Ahira's Hangar

I was in the store today and got pretty geeked up when I saw an new extended edition of David Lynch's theatrical release of Dune.

It comes in an attractive metal case and contains both the original and extended versions of the film.

Bonus materials:
deleted scenes!
a piece on the visual design of the film
a piece on the special effects
a piece on how they used the models
a piece on the wardrobe and costumes
a photo gallery
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I finally got time to give it a watch last night...and man, Iwish they has left the deleted scenes in there. Calibaby has never read the book and was pretty confused during a lot of the movie. When we watche the deleted scenes, he said that they really helped him understand what had been going on. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I've never been a fan of Lynch's Dune at all. (I do own it, but it was a gift.) And I didn't like the mini-series either.

Some of the performances were not too too bad, that guy as the Baron for instance, but they messed with the story way too much for my taste.

I'm curious to know what they deleted though...

--A ____________________________________

"We have become a society in which the Artist is regarded as
A self-indulgent superfluity, and the person who juggles stocks and shares
Is an essential part of the economy. Something is Wrong" -Pam Brown.
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The scenes that had been deleted were ones that actually explained what was going on. I would have to go back and watch them again at this point, but I remember Cali fussing about why in the heck they took them out as they helped everything make a lot more sense. "For the first time I understand this thing!"

The guy who played the Baron was great. Sting was fun! And I loved "the look", particularly of the Harkonnen homeworld.

I hated most of the scenes with the Fremen and "the weirding way". The weirding way was just far too weird!

Dune is a marvelous and complex book where a lot of the most important action is going on inside the hearts and minds of the characters. Seeing how they tried to treat this in the film and the miniseries makes me fear for Donaldson's Covenant books should they ever indeed be filmed. The directors tried, they really did - but none of them quite conveyed the inner workings of the minds and souls, either. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Agreed.

I'm such a purist that friends and family usually refuse to watch movies with me if I've read the book. I tend to spend the whole movie grumbling about what they did wrong.

Perhaps another factor involved in my dislike, (as though you need one besides getting the story wrong) was the time. I probably only watched it in the mid to late 90's, by which time it was pretty dated.

And the Atriedes weren't cast particularly well I think, except maybe Jessica. And Patrick Stewart just wasn't Gurney Halleck to me. *shrug* He was already Picard.

--A ____________________________________

"We have become a society in which the Artist is regarded as
A self-indulgent superfluity, and the person who juggles stocks and shares
Is an essential part of the economy. Something is Wrong" -Pam Brown.
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I do not particularly like the casting of the Atreides parents in either of the filmed works. I always imagine Leto being middle aged and Jessica in her thirties - and there needs to be a lot of chemistry between them. Theirs is a great love story! And a realistic one, with Leto being so affected by politics that he will not marry her, and her being so hurt about that. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Agreed again. I don't reallyt remember Leto in the mini-series. I think I watched only 1 episode of it.

That said though, as we learn somewhere in the series, the Atreides are supposed to be descended from Agamemnon...so the movie Leto, and Paul to a lesser extent, sorta did have that suggestion of classical greek...

I still didn't like it though.

--A ____________________________________

"We have become a society in which the Artist is regarded as
A self-indulgent superfluity, and the person who juggles stocks and shares
Is an essential part of the economy. Something is Wrong" -Pam Brown.
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When Leto II goes inward and meets his ancestors in Children of Dune, I believe it is revealed that one of those ancestors is Agamemnon - so they really are Atreides - children of Atreus, who had been the father of Agamemnon.

Throughout The Iliad, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus are referred to as the Atreides - sons of Atreus. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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There you go then. (An allusion I'd missed.)

Off topic I know, but I've always been interested how certain genetic characteristics seem to have prevailed so far into the future in these books. Suggests insular societies I guess. I would have thought it would be diluted somewhat.

Anyway, so I suppose there is some justification for the casting. Pity the actors weren't that great. :

And you're right, the Leto/Jessica angle wasn't really well explored in the movie.

that's the problem with movies. you can never get in everything. *sigh*

--A ____________________________________

"We have become a society in which the Artist is regarded as
A self-indulgent superfluity, and the person who juggles stocks and shares
Is an essential part of the economy. Something is Wrong" -Pam Brown.
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I bought this new edition as soon as it came out. I agree, the metal case is very beautiful, but inside lurks a DVD with seriously ugly picture quality. They didn't bother to properly remaster the movie! Audio is okay, but video quality is substandard, and downright crappy in places. That's unacceptable, given how mature the film-to-digital transfer process is now. There is no excuse for any DVD release to look bad these days.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of Lynch's version of Dune. Here's the funny thing: Herbert purists love to hate the movie because it's missing so much...but a Lynch purist may see the "extended" version as a hack job that insults the original. Lynch himself disowned this longer version, which is why the credits list the director as "Alan Smithee."

Personally, I think the extended version is okay, if a little sloppily edited. And there's nothing new here for me to see, because it's really just the longer length TV version that aired a while back. I recorded it on VHS, and I still have it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the ol' tape looks not much worse than this "new" DVD. <i></i>

Thanks for the additional info MW. Definitely not anything I'll make any effort to even watch, let alone obtain. If Lynch himself didn't approve, then there's not much to redeem it.

I'm generally amibivalent about Lynch as a director...I sorta enjoyed Lost Highways once I watched it a couple of times, but otherwise...I dunno. My unreformed puritanism when it comes to move adaptations probably prejudiced me from the beginning, because I think Dune was the first of his movies I saw. (And to be honest, I doubt I could name another except for the one already mentioned.)

Sounds like this release was just another gimick by the studio.

Not having seen the longer for TV version though, I'm still curious as to what was added.

(Ugh, I still hate the way that they twisted one line at the end of the book into a whole perversion of the "wierding way" with those damn sonic things. )

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>