Dune (1984)
“My name is a killing word.”
This week the Distinguished Professors discuss David Lynch’s visionary tour de something, Dune. Topics discussed include josting, Clink’s babyface status, the movie’s ambitious failures, the nature of spice, parallels with The Lion King, Toto’s guitar-heavy soundtrack, information overload, the role of Princess Irulan as the narrator, the awesomeness of Dune: The Storybook, the perils of trying to stick too close to the book, the Shakespearean tone, Dr. Berres puts in a plug for Frank Herbert’s book, the hell of narration and the failure of the studio to trust the audience to figure out the plot organically, cognitive overload and too much information up front, inspiration for Galaxy Lords, parallels with Flash Gordon, pre- and during apocalypse movie, Star Wars’ version of spice, David Lynch and David Fincher aren’t the same guy, apocalypse as an unveiling or revelation here and in Natural Born Killers, Bob Morton as disinherited prince of the universe, Showgirls and the ruin of Kyle MacLachlan’s career, mentat eyebrows, Patrick Stewart’s rockin’ mullet, Sting and his full commitment to the character, the Litany Against Fear, convoluted naming, no women in space bikinis, the role of women in the story, the all-important pug, the gay coding of the Harkonnens, parallels with Aeon Flux, the weirding module, Muad’Dib’s child soldiers, the plot’s weird pacing, the backstory of the mentats, the logistics of milking a cat, bad animation, bad internal narration as thought bubbles, Baron Harkonnen as the height of the house’s decadence, attempts to figure out how folding space works, overwhelming whiteness of the cast, our commitment to watch Ice Pirates in the future, Alia’s tripping balls after killing the Baron, this is Scarface in space, Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You and a comparison between Taxi Driver and Joker, and why Oliver Stone isn’t really a good director. Whoosh.
