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Neo Rasa
Mar 8, 2007
Everyone should play DUKE games.

:dukedog:
The Dune movie is fine, just not outstanding because it has so many little things wrong with it. But then it has GOAT-level poo poo like this to so it evens out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWq15lDh8yM


<3 I love how Kenneth McMillan is totally channeling Donald Pleasance slightly here.

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David D. Davidson
Nov 17, 2012

Orca lady?
The Lynch Dune movie is an utter failure because the studio chickened out on showing Sting's junk.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Neo Rasa posted:

The Dune movie is fine, just not outstanding because it has so many little things wrong with it. But then it has GOAT-level poo poo like this to so it evens out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWq15lDh8yM


<3 I love how Kenneth McMillan is totally channeling Donald Pleasance slightly here.

A violent sexual assault while his family watches with glee as the victim bleeds out is the GOAT? And it's completely invented for the movie; this didn't happen in the book. Lynch turned the scheming careful manipulator into a braying psychopath.

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

C-Euro posted:

Dune is extremely good and I recommend it every time I see someone on social media asking what they should read next. I've never seen the Lynch movie but the SyFy miniseries is on YouTube if you a little digging.


Messiah and Children are fine but the first book is obvs better. I've never read God-Emperor but I've heard it's fuckin wild

God Emperor is the best.

Anonymous Zebra
Oct 21, 2005
Blending in like it ain't no thang
I re-read Dune probably once every 3 years, and every time I forget that easily the first third of the book is literally characters sitting around discussing economics, spy-craft, and sabotage while all of those things happen off screen and yet every line of it is important. There is a multi-page section where Jessica analyzes a guild member's accent, determines he is from Giedi Prime, and thus makes about 17 different political conclusions based only on this information. All of the current movies (and no doubt the new one) ignore this entire section and jump right into the slaughter of the family and Paul getting to the Fremen, and it really loses what makes the book so loving bonkers. Dune is almost like two novels jammed together. That first third that is incredibly dense politics and then the back third that is basically easily filmable, but still weird as gently caress.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

PeterWeller posted:

God Emperor is the best.

Spoken like someone who's never read Heretics

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Nah, Heretics is the low point of Frank's novels. Its one redeeming quality is chairdogs.

Collateral
Feb 17, 2010
I got as far as some lady says breathily without moving, or indeed opening, her mouth: "HE KNOWS!"

And threw the VHS in the bin.

You guys are telling me this movie was legit?

mind the walrus
Sep 22, 2006

Fuschia tude posted:

A violent sexual assault while his family watches with glee as the victim bleeds out is the GOAT? And it's completely invented for the movie; this didn't happen in the book. Lynch turned the scheming careful manipulator into a braying psychopath.
As an adaptation yeah it's not that great, but as stand-alone "someone pitched this, got it filmed, and commercially released" it's memorable af and one of the few times anyone really "went" for that Heavy Metal/Métal hurlant adolescent grisliness in live action.

Regarde Aduck
Oct 19, 2012

c l o u d k i t t e n
Grimey Drawer

Collateral posted:

I got as far as some lady says breathily without moving, or indeed opening, her mouth: "HE KNOWS!"

And threw the VHS in the bin.

You guys are telling me this movie was legit?

Is being weirded out by 'inner voice' in films an American thing? I see lots of people on SA complain about the voice over stuff and I don't get it. Is it just because it's done poorly?

Schadenboner
Aug 15, 2011

by Shine

Regarde Aduck posted:

Is being weirded out by 'inner voice' in films an American thing? I see lots of people on SA complain about the voice over stuff and I don't get it. Is it just because it's done poorly?

Not sure if it was an explicitly American thing but I feel like voiceover was common in the lower-tier of TV production when the writers couldn't introduce exposition organically in the 1980s/90s (for example: Wonder Years) and I still react to it as being not a good sign.

E: Like, Wonder Years wasn't even an especially bad show, it's the living embodiment of :geno: IMO, but it leaned heavily on the "Tell" rather than the "Show"?

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
Nowadays they just have characters overexplain everything that happens, while also cutting anything that gives context or alludes to events that aren't happening right now because they don't want to enrage an audience they presume is looking at their phones.

evobatman
Jul 30, 2006

it means nothing, but says everything!
Pillbug
oh hey i bet this movie is just like star wars

*watches three and a half hour of political dialogue and vhs-quality special effects*

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


LA Review of Books just put up a fun Dune article, mostly concerned with Herbert's politics:

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/heresies-of-dune/

mind the walrus
Sep 22, 2006

Yeah that article was really good and illuminating. Herbert lived a much different life and had very different political views than what I envisioned-- granted I never read much than 3/4 of the first book and wiki summaries for the rest.

