10. Dune (1984)
Bottom line for this film is that it's David Lynch doing sci-fi, so whats not to like? Well, quite a lot to be honest. David Lynch announced he was making Frank Herberts epic Sci-fi odyssey Dune some time after apparently meeting with George Lucas to discuss the possibility of directing Return of the Jedi. The story goes that the pair had a chat and both decided it wouldn't really work out (David Lynch later told a friend he showed me something called a Wookie? If Lynch didn't know what a Wookie was after A New Hope and Empire Strikes back, this was probably for the best). The story for Dune is fairly formulaic; the Galaxys most important resource is the spice which only comes from one world. There are power struggles between empires/organizations to gain control of this most important commodity. The spice acts as fuel for space travel, whoever controls the spice controls the galaxy. Enter Paul Atreides, son of one of the rulers, he may/may not be the spice worlds prophesized messiah when he discovers he has super powers. So begins an epic journey of rebellion uprising. And Sting in his pants. There is some good to come from this film, more so than the credit it gets (which is very little). Colourful characters make the film an interesting watch, such as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen a grotesquely obese man who floats around in a floating wheelchair and is infected with diseases which show all over his face. The actors involved all over are also fantastic, you have the first collaborative work with Kyle Maclachlan, the second with the legendary Jack Nance and some one off greats such as Patrick Stewart and Max Von Sydow. And Sting in his pants. Then there is the bad script. Sorry, the
really bad script. Due to the studio demanding no longer than 140 minutes for its running time, it is littered with too much exposition and in turn is heavily edited, seemingly missing major story lines/huge scenes from the book/important character development. It isn't hard to see why Lynch himself disregarded this film as one that he would sooner forget and also one he doesn't even call his own. Seen as one of the aforementioned bum notes of his career(and probably the only one), this is certainly not Lynchs strongest work, it also acts as his least individual or personal.
The Severed Ear Scale of Madness: 2/5