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Dune Miniseries Airs Tonight
A number of readers wrote in reminding folks that the
Science Fiction Channel's Dune miniseries is airing December 3, 4 and 5. CNN also has a write up about
the series -- here's to hoping that it won't blaspheme the legacy of Frank.
Otherwise it's a great movie. I saw it not that long ago with my girlfriend and I was stopping it every few minutes to explain what the hell was going on. However, I noticed that every time I did that, the very next line after I restarted the player explained what had I had stopped the movie to talk about.
You see, they got everything into this movie, but it's a lot of stuff. EVERY SINGLE LINE is important in the movie. If you miss a single line, you're lost. Coupled with the fact that there is a lot of "whispering" to indicate private thoughts, it's easy to miss a line. I think that's why people don't like it. Otherwise I think the movie is a masterpiece and is relatively faithful to the book.
BTW, I love to play the out of print Avalon Hill DUNE board game. IMHO it's the best board game ever created. It's best to play with six players, each player gets to play one of the main factions from the book: Atreidies, Harkonen, Fremen, Emperor, Bene Gesserit, and Guild. Each character is played slightly differently according to the actual character in the book: The Guild tries to prevent other players from gaining control of Dune, if nobody controls Dune by the end of the game then the Guild wins. The Atreidies have limited prescience but find out that sometimes that just means you know you are going to get fsck'd and you can't do a damned thing about it. The Bene Gesserit have the voice and can force you to do or not do certain things in battle and they also must predict the winner of the game (and in what turn they win) before the game starts. If they are successful in manipulating the game so their prediction comes true then the Bene win and everyone else looses! The Emperor is rich and kicks ass, the Harks are treacherous and unpredictable. It's a great game and copies are always available on eBay of course.
Burris
I'd like to comment on some of the loaded statements put forth in the posts here. Could everybody please be a bit more objective on the movie. As one who has read all the books except the second prequel and watched the movie numerous times including the long version, I think that Lynch did an adequate job. A book as complex as Dune is *expected* to be warped to a great extent.
Look what Hollywood has to do to satisfy Joe Smith:
* Make the concept simple
* The ending must have closure!
* 8 to 81, appease all ages
* Reduce any complex problems to individual drama
* etc.
As you can see, the above can only hurt Dune. So ask yourselves the questions when watching the film,
Has the director captured the essence of the book?
Has the director transfered the plot well?
Has the director transfered the characters well?
Your answers might be different than might, but I'd have to say adequately for all three. For example, when the Baron exclaims, "The Duke will die before these eyes, and he'll know, HE'LL KNOW! That is *I*, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who encompasses his doom, blahahaha," I got the same impression of raw, crazy emotion that I did from the book.
I know I'm being a bit didactic here, but I'm simply trying to give some perspective to all you film critics.
More on topic, the previews for the series look interesting, if not pure eye-candy. I do not expect any of the actors, nor the director, to give a rats ass about the book. I'm also willing to bet that the "Dune Purists" will be even more offended from the mini-series. However, instead of watching the series, picking out every little "inaccuracy" I'm going to get a Coke and some popcorn, put my fat ass on the couch, and enjoy myself. I'm just grateful to be entertained once again by Herbert's masterpiece.
NAS