Dune mini-series, new screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's popular SF novel, was recently aired on Croatian state television. In some ways it is better, while in some ways it is inferior to David Lynch's 1984 movie version.
Mini-series was more faithful, which is hardly surprising, considering that four and half hours leaves much more space to develop plot and characters than in two hours of Lynch's version, chopped up by producer Dino de Laurentiis. New version should be recommended to all fans of the novel. Scenery and special effects might look cheap, but the real magic of Dune is in the plot and characters. Real Dune fans would disregard cheap scenery in the same manner of trekkies who don't mind poor 1960s special effects of The Original Series.
Airing of Dune was also good reminder for all us Europeans that the censorship standards are still much laxer on this side of Big Pond - mini-series features couple of scenes with male and female nudity, unlike version for American television.
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