Dune

Rating:
Summary: It is what it is
Review: I'm not sure what people expect from David Lynch. This is another of his experiments and as such it is astounding. I have read the book and could not imagine anyone making it into a film. That Lynch made the attempt is to his credit.

Is it odd? yes, very
Is it long? yes, very
Are some of the characters annoying? oh yeah
Does it pay homage to the integrity of the book? yes
Will everyone like this? no
Is there anything to see here? absolutely

Dune is a visual monument to cinematography and color. Lynch uses color the way Ansel Adams used black and white film in his photographs. It defines the character of the film. Each color of each costume, set, prop, scenery seems so purposely chosen.

I personally think Blue Velvet is Lynch's masterpiece. In that film, he took us on a tour of a small depraved world that lived as its own separate entity in the universe. With Dune, he shows us a universe that is actually a very small world.

I doubt this review will help anyone decide to buy the film. This is one of those things you buy because you already know it's what you want.

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: This film is pretty good! except here presented is the the cut version...the original was 4 hours this one is 2....because David Lynch directed its more than likely this is the ONLY version that will be released as Lynch is sometimes hard to deal with because he wants complete control over his films and studios don't always like that. Not a bad one to see but I gave it bad ratings due to the cut up scenes.

I say pray for Lynch to redo it.....

Rating:
Summary: horrible, horrible, horrible
Review: I was really excited to discover that besides the sci fi version of Dune there was an earlier version as well. That excitement quickly evaporated as I actually watched the film. In the end I had to give up about half an hour before the end of the film because it is completely unwatchable.

It's not the effects - I was expecting them to be dated, and surprisngly they weren't *that* dated. The look of the sandworm was captured well and I have no complaints there. It's everything else that needs correcting. There are of course the obvious things: Paul was cast too old, everyone speaks in this weird staccato rhythm that makes them seem as though they're acting, for some reason the Bene geserrit reverand mothers are all bald even though in the book they clearly have hair, they made the barron diseased in a way he wasn't described in the book. But even these things could have been overlooked if they had gotten the feel of the story right - and they didn't.

Paul comes off like a sullen spoiled son of a duke, instead of the insightful precocious young adult he is portrayed in the book. The importance of the spice isn't too clear, neither are its effects on people who consume it. Just how dry Arrakis is, isn't made clear - the stilsuits have no hoods just nose plugs as though one could afford to lose moisture from one's mouth and facial skin on a planet such as Dune!? In general the things which should be hi-lighted are glossed over, those which could be ignored are brought into such prominence as to obscure the overall point of the story.

The only things of interest are the appearance of Start Trek's (and X-Men's) Patrick Stewart as Gurney, and Sting as Feyd.

Rating:
Summary: i'm so torn by this movie
Review: What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said about 400 some odd times (at last count on Amazon)? Let me start by asking why we are stuck with this bare bones DVD edition when the German special edition release is 3 discs? It contains both the theatrical release and the Alan Smithee version as well as a third disc of bonus materials. Incidently, I find the Smithee cut interesting for the extra scenes but its so poorly edited that its no wonder Lynch refused to take credit for it. The worst part of that version for me (well, aside from that horribly heavy handed prologue; I love how the Spacing Guild building is clearly labeled "THE SPACING GUILD," in big, bold, black letters as if people might get confused) is the music, which is completely different due to extra scenes. It sounds like they just put the CD of the soundtrack on and looped it continuously. Listen to it some time, there's no silent moment in that version.

Anyway, as I was going to say, I'm so torn by this movie because for all the things it does wrong, it does so many things right and even when it is wrong (weirding modules, for example), it still manages to be compelling. The look of this movie is so stunning that I can't help but drool over it every time I see it. The primary problem with this movie is that Lynch did not have the final cut. It always appeared to me that for all the strange trappings of the film, Lynch really understood what was important to the story. Dune has a lot of great moments, but the problem is that they don't always seem to fit together well. To me, that's an indication of too many conflicting ideas at war in the editing room. I once read an interview with Lynch where he said Dune was the only film he made that he would want to go back and change, but that even if he had the opportunity he wouldn't be able to do it. This movie was pretty much taken away from Lynch during the editing process and as such he never had the opportunity to shoot the additional footage he probably realized he needed in places. I truly believe that Lynch could have fixed the continuity problems of this movie if the studio would have let him actually finish the it.

This movie could warrant 5 stars for its production design alone, but, alas, its a little difficult to follow (understand is probably a better word, since the plot is rather simple, it's Herbert's concepts that are tough to grasp) so I can't hold it up quite that high. Still, Lynch brings Herbert's world to life in a way that probably no other living person could. Little of it looks anything like I envisioned it when I first read the book, but the images of that movie will stay with me forever. In an era of cinema where films try so hard to give audiences what they expect, Lynch's Dune is a vision from some dark corner of the imagination that no one expects and is impossible to ignore. Especially considering the time it was made, Dune should have been a landmark for not trying to look like a castoff Star Wars or Star Trek story. It can't possibly look dated because it's just so incredibly alien to begin with.

