From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:32:46 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.uk.ibm.net!news-m01.ny.us.ibm.net!ausnews.austin.ibm.com!bocanews.bocaraton.ibm.com!watnews.watson.ibm.com!newsgate.watson.ibm.com!newsjunkie.ans.net!newsfeeds.ans.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!agate!info.ucla.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.uoregon.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: magus@mindspring.com (Magus) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: RETROSPECTIVE: DUNE (1984) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 Jul 1996 20:39:18 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 55 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4tj7hm$3ll@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: magus@mindspring.com (Magus) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05709 Keywords: author=Magus Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5047 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1038 DUNE A film review by Magus Copyright 1996 Magus Starring: Patrick Stewart and Sting Dune was first a book written in the early 1960's. It did so well that its author, Frank Herbert, continued to write two more books and another trilogy after that. A total of 6 Dune books. A movie based on the first book, called Dune, was released in 1984. I saw the movie after reading the book. So let's get down to the point here- How is the movie? First of all, Dune makes a lot more sense if you had read the book. If you had not read the book, the movie is much more confusing and boring. But anyway... The plot of the movie Dune is fairly faithful to the original book. It leaves out a few characters, but the basic point is made: Dune is a desert planet that has Spice. Spice is used to fold space- travel without moving. Therefore Spice is valuable. Spice is only on Dune. Emperor Shaddam the IV is sending the Atreides to Dune and is moving out the Harkonnens at the same time. The reason for this is that both "clans" are feuding. The Atreides are supposed to go and live on Dune for a short bit, while the Emperor gives the Harkonnens extra troops to destroy the Atreides so there is no more feuding and fighting between the two. The Atreides do not know this however... That is basically the beginning of the plot of Dune. I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but other parts of the plot involve a traitor and the local people of Dune called the Fremen. The actors they picked for this movie are ho-hum. They have Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: Generations) as Gurney Halleck, the man who trained Duke Leto Atreides' son. They have Sting as the son of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. They have a lot of no-name actors as well. Some do a good job, but the majority of the script focuses on Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica. They do an OK job. The special effects for this movie are definitely dated. The sets are very good. The music score mainly by Toto is also excellent. But the movie itself drags on at 2 hours and 20 something minutes. Even at that length, Dune fails to describe the characters and flesh them out as well as the book does. So what is my reccomendation? Watch this movie if you wanna see a slightly technical sci-fi movie or if you have read the book. **1/2 out of **** /\/\agus "Evil is a point of view" "Fear is the mind-killer" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:44:58 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Tim Voon Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Dune (1984) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Oct 1997 00:00:18 GMT Organization: Mariah Lines: 67 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62ooei$g2k$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer07.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877651218 16468 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09454 Keywords: author=voon X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer07.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8910 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1584 DUNE 1984 A film review by Timothy Voon Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon 2 :-) :-) for the Spice of Life Directed by David Lynch Cast Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino, Brad Dourif, José Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie Jones, Richard Jordan, Kyle McLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Silvana Mangano, Everett McGill, Kenneth McMillan, Jack Nance, Sian Phillips, Jürgen Prochnow, Patrick Stewart Paul Smith, Sting, Dean Stockwell, Max von Sydow, Sean Young. Based on a novel written by Frank Herbert When one attempts to recreate a science fiction masterpiece, and a novel as thick as Dune, it had better be well done, or there will be cries of lynching or stoning from an angry mob. I cannot say that Dune is exceptionally well done, when a good second half of the novel is compressed into minutes of narration to help shorten the movie. So my after thought is that