Exactly 40 years ago on Dec. 14, 1984, David Lynch's $40 million Dune — at the time, the most expensive film in Universal Pictures' history — was released to vicious critical jeers and disappointing box office returns, opening at No. 2 against the second weekend of Beverly Hills Cop. Audiences who showed up were equally bemused, with many theaters handing out a desperately explanatory glossary of terms from the sci-fi epic alongside one's movie ticket. Mountains of Dune action figures and phallic plastic sandworms sat unsold at toy stores, awaiting their destiny at the local landfill.
Dune '84 was neither the franchise-starting Star Wars killer the studio hoped it would be, nor the arthouse epic fans of Lynch's Eraserhead and The Elephant Man were expecting. Just what was this thing, then? As it turns out, one of the most unique blockbusters ever devised — something that has made many fall in love with it in more recent years…
