History YMMV / Dune1984

** Nothing beats the Music/{{Toto}} score from the film, especially [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDbpmyuY-D8 "Desert Theme"]], and one of the best orchestral pop songs, "[[https://youtu.be/NjJPjAkLXS8 Take My Hand]]". The climax of the score [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj9UcKj7Dxo "Big Battle"]] and its epic choir + electric guitar riff is also played in many times when the film is referenced in reviews.

* FunnyMoments: Paul demonstrating the power of the Weirding Way by breaking a piece of the Fremen's hardest stone in one shot, especially when he asks for a volunteer first.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: The film features convincing performances from Creator/KyleMacLachlan, Creator/PatrickStewart, Creator/MaxVonSydow, Creator/DeanStockwell, and others, even despite the general wackiness and questionable elements. It's rather telling that in spite of the film's failure, Stockwell's career was revitalized by it, while [=McLachlan=], who had never appeared in a movie before, was ''not'' instantly banished from Hollywood forever, making enough of an impression that he would star in several later projects for the director. This is a big part of why the movie's cult fandom enjoy the film for the things it gets right, and not for the things it gets wrong.

* CultClassic: Like most of Lynch's other works, the film has a lot of fans for its unique aesthetics and take on ''Dune'', which pleased even Herbert himself -- even though Lynch himself was not happy with the final product.

** Irulan fading in and out during her opening narration. "Oh, I forgot to tell you..."

* CantUnHearIt: Regardless of the film itself, some of its cast choices are considered pretty spot-on. Creator/PatrickStewart as Gurney Halleck, Creator/MaxVonSydow as Dr. Kynes and Creator/BradDourif as Pieter De Vries to name a few.

* AudienceColoringAdaptation:

** Many "look and feel" elements original to the film went down in story as part of the ''Dune'' franchise, being often aped by the works that followed, to the point many people don't know they weren't in the original book. Sonic weapons were created for the film, yet they have turned up in subsequent works; telekinesis and telepathy went to appear in the prequels; it's very rare to see the Emperor depicted without a neat little beard these days; and Bene Gesserit are often depicted as bald and/or bizarrely dressed, just like they were here. Frank Herbert himself liked the concept of there being multiple stages of Guild Navigators (the one seen at the beginning of the film was said by the Emperor to be a Third Stage Guild Navigator).

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The extended cut is made of footage that was cut before the final effects work was done so the Fremens' eyes will go from glowing blue to normal between scenes, and sometimes during the same scene.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** The film has the mid-20s and rather big Kyle [=MacLachlan=] playing Paul, who is supposed to be 15 and small for his age at the start. To be fair, his age is never stated in the movie, so he might have been subjected to an AgeLift.
** In the novels, Gurney is described as "an ugly lump of a man". So naturally in the film he was cast as... Creator/PatrickStewart? According to the man himself, he was actually in the film ''by mistake'' since Lynch had a different actor in mind, but there was a mix-up, and once he showed up Lynch [[ThrowItIn just rolled with it]].

* CantUnHearIt: Regardless of the film itself, some of its cast choices are considered pretty spot-on. Creator/PatrickStewart as Gurney Halleck and Creator/MaxVonSydow as Dr. Kynes to name a few.

** Creator/PatrickStewart, who played Gurney Halleck, is famous for portraying Professor X. Then, Creator/JamesMcAvoy, who played Leto Atreides II in the 2003 miniseries, portrays the younger version of [[Film/XMenFilmSeries Charles Xavier]].

** Plus, Alice Krige, who played the Borg Queen in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', played Lady Jessica in the 2003 miniseries.

** The "weirding modules". The Fremen fire lasers out of small boxes by making silly sounds with their mouths. "CHAAA-AKSA!"

** In a subversion, common knowledge claims this film was the first to give the sandworms their signature tripartite jaw, which isn't mentioned in the book, yet this is actually OlderThanTheyThink. The puppets used to portray the worms in the film do have this trait, and so it went certainly to influence all the next adaptations, to the point the design used in the Villeneuve film became divisive precisely because it doesn't have it. However, this did ''not'' originate here; the worms were first portrayed as having a triple jaw as soon as the very novel's serial release, when John Schoenherr drew them that way for an array of cover artworks that were endorsed by Herbert himself.