perhaps a mini-series may have done this Epic novel more justice than a feature length film. One has to at least commend David Lynch for attempting a feat as difficult as Dune. Although the special effects are not wiz bang spectacular, he has managed to recreate the feel of the desert planet Arrakis (aka Dune), which is the taste of Spice itself. Spice is the most precious commodity in the universe. He who controls Spice controls the world. For with it space travel or jumping is made possible, and it is only found on one planet in the entire universe, on the desert planet of Dune. The political scene is of an Emperor who controls the Spice but is worried about the ascendancy of a rival House Atreides. To secure his throne, he pits one powerful House against another. Namely Atreides against Harkonnen, in order to weaken them, yet strengthen his own seat. David Lynch best known for his dark, gothic, new age features like Twin Peaks, in some ways is ideal for a movie like Dune. After all, one needs a director to match the likes of the twisted yet brilliant mind of author Frank Herbert. A prime example of the darker side, is the homoerotic scene where a young man brings flowers in to the throne room of the raving mad Baron Harkonnen. The obese and disfigured Baron approaches the boy with a look of insatiable lust before ripping out his heart plug. As the boy is dying, the Baron bathes in his victim's blood before climaxing with an orgasm. The other scene of note is when an enemy of the Baron is made to suffer by being made to shamefully milk the antidote from a cat to counter the effects of a poison. Now if these scenes do not encompass the meaning of perversity, I'm not sure what does. On a lighter and brighter note, less shadowed by the darker side of Herbert and Lynch. This movie captures and recreates the wonders of dry desert winds beating against frail human flesh; in a wilderness where water is as precious as blood. Here the protectors of Spice are giant Sand Worms which tower over the precious commodity like monolith Colossi. This is a world where Bene Gesserit priestesses mind bend and control the feeble minded, and the Fremen await the coming of a foretold Messiah to inflame their blood with long awaited freedom. This is the legacy of Dune. Although Lynch has failed to recapture the immensity of the epic events that unfold in the novel, he has succeeded in recreating the unique flavour and feel of this most inspired of Herbert’s works. On Dune, Spice is the essence of life. Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:26:38 1998 From: mgwatson@fan.net.au (Mike Watson) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Dune (1984) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Jan 1998 03:24:00 GMT Organization: Fast Access Network Lines: 193 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <68pjog$du1$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883970640 14273 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10471 Keywords: author=watson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9748 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1720 RETROSPECTIVE: DUNE (1984) A film review by Mike Watson. Copyright 1997 Mike Watson The following review encompasses two versions of DUNE: DUNE: THE THEATRICAL VERSION (1984) Runtime: 137 minutes Rating: 2 out of 5 Capsule Review: Cut down to just over two hours by nervous studio executives, the theatrical version of DUNE is a spectacular mess and may be incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the book. The film's visual splendour, mystical beauty and impressive action scenes only partly compensate for gaping holes in the narrative. DUNE: THE EXTENDED VERSION (1988) Runtime: 189 minutes Rating: 3 out of 5 Capsule Review: A bit of a throw-together assembled by MCA TV Special Projects for cable television. It was disowned by director David Lynch but it's considerably closer to his original vision by virtue of its improved characterisation and clearer storyline. Quality dubs of this version from the out-of-print Japanese laserdisc release are available from various dealers on the World Wide Web. ***THE REVIEW*** Released in 1984 and made on a then mammoth budget of $40 million, the film of Frank Herbert's cult novel DUNE was eagerly awaited by sci-fi fans. Director David Lynch (BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD, TWIN PEAKS) was working on his biggest production to date, a mammoth undertaking filmed under trying conditions on location in Mexico. The screenplay was Lynch's own, chosen after the script submitted by original author Herbert was rejected. DUNE is set in a universe ruled by powerful families overseen by a successive line of Emperors. The key to cosmic power is the planet Arrakis (Dune), a windswept desert planet that's home to giant sandworms and the precious spice melange. The spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe. It extends the life and expands the consciousness of those who consume it. Most importantly, it allows the navigators of the Spacing Guild (once human but now hideously mutated) to "fold space" and navigate their