RETRO-SPEC: David Lynch’s Dune (based on Frank Herbet’s bestselling novel) has often been considered the flop of all sci-fi flops, the Ishtar of the space movie canon, but today’s audiences may find it unusually appealing when compared to its eighties contemporaries. Yes, the film’s choppy, hard-to-follow, and the sound quality tilters from bad to horrible (not to mention the worst sin of all – an exaggerated guitar-opera score by Toto), but there is a certain sublimity and spirituality underlining this pop failure. Space travel is not a matter of blasting engines and speeding shards of light, but an act of advanced beings expanding their consciousness through the revered mélange spice to reach out across the cosmos. Space and time fold quietly and elegantly as entire battalions of ships awaken across the universe. It’s an act of “movement without movement.” The young hero, Paul Atreides (A pre-Twin Peaks Kyle Maclachlan, follows a treacherous path to manhood and self discovery. Overcoming fear becomes his ultimate battle, as shown in his first challenge of holding his hand inside an excruciatingly painful/mystical box.

“I must not fear,” he says. “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

This motif carries throughout his adventures on the desert planet of Arrakis (Dune). When he loses his father, he asks himself, “Where have my feelings gone,” as he begins transcending his attachments to the world. His intuition heightens, he trusts his dreams and visions, and even learns a magic trick or two. After drinking the usually deadly “Water of Life,” his consciousness expands and connects with the soul of the universe and he comes back, a resurrected human, now understanding the secrets of the spice and its relation to time travel. Even his weaponry is dependant upon expanding consciousness. “The weirding way” involves focusing in a mindful manner while using voice/sound vibrations to alter the matter around them. By the end, Paul’s so in touch with himself and the cosmos that he tames the giant worms reeking havoc on Dune, defeats the evil emperor, and even summons rain to fall all over the desert. That’s something even Ishtar couldn’t have pulled off.