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Movies Television

David Lynch, Director of Twin Peaks and Dune, Dies At 78 (deadline.com) 42

Posted by BeauHD from the rest-in-peace dept.
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.

David Lynch, Director of Twin Peaks and Dune, Dies At 78 More | Reply

David Lynch, Director of Twin Peaks and Dune, Dies At 78

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  • 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 :(

    • Because it was weird and grotesque in the manner of a Harkonnen.

      My major beef with the movie was the "weirding modules" in place of Prana Bindu subtleties. But, I don't really hold it against him since it made for a convenient plot device.

      I have always liked the Lynch version of Dune for it's weirdness.

  • He’s not dead (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday January 16, 2025 @06:02PM (#65094657)

    He made it to the white lodge.

  • The spice must flow (Score:5, Interesting)

    by VampireByte ( 447578 ) on Thursday January 16, 2025 @06:11PM (#65094677) Homepage

    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)

      by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Thursday January 16, 2025 @06:26PM (#65094705)

      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.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kbahey ( 102895 )

        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 recall that Frank Herbert was a consultant on the movie.
        So he may have approved this aspect that was not in the novel.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          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.

      • The oldest cliche in the book? Having the "bad guys" identified by being physically ugly? You thought that was amazing? Uh huh.

      • I far prefer the Lynch version. The new ones are dull and lifeless.

        • I far prefer the Lynch version. The new ones are dull and lifeless.

          Having fallen asleep on my first couple attempts with the new ones, I'd say I agree. I think it's the monotone of the color palette combined with the lack of big moments feeling big. Everything just sorta blends into a single dull ache, rather than the taught tension I think they were going for. About the only thing I remember is Momoa saying "My Boy" in a way that struck me as oddly creepy rather than buddy, buddy like that character should be. Everything else feels like a dull wash of sand colors. Even em

    • I saw it when it came out, and thought it sucked donkey doodles.

    • Still love it here

    • Re:The spice must flow (Score:4)

      by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Thursday January 16, 2025 @08:27PM (#65094965) Journal

      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.

    • 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.

    • I love Lynch's Dune but it's also pretty bad. I think it's beautiful. It was influential in its visual style. Very young me was really fascinated by the depiction of the guild navigator and the reverend mother. But most everything involving the Fremen sucked. Considering the tools he had, I think Lynch made a visually hypnotic film. But the acting and storytelling are confusing to downright laughable for long stretches. To me it's the greatest example of a movie that is awesome and terrible at the same time

    • Yeah I thought it was great too. It had a little bit of Lynch's surrealism, but not nearly as surrealistic as the ill-fated Jodowarski Dune that never made it past pre-production (and was to have featured salvador Dali on a throne of "intersected dolphins" as emperor and a pink floyd soundtrack for its 9 hour run length. pure madness). Lynch did take a few ideas from Jodowarski's mad vision, but brought it somewhat back into a watchable regular film.

      I still prefer the newer dune, it feels much more authent

  • ...is to have them make sense in the end.

    Not making them make sense is taking the easy, lazy way.
    • You could also say the same for lazy viewers wanting thing spelled out for then rather than engaging in discussion with others re interpretation, which is fun for many.
      • Explaining random nonsense is pointless. You might as well read tea leaves or animal entrails.

        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.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MrKaos ( 858439 )

          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?

          • Watching a film full of wacky unconnected events, you are not understanding or comprehending anything, you are merely viewing a stream of pretty nonsense.

            Smart people want more than brainless passive viewing, they want to understand things.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rinnon ( 1474161 )
      Disagree. My favourite endings are the ones that don't spell it out for you, or don't tie up loose ends, or just stop mid sentence (Kafka's The Castle is an all time favourite ending of mine, in that it doesn't). A bad ending is worse than no ending at all. We're all welcome to our own entertainment preferences of course.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • The point is for the production to cohere. All of the things in it have to belong with all of the other things in it. But there are many ways to do this, and you need to pick the right way for the story you're telling. If your story is about something about the world which doesn't make sense, then a plot which does make sense is not going to work.
      • A film that does not make sense is not a story, it is just a sequence of "This whacky thing happened, then this whacky thing happened, then this whacky thing happened, The End".

        It is FAR easier - and far lazier - to write incoherent plots like that, rather than ones where the writer has the skills and makes the effort to fit the whacky things together coherently.
        • But.. but.. but that is the standard tired line of mediocre artists everywhere:
          The viewer brings his or her meaning to my work ...

          So, if I shit on a piece of paper, and nail it to the wall, it's art ! If you don't "get it", its because you're a bad viewer!
          • Exactly.

            A viewer is only actually understanding something if they grok the point that was put there by the creator, not if they invent a nonsense interpretation of a point that was never there.

            You might as well get your insights from the shapes of clouds as from the nonsense made by lazy writers and filmmakers.
             
  • Pabst Blue Ribbon!

  • 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.

  • And David Bowie. Thank God they're still alive.

  • understands his movies.

  • The owls are not what they seem

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