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| Courtesy: Arrow Films and Universal Studios |
David Lynch's Dune may be one of the most notoriously troubled productions in Hollywood history, and one of its most frustrating what-should-have-beens. Envisioned by Lynch, with the full approval and participation of author Frank Herbert himself, as a three-hour-plus epic of grand scale, the movie was famously taken away from Lynch during post-production by producers Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis, and hacked down to 2 hours and 15 minutes, with narratively disastrous results. The film as released is a rushed shell of what it should have been, with a longer runtime and better edit, and it bewildered newcomers and disappointed long-time fans of the book, collapsing at the box office with a resounding flop that probably would have ruined David Lynch's career if Dino De Laurentiis hadn't made it up to him by producing Blue Velvet immediately thereafter. But even with its abbreviated runtime, its tragic post-production, and the beating it took from both critics and fans upon its initial release, somehow against all odds David Lynch's Dune is not a bad movie at all; it is a deeply flawed movie, to be sure, but it is an absolutely fascinating and eminently watchable one, with a compelling vision that more or less survived the mangling that it endured from the studio. Slowly over many years, the reputation of the film has shifted from an outright flop to (at least in some circles) a beloved cult classic that is way better than it initially got credit for, and that more than makes up for its shortcomings with the sheer audacity of its vision, and the absolutely stunning imagination and artistry of its visuals. I am well aware that it has big, big problems, but I can honestly say that I kind of love Lynch's Dune - and I say that as someone who also loves the book, and knows very well what the film is missing.
Unfortunately we will never see the undoubtedly much better 3-hour-ish film that would have been if Dino and Raffaella De Laurentiis had allowed Lynch to have final cut; a slapped-together TV version and several different fanedits give us hints of what that version might have looked like, but the real deal is lost to time and studio meddling. But nonetheless, even in its current form Dune is a movie well deserving of a critical reappraisal, which it fortunately has started to get in recent years. Now Arrow Video has given Dune a very lavish limited edition treatment, boasting a brand-new 4K restoration on UHD and blu-ray. There couldn't be a stronger argument for revisiting and reappraising this troubled but worthy film. We got an advance screener copy of the UHD and blu from Arrow, so we are very pleased to be able to give you an early look at the disc, and whether or not Arrow really makes the spice flow with this release.
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The Film:
Frank Herbert's story, the best-selling sci-fi novel of all time, is in many ways the ultimate space opera: a heady blend of hard sci-fi and high fantasy with deep thematic layers about the ways in which religion is weaponized in politics and war, the ways in which capitalism and industry are the ultimate threats to the environment, the ways in which wealthy western nations exploit and occupy less powerful nations for their natural resources, and about the dangers of viewing people as messiahs, even noble-intentioned ones. It is incredibly dense in terms of its politics and themes, but all of that is wrapped up in a very compelling package of quasi-medieval intrigue and adventure, set against the backdrop of a far-future feudal society, where computers have been replaced by enhanced mental powers brought about by a substance called The Spice, and where the royal houses of the Imperium feud with each other over control of The Spice, and its planet of origin, Arrakis.
The notoriously intricate and complicated sociopolitical structure of the novel's world, and the density and multi-layered nature of the story's themes, are the chief reasons why Herbert's novel has always been considered extremely difficult to adapt as a movie (as a single movie, that is - Denis Villeneuve's decision to split the book into two films is a very good one), and indeed, those are some of the things that Lynch's film struggles with the most. The labyrinthine politics of the Imperium and the various factions who exert control over it actually come across very well in Lynch's script, with admirable detail, although it almost certainly will be confusing the first time around if you haven't read the book (the way characters continually refer to the Landsraad, the congress of royal houses, without ever bothering to explain what the hell that is for those who haven't read the novel, always stands out to me as one glaring example). But the themes are simply too dense to capture in their full depth in a film that is already struggling just to contain its plot in 135 minutes, and the movie suffers for it. In particular, the themes about religion being weaponized for power, influence, and control get shortchanged, which is really a shame, since that robs the story of its intentionally-troubling moral ambiguity, and takes away the fascinating dual-nature of a story about a man who is deliberately using a culture's messianic myth to gain power and build an army, but who also may in fact be the same messiah whose myth he is harnessing.
