nathanisthebest

The other day I was leaving work in the café when a customer noticed a paperback sticking out of the side pocket of my imitation Members Only jacket. He asked me what it was and instead of telling him I flashed the cover his way.

DUNE.

He asked, “Have you seen Lynch’s film?”

Immediately I flashed back to the first time I saw the Lynch version. The details remain hazy, but I remember it was back when my older sister, Katherine, was still in high school and she had it in her mind that she was going to watch Dune, partly for Lynch, partly for Sting. (The motivation behind Katherine’s appreciation of Sting in her teens was hard to pinpoint. Was it a genuine affection? Or ironic? More than anything I think she loved the idea of Sting, whatever that means. The same went for David Lee Roth.) Our little sister, Rachel, also stayed up to watch Dune, intrigued by the prospect of watching this strange movie we’d heard so much about yet knew nothing of. The VHS tape suddenly took on a strange aura of possibility. What were we about to see? And so into the VCR it went, and into the unknown. (This anticipation ratcheted up several degrees more because the VCR heads were extremely sensitive to dust and in order to avoid a distortion-filled TV screen we’d always have to fast forward the tape for a few minutes then rewind it back to the beginning before we’d even attempt to watch it. This ritual was usually the perfect occasion to pop popcorn or take a pre-movie bathroom break. I could be wrong, but I think this time we just sat there, impatient.)

I could tell as we all settled into our well-worn spots on the couches and chairs in the living room that Katherine would have rather watched it in solitude, but usually younger siblings are like barnacles; you couldn’t shake them off if you wanted to.

Previews out of the way, words and images from the lens of Lynch flashed at us from the big, square box. I had no idea what to make of it. And even stranger still the more we watched the less I understood. The flow of exposition was torrential and alienating, yet the imagery wouldn’t loosen its grip. In spite of itself, the movie transported me to the harsh desert climate of Arrakis, a world far more treacherous than Tatooine ever was. (Star Wars: Katy Perry :: Dune: Lady Gaga in her meat dress?) It was beautiful and hideous, graceful and left-footed, poetic and dumb-as-shit. I loved it, and I was haunted by it.

And I still didn’t understand a lick of it.

It took nearly twenty years, but I finally got the bug in me to understand Dune. I thought I could “get” it in a single viewing (via Netflick stream instant). I thought, “Surely, my mind has evolved since then. If it can handle Inception then it can handle Dune. This will be a piece of cake.” Then I watched the film. And what bitter cake it was!

I needed more information, so off to Wikipedia I clicked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(film) (I can’t make the link work, sorry!)

It was there that I learned of the Alan Smithee version of the film, a version cut together without Lynch’s input for the european market, and one I managed to watch (with English subtitles) thanks to the Internet. In this version nearly an hour of new material was re-incorporated into the film, as well as the addition of crucial voice-over narration which filled in much of the context for what took place in the theatrical cut. It may not have been the best way to go about making Dune work as a film, but it got the job done. I understood the story. Scenes related to each other. AND MY MIND WAS BLOWN.

Now back to the café.

I tell the customer, “Yeah, I’ve seen the Lynch film. Loved it, but you know what I really dug? The Alan Smithee cut, as bad as that sounds.”

“That’s a fucking terrible film. With the matte paintings at the beginning? Awful.”

I know this customer is a filmmaker and so I politely smile and say a few things about how it had more David Lynch material in it and so it had undeniable value, but he wouldn’t give up any ground.

“That movie has to open with that face, “ he said, referring to Princess Urulan. “Without that face the movie doesn’t work.”

Strange to think it was that face that kicked off two decades of that movie NOT working for me.