I feel like I'm in the minority for being someone who enjoyed both this adaptation and the Harrison mini-series. Some people seem to hate the Harrison version with a bloodlust. Obviously, it takes a few minor liberties with the book as well but I don't have a problem with that so long as it's true to the spirit of the book. Also, let's not criticize unfairly just because the Harrison version didn't have the monstrous budget of the Lynch version (monstrous by 1984 standards, anyway). I've always felt that the Harrison version feels more like a theatrical production than a movie and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Much like Lynch's version, it's just a little different from what you'd expect. Any Dune fan should have both.

Rating:
Summary: Certainly Not The Dune I Imagined
Review: I remember being so excited to see the movie adaption of my favorite SciFi classic. It was disappointing . . . almost a caricature of the book and not at all what was conjured up in my mind, at least. Do yourself a favor if you are a Dune fan . . . Get the Scifi Channel's version, which I thought was amazingly done, and is a much more faithful version of Dune.

Rating:
Summary: After 2 Decades of Digestion
Review: Arrakis. Dune. Desert Planet. More than a mere science fiction novel, Dune touches upon a variety of themes: ecology, politics, religion, messiahs, prescience, and ultimately at the core is a detailed study on human nature and how humans deal with larger issues, sometimes leading to unavoidable death and destruction. How to compress it into a 2 hour movie? Well, it has long been touted as folly to even consider doing so. But, David Lynch does create a compelling version within the constricted resources of an early 1980s film.

The casting is precise and entirely correct in all aspects. Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck makes for a rousing military commander that most would eagerly follow to whatever end. Brad Dourif (Wormtonge in the Lord of the Rings) is the perfect Piter DeVries in this early career role. Sting as Feyd Rautha Harkonnen, in one of his rare film performances (Sting fans will want to check out his cameo in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) is deliciously diabolical. Kyle McLachlan is Paul Atreides. McLachlan perfectly captures the feel of the Frank Hebert character in the breadth and depth of his performance. There is not a single actor who is out of place in this film.

Likewise the overall mood of this film is entirely on target. This is a dark and dangerous time, the events taking place some millennia in our future. Rules of Assassins are common practice among political leaders and no one is suspect of treachery. Manipulation is the word to live by.

The words of Frank Herbert abound in this film. Most of the dialogue is direct quotes from the text of the book, unlike some liberties taken by the SciFi Channel mini-series. And most notable is the presence of the inner thinking of the characters, as we understand so clearly when reading the book. Voiceovers are generally a bad writing style when making films, but without them this movie would be reduced to a strange science fiction fantasy Lynch flick. Of course, for the 2 hour version you will get on DVD, much of the book has been trimmed. The dozens of plot points have been reduced to three or four. The most attention is spent on the first third of the book, constituting more than half of the completed film. That leaves little time for nuances with the remainder of the film. Hardcore Dune fans will feel a bit cheated with the second half. When I saw the film in the theatres in 1984, that was my overall feeling toward the film and it lingers today.

Dune fanatics will generally have strong issue with two or three directorial choices of Mr. Lynch. He errs on the grotesque and dark side of the film, making the Baron really twisted, but we know that Lynch likes to darken and twist things as much as possible, so this should be no surprise.

The armies are a bit pathetic. The "good" Atreides army really feels very Gestapo in style, and the Sardaukar in black, full body, neporene lab gear simply will never be a terrifying military force.

There is a scene, which is not in the book, where the worms come before Muad'Dib and stop before him. The scene IS in a sequel, The Children of Dune, with Paul's son standing before the worms. It's a great dramatic image, and as a filmmaker, if you are going to get only one chance to make Dune, borrowing from one of the other novels to underline a theme should be permissible.

Paul's ability to bring forth rain at the end of the movie, as if he were God, falls along similar lines. It makes a grand visual statement and forebodes how much change is truly on the way. Film can choose to illustrate a novel, and be precise to the letter of the word by being utterly faithful, OR it can do what Lynch has done and make a dramatic statement that clearly fits in with the underlying themes of all six Dune novels.

