Finally!
Some of us have been waiting for a more authentic remake for years. Yyyyyeeeeaaarrrrrsss.
I only hope it will more closely follow the book, including–especially including– the ecological restoration aspects, and bigger emphasis on water budget, water discipline, and respect for clean clear drinkable water.
Dryly,
j9c in dry-ish central Texas near Austin
praying for rain last week, this week, next week…
and nope we didn’t get much from Hurricane Harvey; that was Houston
In the book appendixes, it’s made clear that the Arrakis spice is neither the first nor the only psychoactive drug that Navigators and Bene Gesserit (and others) can use. It’s just by far the best, and once you’ve become habituated to it, there’s no going back to the weaker alternatives.
Also – the Harkonnens in the book are dark-haired and dark-eyed, not redheads. That’s the Imperial family. That’s a minor detail, but it’s something that keeps pissing me off.
Sigh…yay, another Dune picture; but gee, I wish Frank could have his PKD-at-the-movies moment:
Destination: Void - creating an AI and reaping the whirlwind…published in 1965-66 (!)
Under Pressure - pits a psychologist against a saboteur/spy in a taut, dystopian undersea thriller
The Green Brain - exposes Frank’s ecologist roots in an Earth whose “Silent Spring” strikes back
The Dosadi Experiment - the best of the “ConSentiency” universe stories, featuring Jorj X. McKie of the Bureau of Sabotage (government watchdogs with really sharp teeth); Jedrik (20 generations of “loving parents,” living in hell, produce the one person who can expose the greatest crime ever committed); Broey, the Gowachin magistrate elected to take the fall in case the experiment blows up (the “Frog People” Gowachin are some of the best aliens to never hit the silver screen); and Fannie Mae, the Caleban (you’ll never look at stars the same way).
Dosadi is Frank at peak skill, much like the telling of Heretics of Dune or Chapterhouse: Dune – wheels within wheels; a kickass, brilliant, focused woman; that wonderfully annoying sense that you can almost see where the story is going next…with the bonus of aliens that could make Larry Niven jealous – the Gowachin, the LacLac, Wreaves, Taprisiots, and more.
(Also, as a lifelong Frank fan: fuck Brian)
Yep… and - per Herbert - something of a thesis on how messiah figures are created.
In your case, I have no way of telling, but speaking for myself and my old schoolmate buddies who read the book… the Lynch version truly sucks. We still recall how, while waiting in our queue by the theater to see Dune, many in the exiting crowd were shaking their heads and giving the thumbs-down. VERY disheartening for us Dune fans while still waiting to get in.
Honestly, I love both the books and the movie, but I don’t think of them as being any closer related than say, LotR and my last D&D adventure.
I remember catching some guy’s eye as we left the theater. I said, “What was that?” He agreed that it was less than… good.
Our group had all seen Eraserhead (which I liked) well before Dune… and that got us worried from the get-go. Tons of inner dialogue and nuanced interactions in the book; because of that alone it’ll take a deft hand to deliver a faithful and enjoyable film version of Dune.
From what I’ve seen of Villeneuve’s works so far though, I’m very encouraged. (Watch ‘Incendies’!)
Amen! Frank Herbert wrote other books, many of which still hold up! Some of them could be the framework for even more wonderfully weird movies (Hellstrom’s Hive, anyone?).
I’m pretty sure the only reason that people have any nostalgia for Lynch’s Dune has to do with the relative paucity of epic science fiction movies back then. If you were young then, it seemed like half a decade went by between “Logan’s Run” and “Star Wars.”
I can assure you that Tolkien detested everything American and would never for one moment have considered the American Eagle (He wasn’t too keen on anything outside Oxford, to be more accurate). Even the Golden Eagle (which he would have started from) is clearly not capable of carrying hobbits. In fact, technically I don’t think any non-magical bird could. But assuming we scale up suitably so Gwalior has a mass around 60kg and is large in proportion, his cruising speed is going to be very much higher than 50kph.
Love the books, even (or maybe especially?) Brian’s prequel stuff. I have read all the Dune books as they we published so I knew the setting before seeing the film. I LOVE the film.
Why? David Lynch’s vision of what he thought the thing was about. The visuals. The audio. The casting. It’s one of a handful of films I have seen more than once; I’ve probably seen it all the way through 3 or 4 times, and seen bits and pieces of it dozens of times. (Disclosure: yes, David Lynch is one of my favorite directors.)
