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Movie Review: 'Dune'
by Rich Brooks
5 November 2003
I am reviewing another movie today which I probably would have never watched -- certainly not the entire six-plus hours of the trilogy's duration -- were it not for the recommendation of a VNN reader. "Dune" is the celluloid version of the best-selling 1960s Frank Herbert science fiction novels and was first released in 2000 as a miniseries on the SciFi Channel cable televitz network. For the information of those of you boycotting the jew-controlled cable industry, the SciFi Channel is not a "premium" channel and airs its shows with plenty of commercials. Per my email correspondent's advice, I made sure to rent the "director's cut" DVD, but even in this version the uneven and sometimes confusing cutting and editing made it obvious to me the film had been made with commercial breaks in mind. For the record, I have never been a big science fiction fan, have never watched a complete program on the SciFi Channel, and have seen the "Star Wars" movies only because of their technical wizardry and their status as a contemporary cultural phenomenon.
"Dune" was never made for the big screen, so comparisons with the "Star Wars" movies, with their gargantuan budgets and the Lucas studio's unmatched production facilities, would be grossly unfair. Nevertheless, as a low-budget, small-screen "Star Wars" -- with hints of influence from "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Lord of the Rings" -- I think it holds up very well indeed. In fact this film's emphasis on character and story and its comparative lack of techno-glitz added to its appeal for me. Dyed-in-the-wool sci-fi buffs might see it the other way, I suppose.
William Hurt is the headlined star, in fact the only actor whose name appears on the cover of the video box. Probably the fact that Hurt is the only recognizable name in the cast accounts for this status, because he has only limited screen time. That is too bad, in a way, because I have always enjoyed Hurt's performances, particularly his role as the not-too-bright blow-dried newsreader in "Broadcast News." He did a very sensitive and sympathetic portrayal in that movie of a character-type we would not normally consider admirable. Hurt has a soft and pleasant yet masculine voice and I would like to think that he is as nice in person as the roles he plays. He plays the same decent but troubled character here in "Dune," but unfortunately we get to see far too little of him in this movie. I don't think I'm giving away too much when I tell you he gets killed off at the end of the first episode.
The real star of this miniseries is the unheralded young British actor Alec Newman, who plays Hurt's son and becomes sort of a combination of T.E. Lawrence and Jesus Christ. Most of the action is centered on the desert planet Arrakis in the year 10,000 and something. Water on this planet is so scarce that it is valued much higher than gold. The "Fremen" inhabitants use some contrivance to constantly recycle their bodies' water, and at death the corpse's fluids are carefully recaptured for the community. Newman's character Paul, later to be given the messianic title of "Muad 'Dib," is not of the native "Fremen" tribe but manages, ala Lawrence, to become the promised messiah of these desert people. They are not "sand niggers," however, but are actually white people with otherworldly cobalt blue eyes. In fact, everyone in this movie is White, as nearly as I can recall. Not a single ape-like humanoid, itz hard to believe!
Like "Star Wars," the universe of "Dune" is ruled by an interplanetary empire. In this case, the valuable commodity underlying the empire's power is "spice," but this spice is not of the variety you would buy at the supermarket. It is rather some kind of magical substance which is mined at great risk from the deserts of Arakkis. Gigantic snakelike but dinosaur-sized "worms" are but one of the dangers in this inhospitable climate. I'm afraid, however, that I have too much of a practical or literalistic mind when watching these space odysseys, because I can't help thinking of the improbable coincidence that all of these planets just happen to have the perfect amount of oxygen, gravity, etc. for human habitation. I also found it somewhat incredible that these water-starved peoples always had plenty of food to eat, even while living in cities carved out of desert caves. I couldn't see any evidence of either agriculture or food importation, and in fact plants were only kept in the palace and at great expense (in water) as a sort of religious shrine. But I suppose I am being too nitpicking and overlooking the larger meaning of this saga.
I won't get bogged down trying to recap any more of the plot, because the story is long and sometimes I wasn't able to absorb all of the nuances. The choppy editing for TV no doubt contributed to my inability always to keep track of everything going on. The vision of this world far in the future is, like the world of "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings," very "Roman Empire" or medieval. It is a world dominated by royal families and tribes, and I did not sense the promotion of "democracy" or "equality" that one might expect from a jew production. It is also a world conspicuously and refreshingly devoid of Christianity, but with priests and even a "Reverend Mother" presiding over a magically-based folkish faith. And everything in "Dune" is surprisingly low-tech for a futuristic film.
Oh, there are some action scenes, but the battle weapons are usually daggers and swords rather than laser guns and zappers. I was tempted at times to try to draw lessons about contemporary political issues, but I'm not sure that we can really do that. Like the "Star Wars" movies and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, there are many and often conflicting ideological inferences which can be drawn -- but nothing really definitive.
On a negative note, I must point out that the executive producer and driving force behind his production was Richard P. Rubenstein. Outside of this glaring fact, however, the rest of the cast and crew are (not counting cameramen and musicians) devoid of any obvious jewish names, and I didn't see any obvious ideological axes being ground.
I will agree with my email correspondent that "Dune" leaves you with a good feeling after it is over. A cynic might say that good feeling is, "Thank God, it's finally over," but I don't consider the six hours I spent watching the movie and the supplementary DVD commentaries time totally wasted. Although each of the three episodes is supposed to be a story in itself, you really have to watch the whole trilogy to understand the story. You don't have to watch it all at once, however, and it will probably be more satisfying than a similar amount of time spent randomly gazing at the joo toob.
RICH BROOKS
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