spacecraft across mammoth distances instantaneously, enabling interstellar commerce and trade to flourish. Lynch's film by necessity excises parts of the book while retaining the story's two main strands. One is the long-standing rivalry between two families, Houses Atreides and House Harkonnen, and their battle for lucrative mining rights on Arrakis. The second strand is the emergence of young Paul Atreides as the reluctant Messiah long-awaited by the natives of Arrakis, the Fremen. The deeply religious Fremen want control over their homeworld, and young Paul may be the fulfilment of their prophecy that a man would come from the outer worlds and lead them to freedom. Unfortunately, this epic story unfolds in a confusing and haphazard manner in the theatrical cut of the film, which runs 30 to 60 minutes shorter than what Lynch originally intended. The thinking among Universal's oh-so-wise money men was that films over two hours in duration were not popular with audiences at the time and would not do well at the box office. With Lynch's initial cut running at closer to three or more hours, the studio demanded that further cuts be made. What a great idea! Why not trim down an already complex film so as to make it almost incomprehensible? The most glaring consequence of this one-eyed stupidity is a hopelessly jumpy narrative, leaving us with badly underdeveloped characters. Thus their personalities are vague, their motivations unclear and, in the case of Paul's father Duke Leto, their demise rather meaningless. The end result is a distinct chill: we can't warm to most of the cast and we don't care much for them. And it hardly helps that the voice-over narration is sparse and that the Dune-esque language and terminology sounds like so much gobbledegook to those unfamiliar with the book. DUNE is also a very serous film. The constant "self-talk" by various characters makes it SO serious and self-absorbed at times that you may find it hard not to wince with embarrassment. The overall impression is a world full of people so intense that no one is allowed a joke lest the universe come crashing down around them. Humour - or at least a gentle kind of humour as distinct from the Harkonnen's mad, sadistic kind - is hard to find. You may balk at the comparison, but as a writer Lynch could well have done with some lessons from George Lucus' STAR WARS trilogy. The theatrical version is still some way from being a complete disaster, however. It still possesses enough of Lynch's stylistic quirks and enough visual invention to sustain the interest of viewers with a taste for imaginative sci-fi. Special effects whiz Carlo Rambaldi's giant sandworms are an awesome sight. Both the production design (Anthony Masters) and costume design (Bob Ringwood) are striking and original. And the magnificent score by Toto and Brian Eno is one of the most underrated soundtracks of the last twenty years. With these elements in place and the benefit of Freddie Francis' lush cinematography, the film is at least a feast for the senses. See it in the widescreen format if you can. And despite all the cuts, several cast members still make a strong impression, most notably Kenneth McMillan as the supremely nasty Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Sian Phillips also registers strongly as the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, leader of the Bene Gesserit religious order who's secret aim is to manipulate Paul's destiny for its own shadowy ends. As Paul Atreides, the young Kyle MacLachlan starts off somewhat shakily, but as his character grows in strength so does his performance and he emerges as a credible leader of the Fremen crusade. The conclusion? Any assessment of this film must take into account that Frank Herbert's original novel is a complex piece of work and presents a tough challenge for any filmmaker. David Lynch took a brave stab at it and, partly due to forces beyond his control, ended up with an officially released version that fails in several key respects. DUNE certainly confused and frustrated a lot of people on its release. Many chose to stay away altogether, as the film's disastrous box office showing attests. The extended version, however, is a rather different beast. In 1984 Lynch stated his intention to release his own special edition "director's cut" of the film on home video, a clear indication of his dissatisfaction with the version that ended up in the theatres. But, alas, he failed to do so, choosing to move on to other projects. In a way, then, it is partly Lynch's own fault that what appeared instead was an unauthorised extended version, put together in 1988 by MCA TV Special Projects for airing on cable networks in the USA. Stung into action, Lynch successfully petitioned the Director's Guild to take his name off the credits and replace it with "Allen Smithee", the standard pseudonym for directors who wish to disown their own work. He also had the screenwriting credit changed to the anonymous "Judas Booth". Certainly, looking at the results of MCA's handiwork there's at least half a dozen instances that, for sheer technical sloppiness, are good enough reasons for