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MacLachlan, Sting, Max von Sydow, Sean Young, Jürgen Prochnow,
Kennethe McMillan |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Chani (Sean Young):
Tell me of your homeworld, Usul.
In
the distant future, a man appears who may be the prophet that a long-suffering
planet has been waiting for.
 Dune
is to be admired for several things: it's a sci-fi adventure that dares
to be epic, difficult, ambitious, hard to follow, in short: everything
almost any post-Star Wars sci-fi movie is not. It is therefore
a real pity to have to conclude that it is still a failure as a movie,
no matter how fascinating various aspects of it may be. The basic
problem is that it's a very condensed version of an elaborate
novel that wasn't all that easy to follow in the first place. David
Lynch as writer-director gave it his best shot and tried to combine
dream visions, plot condensation, elisions and voice-over narration
to allow viewers to still follow the story.
All of these combined narrational devices however finally only serve
to distance the viewer from the story taking place: by the time Max
von Sydow's character is introduced and you're suddenly hearing his
thoughts without knowing for sure exactly who he's supposed to
be, one really can't help but groan. And I don't know how many times
the average viewer can stand hearing the phrase 'Tell me of your homeworld,
Usul' without breaking out in a snigger. Judging by the film's complete
lack of commercial or critical success, not that many could.
 The film
has however developed something of a cult following over the years
among hardcore science-fiction aficionados and the many fans of Frank
Herbert's source novel. With this audience in mind, Universal has issued
a new DVD release of Dune touted as an Extended Edition. As
the film's fans surely know, this longer cut of the film (included
on the DVD's flipside to complement the original theatrical cut on
side A) was originally created by Universal for American network TV.
Although it includes an additional 40-odd minutes of footage that could
have added to the film, this version is fatally hampered by the addition
of risible prologue and even more emphatically present voice-over narration.
Some footage is also repeated to make up for missing shots, and several
added scenes suffer from lacking any effects work (the Fremen's eyes
for instance aren't blue in any of the extra scenes).
Having said all of this, there are still lots of elements in both versions
of Dune
that make it worth watching - if not completely worth attempting to
follow, unless one is quite familiar with the book. The worms emerging
from the desert, the Guild members inside their aquariums, the gross
outrageousness of Baron Harkonnen, plus various weird tidbits to savor.
It may be the closest thing to a dud on David Lynch's otherwise flawless
resumé, but Lynch has not yet made a completely unwatchable movie.
And though this one does come close, I would still prefer it to the
crass, facile heroics of Star Wars rip-offs like Stargate any
day of the week. |
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The previous release from Universal
was a very shoddy bare-bones release with an abominable transfer.
Various Special Edition DVD releases have since appeared
for other regions, some of which have worthwhile extras on
board. The new Region 1 'Extended Edition' DVD from Universal
features the best transfer available as well as the only
widescreen version of the extended cut. It comes in an attractive-looking
metal case.
While far from flawless,
the new anamorphic widescreen transfer (framed at approx.
2.35:1) is a vast improvement over the muddy waters of the
previous release. There is a good deal of wear noticeable
on the source print, especially in optical composite shots,
but barring a full-blown digital restoration, the rich and
stable color palette and reasonable details on this release
are surely as good as it will get.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 is very uneven, with much of the score sounding
harsh and tinny, but some sequences do make good use of the surround
stage and subwoofer rumbling, while dialogues remain clearly intelligible
(if rarely understandable) throughout.
 Fans
hoping for an 'Ultimate Edition' with extras that tell the whole story
on this notoriously troubled production will be disappointed by this
release. For while it does hold a handful of featurettes, they all
deal with various technical aspects of the production, ranging from
wire effects to costume design. David Lynch's absence is no surprise,
but the lack of input from any cast or crew members apart from producer
Rafaella de Laurentiis and the featured members of the technical crew
is regrettable. An elaborate collection of deleted scenes is introduced
by De Laurentiis, who first dispells the myth that there is a four-
or five-hour cut of Dune in existence somewhere. The excised
scenes add further to the additional footage in the extended cut of
the film. While the other featurettes are worth watching, none of them
run all that long or offer more than a brief look at the production
from a technical point of view. The longer documentary 'Reflections
on Dune', which has been featured on various other DVD releases,
would have made for a much more valuable supplement. The other extras
consist of an image gallery and production notes.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: February
5, 2006
Click
here for IMDB info on Dune.
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