We’ve been caught up in the magic of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two here at BBP. Sachin Hingoo’s fantastic review of the film is well worth a read; Sachin captured many of my own feelings in his work.
Walking out of Dune: Part Two following the fan screening the Sunday before the movie went live, I wasn’t ready to leave the world Frank Herbert had created and that Villeneuve had brought to life in a way that somehow made it all seem so real.
My first grasp at continuation came in the form of Dune: Exposures, an official tie-in to the world featuring photographs by Greig Fraser alongside poetry written by Josh Brolin, who plays Gurney Halleck in Dune: Part Two and whose words reflect on-set life in a unique way. The photos, both black and white and colour, capture moments we’d never get to see on film, behind the scenes, quiet contemplation, and a few smiles here and there.
One of my usual moves when I’m really thinking about something, anything, is to head over to Wikipedia and read all I can; I’ve done this multiple times with Villeneuve’s Dune films, and again, because the story was on my mind, I also dove into the Wikipedia entry on David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation. While the Wiki is no replacement for Max Evry’s A Masterpiece in Disarray, a must-read look at Lynch’s film, it was enough to satiate my craving for Dune reading. The entry also reminded me of the multiple versions of the 1984 film that have made it to the public, two of which are longer than Lynch’s original. One was the television broadcast, reedited without Lynch’s input and that the director insisted have his name removed from the credits, replaced with the ole “Alan Smithee” credit.
The other version that I was reminded of, one that I hadn’t watched, was Dune: The Alternative Edit Redux, a fan edit by Spicediver that actually made it into an officially released Dune box set available in Germany. This edit takes scenes from both the theatrical version and Extended edition and creates something akin to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now! Redux.
I watched Spicediver’s fan edit and was severely surprised at just how engaged I was watching the film. While I’ve never disliked Lynch’s original 1984 film, I think it’s fair to say that it sacrificed a solid narrative for its gorgeous visuals. Lynch didn’t have final cut on his creation, something that still haunts him, and producers Dino and Rafraella De Laurentiis were clearly more concerned about making a tighter film rather than letting the narrative breathe.
Dune: The Alternative Edit Redux by Spicediver corrects this suspect decision, as this fanedit version of Dune runs nearly three hours long; however, the film never drags, and in what shouldn’t be a surprise, with the addition of multiple scenes in their right place, the movie is now significantly more coherent in every aspect. The performances feel stronger, the world more vivid, but again, most importantly, the story more compelling. You can read what was added and amended at Fanedit.org.
I don’t know if David Lynch’s original vision of a three hour Dune would have been any more successful had it have been released in 1984. No matter which version you watch, it’s still a Lynch film, and the “ugly” aspects of it Roger Ebert referred to in his original review certainly haven’t been excised. But ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and for my tastes, David Lynch’s vision remains stunning.
For those that may have dismissed the original cinematic Dune, take another trip with Dune: The Alternative Edit Redux with an open mind, and you may find yourself rethinking your take.
