This is a fascinating film floating around the internet. Someone took the deleted scenes from David Lynch's failed science fiction epic, reedited them and supposedly following Lynch's original script put them in the proper context. The end result is a much more coherent and frankly more interesting and entertaining adaptation of the Frank Herbert book than the recently released 2021 version.
Lynch's film version of Dune was considered a critical and commercial disaster. Lynch had to deal with studio interference and a lot of pressure to make a Christmas release. Clearly Universal Studios was looking for a Star Wars type of film but by hiring the idiosyncratic Lynch instead of a more conventional filmmaker they really should have known better.
This film has impressive set design and probably one of the most incredible casts ever assembled for a science fiction film. Herbert's book was a long slog but in reality the story is actually rather simple to follow. In this version some of the characters are really something to see. Kenneth McMillian is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen the chief bad guy who floats around in some sort of flying suit and has disgusting puss pouring out of his face. The singer Sting shows up as one of Harkonnen's family who is presented almost as a psychotic running around in what looks like a futuristic diaper. Sian Phillips, Francesca Annis and Silvana Mangano are members of some mysterious group called the Bene Gesserit a group of mysterious psychic women dressed in black with bald heads. And so it goes, after all this is a David Lynch film.
I doubt that we will ever have a definitive David Lynch version of Dune, but this film reedit is very good. Lynch wrote the screenplay. The released version of the original studio cut was 139 minutes. This alternate version runs close to three hours.
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