Message-ID: <2938@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 22-Dec-84 02:03:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.2938
Posted: Sat Dec 22 02:03:12 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Dec-84 03:01:28 EST
References: <2963@allegra.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 29
Summary:
There probably is not a four hour version of "Dune", at least not in the same
sense that there is an original version of say, "Heaven's Gate" or "Once Upon A
Time in America". Most films shoot more
scenes than they use. The unused scenes are discarded because they do not work,
or because they do not fit in with the rest of the film, or because the film
is too long and they seemed the most
expendable. Longer doesn't necessarily mean better. "Dune" was pretty lugubrious
at two and a half hours; even if they
had the footage, it would probably be intolerable at four hours. Very likely,
Lynch, on his own initiative, cut out
sceenes to bring the running time down to reasonable length, and because they
were not important to his vision of the film, or perhaps even harmful (sometimes
scenes get shot because producers insist, even if the director has no intention
of using them, sometimes they just don't
work out). Since there seemed to be
little controversy about the cut of "Dune", a longer version probably won't
appear in theaters. If it's a big enough hit, it may show up on TV with cut
scenes restored, like "The Godfather" and "Superman".
I have no complaints whatsoever about how the film looked. All of my complaints
are about how the story was told. Lynch gets loads of brownie points for his
visual concepts, but we must remember that he was the director, not just the
production designer.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher