Editing Dune (1984 film) (section)

==Reception==
===Box office===
The film opened on December 14, 1984, in 915 theaters, and grossed {{US$|6,025,091}} in its opening weekend, ranking number two in the US box office behind ''[[Beverly Hills Cop]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Weekend Box Office Results for December 14–16, 1984|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1984&wknd=50&p=.htm|work=[[Box Office Mojo]]|access-date=August 8, 2013|archive-date=May 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511144133/http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1984&wknd=50&p=.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> By the end of its run, ''Dune'' had grossed {{US$|30,925,690|1984|round=-6|long=no}}.<ref name="Mojo" /> It earned [[theatrical rental]]s of $37.9 million worldwide.<ref name="Knoedelseder" /> On an estimated production budget of $40–42 million, the film was considered a box-office disappointment.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Independent | title=Revenge of the epic movie flops | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/revenge-of-the-epic-movie-flops-1942105.html | date=April 12, 2010 | access-date=July 20, 2016 | archive-date=March 12, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312232456/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/revenge-of-the-epic-movie-flops-1942105.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The film later had more success, and has been called the "''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heaven's Gate]]'' of science fiction".<ref name="deadline annis interview">{{Cite web | url = https://deadline.com/2021/09/dune-francesca-annis-interview-david-lynch-venice-1234824736/ | title = 'Dune' 1984: Francesca Annis, The Original Lady Jessica, Lifts The Lid On Life Behind The Scenes Of David Lynch's Epic, The 'Heaven's Gate' Of Sci-Fi | first = Andreas | last = Wiseman | date = September 1, 2021 | access-date = September 1, 2021 | work = [[Deadline Hollywood]] | archive-date = September 1, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210901133251/https://deadline.com/2021/09/dune-francesca-annis-interview-david-lynch-venice-1234824736/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

===Critical response===
''Dune'' received mostly negative reviews upon release. [[Roger Ebert]] gave one star out of four, and wrote: {{cquote|This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time. The movie's plot will no doubt mean more to people who've read Herbert than to those who are walking in cold...<ref name="Ebert 1984">{{cite news |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dune-1984 |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Movie Reviews: ''Dune'' (1984) |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |via=RogerEbert.SunTimes.com |access-date=September 30, 2020 |date=January 1, 1984 |archive-date=December 20, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220221458/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19840101%2FREVIEWS%2F401010332%2F1023 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the worst movie of the year.<ref name="DVDVerdict 2006">{{cite web|url=https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/duneextended.php |first=Brett |last=Cullum |title=Review: ''Dune: Extended Edition'' |date=February 13, 2006 |website=DVD Verdict |access-date=March 14, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013114237/https://dvdverdict.com/reviews/duneextended.php|archive-date=October 13, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} On ''[[At the Movies (1982 TV program)|At the Movies]]'' with [[Gene Siskel]] and Ebert, Siskel began his review: {{cquote|It's physically ugly, it contains at least a dozen gory gross-out scenes, some of its special effects are cheap—surprisingly cheap because this film cost a reported $40–45 million{{mdash}}and its story is confusing beyond belief. In case I haven't made myself clear, I hated watching this film.<ref>{{cite episode |series=At The Movies |series-link=At the Movies (1982 TV program) |title=''Dune'' | air-date=December 1984}}</ref>}} The film was later listed as the worst film of 1984 and the "biggest disappointment of the year" in their "Stinkers of 1984" episode.<ref>{{cite episode |series=At The Movies |title=The Stinkers of 1984 |air-date=January 5, 1985}}</ref> Other negative reviews focused on the same issues and on the length of the film.<ref name="extrovert">{{cite web |url=http://www.extrovertmagazine.com/dune/dune6.html |title=''Dune'': Retrospective |work=Extrovert |via=Extrovertmagazine.com |page=6 |date=2006 |access-date=March 20, 2019 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060204032750/http://www.extrovertmagazine.com/dune/dune6.html |archive-date=February 4, 2006}}</ref>

