Posted on 02/27/2024 5:21:16 PM PST by Rummyfan
Wish Jodorowsky would have been able to make his version.
Agree with your assessment of authors. I thought Jack Vance was most entertaining of the three you mentioned by far
I’ve always thought Keith Laumer’s comic Retief stories would be fun as movies.
Other SF Saturday matinee serial possibilities would be the Dorsai, Berserker and Bolo stories.
Or Lucifer's Hammer....
Or Footfall....
I’ve grown to like it less and less over the decades since I first read it for that reason.
What female lead?!
The book
As a dyed-in-the-wool science-fiction aficionado - already well-versed in Asimov, Bester, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, A.E. van Vogt, etc. - I stumbled upon Dune back in the 1970s, and devoured it.
It portrays the best thought-out, most-detailed, believable, and largely self-consistent fictional universe I have ever encountered.
As evidence of that, consider the fact that the book has an extensive appendix, including a glossary, maps, time-line, list of aphorisms, etc. And it works!
Having said that: It is overly self-important and sententious. Attempting to achieve a high level of gravitas, it nearly achieves that - but only nearly, thus making it an easy target of satirization (see the uproarious National Lampoon's Doon).
The movies
The 1984 film by David Lynch
The 1984 film by David Lynch was a respectable film realization. Though flawed (pacing), I think that it was relatively true to the book. Esthetically, it was quite pleasing. (Any film adaptation of Dune will rise or fall, depending upon how well it captures the book's esthetic; any attempt to provide a thorough treatment of the book's ideas will, however, always fall short.)
The 2000 miniseries
I haven't seen the 2000 miniseries by John Harrison and so won't comment on it.
The 2021 Denis Villeneuve version
A week ago, I viewed (on Netflix) the Denis Villeneuve version (Part I). Like the 1984 version, it was esthetically pleasing; the music was less impressive, but still in keeping with the film's monumental tone.
Some of the actors - most notably Timothée Chalamet and Sharon Duncan-Brewster - delivered their lines with all the casualness one would expect when mumbling an order at a MacDonald's drive-thru. Duncan-Brewster was sadly miscast, and the role of "Dr. Kynes" barely a cameo. Stellan Skarsgård is a fine actor, but also miscast (or perhaps the director demanded that he play his role that way): His portrayal of the book's thoroughly debauched and decadent "Baron" is unforgivably boring (probably due to the demands of "political correctness," which nowadays don't allow a villain to be sexually perverted). The character of "Chani" is there only to show a strong, independent, feminist woman who does nothing but belittle "Paul."
An on-screen portrayal of the "Guild" is entirely missing!
Although 155 minutes and length and halting just after Paul joins the Fremen, the film - unbelievably - glosses over or outright omits much of the exposition that would help us understand and enjoy the Byzantine machinations, behind-the-scenes manipulations, and cloak-and-dagger goings-on of the book.
Rating
If I were to award the 1984 version barely three and a half out of four stars, then I would have to give the 2021 version barely three stars.
Regards,
The sex-switch of "Dr. Kynes" and the sneering haughtiness of "Chani" are evidence enough of that! Add to that the fact that the sexual perversity of the chief villain - "Baron Harkonnen" - is completely sanitized away.
Regards,
Bfl
Agree 1st version was much closer to the book than this new woke version.
They finally have the cgi to bring Moties to life, so maybe they will.
Jodorowsky’s Dune
https://upmovies.to/watch/rdmW3PxX-jodorowsky-s-dune.html
I’m sorry. I just can’t get over having Tim-O-Tay as the lead in this. Just can’t. Rebecca Ferguson, yes. Him? NO.
The Foundation Trilogy was good then he wrote 2 more iirc.
Don’t bother. It was said he was paying alimony and needed the cash
In my opinion Vance is one of the greatest of all time. No one wrote prose like he did. Definitely not one of the hard science sci-fi guys, but that wasn’t the point of his stories.
FReegards
I read Dune in my youth. Sometimes in a small plane flying above the desert. This latest movie version is the best by far. You really get the sense of a religious figure here. It really does transport you to another world even if the science behind it is non existent.
Went and saw this movie a few days ago. Not sure why all the hate, it was fantastically done. And anyone saying earlier movies were better or more accurate either haven’t read the book or need to read it again.
Love or hate the actors, but they played their parts well. I only had 2 criticisms. First was Christopher Walken as emperor of House Corrino. I kept waiting for him to ask for more cowbell. His voice did not fit his role. That is one where I preferred the actors in previous movies. The other was the portrayal of Channi. Zendaya played the role very well, I just didn’t like the role. Channi’s character had her opinions in the book but she wasn’t a religion hating, disrespectful, brat. They went a bit far with all that. But in terms of making her too strong for a woman, they didn’t. The fremen were supposed to be strong. The female fremen were being overpowered by male harkonnen when odds weren’t in their favor. The fighting capabilities of the characters were done fairly. No movie is going to translate perfectly from a book, but this is the best version of Dune so far.
Or Inferno.
But making her constantly henpeck Paul and bitch and moan about him using the prophecy was irritating, and having her storm off at the end when Paul agrees to marry Irulan for political purposes was inexcusable.
In the book, Paul explains the whole reason for marrying the Princess and confesses his love and heart to Chami. He says the Princess will never has his heart or his soul. Chani is totally cool with it.
She’s a support system for Paul and stands by his side. The last thing Paul would need while leading a million man army to take on the emperor of the universe is a bratty, jealous girlfriend.
I personally disagree. I think it would have been a mess. Jodorowsky said he didn’t want to follow the book and seemed like a degenerate. He probably would’ve played up the horrific stuff that was more inferred in the book (like the Harkonnen’s sexual perversion and penchant for murdering servants).
He seems like more a shock filmmaker who would've made it as a testament to perversion (e.g. he wanted to cast Salvador Dali as the Emporer or the Baron). Lynch was kind of the same way in that a lot of the stuff in the 1984 version is straight-up gross, like the Baron’s facial blisters.
But it certainly would’ve been a spectacle.
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