A thread about the Denis Villeneuve-helmed reboot of DUNE

"smile Gurney"

"I am smiling"

^^^

ffs this is another joke!

I had insomnia last night and went a bit into the book and remembered that Gurney is a warrior/troubadour, lol yeah I forgot about Patrick Stewart's oversized mandolin! And in the book he has a scar on his face from some adventure in a Harkonnen dungeon.

I would struggle to see how it could have been any better, tbh

Gonna read thread now and get furious at any slight criticism

All the humour was condensed in advance into the diana trailer which i fucking pissed myself through and the more so when my brother leaned over and suggested owen wilson a better casting decision than the chosen starlet

I had insomnia last night and went a bit into the book and remembered that Gurney is a warrior/troubadour, lol yeah I forgot about Patrick Stewart's oversized mandolin!

lol It's a not-so-well disguised Chapman Stick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-zEMitTkaU

they really shouldve had josh brolin play

in the book it's more about baudy shagging songs with Gurney. Paul advises him not to let his mum hear him singing this stuff or parts of him will be mounted on the walls.

Jaysus lads how some of ye upthread follow movies at all bewilders me ye come out of them so clueless of what happened in front of ye

Brad as always otm obv

in the book it's more about baudy shagging songs with Gurney.

I felt it was missing a scene in a rowdy Arrakis pub.

Dune: Messiah adaptation with Kyle Maclachlan as Paul/Muad'Dib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Eoek8a500

that 2006 extended cut of Dune 1984 is not good, can see why Lynch disowned it. NTR sounding presenter with intrusive voiceover doing unwanted Dune-splaining, rubbish illustrations while the prologue is read out by the same voice. Lol it even opens up with a closeup of a paperback copy of the book. I reckon there could be something better than the heavily cut theatrical release put together from the 4 hours Lynch apparently shot.

― calzino, Friday, October 29, 2021 10:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

There's a couple of versions of that floating round, IMO the good version is the "Alternative Edition Redux" edit which doesn't have the dumb storybook narration tacked on at the beginning (which is from the disowned-by-Lynch TV version)

the good cut can never be made bcz lynch doesnt like sand and didn't film enough

lynch: is that the dune? *films it for a couple of minutes* that'll do, sand sucks, what this movie needs is more pugs and eyebrows

the strange baroque-noir aesthetic and eyebrowed up mentats in Lynch's Dune is good stuff imo!

I would like to see an extended cut with more pugs

a pug's history of maud'dib, by the princess irulan

Sudden desire to own a pug named Irulan

I truly love darragh’s entry into this thread.

truly he is the old man of the desert (ilx)

dunkon idunnos

I have a lot to say about this

but first - does josh brolin die in that attack or...? I mean, that's the last we see of him, right?

also bugged me how Duncan's facial hair changed like 3 times in the first thirty minutes. Like "I'm off to live among the Fremen and study their ways, may not return, see ya, but hey lemme first get rid of this Dimebag Darrell beard, gotta look presentable"

Also something tells me 8000 years from now no one will be using phrases like "we're good to go," and "that was insane" (when seeing a sandworm for the first time) but tbf I could be better with suspension of disbelief, I mean it also bugs me that everyone in this movie speaks english and has product in their conspicuously bedheaded hair

this was very well done. i appreciated that this baron won't give me nightmares, unlike the one in lynch's movie.

― treeship., Monday, October 25, 2021 5:17 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nightmare fuel is seriously what this remake was sorely lacking imo and Baron Brando is largely to blame

I did love that unlike the Lynch version in this they accent the first syllable of 'Harkonnen' so now it sounds like the Finnish surname I always hear in my head when I see the word.

― joygoat, Monday, October 25, 2021 10:02 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I dunno if there is a Herbertian consensus on pronunciation but it bugged me that it was pronounced differently

Lynch Dune is 1000x better.

― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Tuesday, October 26, 2021 1:48 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

If you remember lynch dune brolin was Patrick Stewart & he bumps into Paul again later during a battle

Right! Guess they're saving that for part 2. Ready for some Alia and Feyd too

I'd just say that the nearly universal rule in modern movies and TV is if you don't see a dead body, there probably isn't one

I’m watching this again, seeing what hits me now that I’m not hyper scrutinizing everything. Chalamet is really good! Someone was scoffing about his performance upthread, but it’s kinda perfect.

