Picked up the Dune dvd set of the sci-fi channel mini-series yesterday. I watched about half of the first episode last night before I had to crash, and I'm fairly impressed. I'm soooo used to the original movie's interpretation of the story that it's equally unnerving and refreshing to see the new style.

The reverend mother, however, troubles me... she looks like a viking opera singer with a mutant butterfly helmet on.

No cable and no DVD for me, so I haven't seen any of the new Dune. Is it out on VHS also?

"No cable and no DVD for me."

Spoken like a Dad :) I make a good living, but I still haven't bothered with a DVD player. My friends ask my why not, and I always respond, "Because Barney doesn't come on DVD."

I do have cable, but that is for the cable modem. If not for that, I would have switched to satellite for video a long time ago.

I saw the series on Sci-Fi when it first came out. the ads were inspired, and the imagery inspired. I just didn't like the end. It seemd rushed and kind of off the path for me, compared to the look and feel of the rest of the series. Overall, though, I liked it.

I have a DVD player. I find that DVD rentals where I live are cheaper than video rentals, since stores here have funny pricing structures for new vs. old movies on video, but not DVD. So better video and sound, plus extra features, I don't have to rewind anything, and it costs less.

Not the hardest purchase I ever considered.

Suckiest mini-series that ever sucked.

Filmed in a sand box, bad camera style, vague plot, lousy pacing, horrible exposition, incredibly annoying costume design (Look at me, I'm an elite shock trooper, look at my mushroom hat!)

Read the books.

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Suckiest mini-series that ever sucked.

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Filmed in a sand box, bad camera style, vague plot, lousy pacing, horrible exposition, incredibly annoying costume design (Look at me, I'm an elite shock trooper, look at my mushroom hat!)

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Read the books.

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"The first one, at least. I thought the series went down hill in a hurry after that."

Amen to that. Plus, if Lynch couldn't do it what made anyone think Turner could? Dune isn't quite as adaptable as something as straight forward as Shaara's The Killer Angels was.

"I think most of the problems can be blamed on the near-impossibility of doing Dune any reasonable justice on a television budget, not to mention the un-cinematic nature of the story. "Plots within plots" are damned difficult to reproduce visually."

Indeed. It's why I fear the Lord of the Rings films coming....

--Andrew

I wouldn't say that the Dune books went downhill after the first, so much as it turns out as you are reading them, that the Dune series is not about what readers of the first book think it is. It's about all that metaphysical crap. Not the plotting and scheming.

"I wouldn't say that the Dune books went downhill after the first, so much as it turns out as you are reading them, that the Dune series is not about what readers of the first book think it is. It's about all that metaphysical crap. Not the plotting and scheming."

Exactly. The other books went downhill precisely because of the less interesting focus shift Herbert went on. I don't think Dune was conceived as a multi-book epic in the way LOTR, or Foundation (the trilogy), were, for example, and the shift in focus is hard to swallow.

And this is because the readers of the first book aren't mistaken in thinking the series is about the plotting and scheming (with a side order of metaphysics) because of the first book. It was. It was Frank who changed the rules with Book 2, and lost a lot of readers interest.

Still, the rest of the series is better than most Sci-Fi.

--Andrew

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Exactly. The other books went downhill precisely because of the less interesting
focus shift Herbert went on. I don't think Dune was conceived as a multi-book epic
in the way LOTR, or Foundation (the trilogy), were, for example, and the shift in
focus is hard to swallow.

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Well color me corrected then. ;-)
Foundation was a bad example for my point, admittedly, since each of the three feel like seperate stories in the same universe.

I'm surprised Dune was serialized. That first book is a very tight narrative. I'm arguing he lost focus with the subsequent books, and lost me and other readers in the process.

Have you read Asimov's essay about the sexual power Spock had over women? It's quite funny and Asimov is obvious thrilled a logical character can be sexy... and dismayed he himself wasn't.

Stephen King recommends every writer knock off 1000 words a day before calling themselves a writer. He notes they don't have to be good words... which explains some of his books.

But I do think a "non-Thomas Harris-like" work ethic is good for a writer in general. Of course, the lack of same hasn't exactly hurt Thomas Harris either.

--Andrew

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I'm surprised Dune was serialized. That first book is a very tight narrative.

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"Of course, the lack of same hasn't exactly hurt Thomas Harris either."

Depends what you mean by "hurt" in that statement. Certainly hasn't hurt him financially, but I think it has definitely hurt him as a writer. I would put forth the quality of the writing in Hannibal as evidence of this.

As for Dune, The Digital Bits has a good breakdown on why the dvd of that miniseries is such a mess. Too bad as I was looking forward to seeing it.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/dunedebate.html

Amanpour