Lynch’s movie Baron was pretty over the top in grotesqueness. Was the books Baron Harkonnen just as bad?
The first good description of the Baron in the book is as follows:
So he was probably fatter than was depicted in the movie, but less…boil-y.
IIRC his sex slaves were also somewhat younger in the book than they were onscreen.
He’s basically an exceptionally venal and corrupt Renaissance-era noble; not, however, something from a horror movie.
There was also, as I recall, no indication in the book that he was on rubber bands.
I’m pretty sure that’s a direct quote from the book.
He’s definitely a pedophile. In Frank Herbert’ 1963 point of view, that was horrifying enough. He didn’t feel the need to attribute additional atrocities to him.
He’d pull out their heart plug and let them bleed out while molesting them. That’s even worse than the pedophilia.
That is from the movie. No heart plugs in the books. Just a man with a sadistic sexual appetite.
Are you sure? He didn’t kill his young victims?
I hate that movie. I read the original book multiple times and thought I had the whole thing memorized, but now the movie has screwed up my memories. :mad:
He killed one ganymede who’d been boobytrapped with a poison needle, but I don’t remember indications that was Baron’s usual practice.
Sure, but just not always and not that way – anyone at the service of the Harkonnen was totally disposable. A particularly pleasant toyboy he may keep around for a while but he may be doomed in the end, almost as likely by others in the entourage who may grow jealous or wary.
The Baron for sure killed his young lovers, but the heart plug concept is strictly from the movie.
In the book he punishes his nephew by making him strangle all of his favorite harem girls. That always stuck in my mind as encapsulating the character’s callousness and inhumanity.
The Baron was a sadistic pedophile. Paul kicked off a galaxy-spanning jihad that killed, most likely, billions. That’s one of the things I admire about the original saga. It is refreshingly free of good guys.
Raping, sure. But “smothering them with his fat — and then eating them”? Not in the movie that I remember.
A question about the Baron:
When, if ever, did he learn that he was Lady Jessica’s father? When, if ever, did she learn it? And did Duke Leto or Paul ever know?
Response to spoiler…
I think the point when he found out was when Alia killed him. She addressed him as “Grandfather”. Leto never knew but Paul did…he saw it when he had his first prescient glimpse while they were escaping the Arrakeen massacre in the ornithopter. I don’t know if Jessica knew before Paul claimed the Harkonnen holdings by birthright of Jessica’s paternity when he defeated Shaddam.
I hated that they made the Baron an insane shouter with terminal acne. And we could easily get that the Harkonnens were a family without giving them all the same outfits and ridiculous colored hair.
Baron Harkonnen was supposed to be a calm, Machiavellian plotter with disgusting tastes and habits. As others have noted, the heart plugs weren’t in the book, although I could see the book’s Baron doing that. But there was no need to externalize his evil by giving him a Pizza Face, or having him take a dirty oil bath.
Have a look at the SciFi channel’s version. They did The Baron (and a lot of other things) much better. (Although the Lynch film has a lot to recommend it)
Also, have a look at my old thread Dune…the Musical http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=167075&highlight=Dune+Musical
Further response to spoiler:
[spoiler]Not got the book handy but as I remember Paul forces Jessica to recognise her parentage when they are linked together after he has changed the Water of Life.
I’ll check when I’m home![/spoiler]
“More kittens!”