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Certainly respectable is Frank Herbert's Dune, for its attention paid to the ethnic elements of the story is incredible, but at its lengthy running time, there did not remain enough of the epic or romantic elements to keep audiences from losing interest. This fatal flaw carries over to Graeme Revell's two-hour score for the production. In retrospect, the composer was placed at a disadvantage not only because of the highly flashy and memorable score by Toto for the 1984 film, but also because of Brian Tyler's absolutely magnificent work for the 2003 sequel, Children of Dune. While Revell obviously did his best for this production (unlike the subsequent, last-minute disaster for Tomb Raider), history has not been particularly kind to this work. Still, few could argue with his hiring at the time. A rising star of the sci-fi genre of film scoring, Revell was a diverse enough composer to tackle the project. He charted several motifs to run throughout the film, including a theme for each major house in the tale. To address the overwhelming ethnicity of this version of the story, Revell returned to Middle Eastern and former Soviet region instrumentation that was heard in his dramatic, suspense scores such as The Siege, producing the perfect kind of exotic feeling that the first film lacked. But in so doing, Revell, restricted by the weaknesses of the film, could not inject the necessary romance or action into the score (and anyone familiar with The Saint knows that he is capable of both). Because the film has no epic battle scenes, there are no satisfyingly harmonic moments of decent length (especially disappointing in terms of the Jessica and Leto part of the story, which was agonizing in the first film), and Revell therefore never had an opportunity to give this score as much epic power as it needed. That isn't to say that a space opera sound closer to the title theme by Toto was mandatory, but certainly a comfortable middle ground was to be found somewhere. Several scenes in the film are badly underscored by Revell, who could have easily stepped up a notch with the full force of the City of Prague Philharmonic and Chorus, which is no slacking group of musicians. The power of that performing group was wasted, with the only highlights of the score coming from incessant pounding of the timpani and some occasionally interesting woodwind solos.

Only one of the score's primary four themes makes any kind of lasting impression, the others poorly enunciated and therefore ineffective. The title theme for Paul does have a memorable allure, heard at the beginning and end of the production (and in a handful of cues in the middle, such as "Paul Drinks"). If you came looking for a triumphant-sounding score, though, then you're watching the wrong film; even with the valiant finish to the story, Revell's finale simply restates the title theme without bells, whistles, victorious horns, or, come to think of it, anything that would give you the impression that the Fremen rebels had actually won. In sum, the score for the 2000 television film is underdeveloped and underperformed. The texture of Revell's electronics and specialty instruments cannot sustain the cues in which they are solely utilized, and embarrassingly grating synthetic cues like "Jihad Begins/Last Fight" sound cheap. Given Revell's talents, you have to wonder how much of this heavily restrained scale of the score was dictated from the director and/or producers. What Revell did produce in terms of epic material was undermixed in the film, often at barely audible levels at times when the score badly needed to make an impact. For entire ten minute sequences, the low mixing of the music caused Revell's effort to wash away into meaningless background noise, so the blame for the ultimate failure of the score does not rest solely on Revells' shoulders. One interesting note is a short passage at 0:40 into "Paul Chooses: Finale," during which Revell pays tribute to Toto's title theme for the original film. It will be a nice touch for those have the 1984 score memorized, but it was far too little to salvage this work from the murky depths of despair that the film's drudgery placed it in. This entire production was a monumental disappointment in its neglect of key epic and romantic elements of the story, and no overemphasized ethnic flavor provided by Revell in his music could compensate for the lack of the other two elements. Taking advantage of a better rounded film with some of the same cast, Brian Tyler would find a much superior balance of all three elements in 2003's Children of Dune, recording a best-selling score with no relation to Revell's and considered among the most impressive ever for a television production.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.78 (in 16,690 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 67:16