We Should All Be Glad The Original 'Dune' Sucked

There's been a lot of Dune talk on the internet lately, after the trailer for the $200 million sci-fi thirst trap was released last week -- which not everyone was thrilled with. While Dune doesn't have a firm release date as of it yet, anyone looking for a movie featuring giant killer worms can always check out the seventh installment in the Tremors franchise next month. Or better yet, why not revisit the original 1984 adaptation of Dune directed by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, and Sting's futuristic crotch ornament.

Lynch's Dune was famously a giant bomb; it lost money at the box office, was critically-panned, and the studio presumably had to incinerate a crap-load of unsold coloring books. Siskel and Ebert named it the worst film of the year.

But in retrospect, we're actually glad that Dune was such an epic failure. Not only does the new version of Dune look pretty good, but if Lynch's movie had been a success, it probably would have derailed his entire career.  

If it weren't for the failure of Dune, Lynch wouldn't have been backed into an artistic corner and forced to prove his art-house worth with the low-budget nightmare that was Blue Velvet. More importantly, Dune was intended to be the next Star Wars, so Lynch was contracted to make two more Dune movies. According to Lynch, had his movie been a hit, "I would've been Mr. Dune." We may never have gottenTwin Peaks, or Mulholland Drive, or even Lynch's thriving t-shirt business as a result.

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Top Image: Universal Pictures