He really hated liberals, "big government," and apparently wrote the last few books getting hounded by the IRS. I really wonder how bad the brain worms would have been had he stayed alive to see the Murdoch machine with full steam.

SlothfulCobra
Mar 27, 2011

I'm honestly not surprised, because nothing about Dune speaks of a fondness for democracy or trust in society. People should just choose to be tough and pull themselves up by their bootstraps onto a giant worm and take a swig of their own piss instead of being soft by expecting some kind of infrastructure to protect them from threats or provide water to homes.

GORDON
Jan 1, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

SlothfulCobra posted:

I'm honestly not surprised, because nothing about Dune speaks of a fondness for democracy or trust in society. People should just choose to be tough and pull themselves up by their bootstraps onto a giant worm and take a swig of their own piss instead of being soft by expecting some kind of infrastructure to protect them from threats or provide water to homes.

Or..... the original book could be construed as "look what happens when huge, dark, shadowy, influential groups are allowed to run rampant through society, instead of letting people run their own lives. Universal jihad."

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

SlothfulCobra posted:

I'm honestly not surprised, because nothing about Dune speaks of a fondness for democracy or trust in society. People should just choose to be tough and pull themselves up by their bootstraps onto a giant worm and take a swig of their own piss instead of being soft by expecting some kind of infrastructure to protect them from threats or provide water to homes.

Brian writes about how he avoided the hippie subculture when he was in college because they reminded him so much of his dad. I don't think the Frank Herbert = Ayn Rand take is all that accurate.

Schadenboner
Aug 15, 2011

by Shine

Fuschia tude posted:

Brian writes about how he avoided the hippie subculture when he was in college because they reminded him so much of his dad. I don't think the Frank Herbert = Ayn Rand take is all that accurate.

People today forget that Nixon and Watergate broke a lot of people's minds in a way that's only comparable to how 9/11 did. There were a lot of what I'd call maybe "Right Tendency Hippies" who, politically speaking, are at variance with what people think of as hippieish these days.

These people often ended up in the foothills (what became wine country or whatever it's called now) growing weede, I'm told.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

SlothfulCobra posted:

I'm honestly not surprised, because nothing about Dune speaks of a fondness for democracy or trust in society. People should just choose to be tough and pull themselves up by their bootstraps onto a giant worm and take a swig of their own piss instead of being soft by expecting some kind of infrastructure to protect them from threats or provide water to homes.

Kind of a whole point is that the Fremen literally only survive because they have close-knit societal units, infrastructure and technology, and ways of communicating and common cultural ground, and make great sacrifices to common resources they hope will one day make their planet more liveable.

Dune is honestly pretty unique in sci-fi for having such a focus on culture, material conditions, and statecraft, not just a children's fantasy view of the universe.

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Dune, at least the original, is a political thriller, the sci-fi is only set dressing.

Fluoride Jones
Aug 24, 2009

toot toot

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Kind of a whole point is that the Fremen literally only survive because they have close-knit societal units, infrastructure and technology, and ways of communicating and common cultural ground, and make great sacrifices to common resources they hope will one day make their planet more liveable.

Dune is honestly pretty unique in sci-fi for having such a focus on culture, material conditions, and statecraft, not just a children's fantasy view of the universe.

also that they try to minimize their impact on the environment and iirc aren't concerned with spice's value as a commodity. One of the scenes that I remember from the book (though it's been a while) is when the worm eats the spice harvester and i think some people working on it and the reaction from the atreides people is dismay at the loss of cargo. Again, it's been a while so i might be remembering it differently

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Nah, in that scene, the Fremen leader Liet Kynes is impressed by Duke Leto's concern for the men, not the material. The Fremen care about Spice as a commodity. They use it to pay off the Guild to keep quiet about the patches of irrigated land they have established out in the deep desert. They also use it to make a lot of everyday goods like paper.

Fluoride Jones
Aug 24, 2009

toot toot
gently caress i failed, i'm never gonna get to ride the worm now

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
The Fremen are aware of spice's value, very much so, they just aren't as fussed with it day to day given they live in the only place it's produced and so have access to the greatest quantities of anyone in the galaxy, making everything from paper to beer with the stuff. I still reckon the Spice is probably one of the few things that makes Fremen life tolerable.

It is mentioned later that the Fremen are reflexively protective of materiel and equipment, given how hard it is to replace, and Paul has to remind them that they're close enough to victory that they'll soon have no shortage of that.

