Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11062 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen, Dolby
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
David Lynch's Dune is the brilliant but fatally flawed would-be epic feature film version of Frank Herbert's novel of the same name, the bestselling science fiction novel ever written. It is a complex but too heavily simplified version of a far more elaborate book, a darkly Gothic far future space opera revolving around an imperial, dynastic power struggle on the desert planet of Arrakis. With what was in 1984 an enormous $40 million budget, Lynch retained a surprising amount of the industrial/Victorian feel of his previous features, Eraserhead (1976) and The Elephant Man (1980), and was able to bring to the screen some of the most imaginative and awe-inspiring production designs, costumes and action then seen. Indeed, as a spectacularly atmospheric vision of the future Dune has as much to recommend it as the far more celebrated Blade Runner (1982), with which it even shares the female romantic lead, Sean Young--here just one star in a superb cast. The problem, which an unauthorised extended TV version failed to fix, is that Lynch's original vision of Dune was massively cut for length, and as such the final third is so rapidly paced as to undermine the superb first two thirds. A director's cut is sorely needed, the cinema version playing like a butchered masterpiece. Also available is an entirely unconnected four-and-a-half-hour mini-series, Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), which is less visionary but more coherent.

On the DVD: The 2.35:1 image suffers from not being anamorphically enhanced. There are minor flecks of dirt and scratches, but generally the print used is in good condition although there is a considerable amount of grain in some scenes and the image could be more detailed. The packaging claims the sound is Dolby Digital 5.1, but it is actually three-channel sound (stereo plus centre speaker), with the main stereo feed being duplicated in the rear channels. A full 5.1 remastering would improve matters considerably. Special features consist of the original trailer and a pointless gallery of seven badly cropped stills. There is a very basic animated and scored menu using the portentous main theme music from the film. --Gary S Dalkin

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
None

Synopsis
David Lynch's baroque rendering of Frank Herbert's detailed, complex, and deliberately paced epic science-fiction novel is a muddled but visually stunning affair. It's 10991, and the desert planet Dune has been taken over by the Harkonnens, oppressive conquerors who desire the precious spice that lies beneath Dune's arid sands. The story concerns the attempts of a young warrior messiah, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), to lead the native inhabitants in an uprising against the evil empire--and battle the giant man-eating worms that guard the coveted spice.
Lynch shot much more footage than ended up in the finished film, but executive producer Dino De Laurentiis didn't want a three-hour-plus sci-fi epic on his hands, so he coerced Lynch into trimming it. The result is one of cinema's most infamous cases of personal vision colliding with studio politics. Nonetheless, Lynch still manages to cram in so many visual ideas and captures the tone of the book so well that these production issues can be easily set aside once the story starts rolling. Refusing to further edit the film for television, Lynch took his name off the director and screenwriter credits. As troubling as DUNE might have been for Lynch, the experience greatly inspired 1986's brilliant BLUE VELVET, for which audiences should be thankful.

Customer Reviews

Nice try but with some rough edges
Having read the books and seen the 1984 David Lynch it is difficult to avoid comparisons. For starts I should say that on the whole the mini-series is good. The costumes are colourful and the story is close to the book. However as mentioned in some of the other reviews actors have been miss-cast. PH Moriarty (playing Gurney Halleck) is one example, same goes for Giancarlo Giannini who plays Emperor Shaddam IV. Another niggle is that Count Fenring does practically nothing in the TV movies.

I know that allot of people will compare TV version to Lynch's film. At times the TV version was at pains to be different from the film, even to the point to changing bits of the story. In the TV version Melange (the space) was green, but in the book and the move it is orange. I think overall Lynch's film presents a definitive vision on the Dune universe but the TV movie tells the story more effectively. For instance there was much more 'high tech' in the TV version than in either the book or 1984 Film. Those of you who have read the books will remember that computers have been effectively outlawed, but the TV series ignored this altogether.

Having said all that I think its worth getting, but get the German release instead. Its all in English and has a making of documentary along with 10 minutes of extra footage which really makes the story better.

One last thing keep an eye out for the sequel comming out in 2003!

Absolutetly DREADFUL!!
Well what can you say about this absolutely dreadful butchery of what was originally a very decent attempt at filming a very difficult subject matter. This is simply AWFUL and should be avoided at all costs. Not even the added "extras" -basic as they are- can make up for this abortion. I remember sitting in the cinema being blown away by the overall grand scale of the original - I had to turn this off through total boredom. I think the prologue was added to provide interest for the children in the audience. It is simply an insult to ones intelligence. The new editing is appalling. Even the quality of the picture is poor despite coming from a source that should prove better. Do yourself a favour and hope a "Directors Cut" will be released to redress the balance. No wonder Mr Lynch took his name off the credits! A shrewd man indeed! Be warned - buy it at your peril!!

A wonder to behold
Frank Herbert's Dune is one of my favourite books, so it wouldn't have surprised me very much if I hadn't enjoyed this series. Bad reviews had me prepared for disappointment. But I enjoyed it very much. It's as true to the book as any film based on a book is true to its book - a lot truer than most in fact. You can't expect a film to get in all the detail and explanation that a book can give. Film's a different medium with its own limitations. The story presented here gives a fair representation of Herbert's masterpiece in my opinion. I think I would have a good understanding of the situation he described from watching this series, even if I hadn't read the book. Critical reviews had prepared me to expect the actors to be miscast and the scenery to be tacky and unconvincing. But I have to say that I thought the actors suited their roles and played them well. It's true that some of the scenery is obviously 2-dimensional and painted on, but I didn't find this too distracting. The colours, costumes, atmosphere and drama gave my imagination all it needed to do its job. I love a good story, whether read to me or shown to me or if I have to read it myself. It's not the job of the storyteller alone to feed an audience's passive or lazy imagination. The imagination has to do some of the work too. We've come to expect technical perfection from modern film makers and I've watched too many films lately, with huge budgets, famous actors, excellent CGI and nothing at all by way of a coherent story. As Doctor Kynes said, referring to a planetary ecosystem, (in the book) "Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase" and perhaps the film moguls could say something similar.

I recommend this series to anyone who's prepared to provide a bit of tolerance and imagination.