David Lynch, Director of Twin Peaks and Dune, Dies At 78 (deadline.com) 33
David Lynch, a four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker known for the 1984 sci-fi epic Dune and the Showtime drama Twin Peaks, has died. "In January 2025, Lynch evacuated his Los Angeles home due to the Southern California wildfires," writes longtime Slashdot reader Z00L00K. "According to Deadline, these events preceded a terminal decline in his health, and on January 16, 2025, Lynch's family announced that he had died at the age of 78." Deadline reports: Lynch had been diagnosed with emphysema. Sources told Deadline that he was forced to relocate from his house due to the Sunset Fire and then took a turn for the worse. In an interview with Sight & Sound magazine last year, Lynch revealed that due to Covid fears and his emphysema diagnosis, he could no longer could leave the house, which meant if he directed again, it would be remote. He then followed up the interview with a post on social that he "will never retire" despite his physical challenges.
why?? (Score:2)
Why was there a rat taped to a cat? Why did no one ever say anything about it? Why why why??? Now we will never know :(
He’s not dead (Score:2)
He made it to the white lodge.
The spice must flow (Score:4, Interesting)
I really liked Lynch's Dune. It's easy to pick on it today, but to a nerdy guy 40 years ago it was pretty cool.
Re:The spice must flow (Score:4, Interesting)
I did too! My only real gripe was what he did with replacing the "Weirding Way" with those silly sound weapons where they go "Hiya" every time they fire.
I absolutely loved his Baron Harkonnen, the physical decrepitude (with all its pussy blisters and boils perpetually being worked on by his doctor) to match the moral decrepitude. "Put the pick in Pete and turn it around reeeaaal neat". And the heart plugs installed on all his people whose only purpose was to allow him to easily murder them, that's from the book and just so enhances how insanely evil this guy was. Villeneuve's Baron Harkonnen was a bit bland by comparison although dont get me wrong, Villeneuve's Dune movies were great.
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I recall that Frank Herbert was a consultant on the movie.
So he may have approved this aspect that was not in the novel.
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Either way it just wasnt to my taste. Too much time as a child yelling "Hiya" while doing pretend karate moves for me to not find grown men shouting it while doing kind of the same silly.
To each their own of course.
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The oldest cliche in the book? Having the "bad guys" identified by being physically ugly? You thought that was amazing? Uh huh.
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Hardly the oldest or the most common but certainly a cliche. A well done cliche is still well done movie making.
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There's "hollywood ugly" and then just plain old ugly.
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I far prefer the Lynch version. The new ones are dull and lifeless.
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I saw it when it came out, and thought it sucked donkey doodles.
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I really liked Lynch's Dune. It's easy to pick on it today, but to a nerdy guy 40 years ago it was pretty cool.
and it still is.
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It was indeed a nerdy movie. If you read the book, it was awesome. If you hadn't read the book it was confusing and weird.
The whole point of complicated plots... (Score:1)
Not making them make sense is taking the easy, lazy way.
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Working out a complex thing that is internally consistent is vastly more satisfying.
But it means someone has to work out that complex thing first.
That is hard work.
Work that people like Lynch can't be bothered to do.
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Work that people like Lynch can't be bothered to do.
Perhaps he only made movies for people smart enough to cope with uncertainty long enough to understand them?
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It's a valid criticism. I would have liked Twin Peaks to actually go somewhere with half the plots that were touched on. But then we probably wouldn't be talking about a short lived series over 30 years later. You could also argue he's more of an artist than a filmmaker. One particular episode of Twin Peaks Revival was 45 minutes of nothing but art.
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There's some truth to that as a general principle. I don't like obfuscation for its own sake, and I don't like "mysteries" where the reveal is arbitrary or illogical. (The Benoit Blanc movies come to mind as an example of that).
I don't think it applies to David Lynch. With his films, I frequently don't understand what's going on, and sometimes I've gotten fed up with the film-- but I always find that I'm still thinking about the film, and eventually I'll go back and rewatch it, and find the meaning in it.
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I loved Eraserhead. It was weird. I didn't see it in the 70s though, I wasn't old enough to appreciate weird enough back then possibly. I still don't understand all of it but I still think about it, and that's really what good movies do. The score and sound throughout adds to the feeling, and there's a lot of focuson the surreal visuals that does leave the plot sort of as an afterthought.
Re:RIP (Score:4, Informative)
People say he'd locked himself in his house since covid and refused to come out.
Because he had emphysema [yahoo.com]. Couldn't be bothered to mention that part, could you? Nope, just mention the covid part to keep the conspiracy theories alive.
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(If you want it)
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Heineken? Fuck that shit! (Score:2)
RIP David Lynch (Score:2)
Thanks for the great movies but thanks even more for the loads of people that don't understand them, it's the sign of a true artist.
At least we still have Prince (Score:2)
And David Bowie. Thank God they're still alive.
Now there's nobody alive who (Score:1)
understands his movies.