Welcome to Part 6 of a 6-part consideration of “Dune” films and stuff. The parts are:

1. Ed Grover’s fine review of the SF Channel Dune (Done With Dune"
http://www.epinions.com/content_107094380164
2. My lengthy comment on the above
http://www.epinions.com/content_107094380164/show_~allcom
3. A review of the 1984 David Lynch film:
http://www.epinions.com/content_107470360196#ow
4. A review of the recent SF Channel Dune miniseries
http://www.epinions.com/content_107537141380
5. This ton o' fun.
6. A parody, "Franz : Kafka :: Lorna : _____ :
http://www.epinions.com/content_3418595460
7. Yet another parody, "The Long-Lost Alternate Ending to "Dune"
http://www.epinions.com/content_3427901572

For “Children of Dune”, perhaps we should first cover a little background. It might be interesting to note that according to the Dune Encyclopedia, Arrakis had been a world very much like Earth – save that it orbits 2 suns in a very eccentric, shifting path (that, in historic times, has been fairly near circular). Several million years ago it suffered an “oxygen catastrophe”, in which the level of atmospheric oxygen plummeted to a level far below that necessary to sustain higher life forms. Most Arrakid life died off, and the planet became desertified. The Worms evolved. Because Worms give off oxygen as a byproduct, the oxygen level gradually rose to levels fit for, e.g., Man. Also, because part of the life cycle of worms isolates and imprisons water, the planet is far more a desert than it otherwise need be … which is of course how the Worms need it to be. The Fremen have been hoarding water as part of a plan to “green” Arrakis. They really want this. Once they get it, of course … well, be careful what you wish for (seeGod-Emperor of Dune).

After “Dune” was published, Frank Herbert produced a sequel, “Dune Messiah”. This is a very peculiar book, covering the later career and disappearance (presumed death) of Paul Atreides. It’s very thin, unlike the first novel and any of the other sequels. It must be one of 2 things: either it’s the actual end of “Dune”, excised before publication because of the novel’s already enormous length – or it’s a prelude to “Children of Dune”, published separately, perhaps to meet an already-mounting demand for a sequel. But it’s not actually a separate novel. My bet: it’s the original ending of “Dune”.

SF Channel’s “Children of Dune” treats the material of “Dune Messiah” as a very long prologue. Of the 4 hours in this miniseries, the “Messiah” material takes up more than a third: 87 minutes out of 259. This means that the complex “Children” material must be boiled down some. If memory serves, though, the details of the plot are there (sometimes slightly altered or simplified), and the big cuts were made in the interior dialogues and the heavy-duty detail. For instance, we know that Jessica trains Farad’n as a Bene Gesserit, but we see only a few snippets of that long process. This production makes numerous changes to events narrated in the books. Some of the more egregious ones are noted in the plot summary.

Before we jump into a plot summary, I want to evaluate the production itself. This time we have no earlier benchmark film for comparison. We do have the earlier production from the same source and with some of the same actors. On the whole, “Children of Dune” does a better job of communicating its material than “Dune” did, despite the great difficulties in moving 2 novels onto the screen. The acting, on the whole, is stronger. The sets seem better fitted to the material. Exteriors are effective … although Arakeen, as rebuilt for the Atreides Imperium, is an archtectural disaster area. There is a reason for this, as noted in the plot summary. Costuming seems better in general (Atriedes women obviously have better taste), and Reverend Mother Mohiam gets offed so quickly in the proceedings that we don’t have to put up with the questionable Bene Gesserit get-up for long. The special effects are very good, but aren’t required to be spectacular. As in “Dune”, computer-generated backgrounds, artifacts, and effects appear more artificial than is usual nowadays – but the worms are still well-conceived. This 3rd Dune flick finally gets the Fremen blue-eyes syndrome right. At last we don’t have eyes that glow like digital watches. The blue-on-blue color is visible, but it’s far less pushy. Finally, we don’t get the hilarious error we see in “Dune” (2000), showing us Arrakis’ 2 moons very near each other just above the horizon – showing different phases! (In both films, the moons are shown much smaller than their actual sizes: they’re large enough to have a sizable effect on Dune’s tectonic activity.)