That being said, it is a flawed masterpiece. Don’t get me started on having to have read Dune to get the politics and setting, something that the Harry Potter and LOTR films did a bit better. And I’m trying to forget the whole weirding module thing. YUCK.
And it really is a different movie for everyone; depending on whether or not you read the book(s), whether or not you’re a fan of David Lynch, whether or not you want a movie to be a faithful presentation or an artistic interpretation, and probably a dozen other variables. This is one of those movies that defies complete understanding, and truly is, IMO, a beautiful flawed masterpiece.
The Dune blu ray bonus section was better than the film (IMHO). Per the bonus (and my recollection), Sting’s winged briefs were designed and made the day before filming. He wanted to go naked.
How much more? It surely doesn’t take that much more speed to keep even 60 kg in the air —assuming the feathers are congruently scaled; if not, then Gwaihir and his kin will more resemble azhdarchids instead of eagles.
But in any case:
Mordor has fell beasts. They fly.
Consider, too, that the Nazgul often came close to the Ring, but never seemed to spend a lot of time looking for it in a lot of other places. That suggests that the Ring, while not a homing beacon, could still be effectively hidden, just not absolutely so. So Sauron tended to concentrate on strongholds of power as likely places to hide away the Ring (hence the siege of Minas Tirith).
Gwaihir may also have balked at murdering hobbits by dropping them into volcanos (probably not something they’re used to eating, anyway), but I think it was mostly that flying to Mordor would not have worked, not with a huge surveillance camera atop Barad-dur. Consider that there might be radio/telepathic linking between Sauron himself and his air force, that’s likely a fairly effective guard against any invasion of Mordor’s airspace.
When you also consider you’re asking giant eagles—but mortal giant eagles—to basically fly into an evil god’s territory, well, that speaks for itself.
I think I am just the right age to have enjoyed Dune in all the wrong order. Dune II was one of the first PC games I really got into when I was in middle school. In the early 90’s my parents made a huge upgrade from an 8088 to 486 DX 33 with a slighly low 4MB of RAM, dual floppy drives, a single speed cd rom, a sound blaster pro card, an MPU-401, and a connected Roland Sound Canvas (SC-55mkII) so my mom could use computer software to assist in teaching piano. The game pretty much defined the RTS genre, and I’m amused to look up now that it was also one of the first games to support general MIDI. If I recall correctly, in the game, there were three main houses used - Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos. I think the game actually borrowed more from Lynch’s version than the book with the weirding modules from the film really seeming a lot like the Atreides’ special sonic amplifier weapon: http://duneii.com/special/ … Which if you want to get weird, House Ordos was never mentioned in any of the novels, but it was written about in a non-canon, but Herbert approved, Dune Encyclopedia published in 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dune_Encyclopedia … After having played the game, I saw the movie, which I still quite like. Having read the book after having thoroughly enjoyed the other products, I have to say it has been my favorite experience in science fiction.
You know, I think you may have expended more effort in thinking this through than Tolkien ever did. Strategy and tactics weren’t really his thing; he never got above Lieutenant in WW1 mainly due to illness.
Herbert had the enormous advantage of being able to work full time on research for Dune. The suspension of disbelief required is no greater than for LoTR, and I actually think it is by far the better book, though the sequels aren’t in the same class.
The only thing I find problematic is that when you find some Islamophobes writing about Muslims, I suspect that they are actually referencing what they remember of Dune.
The time it took the write the comment? That’s possible, but I don’t see any connection otherwise. (BTW: I don’t recall if HG Wells served at all, but he still managed to write Little Wars, and that’s sort of credited for kickstarting the hobby of tabletop wargaming.)
I suppose that’s advantageous. But I find it didn’t make the book any more or less fun to read than Lord of the Rings. But then, I also tend to reach for Tolkien first over Dune when I want to reread anything. (Even The Silmarillion has gotten more rereads than Dune for me.)
I remember reading an article of how the “psychic kung fu” weirding way would have been impractical with the effects of the time, and looked silly – hence the choice of sound. Then again, it was okay by time they made the miniseries (post Matrix). I don’t fault the movie for taking artistic license with the book. Jodorowsky’s looked awesome and he was going to reinvent the whole thing. The sound weirding modules make the Atreides threat to the Emperor and the Sadaukar concrete, and also Paul’s transcendence (“Maudib no longer needs the weirding module!”).
