Craig S. (InnerMacro) from WAUSAU, WI
Reviewed on 4/16/2022...
Not as revealing as expected, but still a great overview of the first attempt at making Dune into a cinematic experience. While the movie never made it past conceptual stages, it is brain fodder for contemplating what could have been - Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen? Dali as the Emperor? Mick Jagger as Feyd? Pink Floyd for soundtrack? And then all the talent behind Alien and Heavy Metal magazine . . . impressive. But then some choices like David Carradine for Leto that are not so great. The fact that Jodorowsky put his own son through 2 years (!) of constant combat and martial arts training for the role that never materialized is particularly concerning.
Probably the biggest problem with the DVD or Blu Ray is that the deleted scenes are not translated like the film. So unless you are up to snuff on your German, Spanish, and French, you'll have trouble getting anything out of those scenes. Probably not a documentary for general audiences, only fans of 70s and 80s sci-fi will likely find it worthy of their collection. Younger audiences will miss many of the cultural references and gravity of the people involved.
Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 11/26/2018...
We could have ended up with a very very different version of Dune. Jodorowsky has an intense and fervent imagination. It is compelling, listening to the man. I'm pretty sure audiences would have been in shock after viewing the finished product too.
What we did end up with was Lynch's Dune. For this, I recommend obtaining The extended edition. It has a large quantity of deleted and extended scenes in the extras too, which further flesh things out. Lynch wrote a movie script for the next book as well, which never made it to film. I've read that the cut of Dune which Lynch made is still in his vault...5 hours long or so? Might never see the light of day. Laurentis studios were originally working with Ridley Scott for the film. The script he was working from was written by the author of the book: Frank Herbert. Scott quit the project when his brother died unexpectedly of cancer. Probably would have been a much different movie.
There is a SyFy channel miniseries version available as well, which is well worth a look.