the director to object. But these gripes must be considered in light of the improvements that the extended cut of DUNE offers in several crucial areas. Most of the changes involve the restoration or extension of cut scenes and the addition of extra narration, both of which fill many holes in the original version's storyline. Paul's relationship with his father and associates is more intimate, with moments of humour and warmth lacking previously. The political skulduggery involving the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserits and the two warring Houses is far better explained. Paul's initiation into the Fremen way of life on Arrakis is also fleshed out considerably. And as further background, a new prologue has been added featuring narration and painted stills to give us a brief history of the Dune universe. As a piece of storytelling, then, MCA TV's version of DUNE is clearly superior. As a piece of editing, however, it is at times surprisingly inept. The use of painted stills in the new prologue works well enough, but their occasional appearance once the action begins is inappropriate. There's some sloppy cutting, too, and in a few instances shots even appear out of order. And the use of repeated footage to fabricate certain scenes (eg. ships coming and going, soldiers coming and going) is at times clearly out-of-context. This is the kind of thing to which Lynch objected, and rightly so. It should also be noted that several questionable scenes and shots from the theatrical version were deleted to satisfy the censorship demands of U.S. television. But the most notable omission is a gratuitous piece of nonsense from Lynch that wasn't even in Herbert's book. The scene features Baron Harkonnen killing a beautiful young man in front of his slobbering henchmen by pulling out his "heart plug". Its a surreal and disturbing episode that's very Lynch-esque but adds nothing to what we already know: the Baron is a nasty piece of work. Despite its own peculiar flaws, then, the extended version of DUNE is a generally superior film. All up, it contains 35 minutes of restored footage and approximately another 15 minutes of either altered, fabricated or newly created sequences. Unless the idiosyncratic Lynch has a sudden change of heart, the "Alan Smithee" version remains the closest we'll get to what the movie should have been. On repeated viewings, one suspects it is closer than what Lynch would be prepared to admit. Still, as one of this century's great science-fiction novels, some fans and perhaps the late Herbert himself would argue that DUNE deserved a better fate in its transfer to the screen. With rumours circulating of a new six hour mini-series planned by production company New Amsterdam Entertainment in 1998, it is unlikely that we have heard the last of the Dune saga. *For background information a special thankyou to hiphats@aol.com. who maintains the website DUNE: THE ARRAKIS FILE at: http://members.aol.com/Hiphats/arrakis.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 2 16:28:59 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cyclone.news.idirect.com!island.idirect.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Dragan Antulov" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Dune (1984) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Oct 1998 04:23:56 GMT Organization: Croatian Post & Telecommunications Lines: 184 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <70eess$13oi$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 908771036 36626 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #14878 Keywords: author=antulov X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:14113 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2136 DUNE A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 1998 When Frank Herbert's DUNE becomes a topic, the author of this review tends to get a little bit sentimental. There are two reasons for that. First, the Frank Herbert's masterpiece, although not the first science fiction novel I have read in my life, happened to be the first one which blew me away. And, second, the movie based on a novel happened to be the subject of the very first article I wrote for a local fanzine. When I decided to write the review of the film, I was contemplating a simple adaptation of the original fanzine article. However, the reason prevailed over sentimentality and I decided to write completely new piece. As I said before, Frank Herbert's DUNE was the first piece of science fiction that blew me away. But even then, when I was engrossed in a beautiful, mystical and fantastic world of planet Arrakis, I was imagining how would all those pages translate into major motion picture. I didn't have as much insight into film-making business as I have today, yet I saw two great problems. The first one was the fact that the detailed yet very alien Herbert's vision of distant futures and worlds beyond our imagination required a huge, perhaps even unthinkably high budget for film-makers. And, even if some brave producer and director would somehow acquire such great sums of money, they would be faced with another problem. The