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The film is a somewhat thematically-simplified version of the story, which is actually very faithful in terms of literal actions, if by necessity of runtime reductive in terms of those themes. It is the story of Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan - excellent in a dream debut role), the teenage heir to the royal house who have just taken control of Arrakis and the mining of Spice on the planet, but who are only half-aware that they are walking into a trap set by a rival house, the sadistic and decadent Harkonnens. As the trap is sprung and House Atreides is caught in a web of political deceit and assassinations, Paul allies himself with Arrakis's native people, the Fremen, in order to build an army to get his revenge, becoming interwoven with an ancient Fremen prophecy in the process. The story spans years, and features a massive ensemble cast almost as impressive as the one that Denis Villeneuve has put together for his new, two-film adaptation of the novel. Among the ranks of House Atreides we have Patrick Stewart, Jurgen Prochnow, and Dean Stockwell; among House Harkonnen we have Brad Dourif and Sting (and for David Lynch fans, Pete Martell and the Eraserheaded Henry himself, Jack Nance), and among the Fremen we have Sean Young, Everett McGill, and Max Von Sydow, just to name a few. All the ingredients are there for a very good, mostly very faithful adaptation of the novel.
The troubles really only come in how those ingredients are edited in the end. I have already talked quite a bit about how it was the post-production on the film, and the decision to cut it down to 135 minutes, that damaged it so badly, but that isn't just guesswork on my part: the film gets a lot of stuff very right, and it is on full display, if you are able to look past the choppy editing and meet it halfway. For starters, that choppy editing is really only a problem in the second half of the film; for the first hour or slightly more, Dune is legitimately great, and is an honestly outstanding adaptation of the first half of the novel (what will be the first of the new films, presumably). Yes, the beginning of the film is very dense with exposition, but it all works, because the scenes are quite compelling. The opening scene of the heavily-mutated Guild navigator interrogating the Emperor of the Universe about his "plans within plans" is great, and wonderfully full of mythical portents of things to come. The early scenes on Caladan, the home planet of the Atreides, are also excellent, particularly the first scene with Paul and his three mentors, and the pivotal sequence between Paul and the Reverend Mother of the mysterious Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. That latter scene gives us one of the film's most iconic moments, with the Reverend Mother's box of pain, and the signature line that "fear is the mindkiller." I really can't overstate it - the first act of Lynch's Dune is great, and if the whole film was this good, it would have been at least a mostly successful adaptation. The pacing is effective, the story moves in a way that feels pretty organic... it's all good, until the end of act one when the movie pulls the rug out from under us, and it feels like someone hits fast-forward. It is from that point onward, in the second half of the film, that things get a good deal more problematic, with pacing that mostly moves so bewilderingly fast that it feels like you are watching an abridged version of a miniseries (like that horrible VHS "movie" version of Salem's Lot that cut the 3-hour series down to a largely-incoherent 90-minute movie). That second half feels less like the film itself, and more like the Cliff Notes version of the film that this should have been if the De Laurentiises had just left it alone.
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Lynch and De Laurentiis brought some heavy-duty visual talent on-board for Dune, and they make all the difference. The film boasts the same art director as 2001, Anthony Masters, and the same miniatures and animatronics artist as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kit West, not to mention effects wizard Carlo Rambaldi designing the movie's creatures, and Oscar-winning cinematographer Freddie Francis providing the film's stunning 2.35:1 camerawork. This was a VERY expensive film, and every penny that was spent on these sets and effects shows; the visuals are absolutely spectacular. The design of the film is also extremely bold and imaginative. In the opening half-hour, as we are introduced to the four primary planets in the film - Arakkis, the Atreides and Harkonnen homeworlds, and the Emperor's palace planet - the most striking thing is how incredibly different the four planets feel; all with different architectural styles, color palettes, design and costuming choices, and atmosphere. The worldbuilding Lynch has done is as aesthetic as it is narrative; the sense he creates of a full universe with four entirely different, sometimes clashing societies is very impressive indeed. And then there's the film's surreal and hallucinatory dream and vision sequences, of which there are several, and which are very impressive and wild in their own right. The visuals alone are enough to earn this film a solid cult-classic status, and make it worth recommending.
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But even so, the movie we got is pretty good, all things considered. Visually it is incredible, and worth the journey based on that strength alone. The first hour or so is legitimately great, and lives up to the potential of how good the whole thing should have been. And even when it falters and starts to collapse under the weight of how much it is trying to do in the second half, it remains utterly watchable and very compelling, if only on the strength of its wonderfully bizarre visuals. It is flawed, but definitely never boring; the kind of flawed film that is fascinating, warts and all. And it is certainly a hell of a lot better than its initial reputation suggests. It's a movie that one should watch with the knowledge of what a troubled production it had, so one can go in with adjusted expectations and meet it on its own flawed terms. But if you are able to do that, David Lynch's Dune is one seriously memorable experience, and one that I would happily recommend. Just go with it and let it wash over you, like a Spice-fueled hallucination.
