Dune 1984 Offers A Strong Finish to a Unique Adaptation

I’d go as far as to say that, while not all of David Lynch’s adaptations worked, the film is, overall, better than the book

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

In the second part of my review, I talked about some of the differences between the 1965 sci-fi classic book Dune, the 1984 version of Dune (under review), and the 2021 movie.

In the 1984 version, we have now reached the point where the basic Dune story ends in the 2021 version, pending the sequel, Part 2, which continues the tale. So the 1984 version had the challenging task of condensing the entire novel into one two-hour movie. Changes were needed. Up to now in the story, these changes have been a mixed bag, but for the most part, they’ve worked.

The Weirding Module is found only in the film version

After Paul Atreides and Jessica have been accepted by the the Fremen, these new allies want Paul to train them. He agrees to do so, but he doesn’t teach them hand-to-hand combat. He shows them how to shoot a special gun called a Weirding Module , which uses sound to increase the power of its laser.

This gun is, as I noted last time, screenwriter David Lynch’s invention — a neat idea nowhere to be found in the book. This new plot device raises an important question: How did Paul arm the Fremen with these Weirding Modules when he only had one of them after the Harkonnen attack?

Lynch never addresses the matter, and it’s a very large plot hole because of the guns’ importance in the story. For example, they enable Paul to overpowers the emperor’s forces, the Sardaukar easily. Without them, there’s no reason to think Paul could defeat the most powerful army in the universe.

Why Lynch “invented” the Weirding Module for the film

David Lynch introduced the weapon because he felt that Paul’s Weirding Way, the martial arts discipline used by the Bene Gesserits in the book, was unworkable on film. He’s even quoted as saying that he didn’t want to see “Kung-fu on sand dunes.” So, he decided to give Paul the specialized gun instead.

I don’t think this was a good trade-off. Granted, Kung-fu can be cheesy, but the screenwriter traded one problem for another. It would be impossible for Paul to arm the Fremen with anything that appeared in the book, let alone a weapon unique to House Atreides. To avoid a cliché, he created a plot hole. Not a good choice.

Once the Fremen are trained, Paul leads them on an extended campaign against the Harkonnens. He destroys the Harkonnens’ Spice mining operations in the hopes of frightening the Spacing Guild, which is dependent on the Spice for its means of travel.

Here is where the 1984 version did a better job condensing the situation than the book. These are not random attacks. The idea is to cut off the Guild’s supplies. Because the movie showed the Spacing Guild and the emperor conspiring together in the beginning, the viewer knows that the Guild will pressure the emperor into dealing with the situation personally. Paul continues attacking the mining operations until the emperor arrives on Arrakis.

Assassination as child’s play

As Paul launches his final assault, we come to another point in the story that I find very frustrating. The emperor and the baron meet just as Paul begins his attack. The ruler of the known universe is unhappy with the baron’s management of the situation on Arrakis. Then, as in the book, Alia, Paul’s four-year-old sister, shows up and begins speaking with them.

The Reverend Mother is also present and realizes that Alia is not an average child. Jessica drank from the Water of Life when she became a Reverend Mother for the Fremen. This “water” is really a bile produced by the Sandworms, and the Bene Gesserits use it to enable visions of the future. Jessica was pregnant with Alia when she drank this bile, and it changed the little girl, making her far more mature than she appears.

Alia is basically an adult trapped in a little girl’s body. However, the Reverend Mother’s warnings are ignored, and during Paul’s attack, Alia kills the baron with a Gom Jabbar.

I simply cannot find this believable. I know Alia is special, and I understand the element of surprise — but she’s still just a child. There is no way Paul or anybody else would’ve trusted a toddler to carry out an assassination. Besides, the whole scenario is made even more implausible by the fact that Duke Leto could’ve killed the baron in a much more believable fashion earlier in the book! But I can’t blame the 1984 version for sticking to the source material, as much as it annoys me, and I will say that the little girl who played Alia (Alicia Witt) did a very good job.

A missed opportunity — and a strong ending

Soon after the baron’s death, Paul defeats the Sardaukar, and the emperor is captured. Paul fights Feyd Harkonnen and kills him. I won’t say much on this point because it feels very random. The movie tries to offset this problem by showing Feyd throughout the film but the duel still feels like a waste of time. The basic problem is that the book needed to establish a rivalry between Paul and Feyd, but it doesn’t. David Lynch would’ve needed to add entire scenes to make the fight personal, but he didn’t have the screen time.

The movie ends with a rainstorm on Arrakis, confirming that Paul is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach. This moment isn’t in the book, but I thought it was a nice flourish. With all the scheming going on in Dune, it’s easy to drown in cynicism. I’m glad David Lynch implied that there was more going on there than just the plans of men.

Dune 1984 in perspective

Dune 1984 is a product of its time, a time when CGI was scarce and the more traditional tropes in writing were respected. Some of the graphics are simply awful — the defensive shields being the worst example — but the set paintings are marvelous and the mechanical special effects are top-notch.

Most of the changes David Lynch made are justifiable, with only a handful of exceptions. The Weirding Module was by far the worst deviation from the source material. On the whole, I’d recommend Dune 1984 and go as far as to say it’s better than the book. But I’ll be honest, while I respect the novel as a sci-fi classic, I’m not its greatest fan. It’ll be interesting to see how the 2021 version’s sequel concludes Frank Herbert’s work.