Dune (1984) The Alternative Edition Redux | 480p Edition

Lynch's film can never be the Dune I imagined from my reading, but this has to be the best cinematic version yet. The division into chapters, the choice quotes, the lack of rain at the end (um, belated spoiler alert), the addition of numerous deleted scenes—all these enrich the viewing experience.

The film still contains dialogue explaining the obvious, but that's a shortcoming I attribute to Lynch—ironic, given his usual and usually effective method of having all sorts of funkomatic stuff on screen without corresponding verbal exposition.

I also appreciate the "anamorphic" resizing of the video (I watched the mp4), which looks great on my TV. It looks sharper than the Alternative Edition v2. The version I watched was supposed to contain some a/v divergences, but I didn't notice any.

Paul's eyes didn't turn blue until well into his stay on Arrakis, but that can be corrected in the Ultimate Alternative Edition Full Circle Kwisatz Haderach Reducttape v4.

Seriously, I think Frank Herbert would have raised his cup (of spicy worm juice) to this version more than any other that has come before.

Better story development than any other version. Unfortunately some footage has quite bad picture quality, but the improved narrative justifies including it.
Thank you for this tremendous effort.

Dune (1984) is my favorite theatrically released Dune movie, and is my "hard" sci-fi movies ever. I saw it when I was 12 and loved it BUT I did find some parts somewhat confusing. Concepts I didn't "get" I just shrugged off and just focused on the plot elements which I understood.

This edit fills in the gaps. The artistic and narrative choices that SpiceDiver has made really helps the viewer understand some of the backstory. The original theatrical release was 137 minutes.. This version adds a whopping 41 minutes to the runtime and in my humble opinion, the film is so much better for it. Whole scenes that were cut have been reinserted and they really do help explain to the viewer, especially those who haven't read the book(s), why what we are seeing is happening.

What hurts the edit is the fact that some of the footage that has been inserted is some very rough cuts, and that is putting it nicely. I commend the editor for doing the best they could with what they had to work with, and those scenes do add a lot, but I feel a lot of viewers may be a bit "put off" by the dramatic drop in video fidelity. I am personally ok with it, but I'm a bit of an extended/deleted scene junky, which makes me very biased.

This is the only version of Dune (1984) I watch. I couldn't imagine watching the theatrical cut now. I know opinions of the original Dune are very polarized and if you didn't like it to begin with, this will not change your opinion. If you loved, liked, or are on the fence about this movie than you should watch it. Fans will really enjoy this and fence-sitters may, after watching the additional footage, achieve a better understanding of Lynch's Dune, making a so-so movie for them into a film they "get" and enjoy.

July 6, 2012

Spice planet. Arrakis. Dune. David Lynch’s sci-fi epic. It has flaws, mostly in keeping me entertained after the first hour and a half. The Alternative Edition Redux has effectively fixed that problem.

- Technically, the video is super-crisp, even the restored deleted scenes were decent quality, and the sound editing was near-perfect (there were still a few inner-dialog moments that i wish could still be cut down. “This is what i’ll do to the Duke and his family” always irritates me to no end).
- The 4-book structure made the geek in me incredibly happy. It was pretty much the selling point for me on this edit. The quotes that preface each segment were great, and gave the film more of a flavor akin to the original book.
- Irulan’s narration is perfect. Much better than the dude’s.
- The spice eyes were also pretty awesome (though, the design of them was never really correct, but that has nothing to do with Spicediver’s edit).
- The ending was beautifully simple. It gave me chills.

I believe that there could be a harsher edit to Dune, however. The exposition just seems to go on forever and they never stop explaining things but other times they don’t explain things at all. But, whatever. I’m just trying to find something to nitpick on.

ANYWAY, This is now my go-to cut of the film. Thank you, Spicediver, for this wonderful edit.

Video: 5 of 5
Sound: 4 of 5
Edits: 4 of 5
Presentation: 5 of 5

Overall: 5 out of 5, because it’s just too awesome.

August 10, 2012

This fan edit was great. What a work of art. This is by far and away the best version of Dune out There David Lynch would be proud!