I did walk out of the theater realizing while the movie really does nail the scale and scope of the book, it completely lacks the interiority. While told in the third person, the narration is still intimately tied to what a specific character is thinking and experiencing; it's part of why the book's such a psychedelic experience.
Example:
Doctor Yueh exemplifies this. While it comes across a little overdramatic in the book, he's depicted as incredibly ambivalent, torn between his desire to save his wife and the deal he's made to save her. You get some idea of how brutal and far-reaching the Harkonnens' grip is, some history of the Atreides family, and actual character motivation. In the movie, Yueh is just there in several different scenes, then steps out of the shadows once the betrayal happens, and just sort of goes "welp, it was me all along."
The idea of Paul as a messiah is glossed over as well; there's plenty of talk of him being "the one," but not much talk of who the one is. The Bene Gesserit conspiracy isn't really expressed, and Paul's existence as an ubermensch result of a generations-long eugenics experiment is conveniently omitted. This may be stuff for the sequel though, as realizing he's basically a plant might be a dramatic turn for his character. Though it might've helped to give him an arc in this movie.
It's entirely visually impressive, the design is really cool (though you could get the same effect staring at the Dopesmoker album cover), and it was cool to see an epic movie for grownups which doesn't hold your hand (though wasn't this supposed to be R? I got the impression the movie was cutting around violence), and hope maybe the sequel will attain more of the depth I was expecting.
re "realizing he's basically a plant might be a dramatic turn for his character" is actually pretty explicit in the books -- in the first book initially and explicitly when he confronts the Reverend Mother during the final confrontation and more subtly when he finds himself in front of Count Fenring, who would have been a Kwisatz Haderach had it not been for being a genetic eunuch -- and in the later books (2nd or 3rd? I don't remember) when he goes off the golden path into the desert.
In the original story Paul's character later morphs into a worm like creature. Is this something that could be at the end of part two or something totally different from the main Dune story ?
That's very unlikely for part 2 since it's in the latter books. And if anyone would have tried to jam that in there, definitely Lynch would've been the dude for it.
That's very unlikely for part 2 since it's in the latter books. And if anyone would have tried to jam that in there, definitely Lynch would've been the dude for it.
In the original story Paul's character later morphs into a worm like creature. Is this something that could be at the end of part two or something totally different from the main Dune story ?
I liked Dune as a faithful, staggeringly grand adaptation of a book I adore. It is not fulfilling in the same way that Fellowship of the Ring managed to be, and cries out for its second half, but I dig the brutalist aesthetic and the cast.
re "realizing he's basically a plant might be a dramatic turn for his character" is actually pretty explicit in the books -- in the first book initially and explicitly when he confronts the Reverend Mother during the final confrontation and more subtly when he finds himself in front of Count Fenring, who would have been a Kwisatz Haderach had it not been for being a genetic eunuch -- and in the later books (2nd or 3rd? I don't remember) when he goes off the golden path into the desert.
I mean that’s kind of the problem with bringing something like Dune to the screen, it’s a visual medium and it makes it difficult to be in everyone’s head - Lynch’s attempt to do this is one of the biggest problem with his adaptation.
I loved the movie, but it does come off as a summary…
like the politics are explained but the invasion of Arrakis almost seems abrupt because the film doesn’t spend enough time showing how all this is brewing
I think all we can ever really expect from a Dune movie is an attempt at coherency and it’s ability to get people to read one of the best books ever written.
I mean that’s kind of the problem with bringing something like Dune to the screen, it’s a visual medium and it makes it difficult to be in everyone’s head - Lunch’s attempt to do this is one of the biggest problem with his adaptation.
I loved the movie, but it does come off as a summary…
like the politics are explained but the invasion of Arrakis almost seems abrupt because the film doesn’t spend enough time showing how all this is brewing
I think all we can ever really expect from a Dune movie is an attempt at coherency and it’s ability to get people to read one of the best books ever written.
Same. I kind of wish there was a bigger resolve at the end of this one instead of feeling like half a story but I'm not familiar with the source material to know if that's possible
I haven’t read the books (or watched this yet) and I think everything in the spoiler tags is funny because to someone unfamiliar with the material it all sounds 100% inscrutable and crazy and not spoilery at all because it all flees my brain the second I finish reading it.
Same. I kind of wish there was a bigger resolve at the end of this one instead of feeling like half a story but I'm not familiar with the source material to know if that's possible
I haven’t read the books (or watched this yet) and I think everything in the spoiler tags is funny because to someone unfamiliar with the material it all sounds 100% inscrutable and crazy and not spoilery at all because it all flees my brain the second I finish reading it.
Same. I kind of wish there was a bigger resolve at the end of this one instead of feeling like half a story but I'm not familiar with the source material to know if that's possible
It’s not, really. It’s an accurate observation that the story of the book really lends itself better to a miniseries. But the scale and richness of the world is difficult to do justice except in film.
I mean that’s kind of the problem with bringing something like Dune to the screen, it’s a visual medium and it makes it difficult to be in everyone’s head - Lunch’s attempt to do this is one of the biggest problem with his adaptation.
[...]
I think all we can ever really expect from a Dune movie is an attempt at coherency and it’s ability to get people to read one of the best books ever written.
Have you read David Foster Wallace's piece on Lynch's Lost Highway? He gets into it as only a fan-boy of both Lynch and Dune can Lost Highway Article - Premiere Sept. 96
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