Dune 2021 and why it didn’t flop like Lynch’s
David Lynch vowed never to watch the 2021 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary ’Dune’. The director claimed that this wasn’t for lack of interest, but because he couldn’t bear to relive the failure of his own take on the sci-fi classic some 38 years prior.
Just to begin contemplating how one might condense the exceedingly ornate universe of Dune is a mammoth task, and any fan of the books is sure to wince at the prospect. There is a lot to unravel. Nevertheless, Denis Villeneuve stepped up to the plate and produced a remake that will certainly not see him licking any wounds three decades down the line.
Dune’s reception has been stellar, albeit accompanied by the nit-picking criticisms that unavoidably come with page-to-screen adaptations. Villeneuve’s approach goes firmly hand-in-hand with Lynch’s when it comes to source loyalty, however, their reasons for differing successes become clear when we look at how they tackled that faithfulness to the original.
The first major way in which the new Dune diverges from its predecessor is how much of the book it covers. Where Lynch chose to condense the entirety of Frank Herbert’s first instalment of the series, Villeneuve opted for the increasingly more favoured two-parter approach. The two films differ greatly in their pacing, which where some might argue that Dune 2021 is a snooze-fest in the lead-up to the action and then cuts short of the ‘real’ action, it has proven more effective than Lynch’s resolution to rush through the plot points.
Where Lynch revealed the laws that govern the Dune universe through quick exposition to make sure all bases were covered, Villeneuve put more emphasis on translating its ambience, its flavour, its essence. The first part, as Villeneuve suggests, is merely ‘setting the table’, and part two will be ‘the full course meal’. Lynch perhaps tucked into his dinner prematurely.
The first book contains simply too much information for a 90-minute feature, and this is an obvious slip-up on Lynch’s part. Complexities were translated clinically, content cramming made the magic fall flat. Viewers became overwhelmed with the quirks and absurdities of Herbert’s world, hurtled at them without deftness. It feels that Lynch’s devotion to the book, and the craft rules he had to ignore to achieve this, cost him his triumph.
On the other hand, Villeneuve is forthcoming in his belief that “when you adapt, it’s an act of vandalism.” This does not mean that the director approached his adaptation haphazardly, though admittedly some cut-throat changes were made. During filming, he told his crew that “the Bible is the book.’ But as with any book, and even the Bible, interpretations can differ. The Dune from Villeneuve’s mind would manifest in ways that would disagree with the Dune concocted in the minds of many others, and this is an inevitability that he did not shy away from. What’s important is not that the world is technically the same on paper, but that it feels the same, and Dune 2021 definitely achieves this.
Another possible factor in the superior success of Villeneuve’s version is something that, whether we like it or not, plays a big part in the current age of filmmaking and that’s money. Lynch’s 1984 Dune was granted a comfy budget of $40 million, which now translates to about $115 million. Eclipsing this, Villeneuve was given a ripe $160 million to play with, a disparity that cannot be overlooked when comparing the two films’ successes.
The improvement of visual effects since Lynch’s take is also bound to play a part. Not only did the 2021 version have a bigger budget to spend on a higher quality and higher quantity of VFX but the general standard this gets you is much greater. With 100-foot tall, building-devouring worms, dystopian body shields and a trans-planetary jihad all being fundamental to Dune’s story, CGI was undoubtedly a huge crutch when it came to reproducing these for the big screen. Villeneuve’s Dune did not hold back on its usage, with 1,200 of its 1,700 shots including them and bagging it the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Where Lynch had to rely on mostly props and sets to do the hard grafting, Villeneuve didn’t have to sweat when it came to creating a visually-convincing world.
Without the aid of modern VFX, Lynch was still set on bringing all of Dune’s abstract elements of fantasy to life. The result, however, is an underwhelming conceptualisation of the grand images one envisages when reading Herbert’s prose. Villeneuve, with the privilege of great CGI, was able to grant these elements the scale and realism they deserved.
Not only this, but the director’s approach to revealing these fantastical components such as the Arrakeen sandworms, the alien-like guild space navigators and the Bene Gesserit command voice, is far more subdued. These other-worldly concepts are not laid bare to the audience but instead granted some ambiguity and mystery. It tells the viewer that these things are so great and complex, that they are beyond our full understanding. It allows the world to extend out beyond the screen, beyond the books and roll into its own endless terrain, and that is a much more exciting prospect than knowing all.
Ultimately, Dune 2021, with the comforts of modern VFX and a big budget was able to bring more integrity and believability to Frank Herbert’s Dune than was possible for Lynch’s time. Although finances play a role, what truly sets these adaptations apart is the forcefulness in which they were approached. Where Lynch took on Dune with vigour, determined to deliver its every written word, fulfil its every plot point, realise its every detail, Villeneuve took a step back. Dune 2021 feels far more cautious in its adaptation. There is an awareness of the grandeur of its universe and honours this by allowing space for the imagination to still run wild, across the spice-filled plains and past the stars, in search of what else might be out there.
