On the Dune Adaptations

Currently in Earphones: "Children of Dune" soundtrack by Brian Tyler

I have recently acquired and watched the much talked about 1983 version of Dune directed by David Lynch. Having finally read the book a few summers ago and having enjoyed it immensely, I was lucky enough to have a roomate own a copy of the Sci-Fi miniseries, which sparked my interest in the '83 movie adaptation.

I had been told that Lynch had a habit of being very strange, so I was prepared to see wierd things when I popped the DVD into my player. Indeed, in the theatrical cut, every scene featuring the Harkonnen clan oozed bizzarity: from the strange idea of "heart plugs," to Brad Dourif's quirky and odd portrayl of Piter de Vries, to the almost stock rendering of the Harkonnen clan into a group of cackling, sadistic and bloodthirsty madmen. Those were the only things I found immediately odd, the rest was...interesting.

I was prepared for a fairly wide departure from the novel: when one sets out to adapt a massive story and squeeze it into a chunk of 2 hours, things need to be altered, changed and cut to make it work. What I didn't realize was just how close to the book Lynch made the first half of the movie.

Imagine, if you will, that Dune is comparable to an opera. Imagine also, that you are going to purchase a recording of the opera. In this metaphor, the Book is the complete 5 CD set, replete with a large commemorative booklet (introductions and the extensive glossary) and perhaps some unused arias uncovered by a protege (abandoned chapters or the like). The Sci-Fi miniseries is nearly the same, clocking in at about 4 CD's but missing a few duets and ritornellos. All told, not bad, but also not nearly as good as the entire opera (for us bibliophiles, is there really any movie as good as the book it's based off of?).

The '83 version, in the same vein, are almost exactly like a "Highlights" CD of a big opera. It has all the big, famous movements and defining songs, but lacks any connective tissue. The recording is of pretty high fidelity (the stuff in the movie that was true to the book I liked the same, if not better, than the Sci-Fi version), but only if you've heard the entire opera do you know where and how the movements fit together, and the little incidental music that fills in the gaps and makes it complete.

With that in mind, I found that I enjoyed Lynch's portrayal. My knowledge of the book filled in the gaps, and allowed me to enjoy it without feeling too jerked around. I can see how someone who doesn't know the story could get mighty confused at the yanking back and forth, but for me it worked well.

My one main problem with Lynch's version was: why make the Baron and the other Harkonnens so one-dimensional? Rabban I understand, he's a big idiot galoot to begin with, so the scene where the Baron is egging him on where he's chewing his cud and grinning like an idiot makes sense. Feyd-Rautha I can also, albiet less, understand. He's a bloodthirsty hound and dandy with a few tricks up his sleeve, but Sting probably could have done more than just knowingly smirk at the camera for all of his scenes. What I liked about the Sci-Fi version, in comparison, was the higher level of intruige going on: assasination attempts, political machinations, etc. The only thing that stopped the miniseries from being better (in that respect) was, as Alexandria DuPont put it, "The way more than one scene with Ian McNiece's Baron ends with him laughing like a mustache-twirling Scooby-Doo villain."

And now, for my rant about the "Extended Edition." An explanation of the various cuts can be found here. My first reaction is to say that the extended cut is the better, if not best version of the film. Although the narration consisted of removing Irulan's voice and using an unnamed (but not all together unpleasent) male voice, I found that it wasn't as bad as I had heard it to be. The majority of complaints stated that it was too repetitive, but I only found that the case in a few instances. Otherwise, it helped enhance and explain more of what was going on: this would be the version I would show to the Dune un-initiated. Fortunately, since there is a lot of internal dialoge featured in the movie, there was lots of extra footage lying around of characters looking pensive to lay voice-overs on to. Characters are better introduced and more fully explained, though situations tend to be just as briefly illustrated as in the theatrical cut. Also, the more bizzare and graphic Harkonnen moments are removed: The Baron's murder of the servant, Rabban's crushed-creature cocktail, and the Baron hocking a huge loogie into Lady Jessica's face. Personally, I think this is better, and less of a departure from the original characters.

