Review Detail

9.7 13 10
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I’ve a more comprehensive review of Spicediver’s film for the SD version; for this revelation I’ll keep it to the point, with some notes:

*the HD upgrade is, needless to say, amazing, and even the SD upscaled extended footage feels less jarring.

*any new changes are fully integrated and seamless. I know this edit quite well, more than any other fanedit out there, and I was looking for the changes but couldn’t easily pick them out.

*Finally, a quick shout-out to Spicediver for his thoughtful and engaging messages, consideration, and willingness to pragmatically look at Lynch’s film as a project in perpetual need for retooling.

Having just recently read the book again, it’s amazing how well Lynch captured so many difficult aspects of the novel. People call Dune “unfilmable” due to this, but he did well.

In watching this edit, there is a “Magnificent Ambersons” effect at about the start of book 3, where the careful, steady, almost slow-burn Lynch/Spicediver use through the first 2 hours becomes a rapid-fire series of melting psychedelic dissolve shots, telling an epic story in its last hour in a series of impressionistic images more than narrative.

The characters are all too human in this story. That’s the subversive secret of Herbert’s novel: despite the evolution, these characters are completely and utterly bound by their ultimate humanity, and haven’t the perspective to see through it.

When Alia intones this film’s final line, Spicediver was right to eliminate the original ending of the movie. Paul can’t make it rain. He’s just the ultimate psychedelic dude, is all.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Owner's reply August 20, 2022

Thanks for the review. :)

Just to clarify for viewers: the additional footage that I used from the 'Alan Smithee' Extended TV Edition is not upscaled; it is an actual 1080p source that was released for the first-time ever in 2022 on the German Ultimate Edition Blu-ray set. Only the rough deleted scenes in 360i resolution that first appeared in 2006 have been upscaled in Dune Redux.

If any of the Extended TV Edition footage used in my 1080p edition ever looks a tad lower resolution, it's because when it was cobbled together for American cable TV in the late 1980's all the newly re-inserted footage was inexplicably zoomed-in slightly. If you carefully watch the intercutting in some scenes, you can see the slightly different sizing of subjects within the frame. Alas, that's part of the legacy of the TV Edition's weird and shoddy production by Universal/MCA.

Report this review Was this review helpful? 0 0

Comments