David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune is widely recognised to be something of a disaster.

The producers probably thought they were investing in the new Star Wars. What they got was weird and incomprehensible beyond belief. Lynch himself subsequently disowned the movie and whilst it has become something of a cult, campy favourite, my memory was that it was unmitigated crap! 

I saw this – I think for movie reviewing purposes – back when it came out. Three things stick in my mind only: Kyle Maclachlan riding on the back of a giant worm, lots of gobbledegook dialogue about ‘spice’ and it had Sting in it, wearing a nappy.

Lynch is a singular vision, from Eraserhead via Blue Velvet, and most of his movies are signature bizarre. I can’t say I really love any of them, with the exception of Wild At Heart, which I really like and tracked down recently on DVD. On paper, maybe he seemed like a good fit for the material here, but production compromises and script issues rather scuppered Dune’s chances, and the movie died at the box office.

I didn’t share the same love for Denis Villeneuve’s recent remake as many of the critics. It is sumptuously mounted for sure, but I found it all rather slow and dour, plus the fact that it is only “Part One” of the story meant it rather petered out at the end with many plot points (not surprisingly) left hanging. Let’s hope Villeneuve manages to stick the landing in Part Two, assuming it gets made.

This is the advance UK quad for Lynch’s original, which I sold recently to a Dune fan from Canada.