Sci-Fi Blockbuster Flop On Max Disowned By Legendary Director
David Lynch’s Dune has been a polarizing film since its 1984 release, and probably always will be. On one hand, long-time David Lynch fans are inclined to appreciate the kind artistic ambition that comes along with adapting unwieldy source material to the big screen while staying true to the visual aesthetic that he had always championed throughout his long and storied career. But therein lies the problem, as Frank Herbert’s Dune isn’t exactly the kind of novel that can be easily adapted into a single feature-length film, even with a trailblazing auteur like the late, great David Lynch at the helm.
In fact, Dune performed so poorly upon its theatrical release, that David Lynch disavowed his work on the project, removing his name from the credits in favor of various pseudonyms. Now knowing that Denis Villeneuve has seen more success with 2021’s Dune: Part One and 2024’s Part Two, it’s clear that David Lynch’s vision would have benefitted from being split across multiple films, or, at the very least, deserved to have its nearly three-hour cut fully realized after his seventh pass on writing the script.
So Much Lore, Too Little Time
When Producer Raffaella De Laurentis offered David Lynch an opportunity to work on Dune, he hadn’t yet read Herbert’s epic tome, but loved the concept and was up for the job after working through the source material. Similar to Denis Villeneuve’s recent Dune pictures, David Lynch originally scripted his concept across two films, but this idea was shelved in favor of condensing the script into a single two-hour and 17-minute film.
The result is a visually stunning David Lynch (par for the course) film that could be likened to a fever-induced bout of sleep paralysis in which elements of Frank Herbert’s Dune are evident, but delivered in such a disjointed way that fans of the novel felt it to be an insult to the source material. Between its many exposition dumps, expansive worldbuilding, expensive but obvious set-pieces, and special effects that ranged from cutting edge to just plain hokey, Dune is an interesting watch, and a necessary one for die-hard David Lynch fans who love his creative instinct and celebrate his entire catalog.
A Box Office Disappointment
Dune was a massive box-office disappointment upon its release, which is one of the primary reasons why David Lynch disavowed the film. Seeing box office returns of $30.9 million against its reported budget of $42 million, any chance of a sequel that would expand on the first film’s lore went right out the window.
Critics were equally unforgiving about Dune, and Gene Siskel did not mince words when he said “I hated watching this film.” Roger Ebert also gave Dune one star out of four, stating that David Lynch’s vision was “an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time.”
Presently, Dune has a 36 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes against a somewhat more favorable 65 percent audience score as dictated by the Popcornmeter.
Streaming Dune On Max
GFR SCORE
As somebody who only watched Dune after David Lynch’s passing, and has no real emotional connection to the source material other than my own apprehensive reaction to my friends nagging me to beak my moral code and actually try to watch an epic space opera that requires a considerable amount of heavy lifting to even begin thinking about enjoying the story at its most basic level, I can’t really see the film’s appeal.
Watching David Lynch’s Dune felt was a chore to me because I’m not emotionally invested in the storytelling, which suffers because of its shortened runtime. If you’re a fan of both Frank Herbert and David Lynch, you could probably fill in the blanks in your mind while watching 1984’s Dune. If you’re like me, and just want to sit down and watch a movie without having 100 browser tabs open to catch up on its dense lore, then you may want to sit this one out and watch Twin Peaks instead.
As of this writing, you can stream Dune on Max.
