DUNE (2000) You've gotta admit, it's a step up Let's be blunt. David Lynch's big-screen version of Frank Herbert's Dune sucked the farts out of dead cats. (flips a quarter to David Schow) I know, it's got its fans (of the guilty-pleasure variety and otherwise) but where some people see surrealism, I see a butchered effort at best, misguided incompetence at worst. Any second attempt to adapt the novel was damn near bound to be better, and while this one (aired recently on Space!) probably won't send anybody into paroxysms of "justice for my favorite novel at last!" pleasure, it's a mostly well-executed project that, though often tedious and/or shakily made, at least makes sense. It's kinda dull, and by no means turns out to be a hands-down winner in the end, but there's a lot to admire, and by almost any standard, it's head, shoulders, knees and ankles above Lynch's legendarily bad 1984 craptacular. Approaching this recent "we'll do it right, we promise!" mini-series had me a bit of two minds; while I've really grown to hate these "the Chosen One will lead us out of bondage" stories, Lynch's movie was so bad, it's inevitable that any admirer of the book would anticipate a better adaptation. Besides, the combination of science fiction and high fantasy is what has been calling to me the most of late, and there really is so little quality material in that vein out there that I find myself slaking my thirst mostly in the albums of "Britannic War-Metal" musicians Bal-Sagoth. Love them Darth Vader-like vocals. Four and a half hours (without commercials) allows for much more of a leisurely pace than did the 1984 film, and considering the slow pace of the book, such a spread-out format is surely a more appropriate one, though I still maintain that this really could be pared down into a kickass 2-hour movie, if only some filmmaker out there had the guts to be so willing to piss off fans of the book by simplifying the story. I know, it isn't going to happen; Dune fans are a feisty bunch, many of them perfectly willing to kill you and everybody you've ever cared about if you dare so much as suggest altering Herbert's vision a little. The plot's the same as Dune's always been. The planet of Arakkis, AKA Dune, is the only source of the "spice" (long-understood sci-fi euphemism for "drug") melange, which allows space travel. Space travel is accomplished only by the melange-addicted Spacing Guild, which is like a galactic teamsters union. (again, nobody even suggests whether or not melange can be synthesized) The emperor of all the known universe (Giancarlo Giannini) bestows custodianship of Dune to the good folks at House Atreides (led by Duke Leto, stiffly played by William Hurt), thus taking it away from the cruel House Harkonnen (led by the pudgy yet gravity-defying Ian MacNeice). Sounds like a gift, sure, but defending a fortune turns out to be much more difficult than attaining it, and it's clear soon enough that that was the idea all along, leaving Paul (Alec Newman), the son of Leto, with the task of rallying Dune's desert-dwelling Fremen (free men, get it?) into taking it back from The Man. Plot-wise, the biggest problem with this project is the same problem I've always had with Dune; prophecy is a lousy mover for a story, neither imaginative nor logical, and every time I see it used in a movie or a book I come away with the same impression, that the writer couldn't think of any other way to get people to behave in ways which are totally contrary to their good sense. I know, I'm harping on this story for being what it is, but I've gotta be honest on this one. Otherwise...well, it's hard to say. I watched the first two parts while they aired on TV, the third, later on tape. Somewhere at the end of the first part, or maybe the beginning of the second part, is where Paul and his mother (Saskia Reeves) are dumped in the desert by the Harkonnens, who are convinced that they'll die in the desert (instead of dumping them in the laps of an oppressed people who've been prophesizing for just about forever that some sort of Chosen One will arrive from offworld and lead them to the overthrow of the Harkonnens). Or, that's what happened in the book and in the first movie. I'm just drawing a blank here, though - I wish I had these parts on tape so I can go over whatever it is I missed. I'm certain I didn't step away from the TV for anything other than commercials during these parts, but I swear, I'm missing this whole part of the plot from my memory...one moment, the Atreides are under attack from the Harkonnens, and the next, Paul and his mother are out in the desert. That's the best my memory can do right now. But other than that, the plot moves along, and it makes sense, and you don't need a Cliff's Notes cast of characters to figure out what's going on. Yeah, some characters like Duncan Idaho and Thufir Hawat vanish almost entirely, but I don't particularly mind; I might have had I re-read the novel just before viewing this one. The first obvious thing that works VERY well here is the awe-inspiring production design and costumes in the first act. "Where the hell did they get the money for this?" I was wondering. Twenty million bucks well-spent indeed, for a while, anyway. Certainly more visually convincing and imaginative than any made-for-TV science fiction project I've ever seen, we get to go around and through starships, instead of just having them whiff by, and we get to have a look at future cityscapes (can't get enough of these, these days) which are less static than matte paintings. It's all presented in widescreen, too (I have no idea if this recent trend in made-for-TV widescreen projects is going to hold up for long) for that cinematic vibe. I would have loved to have seen this in a theater, if ever such a screening ever took place. Writer/director John Harrison gives singular color schemes for characters and places; electric blue for the Emperor, crimson for the Harkonnens, all sorts of oranges and browns for the Atreides and whatever's going on in the sand. Maybe having the camera constantly tilted a la Batman for the Harkonnen scenes is a bit much, but I liked the colors, fitting and some not entirely expected choices. Also, the decidedly low-tech nature