The cast of “Children of Dune” retains only a few names from the cast of “Dune”. We may as well start with them. Alec Newman reprises the role of Paul Atreides (Muad’dib), also known as the Preacher. His performance here is less restrained and therefore more effective. Gone is the Atreides sang-froid that restrains his character from showing emotion at the deaths of his father and his son. As the Preacher, Newman rails and rants with the best of them. In quiet moments – when Chani dies or when he reveals himself to/takes his leave of Gurney Halleck, for instance – there is an effective communication of pathos. P. H. Moriarty continues to play Gurney Halleck. He’s perfect as a grizzled veteran of many Atreides campaigns and continues to project an air of quiet authority. However, in this instance, Halleck’s devotion to (and talent with) the baliset is entirely overlooked. Ian McNiece is still deliciously nasty as (the voice-memory of) Baron Harkonnen and the effects surrounding his apparitions are very effective. It’s odd for him to show an interest in Javid, who’s 15-20 years too old for him normally, but it’s in the book, too. Barbora [sic] Kodetová remains as Chani, her looks just slightly-exotic enough to make her Fremen origins believable. Her performance is solid enough, but nothing special. Zuzana Geislerová is again Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She seems to have the tenor of the part correct, although nothing close to what Siân Phillips was able to do in the 1984 “Dune”. Julie Cox returns as Irulan. This time out she’s not called upon to do things that Irulan never did, and plays her very well. For one thing, she absolutely looks the part, both in face and bearing. This is a role that requires restraint and the constant self-possession of an Imperial princess who is also Bene Gesserit. Cox does a fine job showing us, subtly, the frustration and sadness that boil beneath the surface.

We move now to new actors in both old and new roles. Jessica is played this time out by Alice Krige. This is a very felicitous choice. She has the bearing appropriate to the part, plus a maturely beautiful and expressive face. Her voice, too, conveys an appropriate sense of her confidence and innate power. Krige’s performance is royal and maternal – and a joy to watch. Alia is Daniela Amavia, another excellent bit of casting. Amavia looks like someone who could (and eventually would) become a goddess. She does a nuanced job of portraying Alia’s gradual descent into possession. However, there are times she conveys a sense of struggling to get the right tone and not quite making it. The central role of Leto (II) is taken by James McAvoy, who must be at least a decade too old for the part (Leto being 10 when he becomes Emperor). His performance shows a nice sense of humor but for the most part seems too restrained – a problem that also occurs in the 2000 “Dune”. McAvoy is a thoroughly engaging lad, but he’s not a very convincing Leto. Leto’s twin sister Ghanima is played by Jessica Brooks. This is largely also an overly restrained turn. Again, while Brooks is charmingly suited to the role, her interpretation (or the director’s, or both) doesn’t bring home the bacon. We also have a new Stilgar, Steven Berkoff, who brings less to the role than his predecessor. Berkoff, for instance, doesn’t have the look of a Fremen leader. His features are more aristocratic; more suited, say, to an Atreides. His portrayal is also less effective than one might wish: he is certainly strong, forceful, authoritative – but the passion, the rage that always lurk beneath the surface of the Fremen simply isn’t there. The film boasts one well-known name, Susan Sarandon, who plays the next-eldest of Saddam IV’s daughters (after Irulan), Wensicia (Wenceslas > Wensic > Wensicia). Now, here is a real Corrino! Every word from her mouth drips sheer slimy delight at the cleverness of her plots. Delightful! Bijaz the dwarf is portrayed with manic malevolence by Gee Williams, who has a great time with it. Farad’n “Corrino” (actually Farad’n Fenring, son of Dalak Fenring by Wensicia) is played with open-faced enthusiasm by Jonathan Bruun His take on Farad’n, as a complete opposite of his mother (not to mention actually more perceptive) is a delight. A true innocent, a moral person, he’s a total perversion of everything the Corrinos stand for … and well presented as such by Bruun. Javid, Alia’s priest and lover (and unbeknownst to him, Baron Harkonnen’s lover as well) is played with fatuous cluelessness by Rik Young. I don’t find this performance entirely convincing because, while Javid was a water-fat fool, there was certainly more to him than that. However, for purposes of this version of the book, it’s adequate. Finally, there’s Scytale, the Tleilaxu face-dancer – which is exactly what Martin McDougal doesn’t look like (see comments in the plot summary). His performance is also fairly matter-of-fact, and we get no hint how weird the Tleilaxu really are – no doubt the director’s fault. As a minor plot-moving character, he’s OK, but the director lost a chance to show us one of the kinkier aspects of the Dune universe.

