Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I've seen the Alan Smithee cut that they released on DVD, and to me the more footage they add, the worse it gets. My reaction to the theatrical cut was: "This moves too fast for anyone who hasn't read the book to understand," it seemed like they were relying on voice-over for exposition, and I assumed they needed to put at least a half hour back into the movie. But then it turned out the Alan Smithee cut requires just as much clumsy voice-over narration and it's even more unsatisfying in the storytelling.

I really like David Lynch, and I've seen Dune many, many times. But I think it's a mess, and I don't think they left a better movie on the cutting room floor.

I was never a fan of the Lynch version. I never really thought the look was right. And both the Lynch movie and the mini suffer from horrible, excremental costuming.

Spicelon wrote:excremental costuming

Since "poop is funny", does that mean you find the costuming amusing?

spearss91 wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:There is only one movie version of Dune. I suggest you watch that.



The Dune miniseries is closer to the book than the movie but it has very low production values and way too many hats.

The Dune movie however is a big budget Hollywood movie but it has David Lynch's bizzaro world twist on it.

Have you read the book?

"The Dune movie" is one of the big budget movie. Now i really wants to watch it again. So i will purchase its DVD to watch it at night....

to watch it at night, alone with your pug dog ?

If you haven't read the book, watch the TV cut of Lynch's movie that has the longer intro with the male voice over through out. Helps make more sense of it. Seeing that on TV in the late 80s was what inspired me to pick up the book and read it. And have been hooked on the books (Frank's) ever since.

If you've read the book, I'm not sure it matters which cut you watch. I don't recall the deleted scenes they added back adding that much to the story or helping it make more sense. The thing the movie does for me is give me a visual reference in my mind for scenes and characters whenever I read and go back to re-read the books.

I couldn't make it through the Dune TV mini-series. Like others have said the production values were so low. But I remember it being faithful to Frank's story. One thing that stuck out to me was Stilgar was a fat bastard in the TV mini series lol. I seriously doubt there were/are/will be any fat Fremen

I think Children of Dune TV mini-series had some better production values but I only watched a bit of it.

Sardaukar Capt wrote:One thing that stuck out to me was Stilgar was a fat bastard in the TV mini series lol. I seriously doubt there were/are/will be any fat Fremen

Heh. Short & fat and where tf was his beard?!?? In fact, half the cast was all fleshy-faced.

And the Baron seemed more like a jolly uncle giving out candy than a twisted, fat ass homicidal boy-pervert. Jessica is supposed to be bronze-haired and beautiful. In the miniseries they made her a nun with no ass. Paul was a whiney bitch the whole time, even after the desert kicked his ass around a little... not no mention, blonde. The Eyes of Ibad ... fucking glowed. Thufir was 40 in the series.. not 90 like in the book. I have to wonder if either the casting or art director ever bothered to read the god damned book.

I can keep going. When it first aired I deliberately boycotted after the first episode. Just 3 days ago I managed to borrow it from a friend on DVD and suffered through it all in one sitting. I did it in one sitting because I'm pretty sure that if I ever stopped watching it I'd never start again.

The Lynch movie.. omfg, Ebert got a lot right in the review, and wtf is a weirding module??!?. But it was still cool as hell if you can ignore the stupid parts. I still picture the woman who played Jessica every time I re-read the books. I'd hit that.

Francesca Annis

Glad to hear I'm not the only one picturing Jessica as Francesca.

Cast & special effects aside, the mini-series is pretty faithful to the book in terms of plot and storyline. And I do prefer the 2000 version of the baron over the floating, fat man from 1984.

Here's how I always pictured him (and them someone painted it... w00t):



Francesca Annis, that's it. I couldn't remember that.

Nipples that'll knock your eyes out. Or poke them out.

I've always pictured him as looking like the guy inside the "Bloaty's Pizza Hog" costume, except noble and cleaned up.

SandChigger wrote:Nipples that'll knock your eyes out. Or poke them out.

Francesca's, the Baron's, or yours?

No!!!! Not the nipples, and just when I was thinking I could go outside again.

My advice to you who have asked this question: if you want an informative adaption, watch the 2000 miniseries. If you want a literal translation with unique interpretations, watch the Lynch version. The Alan Smithee cut of Lynch's DUNE, though cut very imperfectly, is both informative and unique, and I think better than the 2000 film. Someone on You Tube I believe recut the film to show all the scenes from Lynch, Smithee, and other cut scenes, but I don't know if it is still there.

In retrospective, it's a big shame that John Harrison had to cripple his adaptation with some ill-advised directorial/writing choices. He made Duke Leto way too soft-spoken, simplified Yueh's reasons for betraying the Atreides, turned the Bene Gesserit into cowgirls, made the Guildsmen do idiotic poses and wear thumbheads, added some stupid dialogue of his own, and stupified a lot of the logic behind DUNE's world. It's still good, and it explains certain things better than Lynch's version. Plus, it doesn't have Toto music (even though I like Toto's music). There are two lessons from the DUNE novel which Harrison's DUNE ignores: walking rhythmically for hours will attract a worm, and talking, crying, and moving your arms will get you killed by a hunter seeker (even if you are standing still while doing all those things).

