Dune - 1984

Dune - Mini-series



HOUSE ATREIDES



William Hurt as Duke Leto Atreides

Leto I is born in the year 10,140 A.G. ("after Guild") on the planet Caladan, to Paulus Atreides and Lady Helena Richese-Atreides. Paulus is the reigning Duke of House Atreides, their noble House ruling Caladan for 26 generations.

Leto is known in some Imperial circles, and especially by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, as "the Red Duke" referring to House Atreides' red hawk symbol. He gains fame as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable leader of his small military.

He recruits skilled individuals—including Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, and Duncan Idaho -- to lead and train his military forces.


Alec Newman as Paul Atreides/Muad'Dib

The son of Duke Leto Atreides I and the Lady Jessica, Paul Atreides is the heir of House Atreides, a nuclear-armed aristocratic family that rules the planet Caladan.

Although Paul is a boy, he receives a Bene Gesserit training, giving him among other things, great control over his metabolism, heightened senses, and knowledge of martial arts.

He is also trained in weapon use by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, and receives training as a Mentat from Thufir Hawat.


James Watson as Duncan Idaho

Idaho is a Swordmaster of the Ginaz in the service of House Atreides and one of Duke Leto's right-hand men (with Gurney Halleck and Thufir Hawat).

When the Atreides take over the planet Arrakis, Idaho becomes Duke Leto's ambassador to the Fremen.


Jan Vlasák as Thufir Hawat

Hawat is the Mentat Master of Assassins who has served House Atreides for multiple generations, until Duke Leto Atreides is killed by a Harkonnen attack.

Hawat himself is captured by the Imperial Sardaukar during the attack and acquired by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen through subterfuge.


P.H. Moriarty as Gurney Halleck

Halleck is Paul Atreides' weapons teacher, as well as a skilled musician. He is a chief officer of Duke Leto Atreides, and serves alongside Duncan Idaho as a Swordmaster of the Atreides Household.

Gurney was trained by "the best fighters in the universe", and alongside Idaho and Thufir Hawat gave Duke Leto a war council almost unparalleled in the Imperium.


Robert Russell as Dr. Wellington Yueh

Wellington Yueh is the trusted Suk doctor and family physician for Duke Leto. The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands to become his agent.



HOUSE HARKONNEN


Ian McNeice as
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen


Commonly referred to as Baron Harkonnen, his title is officially Siridar (planetary governor) Baron. Vladimir Harkonnen is the direct-line male descendant of the Bashar Abulurd Harkonnen who was banished for cowardice after the Battle of Corrin.

The Baron is so "grossly and immensely fat" that he requires anti-gravity devices known as suspensors to support his weight.

As ruthless and cruel as he is intelligent and cunning, the Baron's greatest skill is his talent for the subtle and clever manipulation of others through their weaknesses or his understanding of human nature.


Matt Keeslar as Feyd-Rautha

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the younger nephew of the cruel Baron Harkonnen. He is as lean and muscular as the Baron is morbidly obese. Feyd and his elder brother Glossu Rabban are the legal sons of Baron Harkonnen's youngest demibrother, Abulurd Rabban.

Feyd, like Paul Atreides, is also the product of a centuries-long breeding program organized by the Bene Gesserit, who planned their own alliance by joining a Harkonnen son to an Atreides daughter with the expectation that their offspring would have a high probability of being their hoped-for Kwisatz Haderach.


László I. Kish as Glossu Rabban

Glossu Rabban is the older nephew of Baron Harkonnen. He is as cruel and sadistic as his uncle, but lacks his intelligence. He is known to the Fremen of Dune by the nickname 'Mudir Nahya', which translates as "Demon Ruler" or "King Cobra".

He is best known for his tyrannical and vastly ineffective governance of Arrakis during the insurgency by the Fremen led by Paul Muad'dib. He earns the nickname "Beast" when he kills his father, Abulurd Harkonnen II.

Glossu Rabban is responsible for the murders of Beth Hallack, Gurney Hallack's sister, and Duncan Idaho's mother and father.


Jan Unger as Piter De Vries

In the service of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, De Vries is a Mentat — a human specially trained to perform mental functions rivaling computers (which are forbidden universe-wide).

