Originally Posted by
The Hitchhiking Ghost
The movie improves a bit if you can catch the director's/extended cut. The theatrical release chopped a lot out of it. It was really too big a book to try get into a movie. The casting of and portrayal of the Harkonen's was really bad. I remember (after reading all the books at that time) that when I saw it in the theater that they handed out a "terms" glossary.
In 2000 and 2003 they did a miniseries. I think they combined Dune - Dune Messiah into one series, then Children of Dune into another. Give them a try, as I recall they do better justice to the books.
As an aside, if you haven't read them, give the new Dune series (By Herbert's son and a co-writer) a shot, they are very well done and carry on the tradition quite well.