Remember, dates in the Empire are not Common Era (or “AD”) but A.G. (After [the formation of the Spacing] Guild). The year 1 AG is approximately 14000 CE. The events of “Children of Dune” take place more than 26,000 years in our future. By way of comparison, as of 2003 CE human civilization has been literate for considerably less than 6000 years.

Not very briefly, I fear, the plot is as follows. The Dune Messiah section: It is 10208 A.G., 15 years after the last events in “Dune” (10193). The Known Universe has been scoured and brought under Paul Atreides’ ruler by fanatic armies of Fremen. This new jihad has finally played itself out, leaving the Fremen in various stages of confusion and disaffection as they begin to realize that their mahdi isn’t what they expected. Paul, assisted by Stilgar, Gurney Halleck, Alia, and Irulan primarily, rules the Empire with an iron hand. Alia has become high priestess of a cult of Muad’dib, and she’s pretty smug about it, too. Arakeen is now capital of the Empire, dominated by structures of such astonishing banality that only religious fanatics could have built them. Exiled to Salusa Secundus, the Corrinos plot. After the abdication (10196) and death (10202*) of Shaddam IV, his 2nd-eldest daughter Wensicia becomes head of House Corrino, and boy, does she plot. (*Note: the film has this event take place in 10208 or 9, the gods know why.) Her partners in perfidy are the Bene Gesserit (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam), the Tleilaxu (the face-dancer Scytale), disaffected Fremen (Korba) and (later) the Spacing Guild (Edric the Steersman). The Tleilaxu have been able to clone Duncan Idaho (the ghola Hayt, although this name is never uttered in this version) – with, of course, hidden programming. (A note on Scytale: the face-dancers are, in their true form androgynous, but Scytale isn’t given a correct appearance here. A “face dancer” can assume the form and appearance of almost any person.)

Both of the Atreides siblings have serious problems. Paul, now prescient to the nth degree, has a firm vision of the future and is already following it, step by step. The problem is, as the books make much more clear than the film, Paul is a heck of a lot less prescient than he thinks he is. Even in “Dune” we see this: he fails to foresee that Gurney will try to kill Jessica. The key failure here is his failure to foresee that Chani will give birth to twins, not just a son. (Note: This is because his daughter Ghanima is invisible to prescience. It is this fact that Leto II will later seize upon to create a breeding program that will defeat prescience altogether … see ”God Emperor of Dune”.) Alia, meanwhile, is suffering from the “abomination” curse of the pre-born. The babble of the inner voices of her ancestors is becoming a maddening mob, a condition she exacerbates by periodically ODing on spice. This is where the “abomination” occurs, when the victim of pre-awakening bonds with one of her inner voices as a protector – and this protector dominates her (“possession”) rather than simply protects her. This has not yet happened, but will happen when she is possessed by no less than her grandfather, the late Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. It’s hard, however, to explain why she even has access to a male inner voice; for the B.G. Reverend Mothers, the inner voices seem invariably to be female.