The most heated issue with the film, though, always centers on the "weirding devices" that amplify vocal sound and transform it into a weapon. These items are not in the book in any remote version or vision. SO, why put them in the movie? Perhaps because the film techniques that have been created recently with The Matrix, computer grphics, and spectacular fight stunts with wires, had not been developed in 1983/4, yet the book describes personal combat style that readers have been imagining, for the last 3 decades, to look, surprisingly, a lot like what we saw for the very first time on film in The Matrix. Perhaps the director didn't feel he had time in a 2 hour movie to go into the details of the prana-bindu training of the Bene Gesserit. The reason becomes irrelevant upon close inspection of the novels: the choice of a weapon that amplifies sound actually does fit into the Duniverse rather well, even if it is a major deviation from the actual book. In a world where laser contact with shields breeds subatomic fusion, and fast moving objects cannot penetrate a shield, perhaps the sound waves turned into a weapon might actually be effective. Perhaps this reviewer is more forgiving of the 1984 film in the light of the prequel novels that take even greater liberties with the Duniverse. By comparison, this film is more faithful to the original story than say, Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

An overview of the different versions: There was the original theatrical limited release, which was about 3 hours long, but got chopped up due to early critical response, becoming the general theatrical release version, which is the one on this DVD at 2 hrs 17 minutes. The Alan Smithee version put back in some of the missing scenes (full scene of Sting torturing Duke Leto, Halleck playing baliset, Halleck providing one of his rousing quotations, etc...), cut out some of the more grotesque moments (Baron pulling heartplug of boy, spitting on Jessica, Reverend Mothers coughing up blood when Paul takes the water of life..), and added a bunch of additional voiceovers. Which is the real Dune? Who knows?

Had I reviewed Lynch's Dune in 1984, I would have given this film perhaps one or two stars. Thankfully I have finally matured enough to look at it with new eyes. Twenty years after its theatrical release and this film warrants a solid four stars. If you can find the extended version (on laserdisc credited with Alan Smithee as director and with Japanese subtitles!) ;-) by all means do. The added scenes more than make up for the shortness of this DVD release.

Rating:
Summary: A universe best taken at face value
Review: This Lynch/De Laurentis epic from 1984 was the first film adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic. This is essentially a sci-fi coming of age story with a backdrop involving political intrigue between four planets competing to control the spice (read: oil) trade on a desert planet. The protagonist can be seen as a fusion of Christ and Luke Skywalker, valiantly fighting corrupt empires founded on greed and backstabbing.

While this sprawling epic is not without its memorable and exciting scenes, it is ultimately too dense for its own good. The political intrigue, as well as the character development in general, were so poorly portrayed that they were impossible to follow or identify with. Lynch's decision to be true to the book's many small details, which there is no time to explain, makes the film feel desultory and arbitrary. So many characters are introduced, only to promptly disappear; so many gimmicks (such as force fields) suffer the same fate, never being connected to the overall story.

It should be noted though that many of the aforementioned gimmicks and special effects were pretty impressive, for the time. The acting was also generally solid among the secondary characters, although the leads couldn't carry the production along.

Above all else though, this Lynch film is characteristically atmospheric. So if you feel like traveling to another world and simply accepting said world at face value, and are not in the mood to play film critic, you could do worse than renting Dune. (3.5 stars)

Rating:
Summary: Classic Lynch, not Classic Dune
Review: Cult classic, yes. The two problems with it being the film-making technology was still primitive as far as Sci-fi standards in the 1980's--making this one notch above Battlestar Galactica. The second problem is that this movie will really appeal to harcore Lynch fans before hardcore Dune fans. It definitely is Dune, but not the Dune that I had in MY mind while reading the book (imagine the number of cows that must have been killed to supply all that leather...weird).

Rating:
Summary: Sooo very good and true to the spirit of the book
Review: I loved the movie and have already seen it 4 times (and read the book about 7) It is neccessary to pay attention when watching as there is a lot of information that can be lost if your mind wanders for a few weconds, but the film is very true to this wonderful classics. It is possible that it it would be best to read the book before watching this movie. I love the plush, archaic costumes and props, most of the actors are remarkable, and it actually comes over as believable! No mean feat! I'm a grandmother now, but I loved the book and movie as a much younger woman, and can reccomend them to people of any age above 12.

Rating:
Summary: GARBAGE!!!!!
Review: DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WAIST YOUR MONEY ON THIS MOVIE!!!!!! GET JOHN HARRISON'S WONDEROUS ADAPTATION!!!!!! IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SEE THIS TRASH, WAIT FOR IT TO COME ON THE SCIFI CHANNEL!!!!!! AND WORSE YET THEY HAD PATRICK STEWART ON THE CAST, THE ONLY ACTOR IN HOLLYWOOD WHO WOULD BE ABLE TO CORRECTLY PORTRAY DUKE LETO ATREIDES, AND INSTEAD HAD THE MAN, WHO SCREAMS OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES, PLAY GURNEY HALLECK, WHO IS BASICALLY A GLORIFIED THUG!!!!!!!!