Score for the first half of the film:
Score for the second half of the film:
The Transfer:
Arrow's new 4K restoration of Dune is absolutely stunning. This has always been a beautiful-looking film, but it has never looked this immaculate. Detail is extremely fine, colors are bright and intense, and on both the blu-ray and UHD discs, the dynamic range is phenomenal. There are basically no flaws to be found: this is simply a gorgeous transfer that is about as close to perfect as it could get. Dune's previous blu-ray from Universal was a respectable, nice-looking disc for its day (very early in the life of the format, in 2010), but Arrow's top-of-the-line 4K remaster really highlights that disc's shortcomings, and really shows what a long way the art of film restoration has come in the last 11 years. Comparing the discs side-by-side, the difference is striking, and the Arrow remaster blows the Universal disc out of the water. Naturally the detail on this 4K restoration is much finer, as one would expect, but the most striking difference is in terms of color and contrast. The Arrow disc has very intense, rich colors and a beautiful dynamic range with very deep, rich black levels. The Universal disc looks drab and faded by comparison. This difference is extremely striking in sequences like our first introductions to the Atreides and Harkonnen homeworlds, Caladan and Geidi Prime, as both sequences introduce us to these very different planets with long, sumptuous wide shots, very colorful matte paintings, and very striking pieces of art design. The brighter colors and richer contrast on the new remaster make it feel like you are seeing these sequences for the first time - especially the introduction of Geidi Prime, with its neon green lighting and deep pools of black.
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Score for the transfer:
The Extras:
Note: the screener copy we received from Arrow was only disc one of the two-disc set, in both its UHD and blu-ray versions; disc two was not included, nor was the book or the other physical extras. As such, we can only cover the contents of disc one in proper firsthand detail, although we will go over the rest as listed on Arrow's site.
Let's start out by addressing the sandworm in the room: in a couple pretty significant ways, Arrow's hands were tied with regards to what they could and couldn't include on this release, and so for some fans, this simply could never be the definitive special edition of Dune that they wanted, and it truly is not Arrow's fault. For starters, and most glaringly, there is no extended version of the film on this set, which is something that many fans (myself included) had hoped for. I have already mentioned the existence of the notorious TV version of the film, which a lot of fans enjoy simply for the fact that it restores quite a few important deleted scenes, although it inexplicably still leaves others out. But that extended version is a famously pretty half-assed cut that was thrown together for television, and it adds in more than a bit of padding (which makes the exclusion of a few other very important deleted scenes even more inexplicable) because its primary motivation was to sell more commercial slots, and not necessarily to make a better or more definitive Dune (and it couldn't even be bothered to rotoscope the blue eyes onto the Fremen in the extra scenes - a pretty good indicator of how much care was *not* put into it). That TV version was explicitly condemned by David Lynch as a cash-grab which was even further removed from his vision that the already heavily-compromised theatrical cut, and he pulled his name from the credits, using the classic Alan Smithee pseudonym for his director's credit, and the hilariously snarky Judas Booth for his writer's credit. Still, since it's the only other official cut of the movie, most fans would have loved to see it included on this set in the interest of completeness, but alas, it was not to be. Universal has withdrawn that version from distribution, presumably at David Lynch's behest, and has declared that it will never be included on a future US release. Many fans (again, myself included) had hoped that Arrow could put together their own, better extended cut, along the lines of what they did with their restored Ulysses cut of Waterworld, or their composite extended cut of Re-Animator. At least two pretty popular fanedits of Dune exist, which aim to make a better extended version than the Alan Smithee TV cut, and Arrow could have used one of those as the basis for a new version; again, as they did with Waterworld. But that was not to be either, as neither Universal nor Lynch would sign off on the rights for Arrow to make such a cut. Given how badly Lynch was burned by the experience of making this film, and how he famously wants nothing to do with it ever again, I certainly can't blame him and don't begrudge him for using his clout with Universal to prevent any kind of new edit, and to bury the TV version. But it also is very frustrating, since as I said in my review of the film itself, I will always be convinced that there are very few problems with Lynch's Dune that a better extended cut couldn't solve.