[[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' gave ''Dune'' a negative review of one star out of five. She said, "Several of the characters in ''Dune'' are psychic, which puts them in the unique position of being able to understand what goes on in the movie" and explained that the plot was "perilously overloaded, as is virtually everything else about it".<ref name="NYT 1984-12">{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E2D71238F937A25751C1A962948260 |title=Movie Review: ''Dune'' (1984) |last=Maslin |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Maslin |date=December 14, 1984 |work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 15, 2010|archive-date=March 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311010339/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E2D71238F937A25751C1A962948260|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' gave ''Dune'' a less negative review, stating "''Dune'' is a huge, hollow, imaginative, and cold sci-fi epic. Visually unique and teeming with incident, David Lynch's film holds the interest due to its abundant surface attractions, but won't, of its own accord, create the sort of fanaticism which has made Frank Herbert's 1965 novel one of the all-time favorites in its genre." They also commented on how "Lynch's adaptation covers the entire span of the novel, but simply setting up the various worlds, characters, intrigues, and forces at work requires more than a half-hour of expository screen time." They did enjoy the cast and said, "Francesca Annis and Jürgen Prochnow make an outstandingly attractive royal couple, Siân Phillips has some mesmerizing moments as a powerful witch, Brad Dourif is effectively loony, and best of all is Kenneth McMillan, whose face is covered with grotesque growths and who floats around like the [[Blue Meanies (Yellow Submarine)|Blue Meanie]] come to life."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://variety.com/1983/film/reviews/dune-1200426103/ |title=Movie Review: ''Dune'' |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=December 31, 1983 |access-date=February 20, 2019 |archive-date=February 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221054800/https://variety.com/1983/film/reviews/dune-1200426103/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Richard Corliss]] of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' gave ''Dune'' a negative review, stating, "Most sci-fi movies offer escape, a holiday from homework, but ''Dune'' is as difficult as a final exam. You have to cram for it. [...] MacLachlan, 25, grows impressively in the role; his features, soft and spoiled at the beginning, take on a he-manly glamour once he assumes his mission. [...] The actors seem hypnotized by the spell Lynch has woven around them—especially the lustrous Francesca Annis, as Paul's mother, who whispers her lines with the urgency of erotic revelation. In those moments when Annis is onscreen, ''Dune'' finds the emotional center that has eluded it in its parade of rococo decor and austere special effects. She reminds us of what movies can achieve when they have a heart, as well as a mind."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,923850,00.html |title=Cinema: The Fantasy Film as Final Exam |first=Richard |last=Corliss |author-link=Richard Corliss |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 17, 1984 |access-date=March 15, 2010 |archive-date=March 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329141459/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,923850,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Film scholar [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]] called ''Dune'' "the most obscenely [[Homophobia|homophobic]] film I have ever seen"<ref name="Robin Wood">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Robin |author-link=Robin Wood (critic) |title=Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1986|page=174 |isbn=978-0-231-05777-6}}</ref>—referring to a scene in which Baron Harkonnen sexually assaults and kills a young man by bleeding him to death—charging it with "managing to associate with homosexuality in a single scene physical grossness, moral depravity, violence, and disease".<ref name="Robin Wood" /> [[Dennis Altman]] suggested that the film showed how "[[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]] references began penetrating popular culture" in the 1980s, asking, "Was it just an accident that in the film ''Dune'' the homosexual villain had suppurating sores on his face?"<ref name="Altman">{{cite book|last=Altman|first=Dennis|author-link=Dennis Altman |title=AIDS and the New Puritanism |place=London|publisher=Pluto Press |year=1986 |page=21|isbn=0-7453-0012-X}}</ref>

Critic and science-fiction writer [[Harlan Ellison]] reviewed the film positively. In his 1989 book of film criticism, ''[[Harlan Ellison's Watching]]'', he says that because critics were denied screenings at the last minute after several reschedules, it made the film community feel nervous and negative towards ''Dune'' before its release.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lafrance |first=J.D. |url=http://www.erasingclouds.com/wk2905dune.html |title=''Dune'': Its name is a Killing Word |magazine=Erasing Clouds |issue=38 |date=September 2005 |access-date=June 12, 2010 |archive-date=April 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415235845/http://www.erasingclouds.com/wk2905dune.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Ellison later said, "It was a book that shouldn't have been shot. It was a script that couldn't have been written. It was a directorial job that was beyond anyone's doing ... and yet the film was made."<ref>{{cite web |title=Looking Back at All the Utterly Disastrous Attempts to Adapt Dune |url=https://www.vulture.com/2017/03/looking-back-at-all-the-utterly-disastrous-attempts-to-adapt-dune.html |website=Vulture |date=March 9, 2017 |access-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-date=April 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421075009/https://www.vulture.com/2017/03/looking-back-at-all-the-utterly-disastrous-attempts-to-adapt-dune.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Daniel Snyder also praised elements of the film in a 2014 article which called the movie "a deeply flawed work that failed as a commercial enterprise, but still managed to capture and distill essential portions of one of science fiction's densest works." Snyder stated that Lynch's "surreal style" created "a world that felt utterly alien [full of] bizarre dream sequences, rife with images of unborn fetuses and shimmering energies, and unsettling scenery like the industrial hell of the Harkonnen homeworld, [making] the fil[m] actually closer to [[Stanley Kubrick|Kubrick]] (''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'') than [[George Lucas|[George] Lucas]]. It seeks to put the viewer somewhere unfamiliar while hinting at a greater, hidden story." Snyder praised the production and stated that Herbert had said he was pleased with Lynch's film.<ref name="Snyder">{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-messy-misunderstood-glory-of-david-lynchs-em-dune-em/284316/ |title=The Messy, Misunderstood Glory of David Lynch's ''Dune'' |last=Snyder |first=Daniel D. |date=March 14, 2014 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |access-date=September 21, 2015 |archive-date=May 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502192322/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-messy-misunderstood-glory-of-david-lynchs-em-dune-em/284316/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Colin Greenland]] reviewed ''Dune'' for ''[[Imagine (game magazine)|Imagine]]'' magazine, and stated, "Anthony Masters's magnificent design features none of the gleaming chrome and sterile plastic we expect of space opera: instead, sinister paraphernalia of cast iron and coiled brass, corridors of dark wood and marble, and the sand, the endless sand..."<ref name="Imagine24">{{cite journal | last = Greenland|first = Colin |author-link=Colin Greenland| title =Fantasy Media | type = review | journal = [[Imagine (AD&D magazine)|Imagine]] | issue = 24| pages =47 | publisher = TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. |date=March 1985| issn = }}</ref>

