LISTMAS—Top 5 Things In David Lynch’s DUNE
Dune is my favourite novel. I first read it when I was a teen and my love for it just grows as the years go by. I own both films, their soundtracks, multiple copies of the books, and other random trinkets. If you bring up Dune to me I will go on for hours about various characters and lore. Which is exactly what I’m going to do here.
I enjoy both David Lynch’s and Denis Villeneuve’s takes on Dune. While Lynch has basically washed his hands of the film, it’s continued to amass a cult following. If you’ve never seen it I recommend the SpiceDiver Re-Edit, that cuts some fluff, adds deleted scenes and structures the film closer to the novel. The following are five favourite tidbits from the 1984 film.
MENTAT LITANY
DUNE’s most famous quote by far is the Litany Against Fear: Fear is the mind killer. It’s a mantra recited to overcome difficult situations and re-center your mind. For the film, another litany was created, and I’m impressed at how well it fits into the universe. Some think this line is taken from the book, but it’s not! Brad Dourif, with the biggest eyebrows you’ve ever seen, is a Mentat—A human computer—named Piter de Vries. They do calculations and strategizing in place of tech, and sometimes augment this with a drink called Sapho Juice. Using this will cause red stains around the mouth, as seen above. Before Piter gets down to business, he recites this several times:
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It has a great rhythm and focus. I’ve even seen some replace Sapho with Coffee and use it for themselves!
Spaceship Landing
The scene in the upper left corner was shot in camera. I’ve made a rough collage of how they did it. Essentially, only the hatch and stairway is real people, shot from extremely far away. The ships are scaled models, the troops are dolls, and they built a tower to get the right angle and distance needed. It is insane to think of the work put into what lasts mere seconds on screen. Several other ship landings use a similar technique, but this is the most elaborate.
The Guild Navigator
Guild Navigators are mutated humans who chart safe travel through space and without them, there would be no interstellar trade, so they’re very important and high ranking members of society. In the books, Navigators look much more human. Like THE SHAPE OF WATER kinda fishmen. In the film, Lynch clearly said “no we need to make it BIG and GROSS!” and I’m happy he did. It’s in the first scene of the film and makes quite an impression—transporting us into the far future with his presence. While navigators usually have attendants, Edric (that’s this guy’s name) has an entire entourage to wheel him around and clean up when the tank spills weird oil on the floor.
The Harkonnens’ Weird Cat Milking Scene
Thufir is the house Mentat to the Atreides, basically the counterpart to Piter up there. He’s a kindly old man with equally wild eyebrows. When he’s captured by the Harkonnen’s in the book, they poison him and must administer the antidote daily or he will die—forcing Thufir into their service. In the film, they do the same thing…but add in a cat. “By milking this smooth little cat’s body, you will receive your antidote. You must do this each day.” Wtf? Not to mention the cat has a rat taped to it for some reason, and you’ve got the weirdest torture ever. They even made an action figure of Feyd, played by Sting, holding the cat box. (although I don’t think it was sold).
The Pugs
As a symbol of wealth and status, both The Emperor and House Atreides have pugs. And they are ADORABLE. They’re seen throughout the film, sometimes running through the hallways or just chilling. A famous scene featuring Patrick Stewart charging into battle with a gun in one hand and a pug in the other has been shared around for years. Some jokingly refer to him as the BATTLE PUG. Sadly I cannot find what this lil guy’s name was, but he remains an absolute legend.
It’s a flawed film for sure, but there’s so much charm and weirdness put into the production that I can’t help but love it. Also, Lynch went on to work with many of the cast members in future projects, so who knows if that would have happened if this space epic hadn’t been made. Stay tuned, because later this week I’ll be back to talk about my 5 Favourite Things from Denis Villeneuve’s version of DUNE.
