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While Herbert frames the events of Dune as significant historical events among the ruling patrician classes of his intergalactic “Imperium,” with a literal princess recording the events for posterity, Villeneuve’s Dune begins with Zendaya’s Fremen character Chani as the narrator.
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It’s one of the key reasons Gene Siskel and Robert Ebert famously declared Dune to be among the worst movies of 1984, with Siskel calling it an “unintelligible gross out.”īeyond not attempting to squeeze Herbert’s whole sprawling yarn into two or even three hours, another fascinating choice made by Villeneuve’s Dune is how it jettisons the framing device of the novel, where many of the chapters’ events are foreshadowed with an excerpt from a history text written by the character Princess Irulan in the distant future. The pacing and storytelling structure is so top-heavy and unwieldy that it makes the plot impenetrable to most newcomers. While the Lynch film has its fans, even the most ardent admirer will concede the back half of the picture, particularly the third act, is a dizzying narrative cluster where one damn thing happens after another. However, the choice by Villeneuve to cut Dune into two movies already appears to be a prudent one by simple comparison with Lynch’s movie. As such, we won’t be comparing the elements left to a second film beyond this point. In fact, it only covers about half the book, ending at a midway point where Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, the Lady Jessica ( Rebecca Ferguson), have been cautiously accepted by a Fremen leader after Paul slew one of their men in holy combat.Īll the elements of Paul being fully embraced by the Fremen, leading them into a coordinated uprising against House Harkonnen, his fateful meeting with the Padishah Emperor, and even earning the name Muad’Dib have been left for a second movie.
#CHILDREN OF DUNE BOOK VS TV MOVIE#
The biggest difference between the two films is that Villeneuve’s movie is not an adaptation of the whole 1965 novel. Below are the variances, great and small, that when added together create viscerally diverging interpretations of a tale about a boy, a desert, and the spice melange…. Rather the two films offer a fascinating case study in how the different choices made by different filmmakers, even while working toward the same goal and with the same source material, can produce vastly different results. Well, we’re not here to tell you which you should prefer (although we have a clear preference).
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Indeed, you’ve likely already seen spicy hot takes on social media where folks declare the once reviled adaptation produced by Dino De Laurentiis to be superior to the modern Hollywood spectacle helmed by the Oscar-winning auteur behind Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Largely hated and dismissed in its time by critics and general audiences-even its director isn’t too fond of the finished product, taking his name off extended television cuts-Lynch’s Dune has developed a cult classic status in recent years. And yet, more often than not, the differences are as colossal as the desert of Arrakis itself. Yet as Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica move through the harsh landscape, they realize a creature-a monstrous Sandworm the size of a skyscraper-is headed straight for them.Īm I describing Denis Villeneuve’s new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s literary masterpiece, Dune, or David Lynch’s previous 1984 stab at the same material? Honestly, in moments like these, they’re surprisingly similar: intended epics made by filmmakers committed to doing justice to what many believe is the finest science fiction novel ever written. In the distance, a pair of figures, a mother and son, cross this vast chasm of dunes on their quest to find those blue-eyed devils they call the Fremen. Both of them.įor miles stretching as far as the eye can see, oceans of sand slumber beneath two moons.