Dune!

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gounion
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Dune!

Post by gounion »

Got tix to an IMAX showing tomorrow. They keep saying to see it on the biggest screen possible. Though that may be to get you to buy tix instead of watching it on HBO Max.

I didn't know this - Now, to preface, I've never read Dune. Also never read the Foundation books either. Those are two of the classics that I could never get through. And it's strange about Foundation - I love Asimov, and have read most of his Science Fiction. But I do know the basic outlines of the plot... more or less. Spice and worms, I know...

But my wife, though she like Science Fiction movies and the MCU, HAS read Dune and is excited to see it. She doesn't usually read Science Fiction. But I found out from her brother that her deceased mother LOVED the Dune books, and all her kids love them.

I'll probably post my thoughts on the film after.
Bludogdem
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Re: Dune!

Post by Bludogdem »

I read it in the late 60’s. So the details I remember are about the same. Also folding space time to travel in space. I expect if it’s a really well done movie it won’t matter about reading the book.
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Drak
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Re: Dune!

Post by Drak »

Yah I don't get that. Reading the book and seeing a film based on the book don't have to be the same experience.


Anyway, can't wait to see the film. I don't think it will be the theatre though. The book was very good and I still have a fondness for David Lynch's version.
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Are the same that burn crosses"

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JoeMemphis

Re: Dune!

Post by JoeMemphis »

I never read the book but I saw the first movie years ago and I streamed the latest one last night on HBOMax. I won’t spoil it for you but as you might expect, the cinematography this go round is much better.

Enjoy
gounion
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Re: Dune!

Post by gounion »

So, Joe, was it hard to follow, since you haven't read the book? Some have said it will be hard without reading it.

Of course, I didn't see the Sting movie.
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ZoWie
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Re: Dune!

Post by ZoWie »

gounion wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:22 pm So, Joe, was it hard to follow, since you haven't read the book? Some have said it will be hard without reading it.

Of course, I didn't see the Sting movie.
The major problem with the first Dune was that they shot the whole 800 page novel and the final cut was somewhat less than comprehensible for the general audience. I had my problems, and I'd read the book.

I get in arguments when I note how much the planet in the first Star Wars obviously drew from Dune. Let's call it a parallel universe and let it go at that.
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Number6
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Re: Dune!

Post by Number6 »

gounion wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:10 pm Got tix to an IMAX showing tomorrow. They keep saying to see it on the biggest screen possible. Though that may be to get you to buy tix instead of watching it on HBO Max.

I didn't know this - Now, to preface, I've never read Dune. Also never read the Foundation books either. Those are two of the classics that I could never get through. And it's strange about Foundation - I love Asimov, and have read most of his Science Fiction. But I do know the basic outlines of the plot... more or less. Spice and worms, I know...

But my wife, though she like Science Fiction movies and the MCU, HAS read Dune and is excited to see it. She doesn't usually read Science Fiction. But I found out from her brother that her deceased mother LOVED the Dune books, and all her kids love them.

I'll probably post my thoughts on the film after.
Dune was written by Frank Herbert and Foundation was written by Issac Asimov. Dune, from what I recall having read the book decades ago, is about spice and worms. I saw the movie when it came out and I remember it was unrememberable.

I started reading Prelude to Foundation this afternoon written as a prequel to the Foundation trilogy. It's about Hari Seldon's early life as a mathematician starting when he first meets Emperor Cleon I when they were both 32 years old. I'd like to watch the Foundation series but I'm not going to pay extra on my cable bill for it. If I have to wait until it's available for free or if the local library gets a DCD copy of the series.
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JoeMemphis

Re: Dune!

Post by JoeMemphis »

gounion wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:22 pm So, Joe, was it hard to follow, since you haven't read the book? Some have said it will be hard without reading it.

Of course, I didn't see the Sting movie.
I have seen the first movie several times so you pickup things along the way. The latest movie was easier to follow because I saw the first movie so many times. However, if you haven’t seen the first movie or read the book it might be hard to follow.
Tao Jones Sr.
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Re: Dune!