hundreds and hundreds of pages of text, full of detailed and elaborated scenes, numerous sub-plots and interesting characters were, to say the least, very unlikely to be squeezed into the regular feature film format. When I began thinking about it, little did I know that someone in the world was really faced with such problems. That person was Dino de Laurentiis, respected Italian producer who had a relatively good record with science-fiction and fantasy genre, thanks to his previous commercial and critical successes like FLASH GORDON and CONAN THE BARBARIAN. For almost two decades, many people were contemplating the cinematic adaptation of DUNE, yet de Laurentiis was the first with the will and resources for such endeavour. His choice for a director was, though, somewhat risky; David Lynch was director who brought attention with unusual visual styles and strictly personal tendencies towards bizarre in THE ELEPHANT MAN, his first mainstream picture, as well as with his experimental movie debut and future cult classic, ERASERHEAD. Choice of Lynch was a mix blessing for de Laurentiis; on the other hand, Lynch would deliver science fiction spectacle very different than usual genre products of those times, like STAR WARS or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA; on the other hand, his unconventional cinematic style was liability in terms of box-office success. Unlike many other adaptations of popular fiction, and despite the fact that the Herbert himself had his own script version rejected, the movie plot was unusually faithful to the novel. It was set in a very distant future, some 25,000 years from now, when the humanity managed to conquer vast distances between the stars and settle on numerous worlds. The entire known universe is ruled by Padisha Emperor Shadam IV (Jose Ferrer) whose Empire contains areas controlled by different, and often feuding noble Houses. One of them is House of Atreides, led by Duke Leto (Juergen Pruchnow), whose charisma and popularity could be threat to the Emperor's supremacy. So the Emperor plots a complicated scheme, using the mortal feud between the Duke and rival House of Harkonnen, led by evil and sadistic Baron Vladimir (Kenneth MacMillan). He orders the Duke to occupy Arrakis, desolate and desert planet also known as Dune, previously controlled by Harkonnens. The planet is also rich with spice melange, substance essential for the interstellar travel, and of extreme importance for the powerful Guild of Space Navigators. Soon after the arrival, Duke's 15-year old son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan) begins discovering the planet's mysteries. One of them is an existence of Fremen, local people whose legends and prophesies speak of the Messiah that would lead them to freedom. Both those who like and who don't like the movie can agree that David Lynch's DUNE stands out as a very original piece of science fiction cinema. Lynch, together with the cast and crew, took a lot of effort in order to make this movie as different from other science fiction spectacles as possible. First there was a production design by Terry Masters and costumes by Bob Ringwood that gave the movie certain pseudohistorical, yet very recognisable atmosphere. Than there was music by pop group Toto, whose ambientalist sound, together with new age theme by Brian Eno, made the soundtrack very different from conventional themes by John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith. And, finally, Lynch himself was less interested in making spectacular scenes or special effects attractions than to use Herbert's script for his own visual obsessions. So, the scenes of space travel or prophetic visions are more surreal than spectacular; the characters, especially the bad guys like Harkonnens, are repulsive, both by their image and by their actions. Nice example is character of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; he is hideously fat man with gruesome swellings on his face, and the senseless and brutal violence is the only thing that could provide him orgasmic pleasure. The character of Baron, brilliantly played by late veteran actor Kenneth MacMillan, is one of trademarks of the entire picture. Under the shadow of MacMillan is a small army of other, very respected and capable actors. Main lead, Kyle MacLachlan, was a great fan of the novel, and the role of Paul Atreides, his great movie debut, was a task he had hoped and prepared for throughout his entire adult life. Lynch's choice in casting was perfect, and both artists would later continue their co-operation in other, somewhat more successful projects. Francesca Annis also left strong impact as Paul's mother Jessica, with her stunning combination of mature sexuality and commanding presence. Sadly, almost nobody else had a real opportunity to shine, because their characters were underdeveloped or underused. The reason for that lies in the problem I noted above. Originally, Lynch envisioned DUNE as four hours long epic and tried very hard to follow novel, using only minor changes to the story or characters. Unfortunately, the producers were too afraid to follow