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Dune, 50 years on

theguardian.com

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Re: Dune, 50 years on

#31

Post by anotherevan »

veli_joza wrote: post #27

Another TV adaptation worth mentioning is SyFy's miniseries "Frank Herbert's Dune" and "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune". They are much more faithful to books than Lynch's movie and better show the epic universe that Herbert imagined.

I really disliked the that Dune miniseries[1]. There was some really awful acting and very cheap looking sets through a lot of it.

I also thought they got the tone of Paul's character completely wrong. To me he came across starting off as an arrogant thug whereas my perception of him from the books was a very thoughtful if not perhaps demonstratively emotive young man. (Obviously subjective viewpoint, but it put me off right from the start.)

OTOH, the audiobook produced by Audible I thought was very good. I've probably read the book four or five times, the last time well over a decade ago. I listened to the audiobook recently and really enjoyed it and reminded me how much I liked the first book[2].

[1] Have not seen the Children of Dune miniseries.

[2] I'm in the "first book was good, the rest was crap" camp. I read through 'til about halfway through Heretics of Dune before asking myself why I was still reading and stopped.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#32

Post by anotherevan »

veli_joza wrote: post #27

Another TV adaptation worth mentioning is SyFy's miniseries "Frank Herbert's Dune" and "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune". They are much more faithful to books than Lynch's movie and better show the epic universe that Herbert imagined.

OTOH, the David Lynch movie was both good and original. However the bits that were good where not original, and the bits that were original were not good.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#33

Post by klunger »

I thought it odd that the article did not mention the SciFi mini-series Dune and Children of Dune that came out a while back [1][2]. These were actually quite good, much better than the David Lynch version.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287839/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#34

Post by aaronem »

klunger wrote: post #33

I thought it odd that the article did not mention the SciFi mini-series Dune and Children of Dune that came out a while back [1][2]. These were actually quite good, much better than the David Lynch version. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287839/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

I haven't seen the second, but the first was...unfortunate in its casting, I suppose; it got everything else pretty much right, but the performances were so leaden that I've only been able to watch it the once.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#35

Post by rodgerd »

"If The Lord of the Rings is about the rise of fascism and the trauma of the second world war" - well, no it isn't.

"Actually, the great Dune film did get made. Its name is Star Wars."

This would be a better essay if I could take it seriously.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#36

Post by rodgerd »

revscat wrote: post #7
camperman wrote: post #5

"If The Lord of the Rings is about the rise of fascism and the trauma of the second world war," Which it isn't, as Tolkien makes clear in the foreward.

I'm not sure I agree with Tolkien on this front. Yes, I know: I'm disagreeing with an author's assessment of his own work. But authors are necessarily a part of their environment. It is -- literally -- inescapable. The good Professor was directly involved in the first World War, and the second was at his doorstep. His aversion to modernity could have led to him simply denying a a conscious connection between those re…

> I'm not sure I agree with Tolkien on this front. Yes, I know: I'm disagreeing with an author's assessment of his own work.

It hardly takes more than a smidgen of familiarity with the author's history to see it's deeply rooted in the experience of the first world war, not the second. As Tolkien notes, the themes flat out don't make sense for the second.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#37

Post by manigandham »

dogecoinbase wrote: post #14
camperman wrote: post #5

"If The Lord of the Rings is about the rise of fascism and the trauma of the second world war," Which it isn't, as Tolkien makes clear in the foreward.

An author fully understands their own work the way a programmer knows about every bug in code they've written. This is why we have QA and literary critics.

I don't get that analogy... wouldn't that be an author has basic writing mistakes and this is why we have book editors?

How do bugs/mistakes change the intent and meaning of the actual work by the person creating it? When I create a software program, I don't expect people to come along and point out that I'm actually creating it for different reasons or a different purpose.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#38

Post by rodgerd »

anotherevan wrote: post #31
veli_joza wrote: post #27

Another TV adaptation worth mentioning is SyFy's miniseries "Frank Herbert's Dune" and "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune". They are much more faithful to books than Lynch's movie and better show the epic universe that Herbert imagined.

I really disliked the that Dune miniseries[1]. There was some really awful acting and very cheap looking sets through a lot of it. I also thought they got the tone of Paul's character completely wrong. To me he came across starting off as an arrogant thug whereas my perception of him from the books was a very thoughtful if not perhaps demonstratively emotive young man. (Obviously subjective viewpoint, but it put me o…

> my perception of him from the books was a very thoughtful if not perhaps demonstratively emotive young man.

I would say that Paul was throughtful, but very emotive - remember the lecture about mood being a thing for cattle? - and not keen enough on acting initially.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#39

Post by yeureka »

Dune is one of my favourite books and I actually enjoyed David Lynch's film.

I would love to see a modern cinema adaptation, but with the current political climate it might be impossible to make a movie about a messiah leading religious fanatics on a jihad against an empire for control of the commodity on which all civilization is dependent.

Re: Dune, 50 years on

#40

Post by Brakenshire »

noyesno wrote: post #19
contingencies wrote: post #11

For the kids: though technically the RTS genre existed earlier in one or two games, it was essentially nearly singlehandedly popularized by Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty . The graphics and sound, probably inspired by the Amiga, were awesome in the era! So many elements of modern RTS were already present: multiple civilizations, each with specialist unit types. Level-oriented progression. Resource harvesting. Ter…

Experience the game right now on your browser: http://epicport.com/en/dune2

Amazing to see again. So much clicking.
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