No, they aren’t, but as I mentioned, I suspect “In a world…” where we have spent 5 and a half total hours repeatedly seeing a group of (We-Think-We’re) Wise Women pulling everyone’s strings and an Outspoken (Until-Shushed-By-Gurney) Kick Ass And Take No Shit Desert Warrior Woman calling skeptic bullshit on all the prophecies and cults and outworlder elite ways… you kind of had to make it a point to slap 2020’s casual viewers upside the head visibly and loudly that Yes We Know This Was Not Right, we’re telling you this guy’s no Hero!
(And sure, the portrayal of extreme cruelty and degradation was to keep hammering on how bad the Harkonnens are. But hell, Herbert himself did that.)
No, Harah was very specifically not a wife. Paul had to choose whether to accept her as wife or servant. And he was only responsible for her for one year.
“Usul, it’s our way that you’ve now the responsibility for Jamis’ woman here and for his two sons. His yali . . . his quarters, are yours. His coffee service is yours . . . and this, his woman.”
Paul studied the woman, wondering: Why isn’t she mourning her man? Why does she show no hate for me? Abruptly, he saw that the Fremen were staring at him, waiting.
Someone whispered: “There’s work to do. Say how you accept her.”
Stilgar said: “Do you accept Harah as woman or servant?”
Harah lifted her arms, turning slowly on one heel. “I am still young, Usul. It’s said I still look as young as when I was with Geoff . . . before Jamis bested him.”
Jamis killed another to win her , Paul thought.
Paul said: “If I accept her as servant, may I yet change my mind at a later time?”
“You’d have a year to change your decision,” Stilgar said. “After that, she’s a free woman to choose as she wishes . . . or you could free her to choose for herself at any time. But she’s your responsibility, no matter what, for one year . . . and you’ll always share some responsibility for the sons of Jamis.”
“I accept her as servant,” Paul said.
Harah stamped a foot, shook her shoulders with anger. “But I’m young!”
Stilgar looked at Paul, said: “Caution’s a worthy trait in a man who’d lead.”
Harah married Stilgar about two years later anyway.
In the book, he secretly killed an infant worm himself & took one drop the Water of Life. No one knew what he had done though - he was found in the Cave of Birds. They just knew he was unconscious and near death. Chani figured out that he had taken the Water of Life.
The whole business of sandworms bowing to Paul was made up by Lynch. Or he borrowed it from Children of Dune when Leto II has started his transformation, and he can summon and command worms himself.
Oh, sure. It fits in with the vibe of the Duniverse, though. Everything’s connected, yadda yadda. And is a hell of a visual. And apparently, Villeneuve made up the scene anyway. If you aren’t going to follow the book, why not make something that’s a bit more memorable?
You should ask that of Steven Soderburgh about the 2002 version of Solaris. He basically remade Tarkovsky’s 1972 film, rather than going back to Stanislas Lem’s original novel.
Heck, later versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers are all pretty much based on Don Siegel’s 1956 film, rather than on Jack Finney’s novel.
Because it looks cool. Anyway, he could have done something else. I just liked that scene, and given the importance of the event I thought what we got was kinda uneventful.
I didn’t think of the sandworms as “bowing” in the Lynch movie, though I’d be interested if Lynch thought of it that way. I thought of it more like how you can hypnotize a chicken by drawing a line in front of it, or disable a cat by putting a hairclip on its scruff. Something messes with a deep part of their tiny worm brains and paralyzes them.
Gladiator was basically a re-make of The Fall of the Roman Empire (and repeats the most egregious historical errors), yet it managed to get nominated for a “best original screenplay” Oscar.
It occurred to me while watching the elaborate arrhythmic walking (to avoid attracting sandworms) that this provided justification for Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks
One small way in which the Villeneuve movie was less book-accurate than Lynch was in wormriding. Specifically, when you pry open the scales on a worm, it rolls so as to reduce the exposure of the sensitive area to the sand. The rider stands alongside the worm, pries open some scales, and uses the roll to carry himself up. The Lynch movie showed exactly that, but Villeneuve had Paul jump down from above as the worm passed through a large dune. It showed the prying open of scales, but not as a means of inducing roll or using that to get atop the worm.
I agree about this, but I also have to admit that the way Lynch showed the process looked – well – dumb. The one over-riding factor in Villeneuve’s version is that things should look serious and believable, no matter how outlandish. So having Paul jump down onto the worm’s back from atop a dune and fighting his way into the correct position sas the worm dodges and cuts through sand, like a skier trying to keep upright through a snowstorm, looks less silly and more believable than Lynch’s more accurate version.
That goes for riding the worm so low in the sand that the worm is barely visible. Looks better than riding the worm so that half its body diameter or more is above the sand.
Is nobody going to talk about Feyd-Rautha? Forget the fact that his character was so ridiculously evil that the only reason he wasn’t literally twirling a mustache was that the Harkonnens were inexplicably hairless. No, what put it over the top, for me, was the fact that Austin Butler chose to act ridiculously evil while doing a Stellan Skarsgard impression. Every time that pretty-boy opened his mouth and that familiar Swedish growl came out, I couldn’t stop myself from giggling out loud in the theater.
I only wish they had gone all the way and had Florence Pugh sound like Christopher Walken.
I’d written earlier that I preferred the “Harkonnens as bald guys with oddly misshapen heads*” thing to David Lynch’s “Harkonnens as red-headed overacting gross-out kings”. I found that more interesting and, as ever with Villeneuve, more beluevable. That Feyd imitates the Baron is perfectly in keeping with this.
One thing I didn’t like, and found uncharacteristically unbelievable, was Feyd having gladiatorial combat in a ludicrously huge arena. It’s the same complaint I had about the gladitorial combat in George Pal’s 1960 bargain-basement epic Atlantis the Lost Continent – most of the audience can’t see what’s going on, sand it’s too far away, anyway.
There are end credits for head prostheses for these characters. I stay and read those dsmned things.
He didn’t work for me, at all. And that’s ignoring the fact that Sting - metal Speedo and all - had far more screen presence in his little finger than Butler has in his entire body.
I dunno. He reminded me a lot of Jared Leto’s character in the director’s Blade Runner 2049, who seemingly wandered onto set one day, slashed open a couple of women, and wandered off again, bringing absolutely nothing to the movie. That type of cartoonish evil just doesn’t mesh with the seriousness of the films.
I concur. Sure, let him kill gladiators, even if he cheats, because that’s cool and relevant to the book. But having him kill servants for the hell of it, and keeping a cannibal harem was unnecessary. And yes, every time he spoke I thought “why is he imitating Stellan Skarsgard?” It was honestly worse than Christian Bale’s Batman growl.
I can see where you’re coming from, but I had the opposite reaction. I went into it thinking that Villeneuve had so far cast all the characters perfectly, but the one place he couldn’t compete was with Sting as Feyd-Rautha. But I loved the character and what Butler did with him. Instead of trying to mimic the more gonzo Sting, he just went pure psychopath. It totally worked for me.
I always read it as A´-tree-ides. Watching Lynch’s version, “a-tray´-dees” took a lot of getting used to.
Because it looks cool. Anyway, he could have done something else. I just liked that scene, and given the importance of the event I thought what we got was kinda uneventful.
