Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.movies,net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Dune should be 4 hours 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