Jodorowsky's Acolyte wrote:Someone on You Tube I believe recut the film to show all the scenes from Lynch,

There have been a couple of nice fanedits over the years, but afaik they're not on youtube ya'll need a more nefarious source.

Where can I buy a copy of the 3 or 4 hour version of the Lynch movie? Is it on the ‘net somewhere? The “Special Edition” DVD version I have doesn’t include any material that wasn’t on the VHS copy I owned for many years. I remember I had the movie storybook as a kid – don’t have a copy anymore – but I swear there was a still of a stunted worm in a cavern (presumably about to be drowned for the water-of-life), so that sequence must’ve been filmed & should be part of the 3 or 4 hour cut. I’d be damn keen to see that. If no one can direct me to an on-line site for this extended cut, can anyone give me a rundown of the extra scenes? I very much suspect that this 3 or 4 hour version has never been shown on UK television, either before or after the advent of freeview – maybe it only gets shown on TV in the States?
Like some previous posters, I got into the books form having seen the Lynch movie as a kid, and I always imagine the scenery & characters as per the film when reading (can’t help it by now) . . . in hindsight it was irresponsible of my Dad to let me watch the movie as a pre-teen – he always had to tell me to cover my eyes before the heart-plug squick.

Vislor Turlough wrote:Where can I buy a copy of the 3 or 4 hour version of the Lynch movie? Is it on the ‘net somewhere? The “Special Edition” DVD version I have doesn’t include any material that wasn’t on the VHS copy I owned for many years. I remember I had the movie storybook as a kid – don’t have a copy anymore – but I swear there was a still of a stunted worm in a cavern (presumably about to be drowned for the water-of-life), so that sequence must’ve been filmed & should be part of the 3 or 4 hour cut. I’d be damn keen to see that. If no one can direct me to an on-line site for this extended cut, can anyone give me a rundown of the extra scenes? I very much suspect that this 3 or 4 hour version has never been shown on UK television, either before or after the advent of freeview – maybe it only gets shown on TV in the States?
Like some previous posters, I got into the books form having seen the Lynch movie as a kid, and I always imagine the scenery & characters as per the film when reading (can’t help it by now) . . . in hindsight it was irresponsible of my Dad to let me watch the movie as a pre-teen – he always had to tell me to cover my eyes before the heart-plug squick.

There's the theatrical release, which you know about.

Then there's the "Alan Smithee" version, that was extended and edited for TV (no heart plugs you'll be happy to hear). It adds around 45 minutes of extra footage - some good, some pointless. Lynch hated it.

There are also a handful fan edits out there. Which restore some or all of the available scenes. Have a look here - http://fanedit.org/ifdb/component/jrevi ... criteria=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(Most of the fan edits are easily findable as torrents)

It has been suggested that the theatrical release of Dune was a disappointment, because Lynch was forced to trim it back so much. I think it's safe to conclude that David Lynch himself doesn't think the movie is salvageable. In this day and age, people would be happy to pay him to make a 'director's cut', and he never has.

Thanks for the pointers guys.
I remember persuading a bunch of friends at Univeristy to watch the Lynch movie. They had no previous exposure to Dune in any form, and after a while we had to stop the tape (this was in c. 1998, when VHS still had wide use - at least amongst my demographic) so that I could explain to them WTF was going on, who was who & what their motivations were etc. The jazz smokes didn't help 'em . . . but they enjoyed the flick well enough, except the ending - "so he's basically God then?". I lent some of them the first book too, which went down nicely (though I rememebr complaints that it was "slow" . . . ).
I must dig out my copy of the TV miniseries with all the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian-or-whatever actors & give it another watch. I recall not being very impressed last time I sat through it (some time ago); but I'm on the home straight of a complete DS9 rewatch right now, and I've got the last Culture novel on the shelf to read . . . ah, the busy schedule of an SF nut

The redeeming side of the tv miniseries is that it seems to follow quite closely the book, as far as I can remember.

I'm a fan of the visuals of Lynch's version, and the miniseries had that sort of cheap but not feeling to them (but again that's just a remembered impression).

But still you can tell the people who made them knew their sandworm shit.

lotek wrote:sandworm shit.

Isn't that Melange? brumm....

inhuien wrote:

lotek wrote:sandworm shit.

Isn't that Melange? brumm....

Some people believe that

lotek wrote:

inhuien wrote:

lotek wrote:sandworm shit.

Isn't that Melange? brumm....

Some people believe that

No, spice is sandworm cum.