Science-fiction historian [[John Clute]] argued that though Lynch's ''Dune'' "spared nothing to achieve its striking visual effects", the film adaptation "unfortunately—perhaps inevitably—reduced Herbert's dense text to a melodrama".<ref>{{cite book |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |title=Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia |place=New York |publisher=Dorling Kindersley |year=1996|page=282 |isbn=0-7894-0185-1}}</ref>

The few more favorable reviews praised Lynch's [[Film noir|noir]]-[[baroque]] approach to the film. Others compare it to other Lynch films that are equally inaccessible, such as ''Eraserhead'', and assert that to watch it, the viewer must first be aware of the ''Dune'' universe.

On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''Dune'' has an approval rating of 36% based on 117 reviews, with an average score of 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This truncated adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterwork is too dry to work as grand entertainment, but David Lynch's flair for the surreal gives it some spice."<ref name="RottenTomatoes">{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006364-dune |title=''Dune'' |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=October 4, 2021 |archive-date=December 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228011219/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006364-dune/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/dune |title=''Dune'' (1984) Reviews |website=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=January 9, 2023 |archive-date=October 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005002159/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/dune |url-status=live }}</ref>

As a result of its poor commercial and critical reception, all initial plans for ''Dune'' sequels were canceled. David Lynch reportedly was working on the screenplay for ''[[Dune Messiah]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.davidlynch.de/duneinttrans.html |title=Visionary and dreamer: A surrealist's fantasies |magazine=Cinema|via=DavidLynch.de |issue=12 |year=1984 |access-date=January 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104222520/http://www.davidlynch.de/duneinttrans.html |archive-date=November 4, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was hired to direct both proposed second and third ''Dune'' films. Lynch later said:

{{blockquote|I started selling out on ''Dune''. Looking back, it's no one's fault but my own. I probably shouldn't have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them in. There was so much room to create a world. But I got strong indications from Raffaella and Dino De Laurentiis of what kind of film they expected, and I knew I didn't have [[Final cut privilege|final cut]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://moongadget.com/origins/dune.html|title=''Star Wars'' Origins: ''Dune''|website=Moongadget.com|access-date=January 18, 2013|archive-date=December 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213170208/http://www.moongadget.com/origins/dune.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

In the introduction for his 1985 short story collection ''[[Eye (short story collection)|Eye]]'', author Frank Herbert discussed the film's reception and his participation in the production, complimented Lynch, and listed scenes that were shot but left out of the released version. He wrote, "I enjoyed the film even as a cut and I told it as I saw it: What reached the screen is a visual feast that begins as ''Dune'' begins and you hear my dialogue all through it. [...] I have my quibbles about the film, of course. Paul was a man ''playing'' god, not a god who could make it rain. [...] It's my opinion that David's film of ''Dune'' will also be alive and well long after people have forgotten the potboilers that come out of corporate boardrooms. This is based partly on the reactions of everyone who worked on the film: They were sad to be parting when it was over and glad they had done it. The wrap party was a rare scene of happy nostalgia."<ref>{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Frank |title=[[Eye (short story collection)|Eye]] |chapter=Introduction |year=1985 |publisher=Berkley Books |isbn=0-425-08398-5}}</ref>

[[Alejandro Jodorowsky]], who had earlier been disappointed by the collapse of his own attempt to film ''Dune'', later said he had been disappointed and jealous when he learned Lynch was making ''Dune'', as he believed Lynch was the only other director capable of doing justice to the novel. At first, Jodorowsky refused to see Lynch's film, but his sons coerced him. As the film unfolded, Jodorowsky says he became very happy, seeing that it was a "failure", but that this was certainly the producers' fault and not Lynch's.<ref>Alejando Jodorowsky's interview in the documentary ''[[Jodorowsky's Dune]]'', 2014.</ref>

===Accolades===
''Dune'' was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Sound]] ([[Bill Varney]], [[Steve Maslow]], [[Kevin O'Connell (sound mixer)|Kevin O'Connell]], and [[Nelson Stoll]]).<ref name="Oscars1985">{{cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1985 |title=The 57th Academy Awards (1985) Nominees and Winners |access-date=October 13, 2011 |work=Oscars.org |archive-date=December 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111228050833/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/57th-winners.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The film won a [[1984 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards]] for Worst Picture.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1984/1984st.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061017165110/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1984/1984st.htm|archive-date=October 17, 2006|title=1984 7th Hastings Bad Cinema Society Stinkers Awards|access-date=April 2, 2013|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>