had more to say about Lynch’s DUNE. Even David Lynch had more to say of late: that given the chance he would enjoy making a director’s cut of the film, but there really wasn’t much more that he wanted to include. I wish he were given the opportunity to do so, but it isn’t likely. Personally I’m very happy with the theatrical cut from 1984, but see where it could be improved were Mr Lynch given a chance. 1
Given his age and temperament he isn’t likely to have many more chances, even to make a new motion picture. I pray he does. He appears to be working on a new long form video. He said of late that he wanted to go back to how he did things when he made ERASERHEAD. This would suggest a clandestine shoot, with material he was truly obsessed with, working with the smallest possible crew. The opposite of DUNE, perhaps, but with the carefully precise visuals he has always favored.
When Twin Peaks, the Return, was released on television six years ago I was pleased to see many references therein to his 1984 masterpiece among the many other references to other films, his and by others. The White Lodge bore a close resemblance to the Duke’s Palace on Caladan and the character identified in the credits as Senorita Dido is dressed as Irulan. The portal through which the teleported Officer Brennan watched his projected vision were similar to those associated with the Spacing Guild in the 1984 film. It would appear that the Fireman of Twin Peaks is a navigator as well. Certainly the scene where he transports Mr C from Ghostwood to the Lodge suggests so. 2
A Recent Exchange on Twitter:
EH: What’s that film you will always defend no matter what people say?
DW: DUNE (David Lynch, 1984)
EH: Compared to Denis Villeneuve’s film, Lynch’s Dune is very weak. However one can sense Lynch’s ambition to the project. If it wasn’t for studio’s interference, Lynch could have made something a lot better. Love Kyle MacLachlan’s performance too.
DW:Thanks for your considered reply, but I must disagree very strongly about Lynch's film being at all weak or suffering in comparison to Villeneuve's adaptation, which I found atrocious. (It struck me as a 3 hour perfume commercial with a little Fast & Furious thrown in.)
HS: That's a take I find very odd considering how inspired Villeneuves Dune is on a technical level, even if you didn't like the tone. The script also has to be considered better, simply for the fact Lynch completely misses the point of the entire story and turns it into its opposite.
DW: F Herbert advised Lynch on his screenplay
and had considerable input into the film, which he approved. Works of art do not have a single whole
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point. They are open to interpretations. Lynch brings his sense of drama and ambivalence along with his great mastery of film art to his adaptation.
HS: Lynch famously didn't have full creative control and I doubt very much Herbert would have been okay with his movie perverting one of the core messages of Dune with its ending.
DW: Lynch was passionately involved with this project for over three years and fought to preserve those elements he brought to it. Whether or not F Herbert felt that Lynch contradicted some central tenent of his tome, he publicly approved and praised the picture on more than one occasion. It is true that he objected to Muad'Dib being shown as a true Messiah, as he believed Paul was in Lynch’s adaptation, though I believe Herbert was mistaken in this and other matters. Again, it’s open to interpretation. It is this very openness that makes Lynch’s DUNE so much superior, in my view, not only to Villeneuve’s dismal and superficially faithful adaptation, but to F Herbert’s novel as well. Art must be open to its completion by the viewer and interpreter or it is dead. This is not my last word on this matter.
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Thankfully, Lynch’s DUNE doesn’t have a core message in the sense that HS believes Herbert’s DUNE does. Nor do I believe that Lynch perverts Herbert’s great message: Paul Atredes is a false Messiah and so should not be shown performing miracles. For me, the ending of Lynch’s DUNE shows Paul transformed from the relative Innocent of the story’s beginning to a self righteous Monster. Irulan’s naive narration where she speaks of Muad’Dib bringing Love and Peace is ironic. Note that Alia’s final line of the film: For he is the Kwisatz Haderach is spoken with the fervor of a Zealot. More than that, Paul already informed his mother, when they escape to the Desert, half way through
the tale, that he is this being, but he is not what the Bene Gesserit believed he would be. The good ladies have designed a monster. He is someone who can go where they cannot. He is not one whom they may control. His purpose is to destroy Spice Mining and end Space Travel. Once he takes the Water of Life, when he bleeds they bleed. He can kill with a word. Fearsome he may be, but there is something pathetic in his using this power to frighten his grandmother, and then telling her he remembers her Gom Jabbar.
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Muad’Dib can kill with a word, and had Lynch been allowed to make the sequel as originally planned, he would have. This exchange mirrors the first encounter between these fearsome characters. The positions are reversed. For all her threatening steel teeth in her handsome mouth, she is no longer a match for his command of sound. She is physically thrown backward by his shout.
