Back in September and October of 2023, I reviewed the first movie in the most recent retelling of the sci-fi classic Dune because the sequel was scheduled for release in November of that year. However, thanks to the Hollywood Writers’ Strike, that movie was delayed until March 2024. With March fast approaching, I’ve decided to revisit the world of Dune by reviewing another of the film versions of Frank Herbert’s iconic 1965 novel. Since I’ve covered the plot of the first 2021 movie, I want to look at the ways the 1984 version differs from it.

Dune 1984, while similar in many ways, offers some interesting differences. The writer, David Lynch, took many liberties when condensing the novel into a two-hour film. As so often, some of these changes worked, and others didn’t.

The surprising beginning of the 1984 version

The movie opens up with Princess Irulan explaining the situation. It’s a strange way to start the film. That’s not just because we have a floating head in space—a literal talking head. Also, it’s debatable whether Irulan is a talking head in the literary sense since she’s breaking the fourth wall. She persistently fades in and out of view as if she’s suddenly remembering important details she forgot to tell the viewer. The random fading in and out of space is jarring, but I found the scene charming in a way.

Telling the reader what happened before the story opened (exposition) is tricky. Strictly speaking, this scene is an infodump. Most writers will wail and rend their garments at the thought of providing one. Many writing instructors believe that there is no greater sin in writing than to bog down the beginning with a bunch of information.

I can understand the logic, but personally, I don’t mind infodumps. I, for one, hate being confused at the beginning of a story. I despise having to slowly piece together the nature of a fantasy world as bits of information are slowly given to me scene by scene. Given the choice between confusion during the first half of a novel or movie or clarity at the cost of immersion in the beginning, I’d rather have clarity. But I’ll admit most writers would strongly disagree.

Dune 1984’s struggles with show vs. tell

Of course, the trick with infodumps is knowing what information to include and what to omit. Dune 1984 struggles with this. Information presented by Irulan is often acted out in later scenes, making the movie seem redundant at times. But her speech does give the viewer a better understanding of the situation at the beginning than either the newest remake or the novel—particularly, the novel.

One of my biggest complaints with the novel is that the information needed to understand the political landscape of Paul’s world is so scattered that it takes multiple readings to really grasp the situation. This can make the book feel boring at times because it’s very hard to identify the stakes. Dune 1984’s infodump removes this problem and I would argue that, given the length of Frank Herbert’s novel, it is badly needed, especially considering that David Lynch is trying to condense the tale into a script that runs just over two hours.

And the movie adds another scene that I particularly liked:

Wise 1984 decisions in providing background to the viewer

Rather than keeping Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV a shadowy figure, Dune 1984 opens up with a meeting between the emperor and the Spacing Guild. This is important because both the emperor and the Spacing Guild are really the two big power players in the plot. The emperor is the puppet master behind the attack on House Atreides and the Spacing Guild has a special interest in the Spice on Arrakis.

When Paul later attacks the Spice mining operations, he’s not attacking the Harkonnens so much as he’s attacking the Guild. It is important to understand this because preventing the flow of Spice to the Guild is what later forces the emperor to land on Arrakis and make himself vulnerable. But the real villains of the story are easy to miss because the Harkonnens are so easy to hate. Thus, Dune 1984 makes the smart choice of showing the emperor and the Guild conspiring because this meeting makes it clear that Baron Harkonnen is just a puppet.

I won’t say that all of Dune 1984’s changes are for the better, but the initial infodump and this opening scene save a great deal of time and make the plot clear and concise. The viewers understand the stakes, and can stay invested in the story.

Then the story heats up…

The emperor’s Reverend Mother telepathically overhears this meeting between the Guild and the emperor. While listening in, she discovers that the Guild wants to make sure that Paul Atreides is killed during the Harkonnen’s surprise attack. This prompts her to travel to Caladan, House Atreides’ home planet, so she can test Paul.

Paul was never supposed to be born. Duke Leto’s concubine, Jessica, was ordered to give birth only to daughters, but because she loves Leto, she gave him a son. Reverend Mother frowns on this because she is a Bene Gesserit, and they are in the business of using their children to arrange political marriages among the various houses.

The Bene Gesserit also have a nasty habit of dabbling in eugenics. They want to perfect various bloodlines because they one day hope to create the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit, who will be able to look into a particular area in time that is impossible for the female Bene Gesserits to see when they are having their visions.

They also hope to control this Kwisatz Haderach. But the fact that Paul is more loyal to his house than to them creates a problem. However, most men who try to become Bene Gesserits die, particularly if they drink from the Water of Life—a bile produced by the Sandworms of Arrakis. So before they can decide what to do about Paul, they must first see if he can endure one of the main trials of the Bene Gesserit training, the Gom Jabbar Test. The Reverend Mother wants to see if Paul will survive it, and we’ll cover what happens in the next review.

Here’s Part 2 of this three-part essay: Dune (1984) vs the classic sci-fi novel: What worked; what didn’t For some scenes, the film was an improvement on the book; for others, writer David Lynch might better have stuck with the original. The changes that worked generally made the story more concise by omitting scenes that delay the plot without offering much more information to the reader. (Gary Varner)