The plot against Paul is set in motion by Scytale, who murders a Fremen once close to Paul, Otheym and assumes both his form and that of his daughter Lichna (at different times). Edric then appears at court, as Paul finally allows the Guild to have an official representative on Arrakis. He is depicted correctly as being somewhat fishlike appearance (Navigators have an entirely different look). He presents the Duncan Idaho ghola to Paul, who accepts it as he knows he must. Paul then receives a message ostensibly from Otheym through the supposed Lichna; it is a warning that there is a plot against him and a request for Paul to meet with Otheym at his home. Paul knows the girl is really Scytale, but his vision “must play out”. Another (hidden from the B.G.) aspect of the plan is to steal a Worm from Arrakis and transfer it to Salusa Secundus in an effort to start a new spice cycle. As we learn from the sequels to “God-Emperor”, the plan is sound but the method is wrong. The correct method is to transfer larval worms (“sand trout”), who will desertify the planet and then grow into Worms.

Paul goes to Otheym’s dwelling in the city and meets Scytale again, this time in the form of the Fremen. He receives the gift of the dwarf Bijaz, who speaks in cryptic rhymes and knows the names of the conspirators (in the book, he has a post-hypnotic compulsion that will activate a recitation). Bijaz, who is the axolotl-tank brother of the Idaho ghola and knows he’s programmed to murder Paul after the birth of his son and when he utters a trigger phrase he’s certain to utter. Shortly after they leave the dwelling, a stone-burner goes off in that quarter. A stone-burner is a slowly-exploding nuclear device that isn’t very physically destructive, but destroys the eyesight of people for quite a distance. Paul allows himself to be blinded: so clear and detailed is his vision that he can follow it, without sight of his own, from step to step. Chani, now pregnant, is transferred to one of the southern sietches. Paul goes with her, taking Bijaz, “Idaho”, and “Lichna”, leaving Alia as regent. Alia and the Idaho ghola have by this time fallen madly in love.

At the sietch, Chani gives birth in a wonderfully done dreamlike sequence during which Korba, Edric, and Mohiam are assassinated (Paul’s last order to Alia) in delightfully nasty ways. But Chani has had twins, not just a son. With Chani’s death Paul’s vision-sight collapses. He goes to the Idaho ghola and utters the words he knows will activate the posthypnotic command to assassinate him. And now there is a miracle: Duncan Idaho cannot kill an Atreides, and the essential conflict of two imperatives brings him to himself, with all of his old memories. He kills Bijaz instead. This recovery sequence is a key event for future Dune novels. Scytale reassumes his true form and tempts Paul with a new Chani with restored memories – while also threatening to kill the newborn twins. But they are actually also preborn! The infant Leto (II) gives his own sight to Paul, who seizes Scytale and kills him. Now, truly blind, he accepts Fremen tradition and vanishes into the desert (and presumably dies).

The Children of Dune segment. We are not at about 10217 or 8, when Leto and Ghanima would be about 9 years old. Leto’s adventures take place during his 9th and 10th years and he’s 10 when he ascends the throne. Well, forget that! This pair of twins is a lot older and therefore more interesting to look at. (By the way, Leto II comes by his number twice legitimately. As head of House Atreides, he’s preceded by his grandfather Leto I – but as Emperor, he’s preceded by a much more ancient Emperor who bore the name Leto. Just like Herbert to tie up the little details.)

The book makes much more clear than the film that Leto can also see the future, but he’s much more in control of choosing options than his father. The film, however, makes clear what the Dune Encyclopedia tells us but the novels do not, that Paul also saw the Golden Path Leto sees, but was afraid to take it. And no wonder: the Golden Path will involve a complete physical integration of man and worm, so that Leto becomes a hybrid of both. We don’t see the ultimate stage of this integration here, but it’s all too clear in “God-Emperor of Dune”, the next sequel.

