Yeah I think the TV cut was something like 4 hours with no commercials on PBS, but it's kind of a fuzzy memory. The TV cut was the first one I saw and I was super into it and then saw the movie version and kind of understood why David Lynch pulled an Alan Smithee on it, even though I didn't know what that name meant yet.

As long as we're on the subject, with all the reboots and such how come nobody's thought about rebooting Dune? I mean, this Dune is weird and has a special place in my heart and the SciFi Channel Dune was more true to the book(s) but was just plain awful. It'd be better than remaking movies that we have a special place in our hearts because they were actually good movies like Robotcop and Total Recall. But I guess Lynch is too busy remaking Twin Peaks.. jeez..

Honestly I wish they would make a Dune with most of the Fremen stuff cut out. I liked all the House intrigue and plotting, but once the Harkonnen attacked it turned into 80% acid trip vision quests and the boring Fremen. Worse is Herbert never resolved some of the more interesting plotlines he set up. What of Feyd's plans to overthrow his uncle? What of Thufir's plot to encourage Feyd's plot to overthrow his uncle in an attempt to wipe them both out and gain vengeance? What of Count Fenrig?

All ditched, so they could fit in 300 more pages of, "Fremen life has all power struggles out in the open with perfect harmony outside of it, this is in stark contrast to Imperial life with feigned harmony and subterfuge power struggles. OH WOW I'M TOTALLY TRIPPED BALLS NOW FUTURE PATHS FUTURE PATHS JIHAD!"

As much as i'd like to see Dune remade as a mini-series w/ GoT production values, I think it's time has come and gone. It just has too much of the hint of impossible-to-film-box-office-poison for any studio or channel to take another risk on it. Sci-Fi Channel is doing Hyperion, so in the 1 and 1,000,000,000 chance that that turns out good, Dune may get another shot. Then, in hope beyond hope, more modern series, like The Culture and Revelation Space books will get a chance at the screen.

Actually surprised China Mieville's Bas Lag books haven't been optioned. That universe would look amazing on the screen.

I have the TV cut at home but I'll be away for another week so this will be off the last 7 days by then and I won't remember to check the length.

The TV cut was the first one I saw as a kid and when I saw the theatrical one I remember feeling cheated. Most of the effects shots of sandworms were gone, a lot of the Baron Harkonen stuff was gone, most of the training was gone, the pacing is weird and disjointed, and it feels like they just chose one page at random from each chapter of the book and shot them in order with no attempt to create continuity between. I get how someone who doesn't like big, sprawling, 70s pacing would hate the TV cut but personally I could stand EVEN MORE shots of the Fremen walking around in the desert with nothing happening.

I... I didn't even know there was a longer than theatrical version of this.

I could watch the set design in this movie for YEARS.

I...

Spit Spingola, are you Santa Claus? If so, this totally makes up for not bringing back my dead parents.

I am. One hour in and I just saw sand for the first time.

Fans of the book also hate the mini-series

Good.

Fuck those people.

I like the movie. It's not a very good adaptation of the book, but it hits most of the major story points and is visually amazing and well crafted all around. Not sure why people dislike it so much.

I actually really liked the Children of Dune mini-series (which combined Children of Dune and Dune Messiah together), but the original Dune mini-series was weirdly awful and made so many strange decisions. As a fan of the books, I didn't think the Dune mini-series was really that good, frankly. Children of Dune I just liked because, like the film, it hit all the major story points and moved along pretty well..but it was hardly a serious adaptation of the book...at least not in my opinion.

Binro, you have to stop taking it personally every time someone likes something you don't or vice-versa.

I love the theatrical cut, but I can't stand any of the other extended versions.

More isn't always better, and I never thought any of the extra stuff was so necessary as to make the movie any longer than it already was.

I don't hate the theatrical cut but IMO it cuts out the plot points that make it only suitable for people who read the book first, like it was trying to be Star Wars. And you're right, same can be said for LotR, but I feel like with Tolkien (and Lucas) you can cut out a lot of the universe and it's still an enjoyable movie (unless you're That guy) but to me Dune feels like a mess. But for context I went from watching the TV edit to reading the books and then renting the theatrical cut, so I was pretty much going backwards..

The main problem is that Lynch, an all-time great otherwise, never was or meant to be a very good action director.

Some of the dodgy special effects now have a retro, non-cgi charm.

I still wish he had been hired to direct Return of the Jedi.

I love the TV cut and I'm not much of a fan of the book. I read it once and it was decent but I'll never read it again. Tried to read the rest but they're unreadable.

I just like the TV cut because it gives more time to the art direction, and the art direction is the main reason to watch the movie. I've got no interest in watching any other version of a Dune movie.

The Lynch/Allen Smithee Dune is the Zardoz of the 80s.

Also what IZ said, you really can't even trace a coherent narrative from the theatrical cut unless you read the book first.

The problem with the miniseries is that where they did decide to deviate from the book, they made it asinine and stupid.

In the book, Paul is in control of his destiny and conspires with Jessica, both of whom are looking for ways to use the Bene Gesserit golden path "prophecies" against them. In the miniseries, Jessica kind of pushes things in motion by accident while Paul wanders around like a dumb teenager and accidentally stumbles upon the Fremen prophesy. Pretty much everything he does ends up being by accident.

In the book, Irulan only appears as a historian and an arranged marriage, while Paul's love is for Chani, and that whole aspect exists to show the duality of marriage-for-power vs. consummation of love. In the miniseries, Irulan shows up early on and she and Paul run around getting into all sorts of horny teenager shenanigans, giggling and hiding in corners during dinner parties and whatever.

And on the subject, they changed Children of Dune for the worse too. In the book, the twins successfully escape the tiger attack but then decide to hypnotize themselves into thinking that each other was killed by it so that they could successfully deceive their enemies, but only by willfully deceiving themselves. In the miniseries, they just get broken up by the tiger and are just like "oh well I guess my twin is dead."

And in the climactic scene at the end of that one: in the book, Alia is struggling with trying to retain her individuality while the (okay this is admittedly really stupid) "genetic memory" of her grandfather is trying to take her over permanently, and ends her own life to keep everyone else safe. In the miniseries she just kinda spazzes out and falls out of a window.

Anyway I love the Lynch version of Dune because he didn't try to be accurate to the book, he just told a similar story that was intended for the screen instead of just trying to film something that's inherently unfilmable and missing the mark, and every single difference between the stories was in the service of telling a good story. The miniseries just changed shit to make it easier to deal with.

tl;dr I am a huge nerd

But not enough of one to remember what the "golden path" referred to.

fart

Toto's power of rock can fix it!

If you think this is the worst movie of all time you need to see more bad movie.

If you think "worst movie of all time" isn't anything less than a glowing endorsement, then I don't even know.

it's awful, not that jodorowskys would have been any better tho

It totally would have been better. For example...

Brokeback Mountain

The Holy Mountain

I rest my case.

right cause god knows we needed him to up the proverbial schlock ante after that piece of shit el topo