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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Animation Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies Theatrical Trailer (2)
Rating
Year Released	1984
Running Time	136:23 minutes
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (76:05)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	4	Director	David Lynch
Studio Distributor	Infogrames	Starring	Kyle MacLachlan Sting Max von Sydow Patrick Stewart Linda Hunt
RPI	$32.95	Music	Toto

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) English (dts 5.1, 1509Kb/s) English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	No
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Force Video have learned a lot since the initial release of Dune. They have now teamed up with Infogrames, and are making a genuine effort to source the best possible materials for transfer to DVD. Believe me, the effort made for this re-release of Dune was well worth it. Indeed, I was privileged to be able to speak with Michael Costa from Stream AV who authored this DVD about the technical issues involved in remastering this DVD, and you can read my interview with him here.

    Now, on to the Plot Synopsis proper (which has simply been replicated from my original Dune review).
 

    Dune is an epic saga set 10,000 years into the future. It is based on the book by Frank Herbert. The world at this time revolves around a substance called Spice Melange which prolongs life, and allows space travel. The Spice is produced on a single planet, Dune, making it a very valuable commodity. Fremen are the native inhabitants of the planet Dune, but they have been driven underground by successive dynasties wanting to control spice production.

    Monarchic familial houses rule the known universe. Dune concerns the fight between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and in particular the story of Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan). Fremen legend has it that a man with remarkable powers will arise and rescue them from their plight. That man is Paul Atreides.

    Dune is a movie by David Lynch which means that you will either love it or hate it. He has a very bizarre and idiosyncratic style, one which is ideally suited to the futuristic, quasi-religious setting of Dune. There are plenty of lavish sets and lots of stylish cinematography to enjoy, but you will have to concentrate since if you blink you will miss important aspects of the movie, especially if you haven't read the book.

    I personally think Dune is a masterpiece of filmmaking with very little wrong with it, though you may disagree. It is a film that you can easily watch again and again and progressively discover more and more about it.

Video

    By far the biggest improvement this DVD offers over its predecessor is its widescreen presentation, which shows the glorious and sumptuous cinematography as it was meant to be seen. If any movie demonstrates the evils of the Pan & Scan process, this is the movie, particularly in the absolutely breathtaking scenes involving the first Guild Navigator meeting with the Emperor. The amount of information lost in these scenes by Panning and Scanning them is a crime against the movie.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.30:1, essentially the same as its theatrical presentation ratio of 2.35:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. Despite its lack of 16x9 enhancement, the transfer is generally very sharp and clear, within the limitations imposed by the source material. The only time where 16x9 enhancement is really missed is during the end credits, which are considerably more blurry than I am used to seeing in 16x9 enhanced transfers. Fine background details blur into indistinctness at times as well, but really this is an eminently watchable transfer. Some of the effects-laden shots, particularly those involving worms, also tended to be quite indistinct, but this is presumably inherent in the source material.

    At 24:24, there is a sudden, brief drop in the brightness of the transfer.

    The shadow detail is variable, and I suspect once again is limited by the source materials. Much of this movie takes place in low-lit situations, and there are plenty of gradations of black on show. Some scenes are lit so as to highlight one particular object on-screen with all other areas in darkness, but it isn't any fault of the transfer that we cannot see any details in these scenes. Particularly pleasing, however, is the complete absence of low level noise. The blacks are all just that - clean blacks with no noise to interfere with the image at all. I would, however, recommend strictly controlling ambient light when watching this transfer to get the most out of it.

    The colours are somewhat variable depending on the specific setting being considered. The overall colour scheme looks a little dated and lacks just a little vibrancy. I'd say this is inherent in the source material and the film stock used, as this is a common look for movies of this age. This is not to say that the colours are dull, as they are not, with plenty of reds, yellows and greens on offer. The Emperor's court is just gorgeous to behold, with glorious yellows, browns and greens fair jumping off the screen at you. There are, however, also near-monochromatic special effects sequences, such as the worm-riding sequences. There is no colour bleed and no chroma noise to interfere with the image at any time.

    MPEG artefacts were not noted at any point in this transfer, however there was some unusual shimmer in horizontal pans during the opening scenes set in the Emperor's court. The opening credits suffered from some image wobble, but this was quite minor.

    Film artefacts were remarkably absent, apart from a minor flurry in the initial scene where we are introduced to Baron Harkonnen.

    This DVD is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring at 76:05, as Paul and his mother are about to crash-land on Arrakis. The change is very abrupt and jarring coming as it does mid-action, and lasts quite a long time - almost a second on my reference DVD player which normally negotiates layer changes much faster than this. This is a very badly placed and executed layer change.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue is as clear as it can be given source material limitations. The great majority of the dialogue is crisp, clear and easy to understand. A few phrases are difficult to understand, but can be made out if you are concentrating. Scattered phrases here and there are slightly distorted, such as the opening speech.

    Audio sync is generally fine, but there are small sections of the movie here and there which are marginally out of sync, such as at 63:50 - 65:00. and short sections from 92 minutes and 96 minutes onwards. These are subtly out of sync only, so I suspect that the majority of listeners will not notice any problem at all with these sections.

    The music is by Toto. I love Toto, and enjoyed the music, although I felt it could have had some more bass emphasis than it actually did.

     The surround channels were used frequently for musical and special effects ambience. Many portions of dialogue found themselves enhanced with rear channel echo. The actual use of the surrounds for aggressive split surround effects was somewhat uneven, and in fact we need to wait until mid-way through proceedings (84:33 onwards), where Paul and his mother are hiding from the worm before being found by the Fremen, before we hear any aggressive split surround use. It actually is a little distracting, as it catches you unawares - you are happily enjoying the clear, essentially stereophonic plus ambience mix when all of a sudden this very aggressive split surround effect envelops you. The final battle scene is also extremely aggressively mixed into the surrounds. There is considerable distortion in the right rear channel from 40:50 - 41:22 and again from 48:25 - 48:35. This is present in both the dts and the Dolby Digital soundtracks, so presumably it is inherent in the source material.

[Addendum 8th April 2001: I have been advised by a reader with the R1 version of Dune that the distortion described above is not present on the R1 version of Dune nor on the CD of the soundtrack of Dune.]

    The .1 channel was used differently by the Dolby Digital and the dts mixes. In the dts mix, special effects were nicely and aggressively supported by the .1 channel, but music really lacked a bottom end, often sounding quite tinny. The Dolby Digital mix was considerably better integrated in this respect, which a much more even and smooth bass coverage.

Dolby Digital vs dts

    As always, the dts soundtrack needed to be considerably lowered in amplitude to level-match it with the Dolby Digital soundtrack.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Scene Selection Animation

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
28th February 2001
Amended 8th April 2001