of the book is reflected nicely here, with humanity having concentrated more on developing themselves to adapt to environments than adapting those environments to themselves. The giant sandworms, which I would guess are mostly CGI here, are gorgeously rendered (well, as gorgeous as a giant disgusting worm can get), showing flaws not in themselves but in the plumes of dust kicked up when they dive back into the sand (last-minute addition?). They're as implausible as they ever were (anyone care to tell me what these things eat?), but still...giant sandworms! What's not to like? For a while, the biggest problem, visually, is the "ornithopters", the mode of air transport favored by whatever house is ruling Dune at any given time. The idea of an ornithopter has long been favored by science fiction writers, though it's always struck me as a little silly; a vehicle that flies by flapping its wings would make for a bumpy ride, not to mention machinery that's way more complicated than it needs to be. No matter, though, because the vehicles referred to here as ornithopters, well, aren't. They're like airplane/helicopter combos. No matter, though, since that's hardly a problem compared to, say, act two. Set mostly in the deep desert, the second act just reeks of cheapness, like they suddenly ran out of money, or just placed too much faith in the capabilities of bluescreens. Have you ever watched a bad special effect and thought to yourself, "Damn, I could do this...easily!"? One of the (very few) things that Lynch's movie did right was that the desert scenes were actually filmed in the desert. Here, it's painfully obvious that they were filmed in what appears to be a sandbox, in front of a bluescreen background of a painted desert landscape of little detail. Things pick up a little in the third act, splitting the difference between the "desert" scenes and the interiors, but by then, your ass is likely to be mighty sore. The actors are rather a mixed bag, everybody with a different (often unidentifiable) accent, none of these accents seeming to have any relevance to anything else. Like in Lynch's film, there are a lot of people here, most of them are talented, and more than a few of them are just plain silly. Kyle McLachlan mistook detached arrogance for regality, an easy mistake if you're basing your performance on American movies about other countries' royalty, but not excusable if you're actually trying to make your character into a hero. As a result, he was annoying throughout the entire film (and his near-instant ascent to leading the Fremen merely reinforced the impression of him being a spoiled kid who has everything given to him). Newman plays Paul very differently, but only a little more successfully; more likely to complain about his difficult royal responsibilities than about how his royal privileges aren't making everything easy for him. (I know, McLachlan didn't really whine in Lynch's film, but he always seemed on the verge of it) Still, I'm relieved to see that the character is again somewhat older than Herbert's originally intended fifteen years. William Hurt gets stiffer with every passing year it seems, and this role is no exception. Reeves is fine as Paul's mother, regal and measured, but with a lot of warmth and quiet charisma. Too bad that this version scarcely hints at just what a bene gesserit (sp?) is. P.H. Moriarty as Leto's five-star-general Gurney Halleck acquits himself nicely, though Uwe Ochsenknecht as Stilgar the Fremen comes across well overall, looks utterly, fabulously wrong for the part. I mean, these are desert people, living under circumstances so dire that every drop of water is more precious than gold...so how did this guy get so chubby? The villains, again, are hysterically overplayed. Much like his predecessor, MacNeice spends most of his time floating around and ranting, this time ending every one of his scenes with a rhyming couplet (I don't remember if that was in the book or not). He lacks the Lynchian perversity of, say, the thing with the cat, but couldn't possibly be less menacing, so he comes across fairly well. His nephew Rabban (Laszlo I. Kish), who controls Dune after it's re-taken, actually makes MacNeice look sedate in comparison. Much like in the original film, it's the Sting role of sleek, direct Feyd (Matt Keeslar) which comes across the best out of the badguys. I counted only one scene in this entire show where I actually remember hearing Graeme Revell's music, so the score must be either totally successful or just nothing special at all. I have no idea which. If I ever end up seeing this again, I'll try to pay attention to it. In the meantime, suffice it to say that overall, Dune is very much a hit-and-miss miniseries with more potential unexploited than otherwise, but it's definitely a step up. And I hope it's successful, because with cinematic science fiction getting dumber and dumber, it's nice to see another medium willing to try to fill that void. I wouldn't quite go so far as to recommend this - four and a half hours for such an inconsistent movie which ends up being "not bad" overall is a hell of a long sit. And it never recaptures all that works so splendidly in the first act. But still, it should probably be given a chance by just about anybody who liked the book, likes space opera, or is just glad to see a science fiction project hit the screen which is a little more ambitious than rehashing Star Wars and Alien. (I know, I know, Dune the book came out long before them) For a while, anyway, my thirst for that mix of fantasy (a term most sci-fi fans seem to look down on with revulsion; ah well, their loss) and science fiction is slaked. Harrison has apparently been signed to adapt the next two of Herbert's Dune books, Dune Messiah (barely got through it) and...dammit, I don't remember the next one, Children Of Dune I think. I hope that making Dune has taught him some lessons about what works and what doesn't; if he's learned them, then they should be projects to watch out for. Actually, I'm hoping for a miniseries for Dan Simmons' Hyperion/The Fall Of Hyperion. Maybe that'll take another thirty years, but I'd love to see it. BACK TO THE D's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE