Frank Herbert's Dune

Epic Television

This Sci-Fi Channel miniseries does a much better job of faithfully telling the epic novel's story than did David Lynch's ponderous movie, but both versions really should be seen to get the best idea of what the heck Herbert was writing back in the mid 1960's.

William Hurt is the star name that was undoubtedly necessary in order to get funding for the project, and he's okay as Duke Leto Atreides, but 'twould've been better to have gotten a young name star to play his son, Paul, so at least they'd have a star who actually makes it through more than the first third of the story.

Instead, Paul (the real starring role) is played by Alec Newman, who doesn't bring a lot of presence to his role of the Man Who Would Be Messiah. Still, most of the acting is fine and the lack of names is better than sitting there playing "guess which star's coming on next," as happened with "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

The story revolves around the planet Arrakis, sole source of the spice melange that's the key to space travel and therefore is the glue that hold the galaxy together. The spice must flow, and just about everyone will do whatever it takes not only to ensure the continued flow of the spice, but to ensure that they control that flow and wield the power that results from that.

The Atreides, a fine family that's very popular with the masses, are sent to Arrakis to take over from the brutal Harkonnens, with whom they've been feuding since we don't know when. Naturally, the Harkonnens aren't about to take their replacement lightly and use it as an opportunity to settle the feud once and for all, while maintaining their control over Arrakis and the spice.

Or so they think.

That's about as superficial an overview to a 288 minute miniseries as you can get. There are plots within plots and plans within plans; there's intragalactic political intrigue, sex, violence, religion, whew! You name it, Dune has it.

The production values are outstanding considering that this is basically a production made on a TV budget. The sets and costumes are lush and colorful, and the special effects make one grateful for the digital technology that made mounting the production feasible.

The DVD is presented in widescreen, kind of, and Dolby Pro Logic and the audio and video quality are very good - to a point.

If you're lucky enough to have a widescreen TV, you'll be some mighty disappointed in the fact that the DVD's box proclaims the title's widescreen presentation (the original aspect ratio!), yet when you slide the disc into your player and crank up your wide screen you discover the ugly truth that it's really just a letterboxed DVD and you'll have to zoom it out if you want it to fill the screen the way it should. This causes a loss of resolution that, while not enough to spoil your enjoyment of this excellent miniseries, is a real shame considering how beautiful this show could have looked on state-of-the-art TV's.

This is really unforgivable: the producers went to the trouble of shooting this made for TV series in 16x9 widescreen, but the cheapskates who mastered the DVD didn't bother passing along that benefit. This means that even if you don't yet have a widescreen TV, but want to buy this disc for posterity, it'll come back to haunt you down the road when you do convert to the new TV aspect ratio.

And why only Dolby Surround? On our reference system the Dolby Digital signal went only to the main front speakers, which is always a drag; we had to switch into Pro Logic mode to get the voices and sound effects to come from the center speaker where they belonged. It wouldn't have been difficult to release the disc in real Dolby Digital that would at the very least recreate the Dolby Surround sound placement - but no.

Extras include a 25 minute behind the scenes featurette and an interactive written treatise by the series' cinematographer, as well as cast and crew info, and a photo gallery.

Frank Herbert's Dune, from Artisan Home Video
288 min, widescreen (1.77:1), not 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Pro Logic
Starring William Hurt, Alec Newman
Written and Directed by John Harrison.

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