Dune

David Lynch's cult classic, Dune, is as sporadic, messy and crudely entertaining to watch today, just as it was back when it came into theaters in December of 1984. Back than, it was hyped up as being a huge success, with a, at the time, gigantic budget of $45,000,000. But, imagine everyone's surprise when audiences and critics alike saw it, and were stunned by how truly awful it was, and, because of this, it completely flopped at the box office and severely hurt the career of the great director, David Lynch. But, given the fact that he just needed a couple years of solace, two years later, David Lynch created Blue Velvet, his quintessential masterpiece, so, if it were not for Dune's failure, he would have never learned from his mistakes and attempted to tackle a much smaller, and more personal film, and for that, Dune must be thanked. But, outside of all this, Dune may be one of the most screw loose, bizarre movies that has ever come out of a major movie studio, and, having had read the 1960 science fiction epic novel that this movie is based upon, I actually was surprised to find that it's completely mess of a narrative and script were actual more or less on par with the novel. Now, let us not forget that the novel itself was also a bit of a sporadic, sprawling epic of bizarre proportions, for sure, but that the film actually did it a decent enough job as a tribute. But, that is not the real reason why I love Dune so much. No, the real reason is because Dune gives us so many strange yet morbidly memorable images, characters and set pieces that you just can't help but go with it. The film bounces from character to character, for location to location, that so many people at the time couldn't figure out what the story was really about, overall, and I guess, even today, some people are still confused. But, as far as I see it, Dune is a beautiful mess of a movie. But, considering that this was also still one of the first few movies to be given the still, at the time, moderately new PG-13 rating back in 1984, some of the content in the movie is fairly off from what would be expected for the Rating nowadays, but, here we go, anyway: There is frequent, weird and occasionally gruesome imagery, with severe scenes of peoples nipples being torn off completely on-screen, with blood oozing out, a cow having it's tongue ripped off, gigantic worm-like creatures eating people, and, of course, the main villain who is just so peculiar and sickening to look at, considering that eh is almost entirely and completely covered in disgusting boils and zits. Also, there is brief but moderate sensuality, with a few bedroom scenes which are often cut short. And, finally, there is completely non-existent profanity, except for one key scene, where both d-mn and h-ll are used several times. So, as strange and bizarre a film as Dune is, one cannot help but enjoy it, and for that, it is a film that I think is worth watching over and over again.