* AngstWhatAngst: In the original book, Muad'Dib is fearful of the prospect of the inevitable jihads in his name, and takes displeasure when seeing one of the Fremen crying his name while killing a foe. In this adaptation, Muad'Dib practically ''embraces'' the jihads, and while he notices that his name has become a killing word thanks to the "weirding modules", he doesn't dwell on it at all. Not even for a second. Instead, he just acknowledges it and moves right along with his plan to ride a sandworm.

** Feyd being played by Sting -- ''the singer Music/{{Sting}}''. (The wrestler Wrestling/{{Sting}} would have been worse, though.)

* {{Moe}}: Alia, to the point where many would say it's a ''problem'' - she's supposed to be a CreepyChild, but due to stuff like the compressed running time, she just comes off as adorable. Especially in the theatrical cut where she gets the last line: "And how can this be? For he IS the Kwisatz Haderach!"

** Feyd being played by Sting - ''the singer Music/{{Sting}}''. (The wrestler Wrestling/{{Sting}} would have been worse, though.)

** The worst offender for the film has to be the Sardaukar outfits, which are little more than black painted Hazmat suits. At this point, the artistic choices dance between lazy and just plain Dadaist.

* CultClassic: Like most of Lynch's other works, the film has a lot of fans for its unique aesthetics and take on ''Dune'', which pleased even Herbert himself - even though Lynch himself was not happy with the final product.

* UnfortunateImplications: Film scholar Robin Wood called Dune "the most obscenely homophobic film I have ever seen", –referring to a scene in which Baron Harkonnen sexually assaults and kills a young man by bleeding him to death–charging it with "managing to associate with homosexuality in a single scene physical grossness, moral depravity, violence and disease." Gay writer Dennis Altman suggested that the film showed how "AIDS references began penetrating popular culture" in the 1980s, asking, "Was it just an accident that in the film ''Dune'' the homosexual villain had suppurating sores on his face?" While [[EveryoneIsSatanInHell one may question]] whether there was actually meant to be anything sexual about that act--subtext or otherwise--the later scene where the same Baron looks longingly at a scantily clad man and calls said man "lovely" is unquestionably sexual in nature, and is even intended to ''frighten'' the audience. (Some would consider this as ValuesDissonance if one reads Brian Herbert's biography about his father. Creator/FrankHerbert had a very obsessive hatred of homosexuals, especially to the point of ''disowning one of his sons'' after he came out of the closet.)

** Fans are unsurprisingly divided about ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'' and which work did more justice to the novel. The miniseries is universally lauded for staying truer to the book and having a consistent plot that is understandable to newcomers. Nonetheless, some fans of the movie believe that the series lags behind pretty much everything else (this can be partially blamed on its abysmal budget). Reasons mentioned include [[SpecialEffectFailure less than spectacular visual effects]], [[WTHCostumingDepartment awkward costumes]] (it's not called "funny hats version" without a reason) and the cast, fine at best and bland at worst, but surely nowhere as endearing as the one of the movie. It's up to debate whether the movie deserves more praise for taking higher risks even if they didn't pay off, or the series deserves more because it didn't try to live up to unrealistic expectations.

* HarsherInHindisght: For some viewers, the scene where the Baron rapes one of his servants and tears out his heart plug, leaving behind a bloody corpse, can bring to mind the infamous "goosh goosh" scene from ''Manga/TokyoTribe''.

** An example that may double as HarsherInHindsight depending on how you see it - the scene where the Baron rapes one of his servants and tears out his heart plug, leaving behind a bloody corpse, can bring to mind the infamous "goosh goosh" scene from ''Manga/TokyoTribe'' for some viewers.

** The "blue-within-blue" eyes of the Fremen (an inevitable effect of long-term spice exposure) were portrayed here with a post-process effect that makes their irises appear to ''glow'' blue (with the sclerae being paler blue than the irises, likely as an effect of the blue light shining over reflective white), which takes the opposite route from the books (where extreme spice users/addicts have eyes so ''dark'' blue that they look almost black). Glowing eyes have since become the standard depiction in other adaptations, to the point of the miniseries actually making the blue glow vanish if the eyes were in direct bright light (and sometimes only the irises were blue, with the sclerae remaining white). Most adaptations also tend to simplify things by only giving Fremen blue eyes, and downplaying or ignoring the eye change of other spice-addict characters.