"Actor: Leonardo Millán"

• Dune | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £6.24   |  Saving you £-0.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  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

• Dune | Blu Ray | (05/10/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dune--Special TV Edition | DVD | (23/10/2000) from £15.05   |  Saving you £4.94 (32.82%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dune: Special TV Edition is an extended US network television version prepared in 1988 from David Lynch's 1984 film of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel, Dune. The original cinema release of this complex tale of interplanetary intrigue was heavily shortened and this 176-minute TV edition should not to be confused with Lynch's still unreleased three-hour-plus "Director's Cut". In fact Lynch disowned this TV version, replacing his director's credit with the infamous pseudonym Alan Smithee and his screenplay credit with the name Judas Booth (a combination of two notorious traitors). What the network did was add 35 minutes, about 15 minutes in the first two thirds, which in the cinema cut is in any case superbly paced, and around 20 into the final 40. This latter material does help balance the frenetic rush of the cinema cut, restoring important scenes such as Paul Atreides' fight with Jamis, a Fremen funeral and Jessica Atreides' taking the "Water of Life". What primarily alienated Lynch was the imposition of a folksy, sometimes laughable narration, as well as the replacement of the original prologue with a far longer sequence explaining the Dune universe via pre-production paintings. This TV edit is a travesty of what, in the "Director's Cut" at least, is probably a great film, and is really only worth seeing to get a glimpse of the material Lynch was forced to remove. The unconnected mini-series, Frank Herbert's Dune (2000) does a far better job of telling a more complete version of the story. On the DVD: There is a fold-out colour booklet which contains a wealth of stills, a reproduction of the original cinema poster and a worthwhile essay on the original film that avoids any discussion of the TV version it accompanies. On the disc there is only the original theatrical trailer. The superb cinematography is ruined by the panned and scanned 4:3 image, which is grainy and has poor colour fidelity. It is also soft, lacking detail and washed-out, probably a result of being converted from American NTSC TV format video rather than coming directly from an original film print. Certainly the DVD of the cinema version looks far better. The audio is thin mono, completely failing to do justice to how fantastic a post-Star Wars 40-million-dollar science fiction epic should sound. --Gary S Dalkin

• Dune -- Two-disc Special Edition | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This two-disc special edition release of David Lynch's 1984 film Dune presents the same cut as originally shown theatrically, but with an improved transfer compared to the previous DVD edition and with the addition of new and archive documentary material. In case of confusion, it should be noted that this is not any of the following versions: the re-edited TV movie adaptation of Lynch's film, the long-sought-after extended version Lynch screened for cast and crew in January 1984, a new Director's Cut, or the Sci-Fi Channel mini series. The first disc contains a new anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 transfer taken from a High Definition archive copy of the 1984 film, further restored to remove dirt and scratches, and a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix as well as the original stereo soundtrack. The film looks superb and sounds almost as good, though a DTS soundtrack would have been welcome. The main extras are a well illustrated 32-page booklet written by Paul Sammon, author of the excellent Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner and The Making of Starship Troopers and a new 38-minute anamorphic widescreen documentary, Impressions of Dune. This is much superior to the average making-of, featuring significant new contributions from Kyle MacLachlan, producer Raffaella De Laurentiis, cinematographer Freddie Francis and others--though David Lynch is conspicuous by his absence. Destination Dune is a six-minute promotional featurette made by Sammon at the time of the film's release and the 4:3 image is fairly poor quality. An 83-second BBC interview with Frank Herbert is too short to be of more than passing interest, though the original trailer is a fine example of the 1980's way of selling movies. The set is completed with routine cast and crew profiles. Even with no involvement from Lynch and no commentaries, this is still the best Dune on DVD. --Gary S. Dalkin