David Lynch’s Dune: The Third Stage Edition

I've been an avid fan of David Lynch's 'Dune' since I was a wee kid. For me it is his true masterpiece with almost every frame (There are a few duff FX shots among the many brilliant ones) sheer perfection. I bought the VHS, the DVD, the CD Soundtrack, the Extended TV DVD, the Blu-Ray, the 2nd (Reasonably faithful PC game) and even scratchbuilt a few models! I was never a fan of the novel or it's sequels/prequels or of the TV show. It was Lynch's visionary direction and the visual world that he created that I loved and not neccasarily Frank Herbert's universe. So I've never been able to see why so many (Including Lynch himself) dislike this movie. That thought out of the way...

I was excited about seeing this edit because of it's stated intent to not change Lynch's movie but to mearly extend it. The additional footage is for the most part seemlessly integrated into the film. As the first half unfolds, it doesn't feel intrusive into the flow of the movie and even for a devoted fan of this movie it was hard to spot. Sometimes it's just a shot or an extra sentence, sometimes it's a significant scene. But on rare occasions a shot was used whose visual quality is so far below the rest that it's a bit jarring from a purely visual point of view. But I was glad to see that footage integrated none the less. At the midpoint I was grinning from ear to ear with how brilliant this edit was. But...

After the midpoint there seemed to be much less integrated footage and this combined with the second half's leaps through time and space made this edit feel like two disjointed halves. In the original cut, 'Dune' flows like a beautiful unbroken dream sequence with Lynch using sound, montage, haunting voiceovers and mysterious visuals to tell his poetic story. But in this edit the first half's extra footage is integrated so well that it kind of breaks that spell, rendering the story in conventional yet more coherant terms. We see everything, every piece of the puzzle is revealed, every custom explained, every character fleshed out and every minute of life in Arakeen is shown. Then when Paul leaves Arakeen (At almost the exact middle) the edit appears to shift back into the mysterious dream structure with whole years passing with just a word from the voiceover. I would have liked to have seen almost all of the footage glimpsed on the bonus features being used. Since as I've said, the flow of the movie was disturbed anyway, so more of it would have made no difference.

So in the end this edit allowed me to appreciate even more why this film is so remarkable in the original cut and why I never grow tired of it's charms. Somehow to add to 'Dune' is also to take away something. However as you will notice I have scored this edit a 10 for enjoyment as it truelly is one of the best FanEdits I've so far seen. It allowed me to view a whole different side to the movie that the ugly Extended TV version could never do. I will be rewatching this for many years to come and will take a proud place next to my Theatrical Cut Blu-Ray.

Thanks so much to PhineasBG and all involved for the time it must have taken to complete. If you hated 'Dune' you'll probably hate this even more but if like me you love 'Dune' then you HAVE to get a copy of this edit! It will allow you to see a whole different side to this world, meaning that you can go back and enjoy Lynch's cut even more!

"THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!!!"

August 2, 2012
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

September 12, 2011

Just watched this awesome work again. Man, what a great job!! This is the version of Dune everyone should get to see. If you do another version, use the bluray and upscale the extended footage :)
thx

June 29, 2012

Very good. Still occasionally painful to watch, especially towards the end, but the best cut of this movie I’ve seen so far. (The pain is entirely due to David Lynch. Can’t say I’m a big fan of his take on Dune – Frank Herbert’s books deserve a Peter Jackson. But the Lynch version is by far more interesting than the TV series, for ist strangeness alone.)

March 8, 2011

This is everything I could have asked for in Dune. Thank you so much!