Feldegast42
Oct 29, 2011

COMMENCE THE RITE OF SHITPOSTING

40k is probably the best Dune adaptation, only with blackjack, and Orks

Foxfire_
Nov 8, 2010

Fluoride Jones posted:

also that they try to minimize their impact on the environment
The Fremen end goal is destroying the entire existing ecosystem and replacing it with a lush water-filled one

Schwarzwald
Jul 27, 2004

Don't Blink

Foxfire_ posted:

The Fremen end goal is destroying the entire existing ecosystem and replacing it with a lush water-filled one

The Fremen are good ecological stewards and the old ecosystem had it coming.

Schwarzwald fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Dec 18, 2020

Schwarzwald
Jul 27, 2004

Don't Blink
Arnold Schwarzenegger x Carl Weathers handshake meme but the arms are labeled "Fremen" and "Anakin" and the handshake is labeled "gently caress Sand."

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
The Mandalorian basically confirmed that the Tusken Raiders/Sand People are pretty much Fremen. Mando gets along well with them.

Hodgepodge
Jan 29, 2006
Probation
Can't post for 232 days!
herbert is weird because he was clearly on the road to chudtown and yet all the fremen ecological stuff is based on him being really impressed by a particular ecologists work

Barry Foster
Dec 24, 2007

What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Hodgepodge posted:

herbert is weird because he was clearly on the road to chudtown and yet all the fremen ecological stuff is based on him being really impressed by a particular ecologists work

Before the advent of Fox news and the modern culture wars and the like, conservative conservationism wasn't an oxymoron. There were plenty of sorta weird right-wing libertarian hippies knocking about

Feldegast42
Oct 29, 2011

COMMENCE THE RITE OF SHITPOSTING

IIRC the GOP had a conservationist streak due to Teddy Roosevelt being really big into it that didn't get demolished until Reagan took power

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Barry Foster posted:

Before the advent of Fox news and the modern culture wars and the like, conservative conservationism wasn't an oxymoron. There were plenty of sorta weird right-wing libertarian hippies knocking about

I mean, there are still ecofash today. Lots of hippie conferences and meetups that are currently active have participants that are just out and out "only right-wing politics can actually defend the natural world." They tend to be weird so discourse online about them tends to be even weirder but it's definitely still a thing, even if its very small. I don't know if Herbert would fit in with them, though maybe he'd just...adjust a little to conform.

I do wonder if having authentically bonkers politics is an asset to making highly memorable world building, because Tolkien is the other "big worldbuilding guy from the midcentury" and his politics are also pretty wild.

Bootcha
Nov 13, 2012

Truly, the pinnacle of goaltending
Grimey Drawer
Lynch's Dune movie is a more watchable Kubrick's 2001 movie.

denereal visease
Nov 27, 2002

"Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own."

Schwarzwald posted:

Arnold Schwarzenegger x Carl Weathers handshake meme but the arms are labeled "Fremen" and "Anakin" and the handshake is labeled "gently caress Sand.
:emptyquote:

Ghost Leviathan posted:

The Mandalorian basically confirmed that the Tusken Raiders/Sand People are pretty much Fremen. Mando gets along well with them.
This is an interesting idea... I really liked the implication that a Major Character was able to assimilate into the Tusken culture and incorporate some of their customs into their daily life. The after credits scene for The Mandalorian S2 finale piqued my interest as well, but I'm not terribly optimistic that lightning will strike twice.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
It's more that the Tusken culture seems to share a few values with the Mandalorian's, including never removing their helmets and what looks like heavy focus on nonverbal communication, as well as shared pragmatic attitudes.

Hodgepodge
Jan 29, 2006
Probation
Can't post for 232 days!

Ghost Leviathan posted:

It's more that the Tusken culture seems to share a few values with the Mandalorian's, including never removing their helmets and what looks like heavy focus on nonverbal communication, as well as shared pragmatic attitudes.

vader not taking his helmet off was a low-key penance for the tusken massacre. only when he is redeemed is he allowed to remove the helmet. or maybe in that weird sphere he hung out in, idk

Sir DonkeyPunch
Mar 23, 2007

I didn't hear no bell

Hodgepodge posted:

vader not taking his helmet off was a low-key penance for the tusken massacre. only when he is redeemed is he allowed to remove the helmet. or maybe in that weird sphere he hung out in, idk

Dare you enter... THE ATONEMENT SPHERE?!

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feedmegin
Jul 30, 2008

Tulip posted:

I do wonder if having authentically bonkers politics is an asset to making highly memorable world building, because Tolkien is the other "big worldbuilding guy from the midcentury" and his politics are also pretty wild.

How so?

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