The View From The Mountain

Forty years ago, I saw DUNE in the theater with my father, who was a huge fan of the Frank Herbert book that the film was based on. The 1984 version of DUNE was directed by David Lynch, a surrealist filmmaker who was a true cinematic visionary, and I--a nineteen year old science fiction fanatic--was really looking forward to seeing what would be a new universe for me. My father, who had read all of the Frank Herbert Dune novels up to that point, was simply looking forward to seeing his all-time favorite SF novel brought to life on the big screen. And then we saw the damned movie. To say that the David Lynch version of DUNE was a disappointment was putting it mildly. The movie was a cringe-worthy affair with plenty of over the top performances, shoddy special effects, and plot holes so large you could ride a sand worm through them. I remember my father telling me, after we came out of the theater, to just read the book. “The book is so goo