I recently read an excellent review of the Sci-Fi channel's 2003 sequel to their 2000 mini-series production of Dune. The review of Children of Dune was by our own MrsNormanMaine who did her usual splendid job. Since I don't get the SciFi Channel on my cable setup anymore, I missed seeing this production, but I've resurrected a review on their first venture and decided to re-post it.

The novel, Dune, was written in 1965 by Frank Herbert. It won the Hugo and the Nebula awards for best sci-fi novel of the year. When the first novel appeared at my local library, I grabbed it and read it twice before it was time to return it. The whole plot idea really grabbed me and as each of the successive books came along I read Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune with equal abandon. To me this was the best science fiction that had come along since Azimov’s Foundation Trilogy.

The Sci-Fi channel’s long awaited TV movie version of Frank Herbert’s book was scheduled to debut at 8 p.m. (CST) on December 3, 2000. I began to see commercials for the made-for-TV version in late October and all through November. As Sunday approached my anticipation level zoomed upwards. I made plans to be in front of my TV with a new, blank tape in the machine ready to record everything but the numerous commercials.

I read John Leonard’s review in New York magazine the week before, so I had an inkling that I wouldn’t be too pleased with some of the things like casting and costumes. I didn’t agree with a lot of Leonard’s review, but more on that later. When I saw the 1984 movie produced by Dino de Laurentiis’s daughter Raffaella, I wasn’t too pleased with that either. Actually, Frank Herbert disowned the movie and director/screenwriter David Lynch, disassociated himself from the long movie version, but it was still far superior to this made-for-TV piece of junk.

Leonard says that Herbert’s book “was part biblical and part Shakespearean,” and included everything from “El Cid to Ho Chi Minh,” How did he miss the fact that the House Atrides was real. When I finally found that out, it was like a bell going off. The Atrides were the kings of Mycenae. That’s in Greece folks! Heinrich Schleiman excavated the site after he dug up Troy and I find more links to that period of history than to anything like “echoes of ancient Israelites or Afrikaners” or any of that stuff from the Bible.**

This is the honored story of good triumphing over evil. Against overwhelming odds, a Messiah (Paul Atriedes) rises from among seemingly ordinary people to deliver them from oppression. I thought it was wonderful of Frank Herbert to keep that lineage going. If we’re supposed to believe that these folks in the far future originated from Earth, then evolution would have incorporated some strange mixtures. I can agree that a lot of different races and cults went into the makeup of this story.

If my memory serves me correctly, the de Laurentis film was made in and around the deserts of Mexico. The TV version was filmed on a Prague film set. And there the trouble starts for me. It was neither exotic nor erotic. Sometimes the variety of dialects was so irksome to me that it was like listening to the Tower of Babel. The de Laurentis movie had fabulous theme music. It received an Academy Award nomination. After watching the TV version for six hours I don’t remember a note of what Theodor Pistek wrote.

The story takes place in 10,091 A.D. and opens on the lush planet of Caladan, where nary a drop of water is shown. Duke Leto Atriedes, played in a very vanilla stupor by William Hurt, was my first clue to massive miscasting. He mumbled incoherently. The whole family is being sent to the desert planet Arakis by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Jose Ferrer in the de Laurentis film) played by Giancarlo Gianinni, to watch over the production of Spice, much to the annoyance of Baron Harkonnen and his minions.

The de Laurentis Duke, Jurgen Prochnow, was dark, sexy and virile. The Duke’s courtesan/mistress, the Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis), was sleek and seductive. She was a Bene Gesserit nun who manipulated her body to deliver him a son rather than the daughter that was to be (eventually) wed to one of the Harkonnens and thus bring peace.

Saskia Reeves, who plays Lady Jessica in the TV version is a bit more energetic than William Hurt, but not much. She wasn’t very sexy either. She reminded me of a pretty, blonde Mittel-European hausefrau. Her son, Paul, who is the hero of the story, is played by Alex Newman. He is so blonde and skinny that he hardly looks the part of a hero, but then, Kyle Maclachlan didn’t move me either. I thought they were both wimps. That’s just my opinion. These people should be dark, sexy and swarthy.

Ian McNiece was closer to what I thought the lecherous bisexual Baron Vladimir Harkonnen should have been. Kenneth McMillan who played the Baron as diseased and debauched lecher in the De Laurentis movie surpassed him by mile; that man was evil. He was also hot for his beautiful nephew and they omitted that in the TV version. As far as the two nephews go, Raban was a nicely gross baddie with dyed Mercurochrome red hair. I don’t remember much of his character from the other film; he had a small background part . . . except when he got beheaded by the mob at the end. Payback time!

