why Irulan is the best princess

[amw]

Dune appears to be a book tailor-made for teenage boys. The main character is a lonely prince who discovers he has superhuman abilities. His parents move him to a far-off land for their own political reasons, while he mopes about, dreaming of an exotic girl who is fascinated by him. "Tell me of your homeworld, Usul..." Soon enough the political

Comments

[jenndolari]

Dune was my gateway drug to David Lynch. I feel bad that he considers it his worst movie, doesn't like talking about, and feels like a sell-out for it (could be worse, he was in line for Return of the Jedi), cause it led me to his greater works.

Lynch's sequel to Dune was found not too long ago. It sounds like it would have been kind of nuts: https://www.wired.com/story/david-lynch-dune-sequel-script-unearthed/

The John Harrison Dune Miniseries is the tops for me. I still haven't seen the new Dune, because I really don't need to. The miniseries did it all for me. If the new movies manage to finish the whole Dune, I'll probably watch.

I remember someone once telling me that Irulan was an anagram of Urinal, and that really felt like it wasn't a coincidence given how she's treated in the books. I loved how the miniseries treated her a strong willed and curious woman who didn't really do anything more than in the books, but was allowed to be the character who helped the audience understand everything by trying to understand it herself. She's wonderful in the miniseries.

But where I really love her is in the the Dune Messiah/Children of Dune portions of the miniseries. Irulan never feels happy in the books, she's kind passed around, used, a pawn in a political game.

In the miniseries, she's like that for Dune Messiah, but once Paul and Chani's kids grow, she becomes someone who really feels like a happy mother. She's taking care of her husband's kids with another woman, but she genuinely feels happy to be taking care of them (if terrified of their powers). She gets to be happy at the end of her story. Even Irulan deserves that.

[amw]

Honestly, you're not missing much in Villeneuve's Dune. I can't comprehend the praise he gets from film snobs because to me it came across as far less artistically interesting than Lynch's take. It features plenty of big budget effects, but the scenes are so drained of color that it ends up feeling unremarkable. Every shot is washed out to the point that it's practically a black-and-white movie.

If you ever watched drone footage of the Ukraine war, that's what this movie looks like. Bleak, barren and impersonal. You can't tell who anybody is because they're miles away and all dressed exactly the same and then they die. Might be a good statement on modern warfare but not the best way to present a space opera. Especially not with Foundation right there, doing the same thing so much better.

Anyway, i had watched the first miniseries before, but it was only this time round that Irulan really stood out to me, maybe because i am older now and looking for something different from my entertainment. However i had never seen Children of Dune before this weekend, and i definitely concur, the way they treated Irulan was fantastic there. Emphasizing her connection with the kids despite her circumstance brought depth to her character and gave her an arc that made sense.

I'm so glad that miniseries got made. It's janky and low budget, but it keeps a lot of the colorful weirdness of Lynch's Dune while fixing up some character and pacing problems from both the movie and the books. Great stuff.

The article about Lynch's Dune sequel is actually what sent me down this Dune tangent of the past couple weeks! I rewatched everything after reading it. Man, can you imagine how crazy his Leto II would have been? As long as he kept a mainstream producer to reel him in just enough to not turn it into full-ass body horror, i think it could have created some truly memorable images.

[jenndolari]

I was listening to the commentary on the original Miniseries DVD, and something I really loved was the producers KNEW they had no budget, but decided to go for a specific style that would help them: A stage play.

You can really see it once they mention it. Using the same backdrop for different scenes, huge lighting changes for mood. Funky one-camera blocking. I love it when the lack of budget is used to create a style. It's how we got the primarily black Batman The Animated Series.

I hate that war correspondence and live-as-it-happened battle reporting has really changed up how it's portrayed in movies. While I loved the early seasons of the Galactica reboot - the "shaky cam" used in nearly every cgi shot, and more than a few live action shots, felt cliched the moment they started doing it.

But that might just be me. I get upset when I see lens-flare in sci-fi because THE CAMERA ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!!!! :D