suit, considering any movie over two hours long unprofitable at the box office. Results is a movie sliced into two distinctive halfs. First half is very good because the plot is followed very meticulously, with very few omissions from the original material. Lynch worked very hard to stay loyal to the novel; even the inner thoughts of the characters, one of the novel's most valuable elements, are delivered to the viewer through voice-over, although some of them happen to be slightly annoying as the time passes by. However, that annoyance is nothing compared to the second half of DUNE, when the plot gets sacrificed for the sake of smaller length. Many events from the novel, some of them very important, are omitted, and the rest is simply narrated instead of being portrayed according to novel. Character of Chani and Fremen in general don't get the attention they deserved. The rhythm of events finally slows down at the end, but the timing is again wrong; the ending doesn't follow the novel, and the anti-climactic duel between Paul and Feyd-Rauta is there only to please Sting fans, who were expecting some more screen time for the character played by their idol. Such flaws became evident at the movie's initial release, when it flopped at the box-office. Reasons were simple: the audience, who had expected conventional science-fiction entertainment, was confused both by complicated plot and Lynch's original style. Despite that, David Lynch's DUNE managed to developed its own cult following, mostly thanks to Frank Herbert fans, hungry to see their favourite novel on the screen, even in such less than perfect condition. The movie became almost obligatory for all those who enjoyed Herbert's fiction; and such audience was the only one able to understand the picture. The cult continued to grow, later inspired entire new sub-genre of computer games (real time strategies), and to this very day DUNE remains a strong impulse for many people to start reading Herbert's books. RATING: 7/10 (+++) Review written on October 16th 1998 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-Mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Oct 20 12:30:38 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: ram@csb.stanford.edu (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Dune (1984) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Oct 1999 04:57:26 GMT Organization: Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html Lines: 48 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7t9c3m$muq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 939013046 23514 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #20932 Keywords: author=samudrala X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:20128 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2466 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dune http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/dune.html /Dune/ is a sci-fi classic, and a weird one at that. Based on Frank Herbert's novel, /Dune/ attempts to bring to life what is left to our imagination in the book. The results are somewhat mixed, but are mostly positive. Dune (Arrakis) is a planet that is the center of the universe: it is only here that the spice Melange is available. The spice allows Navigators (humans that have imbibed too much spice and have been mutated by it) and their Guild to "fold" space and time and travel from location to location without physical movement of their bodies. The spice is what makes travel and trade possible between distant star systems and whoever controls Dune controls the Universe. Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Jose Ferrer), the ruler of the known universe, feels threatened by the rise in popularity of Duke Leto Atreides, and orchestrates a plan to eliminate him. The plan involves pitting the Atreides House against the house of his bitter enemy Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan), by asking him to take control of the spice mining operations on Dune. As the Harkonnen's vendetta against the duke leads to his death, his son, Paul Atredies and his mother escape from their captors as they are about to become fodder for the giant sand worms that live on Dune. They soon run into the inhabitants of Dune, the Freemen and Paul (or Muad'dib, as he is known to Fremen) trains them the "weirding way" which involves the use of sound in battle. The Fremen then began to wage a war against the Harkonnens under the leadership of Paul which leads to an ultimate confrontation between the Fremen and House Harkonnen and the Emperor. Paul Muad'dib then fulfills an ancient prophecy and Arrakis is never the same again. The film is pretty weird and it is hard to describe, which is what makes it appealing in my mind. The acting by the primary protagonists isn't too great and that detracts from a decent (but compressed) story line. The villains, including Sting (Gordon Sumner) as the cool but psychotic Feyd Rautha, fare much better. Dune is definitely worth renting and seeing again and again for its complex story line and the mythology it builds. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html