"It's Unlike Anything in this Galaxy."

May 20, 2014 1:31 PM

If David Lynch directed "Return of the Jedi", it may have looked like this.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (43 comments total)

" I question the use of Roy Orinson during the Jedi's Yogic Flight scene but you seem to know what you're doing."
posted by The Whelk at 1:36 PM on May 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

That video is gold.
posted by oceanjesse at 1:37 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

And then the ewoks rocked out around a tank of nitrous oxide and flogged each other.
posted by loquacious at 1:40 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

every time i hear about this, i'm reminded of dune. and every time i hear about dune, i wish i could see the ridiculous 4 hour directors cut that apparently exists in some vault somewhere.
posted by emptythought at 1:41 PM on May 20, 2014 [5 favorites]

that video is awesome.
posted by k5.user at 1:44 PM on May 20, 2014

I saw Lynch Dune recently at Cinerama, It was even weirder than I remembered.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:45 PM on May 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

If you ignore that Lynch's Dune is divorced from the book, it still is a good movie.
posted by k5.user at 1:53 PM on May 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

Nice, but I would've ROFLed if they had added a pug.
posted by markkraft at 1:55 PM on May 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

"¡No hay Jabba!"
posted by Iridic at 1:57 PM on May 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

ekuL, ecroF eht esU.

Ultimate dream sequence.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:01 PM on May 20, 2014

I only have four versions of lynch dune at the moment, three official releases (longest at about 3 hours 10 ish) and one is the spicediver fan edit which is 3 hours 3 minutes long.

If the four hour raw cut exists I have not yet found a copy of it.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:05 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

"That Bantha poodoo you like is going to come back in style."
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:08 PM on May 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

"Nothing like a great cup of blue milk."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:24 PM on May 20, 2014

But this wasn't anything like The Straight Story!
posted by aubilenon at 2:43 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I only have four versions of lynch dune at the moment, three official releases (longest at about 3 hours 10 ish) and one is the spicediver fan edit which is 3 hours 3 minutes long.

pardon being off-topic, but id really like to know which version you like the best. the spicediver re-edit seems very interesting.
posted by young_son at 2:51 PM on May 20, 2014

IMDB's fairly exhaustive list of alternate versions of Dune. Debunks some of the rumors about mythical 6-hour Director's cuts.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:56 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Am only moderate fan of Lynch. Am less than lukewarm on Star Wars.

Would queue for this.
posted by Devonian at 3:04 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was a bit turned off in the Lynch ROTJ by the inserted overdubs ("I am not an animal, I am a human being!" and the Emperor reciting a poem about Bob), but then they won me back by dubbing "Llorando" over the singer from the horrible Special Edition musical number in Jabba's palace.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:04 PM on May 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

As Luke began to pull Vader's mask off, I suddenly knew who was going to be behind it.
posted by usonian at 3:28 PM on May 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, but if we're talking Dune and legendary film-makers, what about Jodorowsky's Dune? (Sorry, Lynch and sorry Luke & Gang)
posted by symbioid at 4:03 PM on May 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

IMDB's fairly exhaustive list of alternate versions of Dune. Debunks some of the rumors about mythical 6-hour Director's cuts.

Wow, MeFi seems to teach me something new every day. I've heard stories of that super long version circulating around the internets and meatspace for years, like since high school at least.

Now to go watch the spicediver edit, i guess...
posted by emptythought at 4:11 PM on May 20, 2014

I wanted to like this but it strikes me the same way most Wes Anderson parodies do-- like the guy who made it overheard a conversation about the filmmaker in question and then made something that seemed like that.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:13 PM on May 20, 2014 [5 favorites]

Erm, I hate to be the Party Pooper but for me, the humor in this video is deflated when they insert Lynch tropes and clips from his other movies. If he really had made ROTJ, he wouldn't have had Bob as Darth Vader. He wouldn't have had Yoda talk backwards. As if all David Lynch does is recycle Twin Peaks with everything. David Lynch would've done something unique.

Oh, and a David Lynch ROTJ would've been awesome. Dune really does stand up well, considering the source material is completely impossible to film, unless you want to the film to be about 20 hours long.
posted by zardoz at 4:59 PM on May 20, 2014 [8 favorites]

Dune really does stand up well...

The bottom of the DVD case is flat and it doesn't fall over after I let go, I suppose. Otherwise I can't think what you might mean by this remark.
posted by The Tensor at 5:33 PM on May 20, 2014 [7 favorites]

Thanks zardoz, I was about to comment similarly, but was also hesitant to be a party pooper.

Throwing in specific details from a specific movie/show completely misses the point of an "In the style of X" video.
posted by rifflesby at 5:44 PM on May 20, 2014

What's wrong with Lynch's Dune exactly? And how is it divorced from the book?
posted by Brocktoon at 7:15 PM on May 20, 2014

The bottom of the DVD case is flat and it doesn't fall over after I let go, I suppose. Otherwise I can't think what you might mean by this remark.

Sardonic wit is the last bastion of those who can't appreciate art!
posted by zardoz at 7:52 PM on May 20, 2014

What's wrong with Lynch's Dune exactly?

Lynch's Dune has a lot to recommend it (production design is fantastic, several of the actors are top-notch, great soundtrack, the sandworms are well done). The technique of having the actors stand around looking vaguely constipated as their thoughts are audible on the soundtrack doesn't work very well. Some of the casting is terrible (I like Big Ed but he doesn't work as Stilgar). The endless exposition slows the story down and is difficult for people who aren't familiar with the books. The action sequences are clumsy. The movie is too short to tell the story the way it should be told, but doesn't have the guts to really restructure the story so it can fit a feature length a la LA Confidential (my favorite example of brave book-to-film adaptation).