We should not be surprised that from the beginning plots abound. Arrakis is seething with lots of little ones, apparently. The big plot is of course being hatched by Wensicia. Her son Farad’n is now about 18, and absolutely (and wisely) opposed to seizing back the throne. But Wensicia goes resolutely ahead, training a special (and very nasty) breed of tigers to kill a pair of humans wearing certain cloaks. Alia, now Imperial Regent for her nephew, is rapidly losing control of her voices. Irulan is becoming a fervent loyalist toward her husband’s children. Jessica, who has spent all these years in self-imposed exile on Caladan, chooses this moment to return to Arrakis. And a blind prophet chooses this moment to come out of the desert and denounce everything and everyone. Of course it’s blind Paul, and all the Atreides suspect this, but nobody knows for sure. No longer a meshach (messiah), Paul is now John the Baptist, and he heralds (without preaching it) the arrival of meshach-Leto. (About here Alia tells Jessica she was only 15 when she became Regent. Feh! Born 10191, became regent 10209 … she was 18. Under the increasing influence of the voice of Vladimir Harkonnen – who has the hots for the priest Javid – she takes Javid as her lover and becomes estranged from Duncan Idaho, now her husband and also well aware of the affair. Javid, by the way, is seen in the previous segment as a child in Otheym’s household – an important connection in terms of current plots.)

Alia finds herself unable to control the clamor of her inner voices. Baron Harkonnen subdues them and Alia makes a devil’s deal with him. She gets her grandfather’s protection from the voices and his advice (not exactly disinterested), and in return he gets to share her sex life (and suggest partners). The disaffected Fremen turn out to be descendents of the people of Jacurutu, a Fremen tribe so horrid in their practices that all other tribes combined to destroy them and hide the location of their sietch. These people want to provoke an Atreides-Fremen civil war. Javid is involved, and so is the young Fremen who guides the blind Preacher (Paul). At this time, a pair of cloaks arrive at Arrakis from Wensicia as gifts for the twins. They are attractors for the tigers, of course.

Things now move rapidly. There is an open rift between Alia and both Irulan and Jessica. Irulan and the twins flee Arakeen toward Siech Tabr and Stilgar’s protection. At a session of the Imperial Court at which Alia ha arranged for Jessica to be assassinated, the proceedings are disrupted by a Fremen also disrupts her plans, and the Fremen helps Jessica to escape in the ensuing confusion. The twins flee Sietch Tabr toward Jacurutu, deliberately wearing the cloaks sent by Wensicia. Duncan flees Arakeen, joins Jessica, and takes her (of all places) to Salusa Secundus! In the desert, the twins are attacked by the tigers – which Leto manages to kill while arranging things so that everyone (including Ghanima) will believe that he killed one and was dragged off somewhere by the other.

The Jacurutu-desired Alia-Fremen civil war erupts. On Salusa Secundus, there’s confusion occasioned by Jessica’s arrival. Only Farad’n seems to have any grasp of reality. In the end, she and Wensicia agree that she is to accept Farad’n’s request that she be his tutor in Bene Gesserit techniques. At about this time an agreement is brokered between Alia and Stilgar whereby Ghanima returns to court with Irulan. (In the book Stilgar refuses this deal, so Alia seizes Ghanima by force and imprisons Irulan and Stilgar. They are rescued only at the end by Leto.)

Leto rides a worm to Jacurutu, where he runs afoul of the descendents of the ancient people of the sietch. They hold him and subject him to increasing doses of spice, planning that this will drive him into abomination. This fails and he becomes immune to overdoses. He also silences the babble of his inner voices. (In fact, he narrowly avoids abomination. We learn in “God-Emperor” that he makes a deal with an ancestral voice, Ashurnasirpal, King of Assyria, “cruelest of the cruel”, and to some extent they merge.) He then allows some sand-trout to attach to the skin, where they begin to spread and grow into a second skin, making Leto a hybrid being. (In the book, he uses enough of the sand-trout to cover his entire body, save for his face and ears, the new skin being complete from the beginning. In this version, Leto assumes wormlike powers with his second skin covering only part of one arm. A for conforming to the book as to his powers; D- for making these a non sequitur.)