Now, on to my gripes. The first is minor, and almost excusable. In the opening of the movie (past the well intentioned but overly long and plodding prologue) shots of the Harkonnen Ornithopter used later in the movie for Paul and Jessica's flight from Arrakeen are reused. The one shot in question is one where the two Atriedes are clearly visible, which is a complete non-sequitur. Wisely, whoever cut the film didn't include the same shot in the original scene later in the movie.

Second, any additional scenes of the Fremen, like the fight with Jamis, the killing of the little-maker, and the rest all are lacking the blue-eye effects. True, the extra scenes don't have a whole lot of Fremen-looking-straight-at-the-camera, but all I'm asking is a little continuity. They even repeat the shot of Mother Ramallo giving her prophecy, although it's at a medium range instead of a close up, and all of the sudden she's human. It was jarring to me, though perhaps not as much to others. Still, in the words of George Carlin, "All I'm askin' is for a little consistancy."

Third, and somewhat minor, was the deletion of Paul's line "We must walk without rhythm, so we don't attract the worm." OK, so that aspect of desert travel on Dune was only in the theatrical cut for a few seconds, but damnit, I liked it! I thought it was genius to include such a concept as having the worms sensitive to human footfalls in the book, and it added a whole 'nother layer of difficulty to Paul and Jessica's journey. Given that it was totally eliminated in the Sci-Fi series, I was happy just to see a nod to it in the theatrical cut. Imagine my dismay when it, too, fell by the wayside in the extended verison.

And finally, fourth and most important: dialogue mis-synchronization. I can't tell if this was a problem with the DVD encoding or the editing of the film, but several key scenes in the extended cut had the pristine music, sound-effects, and other audio elements all in place, yet the dialogue was off from the picture by at least a half second. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it is more than noticable to even the average layperson. It only takes part of a second to really mess up dialogue, and such it was for the Prologue, the first Harkonnen scene, and (most greviously) the final confrontation between Paul, the Emperer and Feyd-Rautha.

The tightly edited prologue was the first time I noticed it, when the cuts to the multiple oil paintings of scenes from the movie started to not match up with the narration. The Barons big speech in the first Harkonnen scene (before he flies out of his chair) saw a similar lag between mouth movement and recorded dialogue starting a half-second after. The same held for the final duel between Paul and Feyd, made worse for me because the extended edition included gobs of background music in the soundtrack which (for me) fleshed out the musical soundscape from the spare and quiet theatrical cut. I don't know who's fault it is, but it is absolutely un-acceptable; un-acceptable for a distributor to sell an obviously broken and unfinished product. I love the Extended edition, but Universal is going to get a terse letter from me on this subject.

So, all in all, I generally like the various adaptations out there. I tend to agree with the various gripes and accolades given to them (for an interesting take if you've seen both adaptations check out DuPont's review of the Sci-Fi series, namely the section titled "Elements I would personally pluck from Lynch's Dune and digitally insert into Harrison's Dune had I money and technology and copyrights to spare"). For those wanting to see the movie, I say read the book or a synopsis first, so you can enjoy how it's adapted without having to follow the labyrinthine plot.

And that's enough on Dune for the time being.

Enough, more later
- James

Edit - I just went back and watched the two editions close together, and found a few more things. The first, it seems that the dialogue might have been a DVD player problem, as when I popped the extended edition into my Laptop, the dialogue seemed to have synched better. However, I believe that to be a trick of the mind: I watched the theatrical cut, and found that there was only one line of mis-synchronized dialogue in the final fight, but the rest fell into place. It looks as though whoever edited the extended cut put that one line back into synchronization, but then didn't shorten up the space it created, throwing off all the rest of the dialogue in the scene. Shame.

Secondly, I watched the prologue again, and found that it looked more to be a case of someone pre-timing the visuals and the narrator making timing changes so as not to sacrifice clear speech for synchronization. The voice over does synch over the long run, but bits and pieces run too slow or too fast. As my friend Maria would say "Boo-urns!"