Post by Tao Jones Sr. »

I read and re-read Dune a couple times before the ‘84 movie. The problem with much of Dune is with dialogue; in the books and the movie. Though it’s set in 10000 something- the cosmos is ordered feudally- and Herbert found it necessary to have his characters speak in a rather medieval overly formal way.

The value the spice has commercially is that it allows the captains of the megaships to navigate, because they can see the future and avoid hazards, not tesseract space.

If you’re interested in reading Dune, stop after the first trilogy with ‘Children of Dune’- the rest is just overworked.

Herbert wrote a lot of interesting books, most much shorter, but most dealing with utopian/dystopian societies.

Check out:
The Santaroga Barrier
Hellstrom’s Hive
The Green Brain
The Worlds of Frank Herbert -
Short stories- where we’re introduced to the Bureau of Sabotage in a story that leads to:
Whipping Star
The Dosadi Experiment
”Loons Need Not Apply.” -Bushwa
gounion
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Re: Dune!

Post by gounion »

Number6 wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:23 pm Dune was written by Frank Herbert and Foundation was written by Issac Asimov. Dune, from what I recall having read the book decades ago, is about spice and worms. I saw the movie when it came out and I remember it was unrememberable.

I started reading Prelude to Foundation this afternoon written as a prequel to the Foundation trilogy. It's about Hari Seldon's early life as a mathematician starting when he first meets Emperor Cleon I when they were both 32 years old. I'd like to watch the Foundation series but I'm not going to pay extra on my cable bill for it. If I have to wait until it's available for free or if the local library gets a DCD copy of the series.
yeah, I knew they were different authors. I just mentioned Asimov as I read damned near every other SciFi novel and collection he wrote.
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sam lefthand
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Re: Dune!

Post by sam lefthand »

Tao Jones Sr. wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 11:04 pm I read and re-read Dune a couple times before the ‘84 movie. The problem with much of Dune is with dialogue; in the books and the movie. Though it’s set in 10000 something- the cosmos is ordered feudally- and Herbert found it necessary to have his characters speak in a rather medieval overly formal way.

The value the spice has commercially is that it allows the captains of the megaships to navigate, because they can see the future and avoid hazards, not tesseract space.

If you’re interested in reading Dune, stop after the first trilogy with ‘Children of Dune’- the rest is just overworked.

Herbert wrote a lot of interesting books, most much shorter, but most dealing with utopian/dystopian societies.

Check out:
The Santaroga Barrier
Hellstrom’s Hive
The Green Brain
The Worlds of Frank Herbert -
Short stories- where we’re introduced to the Bureau of Sabotage in a story that leads to:
Whipping Star
The Dosadi Experiment
I've read and liked some of those books, this one though was my favorite. Dune was a long ways from being my favorite. I liked Hellstrom's hive more.

Image

I could imagine Under Pressure being made into a two or three hour movie, but the rest of his works that I've read except for short stories are hard for me to imagine being a film unless it was multi part series with say 24 hours set aside to make the Dune books. Six hours for Hellstrom's Hive. Ten hours for The Dosadi Experiment.
Tao Jones Sr.
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Re: Dune!

Post by Tao Jones Sr. »

Also:
The Eyes of Heisenberg
The Godmakers
”Loons Need Not Apply.” -Bushwa
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47of74
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Re: Dune!

Post by 47of74 »

Yeah I went and saw it last Thursday at the theater.

Enjoyed it too. Looking forward to part 2.
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Tao Jones Sr.
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Re: Dune!

Post by Tao Jones Sr. »

Interesting article in Slate:

Is Dune a White Savior Narrative?

