I love David Lynch’s Dune, it’s a totally nuts interpretation of one of my favorite SF novels.
Hey I forget, who’s playing Sting in this one?
The only thing I think Lynch’s version lacked* was that overview of the ecology of Arrakis, how the spice and pre-spice masses and sandtrout and sandworms and water and heat tied together. I hope the new version touches on that.
* Assuming the Spicediver fanedit version of Lynch’s version, obviously
Dunc!
https://twitter.com/TheFilmStage/status/1222534168308895745?s=09
Wait, I mean Dune!
https://twitter.com/TheFilmStage/status/1222540400017039361?s=09
Edit: tweet may have been removed.
Man, I can’t wait to be disappointed by this movie.
It’s Denis Villeneuve, and I have yet to feel disappointed with anything he’s done… but of course, it’s Dune, so who knows. I’m cautiously optimistic though.
I’m here for the donuts. Someone said donuts, right?
I think that said duncnuts
Yep and the hole in that donut appears to be filled with a donut hole!
Of his movies I’ve seen – Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 – there has been something in them that really irritated me, yet I’m still glad I saw them.
how is the spicediver fan edit of the Lynch Dune? Fanedit sounds like a dirty word, is it just arranging the material in order and make it more “like” the book whatever that means. Is it pedestrian or is it a really good version? I am rewatching the original and like it as it is.
Lynch’s Dune is really a lot better than its reputation, but much of it is only slightly related to the book.
Lynch’s Dune used to be on cable a LOT during the 90s. I saw bits and pieces of it, and it always looked cheesy. Then in 1994-96 I read the Dune saga, so I was now familiar with the story, and this time around 1997, I finally saw the movie from beginning to end. And then I watched the Director’s Cut beginning to end.
I liked them both! I especially liked the new narration in the Director’s Cut at the beginning of the movie that explains in detail about the navigators and what Spice means to intergalactic politics. But even without that, the theatrical release version also does a pretty decent job of conveying the feel of Frank Herberts novel.
The only thing that gets a big “WTF” from me is the ending. When it rains on Arrakis, which is totally not in the book.
The art design for the Lynch movie was nearly perfect; the casting was mainly good. The writing, directing, acting and editing were not good.
Adapting a story like Dune into a single feature film can not be done well. There are too many elements; picking a few to highlight to make the story go amounts to creating a completely new story; Lynch’s movie ended up nodding to things in the book as fan service without providing the context that an uninitiated audience member would need, and then took pains at other times to avoid being elliptical, so you didn’t even have the opportunity to immerse yourself in that.
That’s probably fair.
I haven’t seen it since 1997, so my memory of it is fuzzy, but the art design really is what sticks with me. Plus I was only 21 back then, so I was probably easier to please. I just remember being impressed that Lynch took us to that universe in a convincing way and made it feel like the universe from the books.
It is a really, really good version, as in it takes an interesting failure and catapults it to a terrific SF epic. It doesn’t just incorporate deleted scenes from the Alan Smithee version and call it a day. For instance, the Alan Smithee version released on the Sci-Fi Channel had a long prologue. It was awful, it was just voice over dumping exposition over mediocre artwork. The spicediver edit takes that footage and sprinkles it in, gradually introducing worldbuilding material as young Paul Atredies happens to be reading his future iPad.
It takes out most of the excessive interior monologues the characters think at each other.
It also took out the rain at the end of the movie. (It’s replaced by a modified duplicate of the scene when Paul trips on the Water of Life.)
It adds the Fremen wacky blue eyes to the deleted scenes that didn’t bother having them.
Highly recommended, if you can track it down. I think spicediver tried to put it on YouTube and archive.org but it was quickly pulled. Maybe torrents still work?
Here’s the changelog:
https://ifdb.fanedit.org/dune-the-alternative-edition-redux/
and a trailer showing off some of the structural reworking:
Given the rules of the site I can only say… mayyyybbbbbeeeeeeeeeee
*wink*
It is still on youtube (at least here in Germany), started watching
I dig Lynch’s Dune, I dragged my mom to take me to see it in the theater. I remember the ‘what have you gotten me into’ look she gave me when the handed us a photocopied glossary of terms that would be used in the movie, I’ve still never seen anything quite like it. In retrospect, though I was a big fan of the book even at a fairly young age, I think I was most interested in seeing the movie because of Sting, being a huge Police fan. Though even then I was a Lynch fan - I remember I also caught The Elephant Man and was blown away by it.
Even today I still like Lynch’s Dune, I just kind of compartmentalize it from my love of the books - like it’s an alternate funhouse version of that story. The rain at the end is one instance of how the movie betrays the central conceit of the first couple books, that Paul is not some prophecied messiah but rather the focal point of a massive uprising that he cannot control. Still, it’s an interesting watch. None of the characters look the way I imagined - I like that Villanueve cast Thufir as a black man, since that’s how I always imagined him - but I can still appreciate it as its own thing.
I always liked to think of it as loosely coupled to the book.
Question: In the age of Me Too can you do a movie about a far future society where the women are treated as they were in medieval societies? I doubt very much Frank Herbert could write Dune as it is, if he were writing it now.
That seems like a weird question for a couple of reasons:
First of all, yes? Of course you can. As long as you don’t harass the actresses (or anyone else) why would it be a problem? Maybe some corner of the internet will be annoyed, but name a movie, TV show, book, or video game where that’s not the case
Second… have you read Dune? The Bene Gesserit? Princess Irulan? Jessica? Alia? This is not a universe where the women stand around and wait to be rescued.