Hello. My favorite version is indeed the Lynch adaptation. If you are not aware, there is the fan-made 2012 Spicediver alternative cut that you can find here on youtube. Find the 4k-upscaled version on GW's channel. This alternative cut brings the Lynch version a bit more closer to the book, even with the artistic liberties from the movie still in it, they are just rearranged a little bit to align a little bit more to the novel. The alternative cut also now brings it up to 3 hours, when the original 1984 theatrical release was only 2.25 hours. This was basically Universal Pictures' fault to condensing the movie to that tiny length, when the initial plans were to have it in 2-3 separate movies. It was indeed rushed & Lynch was saddened by that. Imagine a 400-page book crunched down into only 2-3 hours. Universal was worried about the budget & also the patience of the audience. This was made in the days when realistic mature 3D CGI was not yet a thing & could have reduced the expenses overall, because hiring carpenters, masons, painters & electricians to create backdrops & objects on set was tremendously expensive. There just wasn't enough faith by Universal (producer/distributor) for this project. This is the reason Villeneuve said in an interview that he would not direct Dune unless it was split into parts, as he knew what Lynch faced 40 years ago. Villeneuve basically redeemed the movie-splitting concept that was planned for the 1984 movie but did not happen due to concerns by Universal. Also, if you did not know, Ridley Scott was the original director, but had to bow out early due to family matters. I think you should also review the 2000 Harrison version of Dune. That one was supposedly more faithful to the book. I have not watched that one in, well, 2 decades, so my memories of it are hazy. The special effects & stuff like that were a bit more subdued/subpar in the 2000 version, because this was a lower-budgeted project meant for the small screen as a mini-series, thus as a mini-series it had more time to flesh out the book details. Some critics did not like the campy silly outlandish costumes either in the 2000 version, but if we were to suspend belief, we have to remember that this story takes place 10 thousands years into the future, so costumes, fashion, fads & everyday wear can be so different than today's. Anyway, if you watch the Spicediver edit, it may help you get just a fraction more respect for the 1984 version, recut in the modern age. And yes, Lynch did sort of disown his Dune because of what Universal did to the movie afterwards as they did not give Lynch a chance to make a final cut. You were also discussing the exposition scenes in the movie, & I actually liked it. It helped explain many details. This was designed to help audiences understand the story better because 99% of the movie-going public had/have not read the book. And after 40 years, I still have the 2-sheet handout given to theater audiences to help understand some of the Dune words better. I also read the book around 1982, for a school book report, but had no idea a movie was being made, so I was pleasantly surprised a couple years later to watch it, with the story in the book still fresh in my mind. Finally, Frank Herbert understood & was aware that film adaptations are not/never going to be accurate to the source material. In this case, it's a book of words interpreted into a visual graphical medium. This has been proven hundreds of times, you even gave the Monte Cristo examples. It has been said that Frank incorporated some of the stuff he saw in the Lynch adaptation into his later books, such as for the Navigators, although by that time, he only had a couple years left to live before surgical complications from cancer took over. Frank also liked seeing the Baron float all the way to the ceiling, something he never thought of when writing Dune. But we can all thank Frank for visiting the sand dunes of the Oregon coast in the mid 1950's, or else Dune ... & all subsequent knock-offs, e.g. Tatooine ... would have never existed. And there is no doubt a new Dune adaptation will come again, decades from now. And then another one after that etc. The movie, TV & Internet technology are really only a century long or less, so we still have ways to go for continuing the recycling of the same story into visual mediums. Maybe one day, as viewers, we will be inside the story of a future Dune film re-adaptation, like in some kind of VR or Holodeck, & not just sitting in front of a screen. 04/19/24