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It certainly helps that, while their hands were clearly tied with regards to what new material they were allowed to include (although there are some cool new extras, which we will get to shortly), Arrow has gone a long way to make up for that by digging up basically every existing piece of bonus material produced for every past DVD or blu-ray release of Dune. There are A LOT of vintage extras on disc one of this set, and they are all excellent. From the 2004 20th Anniversary UK DVD we have Impressions of Dune, a 40-minute documentary about the film's production. From the 2005 US special edition DVD we have four different featurettes about the art of the film - one about the production design, one about the special effects, one about the miniatures, and one about the costume design - as well as a selection of deleted scenes. We also have the vintage 1984 making-of featurette used to promote the film, which is made up almost entirely of very cool on-set footage. Rounding out disc one are two of the set's new extras: two brand-new audio commentaries, one by film historian Paul M. Sammon, who more importantly was the behind-the-scenes videographer who shot and directed the vintage making-of featurette and was present for the whole troubled production, and one by film scholar and The Projection Booth podcast host Mike White. Even if there wasn't a second disc with a few more new and vintage extras, this would already be a seriously impressive roster of bonus material, even if most of it is not new; once I started really exploring these extras, I started to feel much less sad about the lack of the new documentary, although I fully admit that I still mourn its absence.
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However, the documentary is way too short; with this many great interviewees who have so many interesting things to say, 40 minutes is just not enough, and so many interesting points feel cut short because the doc simply has to move on. The whole thing is fascinating, but it feels like it is basically rushing over all these fascinating things, and needs about double the runtime it has, so all these facts and stories can breathe (not unlike the film itself, I suppose). In particular, it moves way too fast past the more troubled aspects of the film's production, and glosses over a lot of stories that fans of the film would love to hear, like that of its fraught edit process. It isn't dishonest; it absolutely addresses how troubled the production was, and the clashes between Lynch and the studio that happened during post-production, which editor Gibbs describes as a heartbreaking blow to Lynch, and the battle for Dune that he lost. But with just 40 minutes to work with, that isn't the story that Impressions of Dune is trying to tell; it isn't trying to be a warts-and-all look at a troubled film, but rather to celebrate a movie that deserves a critical reevaluation, and make the argument for why it is a misunderstood cult classic that is a lot better than it gets credit for. As such, it focuses much more heavily on the things about the production that did go right, which is actually a pretty refreshing angle for the doc to take, since most of what is widely known about this production is the messy stuff. The doc spends most of its time and energy on the production, and especially the collaborative nature of how Lynch worked with his actors, his production design and effects teams, and his cinematographer, to create an otherworldly vision that he really was in artistic control over, before that all changed in edit. It paints a pretty compelling picture of the aspects of Dune that really are a David Lynch film, even if the final product isn't quite. It's a shame that it isn't longer, and doesn't have the time to tell all these stories in more detail and nuance, but for a 40-minute short doc that is trying to cover so much ground, it is very good.
For those who want more detail, the four featurettes about the various aspects of the film's art design have plenty. They go way more in-depth about the film's design than I might have expected, for studio-produced DVD-era production featurettes, with lots of detail about how the various elements of the film were designed and achieved. They feature lots of production art, including a lot of sketches by Lynch himself, a lot of behind-the-scenes shots, and some fascinating sequences getting into pretty deep detail about how some of the film's visuals were achieved. The material about how the sweeping shots of alien cities were composited from a mix of matte paintings, miniatures, animatronic props, and live-action, all assembled via a motion-control camera system, was fascinating, and I was seriously nerding out to these sequences. Once again, many of the key artists involved are interviewed, and while Lynch himself did not participate, we see a lot about his vision for the film, and are able to gain a whole new appreciation for how much of that vision made it onto the screen more or less unscathed, regardless of how messy the edit might be. Add in the vintage behind-the-scenes featurette and about 17 minutes of must-see deleted scenes (which is not nearly all the deleted scenes - most of what was used the TV version is not included here - but at least we get some of the lost material, including a few very important scenes that should never have been removed), and all the archival extras on this disc basically add up to a feature-length documentary's worth of material. It may not be new, and it may not always give as much information as fans might like, but it's all very good.
