After the success of the oscar-nominated The Elephant Man, Dune turned out to be a disaster (at least in financial terms) for both Lynch and the Dino De Laurentiis` production company. In 1984, it was one the most expensive movies ever, the costs reached the amount of 50 mill. $ (Frequently, a number of 75 mill $ occurs, possibly, that would have been the cost, if the movie was shot in the United States, and not in Mexico City.

Ridley Scott and Jodorowsky had failed to adapt Frank Herbert`s novel before, and it took Lynch seven attempts to fit the epic saga into a screenplay that was accepted. Unfortunately, plans to split the plot of the novel into two movies, with the first part ending with Paul`s arrival in the desert, were dropped. 

During the shooting, Frank Herbert, who had published the novel in the 1960ies was present on location, showing his support for the film-maker (and in his delight in the film`s  faithfullness to his novel).   

The filming soon went out of scale, 15.000 of extras were used, the Fremen`s blue eyes were hand-coloured during the postproduction, the largest blue screen ever as well 70 sets were built. The crew consisted of 700 men and women. No less than 4000 different costumes were used. 

When aired on TV in 1988, Dune was completely re-edited without Lynch`s consent; therefore this version isn`t credited to him but to "Judas Booth" and "Alan Smithee", the latter name is a common choice for directors who don`t identify with a particular version. (The origin of "Alan Smithee" dates back to the sixties.) There is no "director`s" cut, and it`s not likely there will be in the near future.

A film of these gigantic proportions was an easy target for critics, but it still has its strengths, although the movie is far too dominated by the dialogues, which are incredibly pointless sometimes, they hardly support the film`s visual power.

'Melange' is key to "Arrakis" and seems to be the key to "Dune" as well,  the - intentional - combination of genres and eras (of both mankind and film)  make Dune possibly the true Lynch version of the postmodern.

(Dune also deals with one theme often reoccuring in his work: incest. As Paul and his mother enter the "Forbidden Zone" (sic), they undress and soon afterwards Paul will find out that his mother is pregnant.)

The movie still has a devoted following and paved the way for an extremely successfull computer game.  Despite its weaknesse, Dune has was many science fiction lack: feeling. Which should gain it a place somewhere in the science-fiction universe of Bladerunner and Solaris.