By writing a story in which he intended to critique “Western man,” Herbert also centered Western man. Often when critiquing something, one falls into a binary that prevents the very third option that so many have been looking for since decolonization. Herbert’s greatest shortcoming can be seen in his analysis of T.E. Lawrence and the deification of leaders in an interview he gave in 1969. He said, “If Lawrence of Arabia had died at the crucial moment of the British … he would have been deified. And it would have been the most terrifying thing the British had ever encountered, because the Arabs would have swept that entire peninsula with that sort of force, because one of the things we’ve done in our society is exploited this power.”

Herbert’s shortcoming is not his idea that “Western man” seeks to exploit the deification of charismatic leaders but that Arabs (or any other non-Western) would fall easily for it. This notion, in fact, builds on a stereotype that motivated European powers to fund propaganda among Muslims during the world wars in the hope that they could provoke a global jihad against one another.
https://apple.news/AqFtksk9mQmWQEJnm_GgLPA
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ProfX
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Re: Dune!

Post by ProfX »

Well, so you've got the Fremen, who basically seem to be Arrakis Arabs, they even use all kinds of Arabic terminology, and along comes enlightened Caladan Paul to lead them to victory and freedom over the Emperor and the Harkonnens. They couldn't have done it themselves. The thing I will say is while the 1984 movie played up the whole Savior/Messiah/Kwisatz Haderach angle for Paul, the 2nd and 3rd and maybe the 4th books, at least in regard to his son, are kind of about the dangers of messianism and god emperors. Arguably the 2nd book is about Paul rejecting the role of messiah.

The 4th book is set once again about 10,000 years after the first three. Apparently merging with a sandworm made Leto II basically immortal, though of course not unkillable. Feelings about it are mixed.

I will say they are less so about the follow-ons Frank wrote (#5 and #6) and then all the sequel/prequel garbage from the son. Most fans dislike those, including the way the son screws with some canon of the father, notably about the Butlerian Jihad. :D
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47of74
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Re: Dune!

Post by 47of74 »

I'm looking forward to it coming out on Blu-Ray in January. I think my mom will be interested since she read the book when it first came out and got me started on Dune when she taped the 1984 version in the late 1980s.
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Drak
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Re: Dune!

Post by Drak »

Finally saw Dune on Saturday evening when it went streaming. I thought it was very good overall. They made some slight changes but I was fine with it. I loved the cinematography and I loved most of the music. The acting was great as well. The only problem I had is a similar problem I had with the Lynch films, in that I enjoyed the first 1/2 or so more than the later half. I also didn't care for the ending. It sort of just leaves you there waiting for the next film. No real cliff hanger or climax. But once that next film is out that solves itself.
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Are the same that burn crosses"

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Ted
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Re: Dune!

Post by Ted »

Drak wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:41 pm Finally saw Dune on Saturday evening when it went streaming. I thought it was very good overall. They made some slight changes but I was fine with it. I loved the cinematography and I loved most of the music. The acting was great as well. The only problem I had is a similar problem I had with the Lynch films, in that I enjoyed the first 1/2 or so more than the later half. I also didn't care for the ending. It sort of just leaves you there waiting for the next film. No real cliff hanger or climax. But once that next film is out that solves itself.
Agreed.

There is a bit of a parallel between the remakes of Dune and True Grit. We already know the story and the outcome but we're thankful that they didn't do anything to screw up the overall experience.

Also....the wardrobe in the remade Dune is fantastic.
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Drak
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Re: Dune!

Post by Drak »

Ted wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 6:26 pm Agreed.

There is a bit of a parallel between the remakes of Dune and True Grit. We already know the story and the outcome but we're thankful that they didn't do anything to screw up the overall experience.

Also....the wardrobe in the remade Dune is fantastic.
Yes. The aesthetic was awesome. I wonder if they consulted with the Hebert family about the pronunciation of Harkonnen. The Lynch movie pronounces it, Har-cone-in, which is how I read it in my head with the books. But in the new version it's Harkin-nen. Interesting.
"Some of those that work forces,
Are the same that burn crosses"

- Rage Against the Machine
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