While Farad’n’s training proceeds slowly, Duncan returns to Arrakis as a Corrino envoy with a proposal that Ghanima marry Farad’n. From there he goes to Sietch Tabr and fails to get Stilgar to abandon his neutrality. Leto is now running about the deep desert. There he confronts his father and they debate the “Golden Path”. Javid travels to Sietch Tabr to demand Stilgar join the Regent. Duncan kills him and Stilgar is thus forced to kill Duncan (and join the rebellion).

A new confrontation is developing at Arakeen. Jessica and Wensicia arrive with Farad’n for his betrothal with Ghanima. What nobody knows is that she has sworn to slay him in vengeance for the death of Leto. Even though Farad’n takes this opportunity to denounce and banish his devious mother, Ghanima remains determined (if possessed of less moral certitude). Leto, meanwhile, is headed for Arakeen with Gurney Halleck and Paul in tow. Stilgar is raising a veritable army of Worms and mounting an all-out attack on the capital.

At last, Leto reveals himself to Ghanima. The Preacher (Paul), meanwhile, is making trouble, throwing a Jesus-like fit of temper in the marketplace and then preaching from the steps of the architectural idiot’s-tale of the Arakeen palace/temple (deliberately awful architecture, by the way, showing with marvelous clarity the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of any despotism). In mid-harangue, he’s stabbed by one of the Jacurutu crowd, who is in turn thoroughly ventilated with a crysknife by Gurney Halleck.

The wedding now begins, with all sorts of pomp, when Leto arrives, announces himself, and denounces Alia. Matrix-like, he uses his new powers to mop up the throne room floor with all of Alia’s guards. She tries to stab Leto but of course fails, and then gives full evidence of her possession. Just briefly she overcomes the Baron’s control and commits suicide (by stabbing herself; in the book, she throws herself from her balcony of appearances – a change that’s both inexplicable and stupid). There are a few minutes of clean-up and explanation at the end, and some implications that there is an intent to follow this effort up with a production of God-Emperor of Dune. Welcome as that would be, the real hope would be productions of Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. These novels are far better than anything Herbert wrote after the original Dune.

For those who want loose ends tied up: Gurney Halleck lived at Sietch Tabr as Leto’s representative until his death in 10226. Ghanima and Farad’n fell in love and had 10 children (5 of each gender). Farad’n came to be generally known as Harq al-Ada (“Breaking of the Habit”) and was made Royal Scribe. He died in 10419. Ghanima died in 10516. Exiled to Giedi Prime, Wensicia never ceased to work against Leto. She engineered a number of plots including an uprising the Sardaukar in 10225, and committed suicide in 10227. Irulan, denied the role of mother she desired, turned to literary pursuits, and became an accomplished historian, interviewer, interpreter, and editor. Allied with Farad’n, she created an entire literary movement. She spent nearly her entire life on Arrakis, but died (still a virgin) on the Bene Gesserit chapterhouse world Walach IX in 10248. She quickly came to venerated as St. Irulan the Virgin. Stilgar remained Naib of Sietch Tabr until his death in 10228. Duncan Idaho (Duncan-10208; all the Idaho gholas are numbered by the year of their delivery) was succeeded by many others of his ilk. The next Idaho clone, Duncan-10232, was immediately killed by Leto. However, the Emperor later accepted delivery of Duncans and even began to order them from the Tleilaxu. Alia was quickly accorded veneration as (one of many titles) St. Alia of the Knife. Later in the 20000th Century she became the object of a major cult, under the title “Womb of Heaven”. Leto II ruled the Known Universe until he was assassinated in 13724. By this time the Atreides family (descendents of Ghanima and Farad’n), carriers of the gene for invisibility to prescience, are so numerous as to make prescience virtually useles. The Bene Gesserit, after the fall of the Empire and the later collapse of the Spacing Guild, will remain the only organization that spans the Known Universe. As such, it will become the bulwark protecting humanity from enslavement and the Worms from extinction (about 19000 AG). Dune will eventually be slagged by nuclear bombardment.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older