Ready for some Alia and Feyd too

Highly doubting the latter.

Meantime, cool interview

https://www.vulture.com/2021/10/stephen-mckinley-henderson-on-dune-lady-bird-and-timothe.html

Did you have any connection to Frank Herbert’s novels before accepting the role?

No. I remembered the book because I had a dear friend who loved it and would often quote from those passages. In each chapter, there’s a verse or an adage — some bit of wisdom. My friend, as he was reading the book, would tell me, “Hey, man, you should hear this one.” Even if you hadn’t read the book, you understood what issues were being dealt with and some of the spiritual nature of it. My buddy knew I had an interest in theology and philosophy. So that was my connection to it. I had started it once, I must admit, and did not finish...

My single favorite image in Dune is you walking with the cute little parasol. Was that detail in the script?

I’m so glad you mentioned that. That’s just delightful. It is a character that’s quite apart from me. The first thing I said was, “I’m playing a Mentat. I consider myself a passionate, feeling person, and this person is a very calculated individual. He’s an alien!” But here’s what happened. We were there in Budapest. [The rest of the cast] had come from Jordan; they’d been in the desert, but I never had to go to the desert. They came back with this incredible spiritual journey they’d been on, and they were sharing it. It was a really hot day when we were shooting. I was sitting off to the side, out in the sun. There’s nothing around, so there’s no shade. I think someone just offered it to me, not to be part of the scene at all but just to protect me. And Denis loved it. He came over and said, “Ah, you like this?” I said, “Yeah, I love it.” And he said, “Well, I think Thufir can have this.” I said, “I would love to do that; that’s fabulous.” It just says so much about where he is at the time and that he’s taking care of himself. He was a young man once. It was one of those wonderful spontaneous things.

It stands out because it’s such a human thing to be carrying a little umbrella to shield yourself from the sun.

Yeah, and it’s something that someone who’s not human would be attracted to. I just think it’s the desire to really be a part of these wonderful people as the alien that he is. It’s a very civilized thing to have.

Whoops, left out more about his reaction to the book:

I think a lot of people can relate to that.

But after I got the call from Denis, I jumped in. I was thoroughly engrossed with it, and it’s become one of my favorite books. I do understand why so many people were motivated by the book. A lot of writers and sci-fi people were inspired to do their own thing because of the elements of that.

thats a lovely detail about the parasol, and his insight into Thufir using it is v cool, never thought of it that way!

I don't think it ever mentions in the Lynch one or this one that Paul is a trainee mentat. In the book he is given a choice whether he wants to continue and he agrees to.

This was fucking great. I dunno how it would stand up to repeated viewings, & I think it would lose a lot on a small screen, but i came out of it totally stoned by the experience. Chalamet wasn’t awesome, but as I remember, Paul was a bit of a space cadet in the book too. All he had to do for the role was look great, and he did manage that. I thought his mum was fantastic (with some weird choices re:being overwhelmed by emotion all the time altho she’s supposed to be a space yogini - but it would have been pretty boring to have the 2 main characters inhabit a stoic space in the middle of all that chaos anyhow). For a long, slow-paced movie it didn’t drag much, but I’m a sucker for the basic setup. I dunno how someone who didn’t have any Herbert or Lynch prep would have received it.

saw this last night on a moderately big screen, it flew by, each scene delicious, and i'm actually thinking abt seeing it again, so as to see it in IMAX or other REAL big screen. my boo, who was in it first and foremost for Timothee, was all in on the visuals and mood as well. a hit!

as someone who adored the book in high school and whenever i last reread it (2009?), i love that they're embracing the major major theme of Paul's alarm at the "holy war" he foresees himself pushed towards leading. always found that one of the most fascinating things in the book and presumed it one of the likeliest things to get stripped out in any adaptation. the other big thing i most loved was all the 60s-but-also-ahead-of-its-time planetary ecology stuff, which wasn't as clearly on display here.... but the way they did the Liet-Kynes material suggests they DO intend to really spend time on this. if Chani is indeed the protagonist next time, that could be a great gateway into how the Fremen have come to understand their planet.

