Well! It’s always so lovely when the members of the Dope rise up as one to agree wholeheartedly on something, eh? 
Thanks, all; I was hoping to get some vigorous dissent and argument against my OP. You haven’t changed my mind, but I’m enjoying the discussion.
Two words: Weirding Module
<sheesh>
Production Design, I rather liked. Others have already disagreed. Other than that, it sucked. Acting terrible, relevance to the book zero, plot changes stupid, etc. IMHO.
What midgets?
As for the heartplugs, dumbest idea ever. Particularly when you consider we’re dealing with the most assassin-happy family in the universe.
-Joe
OK, technically, Hunt is 2" too tall to be a midget. SFW.
Ah, if you had written “Academy Award-winning midget” I might have figured it out, since you would have at least been 50 percent accurate. As it was, I had no idea, seeing as how she’s not a midget.
And you thought steam-punk was passe when Dune came out in 1984? Congratulations on being way ahead of the curve. Not that Dune is actually steampunk, strictly speaking, but SFW.
Two inches…two! What with forshortening, I couldn’t tell the difference between that and a real midget. She could have fitted real nice in an Ewok costume, is all I’m saying. And it was stunt casting - anyone who’s wached Twin Peaks knows Lynch has a thing for little people.
No, I thought using neoBaroque as lazy shorthand for “decadent Galactic Empire” was passé. Mistaking that for steampunk was where the “my ass!” remark comes from. I know very well that the Lynch *Dune *is not steampunk. Not that three years is that far ahead of the curve, you know.
David Lynch’s “Dune” is one of my favorite science fiction movies ever. He did an amazing job when you look at what he was handed. In spite of a few questionable performances (and no, I don’t agree that Kyle McLachlan’s is among them), it has a good story line and excellent sets and atmosphere. I’ve always felt that maybe they could have come up with a better battle cry than “Long live the fighters,” but oh well.
And I think the book is turgid, self-important swill.
OK?
Plus, Kyle McLachlan’s performance is perfect for what Lynch was trying to accomplish. To demand a “realistic” performance in such a context is a ridiculous; these aren’t people, they’re windup characters in an installation, or something.
I think it was someone on these very boards whose friend best described it as a film best enjoyed by letting it wash over you.
The book engrossed me at age 11, age (almost) 30, the film is mildly diverting if I really don’t have anything else to do. The music is pretty good, the costumes and sets if not the actual special effects very distinctive and the acting as silly as you want from such a piece of work.
If he was trying to make me dislike the little git, fine.
I like McLachlan just fine in Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Desperate Housewives, but in Dune, he kind of stands out against the other actors as bad. Hell, even Sean Young was more believable. The only worse actors were the Mexican extras.
Heh I loved all of those things. Especially the weirding module. I was very disappointed when watching the miniseries version to discover that they weren’t part of the original mythos. “My name is a killing name!”
Heh I loved all of those things. Especially the weirding module. I was very disappointed when watching the miniseries version to discover that they weren’t part of the original mythos. “My name is a killing name!”
I love the weirding modules, too. I started playing Dune 2 when I was about 6 or 7, so the Atreides sonic tank has always held a special place in my heart.
I love it. I saw it in theatres when I was 12, it was my introduction to both Frank Herbert and David Lynch. I still have days when I wish people to die before these eyes so they’ll know, they’ll know, that it is I, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who encompasses his doom, bwahahahahahahaha.
Maybe that’s just me.
I recall coming across the David Lynch movie in the middle of the night this one time, and I sat there and watched it, paralyzed with horror, not knowing what the hell all that was about, and marvelling at the costumes, but unable to turn off the TV. A living nightmare!
Silly question. I have only read Dune once 25 years ago so I don’t remember if this was in the book at all. What is it supposed to mean?
It’s just from the movie. It’s what the Mentat Piter DeVries recited when he drank Sapho juice. The book mentions that some Mentats drink Sapho juice because they think it helps their Mentating, but there’s nothing to indicate it’s actually the source of their powers, as the mantra seems to indicate. And in the book, they only mention Thufir having stained lips, not Piter.
muldoonthief, it has been a while since I read the book, but I’m pretty sure the safu juice is the source of their power. The premise of the book is that technological thinking machines (artificial intelligence, computers) have been outlawed, and so Mentats are people who use their brains as biological computers. The safu juice is what allows them to have the extraordinary recall and logical thinking. This is in the context of a society that uses different chemical enablers, such as the spice.
The mantra was added to the movie as exposition for the Mentats and the purple lips.
I first watched the movie at home, and thought it was okay. I kinda liked the weirding modules as an idea. I hadn’t read the book, but people who had were frustrated.
Years later I read the book, then sat to rewatch the movie. I can see why now it was a frustrating fail for fans. I watch the scenes play out and the number one thing that stood out was the time compression of scenes in order to fit the story in a movie time frame. For instance, the scene were Paul and his mother first meet the Fremen in the hills. They want to take her and kill Paul. So the story has Lady Jessica use her Bene Gesserit training to get the upper hand on the Fremen chief, while Paul runs for cover. Watch the scene and she just grabs the guy. It just isn’t convincing and you wonder how such a guy could be their toughest warrior to be chief.
And the scenes with the navigator warping space for the interstellar travel - that was bizarre and inexplicable. Big worm floating through glow space to navigate. Right.
And the Harkonnens. The Baron was preposterous. The sad part is the description of him was “grossly fat”, which Lynch apparently took to mean “fat and gross” rather than “incredibly, impossibly fat”.
Paul was a mentat, and no juice. In later books Hayt/Duncan was a mentat, and no juice. It was an affectation of the film.
I’ve tried 3 different times to watch this movie. I fell asleep every time.
I also can’t seem to stay awake through Blade Runner.
I love science fiction, too, so I really don’t get it.
