I saw the movie after being obsessed with the book back in High School. I remember being disappointed that it was so cut. They even cut stuff that made the comic book adaptation. I was also upset that they cut out stuff that Frank Herbert had insisted be included, like the death of Thufir. There was this Waldenbooks tape of an interview with Herbert and Lynch and they hint at it. Apparently, the studio wanted Thufir to appear in the sequel and Herbert put his foot down. So in the interview, they laugh and then state that the film has at least ONE scene that is directly from the book. They put it back in the Alan Smithee cut.
There never was actually a 4 hour cut. It was supposedly the rough cut with redundant shots and angles that was 4 hours. The script is available online if you look for it and there’s not that much more to it. When they added back stuff for the Alan Smithee cut they had to film new scenes, such as Fremen in robes (since they didn’t have access to the stillsuits-I saw one in a Planet Hollywood. All rotted out latex.).
As disappointed as I was, I do have a perverse fascination with the film. If I divorce it from Frank Herbert and look at it as a David Lynch sci fi film, it almost works. It is a definite progeny of Eraserhead and Elephant Man. I think it is ultimately a noble failure. Still interesting as a multimillion dollar art film.
As far as the Sci-Fi miniseries, I like it. Some of the bad fan reviews are more from the usual obsessives who don’t understand how adaptations work and think that every word is the inspired word of god.
First, one must get past the aesthetic decision they made. They realized that on a Sci-Fi Channel budget they were only going to get a certain level of production value. For good or bad, they decided to make it look almost like a stage play with translight backdrops for backgrounds. The costumes are light and airy and look like a stage play, too. This is probably their greatest failing, in my opinion. I don’t mind the backgrounds that shimmer and wave, but the silly hats were a bad idea.
The biggest complaint I remember from the Dune message boards was the expansion of the Princess Irulan character. It reminds me of the fuss over Arwen in Lord of the Rings. Both characters are important in concept, but virtual non-entities in the story. What they did with Irulan was conflate her character with Count Fenring’s wife, giving her something to do other than being the prize at the end. Considering how her character becomes more important in the sequels, it makes perfect sense to combine characters and make her relevant to the plot. They do it in “real life” stories, all the time. Conservation of characters, it is called, I believe.
The Sci-Fi miniseries gets the overall concepts of the story out better. No soundguns, but instead the Bene Gesserit fighting style taught to a people made even tougher by their environment.
For what it is worth, the sequel Children of Dune mini is even better. They learned their lesson in the aesthetics, and costuming. They also didn’t dumb the story down to make it more easily understandable. It seems more like real science-fiction than the glossy original. Also, Alia is smokin’ hawt.