De Vries has been "twisted" — made into an amoral sadist by his Tleilaxu creators. This makes him an ideal candidate to be the Baron's Mentat.

De Vries is generally regarded as architect of the plan to destroy House Atreides, long-time enemy of the Harkonnens, while restoring the Baron's stewardship over the planet Arrakis. It was Piter's techniques and torture that broke Wellington Yueh.



HOUSE CORRINO


Giancarlo Giannini as
Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV


Born in year 10,134 A.G., Shaddam is the son of Elrood IX and the 81st member of House Corrino to occupy the Golden Lion Throne. Shaddam's closest friend is the assassin Count Hasimir Fenring, a cousin and childhood companion.


Julie Cox as Princess Irulan

Princess Irulan is the eldest daughter of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV and Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank.

A tall blonde woman, green-eyed, a face of patrician beauty, carried herself with an aristocrat's hauteur. Something in the absorbed smoothness of her features betrayed the controls of her Bene Gesserit background.]


Miroslav Táborský as
Count Hasimir Fenring


Count Hasimir Fenring is a distaff cousin of House Corrino, he was a childhood companion of Shaddam IV. All accounts agree that Fenring was the closest friend Shaddam IV possessed.

The Imperial chores carried out by Count Fenring included that of Imperial Agent on Arrakis during the Harkonnen regime there and later Siridar-Absentia of Caladan. He joined Shaddam IV in retirement on Salusa Secundus.



Excerpts and References:
wikipedia.org, dune.wikia.com, imdb.com






Frank Herbert's Dune (Sci-Fi TV Miniseries)


It's a mixed blessing, but Frank Herbert's Dune goes a long way toward satisfying science fiction purists who scoffed at David Lynch's previous attempt to adapt Herbert's epic narrative. Ironically, director John Harrison's 288-minute TV miniseries (broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2000) offers its own share of strengths and weaknesses, which, in retrospect, emphasize the quality of Lynch's film while treating Herbert's novel with more comprehensive authority.


Debate will continue as to which film is better; Lynch's extensive use of internal monologue now seems like a challenge well met, and Harrison's more conventional approach is better equipped to convey the epic scope of Herbert's interplanetary political intrigue. This much is certain: this Dune is a sumptuous treat for the eyes, with sets and costumes that were conceived with no apparent limits of budget or creativity.


In terms of architecture alone, this is one of the most impressive films in science fiction history. And although the special effects fall short of feature-film quality, writer-director Harrison (who rose from an extensive background in TV) admirably tames the sprawling narrative that pits the opposing houses of Atreides and Harkonnen in a struggle to control the lucrative market for the spice melange.


This is as accurate as any Dune adaptation is likely to get (i.e., there's no need for another attempt), and even then, it can be tricky to keep track of who's doing what to whom. Unfortunately, the film's biggest flaws are the casting of a nearly comatose William Hurt as Duke Leto, and a wooden Alec Newman as the messiah-to-be, Paul Atreides. These are regrettable shortcomings, but this Dune remains altogether respectable. That Frank Herbert would be impressed is perhaps the biggest compliment one can pay.


While many book fans consider the 1984 movie adaptation of Dune an unfaithful adaptation, fans have heatedly debated whether the miniseries more truly reflects the philosophical and thematic point of view of the original. Those who consider it to be a more accurate adaptation of the saga than the 1984 movie are probably in the majority; however, dissenters contend that the miniseries' deviations from the book are at least as major as those of Lynch's film, and that the latter better conveys the subtleties and nuances of Herbert's novel.


Director John Harrison has described his film adaptation as a "faithful interpretation" in which any changes he made served to suggest what Herbert had explained subtly or not at all. The miniseries introduces elements not found in Herbert's novel, but according to the director, these serve to elaborate rather than to edit. Herbert's novel begins with lead character Paul Atreides being 15 years old and aging to 18 over the course of the story.


Harrison aged the character to adulthood in order to increase the quality of the acting for this crucial role. Some have taken issue with Alec Newman's portrayal of the Paul Atreides character (particularly in the first part of the film), as an angst-filled, rebellious, petulant teenager, which they consider a contradiction with his portrayal as a mature-beyond-his-years protagonist in Herbert's novel.


