Dune is the film that arguably brought Virginia Madsen into the big league and without doubt the biggest film she had worked on up to that point in her career.

She took on the role of Princess Irulan, she wasn’t actually on screen that much but served as the narrator of the film and brought sense to the world of Dune with her opening monologue.
Dune is based upon a book of the same name, which would later become a series of books collectively called The Dune Chronicles by author Frank Herbert. The original novel was published in 1965, the last book of the series written by Frank Herbert would be released in 1985 – a year before his death.

For those that don’t know, yes, you in the back, Dune is a massively, visually ambitious sci-fi epic. It’s got political intrigue, space battles, giant sandworms and tells the tale of an intergalactic power struggle over a precious substance called “melange” or “spice,” which extends life and enables space travel.Princess Irulan is the daughter of the Emperor Shaddam IV (played by José Ferrer). In this version of the story mostly seen in the film’s opening narration, giving this dreamy, almost hypnotic exposition about the universe, the spice, and the conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. In the book her role was much bigger. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of her on this version, but it is what it is.

The movie stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, the noble heir who discovers his destiny as the prophesied leader of the desert-dwelling Fremen. There’s a stacked supporting cast, including Patrick Stewart, Max von Sydow, and Sting (yes, Sting).

The book series continues to this day with prequels written by Herbert son and Kevin J. Anderson. Other books in the series have been written by various authors over the years.

David Lynch would take on the task of bringing the epic and complicated story to screen but would soon come to regret his decision for one reason or another. The troubles with the film started in post production when the studio took over editing duties and reduced the film from a 3 hour run time to 2 hours and 15. Quite the cut.
The movie was a commercial failure, the budget of $40/$42 million only managed to recoup $30/$37 million. It would however go on to find a new life in the home movie market and over time became a cult classic.

Much has been written about the highs and lows of the film over the years, I don’t need to rehash any of that here. Hell, there has been a literal book written about the whole debacle.

Virginia would come out of the movie relatively unscathed, some of the other cast and crew would have previously wide open doors shut on them. Perhaps it was because of her limited screen time that did her the most favours in this case. Certainly, when reading about the movie in the present day one of the things that people comment positively on is her opening introduction to the movie.

She was cast in the movie without an audition, a rarity both then and now. When asked about the movie in interviews she has mostly good things to say about the experience.

“It was very, very exciting because I got to watch all these extraordinary actors,I had a heartbreaking crush on Patrick Stewart, Sting was running around in a loincloth and Kyle MacLachlan was going through the book with me to help me understand the world I was in.”

It was also a great thrill for her to see herself in such a massive production on the big screen saying;

“It was kind of hard for me to recover from the fact that my face was 25 feet tall in the theatre. That was the coolest thing I could have ever dreamt of as a little girl. There it was. I might not have been Barbara Stanwyck, but there I was. To me, everything about the movie was perfect because I was so proud to be a part of something that big when I was such a sci-fi / fantasy/horror fan. It was very exciting and very beautiful. I wanted to see it again immediately.”

She loved working David Lynch and was allowed, along with the rest of the cast, to watch him edit the movie before it was taken away from him. I’d imagine that being quite the experience for such a new and inexperienced actress.

Availability:
Dune is widely available even today, there have been many releases of it over the years. There is no problem in getting hold of it on DVD or Blu-Ray. There are Special Editions and 4K versions galore.

Though you might have to fight your way past the versions of the newer film(s) to get to it.

Most commonly you can look for the standard version, and the extended version – These are easy to spot if they aren’t already noted by the films running time. And, the extended version is given the Directors credit to Alan Smithee, Mr Lynch apparently wanted nothing more to do with the film at this point even if he did oversee the cut.

Gallery:

Trailer:

<    Previous

Home

Next     >