really enjoyed the visuals at a design level, all the machines and buildings, how these super mega scaled structures seem to have been built as bunker-like slopes to handle the desert wind loads and so forth. up close, dialogue scenes sometimes had a washed-out or flat "TV look" but that coulda been specific to the projection at the 19th Street AMC. all the landscapes and spaceships and outfits and pools of healing blecchy ooze looked fantastic.

in hindsight i would have liked just a BIT more of the tense calm before the storm - more scenes between the Atreides family and hangers-on. and yeah, i do miss the emphasis placed on weird mentally conditioned humans and all that stuff. but i can't complain that DV dropped one thing i always thought was kinda neat, if he's centering several others that i found really mind-expanding at 17!

definitely curious how the sequel will stick the landing --- right now i'm sort of extending my faith that they have a solid take on the inherently risky Orientalism and real-world parallels that are all over the source material. here again i hope the idea of treating Chani as a protagonist with agency and a supporting cast/lore of her own could do some work. right now the Fremen belief system is being presented mainly as a nonsense con job put over on them by the Bene Gesserit. which iirc is part of the story! but DV leaves off *just* before we'll have the chance to delve much more into their side of the story, so there's a lot of room to show more to this picture.

i love how the human/worm pic pops up like every 90 posts or so on this thread

Good read, I thought:

https://www.vulture.com/2021/10/dune-has-a-desert-problem.html

(Also I'll be seeing it again the IMAX here in an hour.)

The year's most OK movie. I'm not enamored with Villeneuve; there's a lack of spontaneity to his compositions I can't get over, like he's photographing a space calendar.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, October 24, 2021 12:32 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

otoh I wasn't bored, which given this project's history is big shit.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, October 24, 2021 12:33 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is exactly how I felt. I found it a little humorless and austere, but somehow not boring. not a great movie or anything but gonna do some edibles and watch on imax in a couple days

It is QUITE good on IMAX, it turns out a large amount of the film was shot for it, including some sequences in full like the sandworm attack on the spice harvester. It also struck me that Villeneuve/the editors' sense of pacing is really good, I was able to get a better grip on how they balanced out the longeurs with concentrated action.

Minor revelations from the credits: oddly enough, given the Lisa Gerrardisms of that one motif, Gerrard IS a credited vocal performer, but not of that piece, which is...odd.

Also: one of the Bene Gesserit voices that Paul hears during his visions? Marianne Faithfull!

I'm a total unbeliever in all this "you aren't doing it right unless watching it in a big-screen warehouse" bollox being talked up by the director, without meaning to be an arsehole towards ppl who enjoy IMAX. Such an oafish thing to say and yes some of my best memories of watching movies were on a 14" b/w tv!

Yeah a film has to be good in its own right to start with. And there are tradeoffs -- at points the images were noticeably darker in IMAX in comparison to similar sequences via regular theater viewing and on TV.

IMAX was a huge step up from TV, no idea if I'd miss much watching a normal theater showing.

“frankly, to watch ‘DUNE’ on a television, the best way I can compare it is to drive a speedboat in your bathtub. For me, it’s ridiculous. It’s a movie that has been made as a tribute to the big-screen experience."

Villeneuve wasn't strictly talking about IMAX tbf on him, but still there are a lot of people who liked this movie who can't afford to or don't want to go to cinemas for various reasons rn and they enjoyed it with their headphones on in their living room or even their PC and to say it's ridiculous way to watch it like this is quite fucking ridiculous imo!

if that's how he feels, maybe he shouldn't have taken hbo's money?

I've seen one Mission Impossible movie and one Star Wars movie in IMAX and they've been pretty similar experiences to the other films in the series that I didn't watch in IMAX. nb I don't know if those movies were shot specifically for IMAX (and don't really care)

But I am jealous of y'all able to watch Dune in any kind of theater (theaters still not open here!)

if that's how he feels, maybe he shouldn't have taken hbo's money?

― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Sunday, October 31, 2021 11:01 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

iirc he made the film prior to hbo deciding to do day and date?

anyway half of the movie is awesome scenes of spaceships landing so of course the creator is going to tell us to watch it on the biggest screen possible and he's probably right! but we're all adults and can do what we want and he'll never know.

lol you're such a myopic poshboy!

Watching Dune on HBO Max as socialist praxis, fite!