In honor of Dune Part 2’s release, I’ve dedicated this page to all of the various pieces of memorabilia I had collected back when David Lynch’s Dune was released in 1984. I was very excited to see the movie back then, having spent the summer reading Frank Herbert’s novel beforehand. I was very young when I first saw the movie, and did not possess the understanding of cinema that I have today. My impressions of Dune back then were mostly favorable. The movie successfully managed to cover all of the major plot points of Frank Herbert’s 896 page book into a two-hour and seventeen minute movie. Several of the performances were excellent, specifically those by Kyle MacLachlan, Brad Dourif, Patrick Stewart and Freddie Jones. The imagery that David Lynch used to tell the story was unlike anything I’d seen in a science fiction film before, a unique combination of the baroque and the nightmarish. All told, I enjoyed the movie and was excited to see Lynch’s Blue Velvet two years later. I wonder how many of Lynch’s lifelong fans became hooked because of his Dune, a movie he has publicly disowned.

Before the movie was released, Universal Studios and the Dino De Laurentiis Corporation promoted the movie incessantly. Whomever was in charge of the marketing departments back then probably assumed they had a Star Wars level hit on their hands, and promoted it as such. If they had actually seen the film, they would know that it wasn’t anything like Star Wars. If you’ve seen the film, you know what I’m talking about. The Baron Harkonnen character alone is enough to give children nightmares, and probably their parents as well. (The guy definitely has a thing for heart plugs.) Subject matter notwithstanding, Universal followed the George Lucas template and sold the movie as one that would appeal to the entire family. Following are all of the Dune-related items that have traveled with me over the years, residing in four apartments until they found their now permanent home in my basement.

As you can tell, I’ve had these items for very long time. I haven’t considered selling them yet, but would entertain offers. I really should have created this page when Dune Part 1 was released back in 2021, but laziness proved to be more difficult to overcome than The Water of Life. Without further ado…

The Dune Coloring Book

If you don’t believe me that Dune was marketed to children, here’s proof. Its actually cool that because of this movie, you could color Dean Stockwell, Patrick Stewart, Jürgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow, Kyle MacLachlan and many others in the comfort of your living room.

I began collecting trading cards for my favorite movies with the original Star Wars. Dune had a full set that represented the entire movie, even those scenes that are definitely not kid-friendly:

What better way to get into the mood for the science fiction event of the year than by listening to the soundtrack by Toto? I’m not sure why “Desert Theme” was released as a single, given that its not played during the movie itself that I recall. As for how/why Toto became involved with this movie, I’m guessing its because the producers wanted a modern rock-influenced score and thought of Toto because they made that beautiful song about missing the rains down in Africa. Surely they would be able to bring the same mindset to a science-fiction movie about a planet where no drop of rain falls, right? As it turns out, Toto chose to do the score. A Pitchfork article discusses their collaboration with Lynch.

In case you’re curious how the Desert Theme sounds:

How much had Dune permeated the cultural consciousness when it was released? I clipped the following Outland cartoon from my local Sunday newspaper:

Critical reviews of the movie were mostly unkind. Roger Ebert hated the movie and gave it one star.

Back in the day, kids used to play video games stored on things we referred to as 5 & 1/4″ floppy disks. I did enjoy playing this game, where you direct Paul through an adventure based on the plot of the movie. What was really odd was how some of the characters looked like the actors, and some definitely did not. I don’t have a drive that plays these anymore, so I have no idea if they still work, or if Windows 11 would even recognize them if I tried.

Before the rock band The Police broke up, Sting tried his hand at acting in Quadrophenia (1979) and Brimstone and Treacle (1982). When the band officially broke up, he took several showy roles that intended to highlight how he could be a sexy leading man. Dune was one of them, and the role became a punchline because it featured him wet and sporting a bikini brief in one scene. Even though he only had a handful of lines, he was front-and-center in the marketing. This made sense because the movie was Kyle MacLachlan’s first role and the rest of the cast were either unknowns as well or character actors. So, they sold Sting, even though his role was a glorified cameo.

Back in the day, movie theaters sold collector’s magazines for the movies being shown. They weren’t cheap, but they were made with high-gloss paper and included stills from the movie. I miss those days.

When Dune was released in theaters, each member of the audience was given a sheet of paper that included a definition for all of the terminology used in the movie. I wasn’t able to locate my copy of that hand-out at press time, but I did find the equivalent that was available at video stores when the VHS tape came out.