Film Micrœview #366: Dune (1984)

Rating: Bad.

It’s Dune Week! I mean, I didn’t set out to watch David Lynch’s Dune and Teshigahara Hiroshi’s Woman in the Dunes in the same week. In fact I might not have even noticed had I not first tried to find a copy of Dune in my Dropbox movie library that I might’ve downloaded years ago, and only turned up the latter film. The reason I sought out Dune this week was due to the latest episode of Twin Peaks, which features a scene which reminded me of Dune. Should I read anything further into this episode’s connection with Japan? Probably not.

Anyway, this movie clearly sucks. I can handle all the whispering and cheap crappy special effects and haphazard and failed attempt to cram way too many characters into a feature length film. And I actually even love aspects of the dark, detailed production design. What I can’t deal with is the evisceration of the might of the Bene Gesserit and the Fremen. I feel Lynch has subverted them both into servants of cis het white men of power, simplifying, objectifying, and fetishizing them and deifying Paul. He throws in some homophobic crap for bad measure.

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