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Mike White's commentary is the exact opposite: he is very good at doing a track like this, as a long-time podcast host who really knows what he's doing, and his track is very breezy, concise, and a lot more fun of a listen. His is much more of a classic film-scholar commentary, as everything he is saying is based on research or on observations as a cinephile who loves the movie, rather than any firsthand information. His track is very informative though, with a wealth of behind-the-scenes facts and analysis about the film, most of which does not overlap with Sammon's to any significant degree. We get some extra factoids about how the film was made, but also a lot of deep-dive info about the film's iconography, themes, etymology, relation to the book, etc. The first track will answer more of your questions about what it was like to actually work on this famously troubled movie, but White's track is rich with trivia and analysis that fans of the book or the movie will find interesting, and it is definitely the easier listen between the two. It is a bit of a shame that there isn't a commentary track from any of the cast or crew - in particular I would have thought that Kyle MacLachlan would be game for a commentary, considering how fondly he spoke of the film in the documentary - but these two tracks are both good ones.
This brings us to the end of the extras that I am actually able to review, since our screener from Arrow only included disc one (presumably because disc two was still listed as in-progress when they sent it to us, following the cancellation of their documentary). Oddly, disc two is still listed as being in production and subject to change on their web site as I write this, a mere two weeks before the set is supposed to come out, although at this point I think it's safe to assume that their listed extras for disc two are final. According to the listing as it currently exists, disc two will feature three brand-new featurettes: one about the toys and marketing tie-ins made to support the film, one about the film's excellent score, featuring two of the members of Toto (seriously, the score by Toto is great, and far more orchestral than what you might expect for a score by a rock band - it deserves way more credit than it gets), and one about the film's makeup effects. The disc will also feature three more vintage interviews, with production coordinator Golda Offenheim, makeup effects artist Christopher Tucker, and actor Paul Smith, who played The Beast Raban in the film. The box set will also come with a 60-page book of essays about the film, a series of art cards, and a poster, all housed in one of Arrow's signature rigid outer boxes. This additional material sounds like it should round the set out quite nicely. The featurette about the toys definitely sounds cool, and more about the film's effects is always welcome. It will be nice to get at least one more actor interview as well - with the addition of Paul Smith, we will get to hear from a whole two actors who worked on the film, since MacLachlan was interviewed for the Impressions of Dune doc. It is definitely disappointing to not get to hear from more actors, from the film's huge ensemble cast, but perhaps given what a notorious flop Dune was, it isn't surprising that more people aren't willing to talk about it.
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Score for the extras:
Conclusions:
This is a bit of a tough box set to judge, because on the one hand it is missing a couple of the things that fans of the movie like myself would have wanted most from a set like this: a better attempt at a definitive extended cut, and a definitive modern documentary about the film and its troubled production. So in those ways, it is hard to not feel a little bit of a sting of lost opportunity. But on the other hand, given the constraints that they had to work with, Arrow have put together a fantastic limited edition package, all things considered. They may have been limited in what new extras they could produce, but what they did produce is quite solid, with very substantial new commentaries, and they did supplement that stuff with a pretty definitive collection of all existing extras up to this point, including a pretty good consolation-prize short documentary from a previous DVD. But more to the point, Arrow has given us an absolutely flawless, beautiful 4K restoration that makes this already amazing-looking film look even better. The new restoration is definitely the star of the show here, and it looks good enough to make this set worth recommending in itself, if you are a fan of the film, or just someone who wants to experience it in the highest possible quality.
David Lynch's Dune is an obviously and undeniably flawed film; a film that should have been very good, if its producers had allowed it to exist as the three-hour epic that its director had intended, but that was reduced to a visually-stunning Cliff Notes version of the movie it might have been by terrible post-production decisions on the part of the studio. But in spite of all that, it remains an extremely compelling and unique vision which improves on repeat viewings, and is a much better movie than it initially got credit for. At the very least it is half of a very good adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, with the other half being a fascinating mess that is nonetheless carried by its inspired visual audacity. Although there is no getting around what a damaged movie it is, it absolutely deserves its reevaluation from a notorious flop to a cult classic that is legitimately worth seeking out for its strong points. While it similarly might not be quite what it should have been, Arrow's 4K limited edition is an excellent box set which makes a very strong argument for the film's merits, particularly when it comes to Arrow's reliably awesome packaging, and their stunningly beautiful 4K restoration. It takes a certain kind of viewer to be able to watch a mangled final product like Lynch's Dune and appreciate it for the much better film than it almost was, in addition to the fascinating mess that it is, but if you are indeed that type of viewer, then this box set is essential, and while it may not quite be everything we might have wished for, it probably is the most definitive presentation of Dune we will likely ever see, and speaking as a fan of the film as well as a reviewer, I'm very happy with it.
Overall score for the box set:
- Christopher S. Jordan
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