I'll bet the upcoming remake, should it be completed, will be a less interesting failure.

Dune would be great as an HBO miniseries, but the rest of the books don't exactly beg for screen adaptation.
posted by Bookhouse at 10:01 PM on May 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

OK good, I certainly know it has many redeeming qualities, beyond absolutes like "only the DVD case is good amirite". And I might add, anecdotally, that not a lot of people can stomach the book either.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:19 PM on May 20, 2014

I actually pondered the possibility once of a fan edit that would combine the Lynchian strange with the deliberate book-faithfulness of the Syfy miniseries, but which was obviously art-directed to match the film for anyone coming to the project with those expectations. I think you could at least get a more coherent story out of it. (And if you think this is a terrible idea, I point to the 7.1 rating that the miniseries gets, a whole 0.5 above the film's aggregate IMDB rating.)

Anyway, yeah, this particular mash-up was neat in that it brought such mainstream and intentionally film-serial bland characters as Han, Luke, and Leia into the bizarre Lynchian world a bit. (It's harder to do that with Darth and Palpatine, though, as they're already pretty out there.) And yeah, some more evocative notes for the body-horror stuff.
posted by dhartung at 11:43 PM on May 20, 2014

OK good, I certainly know it has many redeeming qualities, beyond absolutes like "only the DVD case is good amirite".

Don't misquote me. I didn't say the case was "good"; I said it was flat on the bottom.

And I might add, anecdotally, that not a lot of people can stomach the book either.

The book is an enduring, well-loved classic of science fiction. The movie is...not.
posted by The Tensor at 11:54 PM on May 20, 2014

IMO Dune the film works well up to a point due to the production design and Lynchian feel, but of course is far too short to really do it justice. We need a Netflix or HBO or BBC to step up and do a full series of one hour installments.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 2:03 AM on May 21, 2014

In answer to young_son:

I like the spicediver edit. It keeps the odd exposition at the start, which I am not keen on, but I would say it's my preferred edition.
Some of the structural changes (splitting it into distinct Chapters for example) are quite effective.
Also the extended edition and the theatrical trailer both have scenes which the other does not, this brings in scenes from all different edits and shuffles them round a bit.

Lots and lots of subtle changes which just clean up the experience.
It's worth a look.

Oh, and in answer to the super extended cut rumours, as I understand it there were only 5 hours of raw footage filmed, so that's your theoretical maximum unless you add in a lot of effects shots.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:57 AM on May 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, but if we're talking Dune and legendary film-makers, what about Jodorowsky's Dune?

I am perfectly fine with the fact that Lynch ended up making Dune rather than Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky is great at doing what Jodorowsky does, and if he had made Dune then it would very much have been Jodorowsky's Dune. Which is to say that it would have had very little to do with the book and the weirdness turned up to 11. Considering people's beef with Lynch's film, I'm not so sure many would have liked it outside of a cult status which is where his other films have ended up. Maybe it would have been truly great, or maybe it would have been a four hour slog while the audience watched Salvador Dalí shit into his flying toilet throne.

All that aside, Santa Sangre is a brilliant film and everyone should watch it.
posted by P.o.B. at 4:38 AM on May 21, 2014

Yeah, folks who want Jodorowsky to make Dune clearly never sat through Fando y Lis wandering around a desert wasteland for an hour and a half.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:15 AM on May 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Apparently the movie is only enduring enough to hijack a thread about Star Wars.
posted by Brocktoon at 7:39 AM on May 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

I'm always shocked at the amount of Dune love.
posted by Pr0t35t3r at 7:53 AM on May 21, 2014

Consider the comparison of Kubrick's movie of "The Shining" vs King's book. Both are very good, with a number of shared elements, but are not the same/movie-aint-true-to-the-book. Lynch's "Dune" is in that same vein.

Folks that want to see a complete representation of the book will be disappointed, as will nitpickers about various and sundry major and minor plot points (because hey, the book is engrossing), but that doesn't mean Lynch's version was bad by any means.
posted by k5.user at 8:18 AM on May 21, 2014

I think that what Lynch's Dune got right was the look and feel of the story world, with its weird mix of peerage-style interplanetary aristocracy, muddled with the backroom machinations of CHOAM and the Spacing Guild, all of it relying on tech that is advanced without being computerized.

But I do have a hard time getting through the whole thing. I remember watching it as a kid who had never read the book, and having absolutely no idea what was going on. It kind of goes off the rails with the whole voice-weapon thing, some of the special effects, and the cheesy 80's rock soundtrack by Toto.
posted by usonian at 1:51 PM on May 21, 2014

This was predictable, but I really do wish that the new owners of the Star Wars thing would just start hiring today's interesting, oddball directors to do radically tonally different movies set in the universe. I mean the JJ Abrams thing is going to be Abramsey and probably not totally terrible, but I'd love to see, like, a Harmony Korine Star Wars movie or something. *ducks*

But Disney's Disney, so that'll never happen, I guess.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:40 PM on May 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

The best/most ridiculous thing about the Alan Smithee Dune (the extended cut of Lynch's film) is that the opening narration runs over a series of still shots of what appears to be concept art from some past version of the film.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:58 PM on May 22, 2014

Brocktoon: "What's wrong with Lynch's Dune exactly? And how is it divorced from the book?"

I think there are good things that can be said about Lynch's Dune, but "meticulously faithful to the novel" is not among them.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:17 PM on May 24, 2014

I like Dave Lynch.

I lurve Star Wars.

But this mashup was horrible.

I really really wanted it to be mindblowingly awesome and it was just bad.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:43 PM on May 24, 2014