However, others believe that in the miniseries, Newman's conflicted portrayal is more realistic. Paul would also rub his right temple when frustrated, a trait shared by the Baron Harkonnen, a subtle but effective foreshadowing to their relation. The miniseries also boasted some stylistic changes. For example, whereas Herbert's ornithopters were described as truly birdlike in their flight, the miniseries' ornithopters more closely resembled insects.


Contention surrounding the 'correct' pronunciation of Herbert's "Fedaykin" aside, the miniseries opted for a Western pronunciation ("Fed-die-kin") as opposed to the Arabic-sounding one used in Lynch's film (which would seem appropriate given the extensive, Arabic-themed terminology in the novel). Some fans were upset by the look of the spice-addicted characters' eyes, believing that the phosphorescent light blue coloring was not consistent with Herbert's description, "blue within blue".


The miniseries invents an extensive subplot for Irulan Corrino, a character who plays little part in the plot of the first novel. Harrison felt the need to expand Irulan's role because she played such an important part in later books, and epigraphs from her later writings opened each chapter of Dune. Additionally, the character gave him a window into House Corrino.


Besides the final scene, the only one of Irulan's appearances based on an actual excerpt from the novel is her visit to Feyd-Rautha. However, in the book it is a different Bene Gesserit, Margot Fenring, who visits the Harkonnen heir, on assignment from the Bene Gesserit to "preserve the bloodline" by retrieving his genetic material (through conception) for their breeding program. The miniseries does not suggest this as Irulan's motive.




Detailed Plot


In the 11th millennium, Shaddam IV, ruler of the Galactic Empire, rids himself of his competitor Duke Leto Atreides by giving him control of the inhospitable desert planet Dune also called Arrakis (known as Dune), the only melange-producing world in the Imperium; fully aware that its present owner, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, will not give it up without a fight.

The reason is that Arrakis is the source of the valuable spice, a substance produced by enormous and dangerous sandworms, which bestows special mental qualities on anyone who consumes it. Leto is in full knowledge that the Emperor is colluding with House Harkonnen of Giedi Prime to destroy the honorable House Atreides of Caladan as a perceived threat to the throne.


Duke Leto accepts his new fiefdom so that he might form an alliance with the Fremen and end the plots against him and his House. Leto's plan to forge a formidable army, by unleashing what he termed Arrakis' "Desert Power". Leto's concubine, Jessica, is a Bene Gesserit and an important key in the Bene Gesserit breeding program.


According to the breeding program, she was to produce a daughter, who would marry Feyd-Rautha, a nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. However, Jessica falls in love with Leto and grants him a son. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Jessica's former instructor) is still furious over Jessica's insubordination, but is somewhat intrigued by the potential she sees in.

Count Hasimir Fenring serves as Governor of Arrakis during the handover period between House Harkonnen and House Atreides (he previously had been the Imperial Agent on Arrakis during the Harkonnen regime). As Padishah Emperor Shaddam's chief counsellor, Fenring is frequently described as "the Emperor's errand boy". Baron Harkonnen refers to Fenring as "Ambassador to the Smugglers", indicating Shaddam IV's interest in spice smuggling operations on Arrakis.


Duncan Idaho becomes Leto's ambassador to the Fremen, the desert people of Dune that Leto hopes will ally with him in the coming war against the Emperor and the Harkonnens. Idaho goes to live with the Fremen, serving both Leto and Fremen leader Stilgar. On Dune, the family is betrayed by their Suk doctor (family physician), Wellington Yueh.


He disables the defensive shields around the Atreides palace, allowing the Imperial Sardaukar troops, dressed in Harkonnen uniforms, to capture Duke Leto and Hawat and to kill most of the Atreides army. Yueh's betrayal motivated by the Baron's capture and death of his wife, Yueh implants a poisonous gas capsule concealed within a false tooth on Duke Leto after his capture and instructs Leto to use it to kill the Baron.



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Dune - 1984

Dune - Mini-series


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