|
|
| Special Features: |
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound
• Commentary by the Dune production team: John Harrison, Ernest Farino, Harry Miller, Greg Nicotero, and Tim McHugh
• Newly remastered 16x9 widescreen version
• Director's cut with nearly 30 minutes of never-before-seen footage
• "Willis McNelly on Dune" featurette: author of the Dune Encyclopedia gives insightful perspective on Dune and his longtime friend Frank Herbert
• "The Lure of Spice" featurette: a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the film
• "The Color Wheel" featurette: Lessons of Life and Light with master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
• "Walking and Talking with John Harrison": exclusive interview with the writer-director of Frank Herbert's Dune
• "Defining the Messiah" featurette: Talks with religious scholars, such as Rabbi Mordachai Finely, Elaine Pagels, Munir Shaikh, and Jungian psychologist Gabrielle Bodo
• "Science Future/Science Fiction" featurette: Distinguished science fiction writers Harlan Ellison, Octavia Butler, and Michael Cassutt and director John Harrison discuss with award-winning inventor Ray Kurzwell the emerging technological paradigm shift and the moral issues that surround it, moderated by Arthur Cover
• "The Cinematic Ideation of Frank Herbert's Dune": essay by Vittorio Storaro
• Cast & crew information
• Photo gallery including stills and sketches from the film
• Children of Dune sneak peek pre-production gallery
• Widescreen anamorphic format
• Number of discs: 3
|
| Video Format: |
Widescreen (1.78:1)
[SS-SL]
|
| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
|
| Subtitles: |
English, Spanish, etc.
|
| Captions: |
Yes
|
| Casing: |
3-Disc Fold-out Case
|
The story of Dune is finally told in full form in this near 6 hour feast of
a mini-series! We watch as a battle for the planet Dune unfolds over
royalty and warrior races. Epic... pure epic.
To break down the story would almost be impossible. There are so many plot
points, characters, enemies, etc. that I could go on and on for a week.
A fan of the book and film broke it down like this... "The year is 10,091.
It is the human race over 8,000 years in the future. The humans are divided
into Royal houses ruled over by one house in particular, the imperial
Corrinno. Two of the houses, House Atreides and Harkonnen, have been at war
for centuries. Space travel is controlled by a Spacing Guild and their
navigators. A primary religious sect is that of the Bene Gesserrit, who have
mental as well as physical powers, and are current advisors of the Emperor
in House Corrinno. The noble Atreides family has inherited the planet
Arrakis after eighty years of rule by the dastardly and tyrannical
Harkonnen. Arrakis, also known as the planet Dune, is a wasteland. It’s
people are scattered and religiously fanatic, the storms and deserts are
deadly, and the planet is overrun with dangerous, giant sandworms. However,
the planet has one very marketable commodity, in fact THE most marketable
commodity of the known universe. That is the spice mélange. It gives the
guild’s navigators power to travel in space, the mind expanding powers to
the Bene Gesserrit, and it gives an individual strength and long life.
However it comes at the cost of a large addiction, and if your body is
saturated with it, it makes your eyes glow a very bright blue color."
Paul Atreides is the son of Duke Leto, who is the leader of the Atreides
royal house. He starts off as a young, arrogant boy who believes that
violence is never the way to solve a political issue... UNTIL he is drawn
into a political conspiracy that centers of the planet of Dune.
The film is full of action, drama, sci-fi techno babble, and gritty
characters. Before the David Lynch version of the story was filmed, George
Lucas had always wanted to take the Dune story to the big screen... but he
backed out in order to create his own space opera. We can see where many of
his ideas stemmed from in this story. Mystiques who have telekinetic powers
that help guard a royal house, a desert planet... the similarities go one.
Surprisingly enough, David Lynch had the choice to do Return of the Jedi OR
Dune.
Anyway, Lynch's try was a rough ride, and we were offered with a broken
story that was hard to follow.
This version however, offers us an in-depth story line with almost 6 hours of
time to portray the true vision of Frank Herbert's book.
While the TV production sometimes shows its limits, we are still treated
with a vision of Herbert's universe that captivates us... and doesn't lose
its grip of our intrigue.
The cast is wonderful... although William Hurt offers somewhat of a held
back performance. Alec Newman, who portrays the young Paul Atreides, isn't
as good as 1983's Paul, but he holds his own with the material.
The visual effects are great in the context of TV, the sets offer a
futuristic tone that goes beyond what is expected of a miniseries, and the
scope of each episode is grand.
This disc is a sci-fi gurus dream. Filled with original extras that allow us to look deeper into the world of Dune. Packed with extras, and with an awesome image transfer, Dune offers up something we all crave for in a DVD. With 30 minutes of extra footage, we see even more of what was hailed as a marvel.
Picture Quality: 10/10
Although there are many scenes that show the TV budget, the images are brilliant in color and sharpness. The DP used many different shades of color to represent each royalty... and those colors show beautifully.
Sound Quality: 10/10
The disc offers not only Dolby, but the superior DTS sound. The sound seperation is perfect for anyone with the right system... it even plays well on cheaper speakers too.
Menu: 7/10
The menu isn't too interactive along the lines of the great ones out there (T2, Abyss, etc.), but it offers a cool Dune image with symbols representing extras. Each disc offers different extras. BUT, those symbols are hard to understand and you have to delve into them to get what you want.
Extra Features: 10/10
Where the extras lack (deleted scenes, etc.), they shine in other areas. The docu-films are wonderful and original. We're offered a "roundtable" of sorts between sci-fi's greatest writers. We also get a taste of Dune's story roots by a friend of Herbert's.
The Final Word:
This is one, if not THE, all time best mini-series out there! Ever! Forget Babylon 5... this is a keeper... and a must own DVD. The story is epic. The effects are great for TV. One only wonders what the makers could have done with a feature film and/or trilogy filmed back to back with a $300 million budget! This series proves that Lucas could truly redeem himself (I lvoe the prequels, but they are nothing near the original trilogy AND the extended universe in print) with a Star Wars TV series. Spend a few million per episode!
Ken Miyamoto
|
Advanced Media Network : : :
Cube |
Xbox |
PSP |
DS |
Game Xplain |
Revo-Europe |
RPGamer |
Anime |
Einsiders |
AMN Radio
American Red Cross volunteers have been deployed to the hardest hit areas of Katrina’s destruction, supplying hundreds of
thousands victims left homeless with critical necessities. By making a financial gift to Hurricane 2005 Relief, the Red
Cross can provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need.
