---
description: bless the Maker and His water, bless His comings and goings; may His passing cleanse the world
publish: true
tags:
  - movies
  - criticism
  - analysis
  - thoughts
---
*sietchposting with the Fedaykin*

i've got a lot of thoughts on *Dune*, but i'm not entirely sure how many of them are exactly...*original*. 

anyway, here we go

# the three Dunes
there are three *Dune*s.

## Dune (1984) - David Lynch
the first, *Dune* (1984). David Lynch directed and gave quite a bit of art direction. Kyle MacLaughlan, Patrick Stewart, hell, even Jürgen Prochnow. poor Virginia was robbed, but at least she gives a great intro in the theatrical cut. "stylistic" is a light way of putting it. extremely chopped up for the theatrical cut because the studio complained it was too long. watch the **Spicediver** edit with the deleted stuff cut back in if you can - especially if you can find the one with the storyboard television intro. 

biggest departure from the text in the Lynch version is the "weirding modules" they created to depict the "weirding way" the Bene Gesserit practice in the book. i'd always thought it was more about the whole *prana bindu* training regimen that allows them to have minute control of every individual muscle in their bodies. sort of like Neo's thing. ("I can do kung fu...") but this seems to have been a combination of the "secret Atreides battle tactics" and the weirding way; or someone at least thought it would look better in the movie.

## Frank Herbert's Dune & Children of Dune
the second, *Frank Herbert's Dune* and *Children of Dune*, both Sci-Fi Channel productions. mini-series, both. "stupid hats Dune" as I refer to it. this Baron Harkonnen always ends his scenes in a rhyming couplet like he's in a Shakespearean drama but *doesn't* fly about like a parade balloon with a leak. this Jessica is a bit more confident and headstrong than Lynch's. because it's a miniseries, we get a lot more time to dig into the story and let things really play out. this is where we get our first depictions of the Count and Lady Fenring (of whom the Lady Fenring is a Bene Gesserit) and the "backup plan" to use Harkonnen's nephew (and heir) Feyd-Rautha to sire the *kwisatz haderach*.

we also get our first adaptation of *Dune: Messiah* and *Children of Dune*. these books give us the immediate fallout of Paul's coup, the plan set in motion by Lady Corrino, Irulan, the Tleilaxu face-dancer, and the Guild Navigator... and then the attempted interference with the ultimately successful births of Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, fraternal twins both born to Chani. She dies in childbirth, leaving Paul, Irulan, and Jessica to raise the children.

we also get early James McAvoy playing Leto II, who eventually turns into a giant sandworm after following a vision of his father out into the deep desert. (but that's more *God Emperor* territory)

the production values are...mixed, but the story is there, and is damn accurate to the text. if you watch after you've seen Lynch's version, you'll be able to pick out which lines are taken verbatim from the novel almost immediately. both Sci-Fi miniseries here would be the ones i'd show a literature class if *Dune* came up as a subject of study.

## Villeneuve's Dune Trilogy
the third, Denis Villeneuve's *Dune*, *Dune: Part Two*, and upcoming *Dune: Part Three* (so inspired). much-hyped and much-memed. ("...LISAN AL-GAIB!!") Chalumet plays Paul closer to how i expect him to act for his age in the books. (he's supposed to be like 15 when they leave Caladan)

Villeneuve was honestly smart to cut the first movie in half so he could add more content, but the scenes he chooses to focus on are markedly different from the first two adaptations. both Lynch's and Sci-Fi's adaptations spend at least *some* time in the early story going over Shaddam IV's very obvious plan to send the Atreides to Arrakis with the intent of getting rid of them. Villeneuve chooses not to show the Emperor *at all* until the second film. we make a lot more out of the ceremony handing title and fief over to Leto than either of the other adaptations - and we name drop Kynes as Judge of the Change but don't explain what that means. Kynes also shuffles off this mortal coil more or less as depicted in the novel, which i definitely give props for. it seems at least somewhat *implied* that Chani is Liet's daughter, and that Liet was extremely high up in Fremen society, but not much is made of this, at least in the first two installments.

Villeneuve does manage to get a lot more out of Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck than other adaptations, but i think that was tied pretty heavily to both actors' star power. we don't get as much time with Dr. Yueh to establish that he's supposedly incapable of rendering his noble lords harm...so it's more of a betrayal and more shocking when he turns out to be the saboteur later on. we also get maybe one or two scenes with our Mentat, which is honestly a damn shame, both given the missed opportunity *and* the lost dramatic tension between him and Jessica. (he initially suspects her to be the Harkonnen spy, without knowing she is herself Harkonnen in ancestry)

# thoughts
Paul is many things, most of which are thrust upon him by his parents. Chalumet's portrayal really does highlight the sheer weight of responsibility that *both* of his parents are laying on him - his father's desperate need for Paul to take responsibility for leading the house, and his mother's insistence he *master* the Bene Gesserit practices she thinks he'll need to stay alive. Both things do wind up benefitting him in the end, be it his seemingly innate ability to inspire others to his cause...or his Spice-enhanced prescience and reflexes making him extremely formidable in combat.

But it truly is that looming vision of roaming hoards of warriors chanting his name and burning the stars that keeps him up at night. It makes Villeneuve's Paul reluctant to take *any* responsibility in the sietch with his new Fremen tribe out of fear he'll wind up inspiring zealots. Stilgar proves this to be an inevitability, though I'll also point out that Villeneuve's adaptation is the only one I know of that actually portrays him as the religious fundamentalist zealot he really is. It's mainly through Chani's first few interactions with Paul that we come to understand just how radical Stilgar and his close followers can be. 

I've also got quite a few thoughts about Villeneuve & Zendaya's Chani. I honestly think it's a breath of fresh air to have a Chani who actually *isn't* okay with the guy she fell in love with going all tyrannical and seizing power just like Arrakis' past oppressors. Paul's promises of "transforming the face of Arrakis" – by realizing the *actual* Fremen agenda of terraforming the planet and making it rain – *never come to fruition* because doing so would rob him of two things at once: spice and leverage. While Arrakis produces spice, all the Great Houses and Organizations of the Imperium are beholden to him and his whims. Without that stranglehold on such a crucial resource, Paul would only have the zealots to fight for him, and the rest of the Imperium wouldn't hesitate to wipe him out. 