Dune The Review
Dune The Book
Dune
is a 1965 novel by Frank Herbert. It tells the story of Paul Atreides who
arrives at the planet Arrakis, aka Dune. His family is overthrown and his
mother and he must learn how to survive by living amongst the secretive
natives called Fremen.
I
liked this book overall. The story was engaging, and there were several plots
and arcs to follow. It wasn’t overly descriptive however, and I had trouble
imagining some of the machines, and places talked about in this book. There is
a crazy extensive vocabulary needed to understand what’s going on and the
author just jumps right in. While there was a term list in the back of the book
to define several of the made-up words that Frank Herbert uses, I didn’t end up
referencing it much because it was too much work to keep switching back and
forth.
The
book also gets super existential at times because Paul uses the all-important
export of Arrakis, known as spice, to heighten his mental and visionary
capabilities. While he is thus wandering through time and future possibilities,
the author gets really flowery with his words and it can be hard to follow
what’s actually going on.
Excluding
all the mind-trippy stuff, the story is really pretty good. Paul is forced to
grow up fast and is tested at a young age. The novel follows his growth as he
comes into his own, both mentally gifted, and as a leader among the Fremen.
Dune The Movie
Dune
the movie first came out in 1984. It follows the book fairly well as it tells
the story of the Atreides family and their move and the coup that happens on
Dune. One major thing this movie does is provide crazy visuals that aren’t
really described by the book. Sometimes this is awesome, as you really get a
sense of the sand worms that live on Dune, and sometimes it’s awful as they make
the Harkonnens really gross looking and industrial/militaristic, especially the
villain Baron Harkonnen. Man is this character gross. In the book he is
described as being so fat that he has to be supported by a machine that
levitates him because he can’t move under his own power due to his weight. But
in the movie, this man is diseased, and has plugs and oil over him. He comes
off as completely unhinged and greasy.
One
thing the movie completely ignores is …. SPOILER ALERT…. the fact that Paul and
his Fremen concubine, Chani, have a son together. While not crucial to the
plot, it does help to round out the reasons why Paul acts like he does. Another
thing the movie does that isn’t in the book at all is make words kill. I know
that sounds odd, but the movie would have you believe that certain words when
spoken can kill a man, set fire to him, and obliterate him. Um, no. This is not
in the book. The Fremen do learn how to fight differently, but they aren’t
running around yelling things at people and exploding them.
THE VERDICT