Feyd, the Baron’s boy-toy and second nephew, was played to a faretheewell by Sting in a rubber bikini in the de Laurentis movie. In this version the actor was “introduced” in the screen credits of the TV version as a “find.” His name was Matt Keeslar, and I thought so what! His character was supposed to be bisexual and sexy. This guy looked like something from a grade C porn movie dressed in a cheap red satin bathrobe. Sure, he was pretty but he didn’t have the talent of a plank!

As I watched this TV version, I quickly realized that it had nothing in common with what David Lynch and his crew put into their film. The sets and costumes seemed all wrong. In the de Laurentis version the costumes were more courtly and Venetian or maybe Medici inspired. They were literally much more lush and sumptuous than these outfits, which looked like flimsy versions of Mandarin Court costumes or stuff from a German opera or uniforms of the 18th and 19th century military.

The Bene Gesserit Sisters, dressed in flowing robes, looked like a flock of drugged southern belles in floppy hats. Only the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam had an interesting variation on a wimple. She had a heavy German accent that reminded me of the host of a long-gone cooking show; maybe it was Anne-Marie Victory in drag. Sian Phillips played the role in de Laurentis movie and did a far superior job. She also played the role of Livia in I Claudius and recently played a cameo part in the La Femme Nikita TV series.

The desert Fremen all looked like monks with hoods and cowls; they were supposed to look somewhat Arabic at the least. They had blue eyes from the spice that glowed in the dark. The still-suits that recycled their body’s water and kept them alive in the desert were great looking hi-tech rubber creations in the de Laurentis movie. Here, they looked like they were made of cheap cotton camouflage cloth. When they disrobed in their caves, there was some partial nudity shown, but not enough to excite or embarrass anyone. The men stripped down to some sort of diaper that would have been perfectly at home at the time of Solomon or even Marco Polo, but not this far in the future.

I mean, come on, this is some ten thousand years in the future. Even if they destroyed all the computers, they'd still made advances like using the Space Guild to warp space and travel across the universe, I would think they would have invented some more interesting skivvies for both men and women to wear. Oh yes, then there's their main camp. It looked like an Egyptian version of Petra, the Greco-Roman city discovered in the deserts near present-day Israel. It was pure stage set.

What little I did like was simply not enough to save this film for me. The worms were wonderful, better even than the de Laurentis worms. But they only appeared in the deep desert segments. In the final conflict there were . . . no worms and no Voice to paralyze the enemy. This film followed parts of the book much closer than the movie version. There was lots more ambushing and violence and fighting with the enemy. There were more dream segments and a whole two hours of filming in the desert. At least I hope it was the desert.

The final fight and the showdown at court between Paul and Feyd was sort of okay, but . . .! And I forgot all about Princess Irulan. She turns out to be fairly sneaky and she narrates some of the voice over, but she doesn’t have much to work with. Many of the actors didn’t.

I am happy that I spent six hours taping this thing. I’m glad I took 14 pages of notes. I will have it to compare to the de Laurentis movie, and I’ll keep waiting for someone to do a really good job on the movie of next book, if there ever is one. Meanwhile if you see any reruns of Dune listed on the Sci-Fi Channel, watch something else. Or better yet, go to the library and get the book and use your own imagination.

For those of you who are Sci-fi fanatics, I found a site that has all the information on all the Dune films including the newest one. Check out http://www.duneinfo.com/arrakis/dlfhthumb.asp and have some fun. There are lots of pictures and full information on actors, costumes, music, sets and more.

** For those who may be interested, there's a site that explains this link at http://www2.bc.edu/~constas/agamemnon.html and I quote: "The House of Atreus is, strictly speaking, the family of Atreus, but the phrase refers to all descendants of Pelops, the legendary founder of the Pelopid dynasty at Mycenea, for whom the Peloponnese is probably named." There's lots more.

If you enjoy the Dune books and movies go visit Catu11us and read what he's up to with his new six-part series.

A review of the 1984 David Lynch film: http://www.epinions.com/content_107470360196#ow

A review of the recent SF Channel Dune miniseries http://www.epinions.com/content_107537141380

A review of the more recent SF Channel Children of Dune miniseries (upcoming).

A parody, “Franz : Kafka :: Lorna : _____ : http://www.epinions.com/content_3418595460




© Ed Grover – re-write/re-post 2003


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age