Customer Reviews
Dune - Alan Smithee's TV edition - By: S. Sparham, 28 Nov 2008 
It's a rare achievement for a film to stayin development hell even after it's been made & released, but Dune is no ordinary film. Having gone through a veritable who's who of directors during the seventies, Frank Herbert's quintessentially sixties sci-fi epic finally made it to the screenin 1984 with indie auteur David Lynch's name on the credits. The film quickly established itself as a legendary Hollywood folly on a par with Cleopatra, & just about everyone involved distanced themselves from the wreck as quickly as possible. Though possessed of a beautiful rococo design sensibility & enlivened by several entertaining performances by a host of excellent actors, the theatrical cut of Dune suffered from a fundamentally broken narrative & a schizophrenic lack of purpose. Unable to decide whether it was a cerebral epic or an action film, a sleek modern sci-fi blockbuster or a knowing homage to the golden age, this fascinating mess of a film was doomed to a fate as a staggeringly expensive curio.
There it should probably have ended, but $50m was an awful lot of money to waste on a filmin the early eighties, so Universal decided to try & claw some money back by producing this re-cut versionin 1988, originally shown as a two-part `miniseries' on US television. In an attempt to address the key complaint levelled at the original release - no-one had the slightest idea what was going on - 40 minutes of additional footage was retrieved from the cutting-room floor & spliced back into the movie, seemingly by someone with no previous experience of editing, & little inclination to learn the craft. Following Lynch's not unreasonable decision to have his name completely expurgated from this hamfisted recut of a film that already probably felt like an embarrassing mistake, Universal finally presented to the world the "Alan Smithee" cut of Dune. Smithee, the mysterious & enigmatic director that Hollywood goes to whenever a film is so bad no-one wants their name anywhere near it, lived up to his legend. `His' Dune comes complete with out-of-synch audio cues, unfinished FX shots, & the introduction of a new explanatory voice-over so clunkingly awful it makes the one forced on the theatrical cut of Blade Runner sound like an original audio recording of Jesus on the Mount. The voiceover is most prominent during the new introduction, which consists of an overture of the film's score played over a series of paintings depicting Dune's universe, explanations of which are relayed by our disembodied guide. Crude & toe-curlingly embarrassing, it's hard to see who this cheaply produced wedge of exposition is actually for- even on original tv screening, it's easy to imagine the casual viewersin need of a guide through Dune's complex set-up turning off when faced with such poor production values. Allin all, it is fair to say that this cut of Dune is not exactly a triumph of aesthetics.
Still, for those that have seen the theatrical cut without either recoilingin horror or falling asleep, this edition holds some interest, as it represents the closest thing to a workprint we're ever likely to see. The theatrical cut was brutally hacked downin order to get it close to a 2-hour running time, & while the scenes that have been reinserted here have been done so with little care, they do flesh out some of the characters that had previously suffered from lack of screentime, & the narrative does make marginally more sense - though the cost to the film's already poor pacing suggests that there's no lost masterpiece to find here. The best way for fans of the book to approach this film is probably as a series of visualised scenes rather than a coherent whole, & as such it's interesting to see what Lynch does with a handful of key moments from the book, such as the famous spitting scene, or the drowning of a `stunted worm.' Picture quality is frankly not good (the film is presentedin pan-and-scan 4:3, & there is a clear differencein picture quality between those scenes that made the theatrical cut, & those that were added later), & extras on the disc are limited to the original trailer & a small gallery of stills from the film. There is also a refreshingly frank & well-written essay includedin the case booklet.
Dune remains an interesting, if not particularly good, film - Lynch's attempt at making a summer blockbuster may be fundamentally flawed, but it is a genuinely opulent visual experience, & he does capture the book's tension between the prosaic & the weird. This version, while a welcome release for fans, is only really of interest as a supplement to the theatrical version. Meanwhile, the sense persists that there is still no `finished' release of Lynch's Dune, & as the director seems thoroughly uninterestedin revisiting the project, there probably never will be.
Lost in the Sands of Dune - By: Gabriel Ulwin Ratchett, 22 Sep 2008 
Cannot believe the write up Amazon has given for this DVD box-set, this edition has nothing to do with the David Lynch theatrical version(that has the Princess providing the narration)or the Alan Smithee TV version (which has an undisclosed man narrating & the famous spitting scene) of the James Herbert classic SF novel both starring Kyle MacLachlan & Sting. It isin fact the SCIFI Channel production & a great job they do of it as well.
A much tidier production than the Lynch/Smithee films, the story & the portrayal of the characters is both enthralling & sympathetic to the spirit of the Herbert novels. Not one to sit & watch a three hour film myself I was enjoying watching Dune (2000) so much so that I let my beer get warm & my cigarettes went unsmoked. Sure I was comparing this TV serialisation to the film version but the SCI-FI rendition is much superior & much less confusing than the seriously overhyped David Lynch film that he has been jealously guarding since its production...his loss, the remake is superiorin both characterisation & visual effects.
If you are a fan(atic) of Mr Herberts epic tale you will appreciate, nay, love this version. The follow up CHILDREN OF DUNE is just as enthralling & is a perfect companion to what has taken pride of placein my DVD collection. Buy them both & take the day off work & watch them all, with your bare feet planted firmlyin a sandbox just to engage yourselfin the realm of Arakis & the coming of the voice from the outer world, & the messianic twins.
Get the French one instead! - By: N. C. Bateman, 11 Sep 2008 If you're getting lost looking at the bewildering array of Dune DVDs, the best transfer of the film by far is on the 3-disc edition available from amazon.fr (and yes, you can turn off the French subtitles!) You also get the Alan Smithee TV cutin a lousy 4:3 transfer, but you won't watch that more than once anyway & there's a decent bunch of extras on the third disc, eitherin English or with English subtitles. The main thing, though, is the transfer of the film itself, & it is significantly better (more richly-coloured, cleaner & more detailed) than the ones availablein the UK & US, including the 2-disc set with the black sandworm cover on this page. The French packaging is very swish, too - a slipcased digipackin glossy black with gold text.
Wrong. - By: Mrs. Susan E. A. Andrews, 15 Aug 2008 
This is not the David Lynch movie but the TV mini series. Completely different. Rather good actually.
Space sand in my space gusset - By: Ramsey Tupper, 11 Aug 2008 
What merry business is this all about. Sandy spice rubbish, alien alienation again. Everyone knows aliens are not like they are depictedin here. Sting's acting is rubbish too, he ought to stick to what he did best which was ponce about with too much hairspray miming to sub reggae tinged guitar pop pap. This films only redeeming feature is that it goes off, eventually.
