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From: upstill@ucbvax.ARPA (Steve Upstill)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Dune: non-spoiler review
Message-ID: <3823@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 15-Dec-84 14:41:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.3823
Posted: Sat Dec 15 14:41:20 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Dec-84 09:16:19 EST
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 27


   Here it is the next day, and there's only one review of Dune been posted
so far?  Hard to believe.
   mini-review: see it.  If you've read the book, see it twice.
   You who were so concerned about Dino's involvement may rest easy: it
bears virtually no stamp of his involvement except an enormous (and well-spent)
budget.
   Good news:  The look.  This is probably the most gorgeously fantastic 
looking movie I have ever seen.  David Lynch started as a painter, and it 
shows.  The depth of originality in this movie is amazing.  Dramatically, 
all performances are solid, with pudding-face Kyle MacLaughlin (sp?) coming
off surprisingly well.  Sting has about four scenes and eight lines.
   This is definitely a daring movie in what it expects from the audience.
You actually have to PAY ATTENTION to understand what's going on. 
   Bad news: First, there was a real effort to get everything from the book
into the movie.  As a result, it is somewhat compressed dramatically, and
some things aren't as developed as they could have been.  Lovers of the 
book will have no trouble filling in the blanks.  But the FEELING is 
like a 2-hour plus recapitulation -- it's that rushed.  The other negative
is the sound track, but it seems that Lynch realized how flat it is and
turned it down about 20dB for release; when the credits were rolling I
honestly thought that the theater had lost a channel and the music was
only coming across via crosstalk.
   In sum: much, much better than I expected (but I expected so little...).
I'll definitely go back at least once more.  

Steve Upstill