dune as interpreted by david lynch

Having watched the first forty minutes of Dune, as interpreted by David Lynch, I apparently forgot--and by that I mean, I obviously bleached my own brain--that first time we meet the Baron and Feyd-Rautha and Rabbon.

That was just...what the fuck did I just watch?



There is nothing about that scene that is not overdramatic and ridiculous in primary colors and oranges and it should not work--and it still utterly freaks me out.

Here we have two strangely (mutilated?) slaves, both of whom I think by the look are deaf and IDEK what is up the woman's eyes and I don't want to look again. Teh Baron is beign worked over by his doctors when Pityr of the Eyebrows comes in, delivers the Atreides DIAF message, and then the Rock Music Entrance of Feyd-Rautha of the Hotness and Rabban of the Cannot Be More Gross while Pityr explains the plan in short, easily understood words which, I'll be honest, even if it's for the audience, Rabban's faint look of incomprehension kind of makes it more workable than it should be.

Then Rabban kills something to drink it's blood. Lovely.

The doctor whispers sweet nothings about how beautiful the Barons' diseases are--my God what the hell is this--and the Baron's smiling all aww, of course--Christ, shoot me now--and in the midst of all this ridiculousness the Baron's expression just changes as a slave in what appears to be plastic wrap comes in to arrange bright purple tulips and hope hsi death is fast.

Then there is floating and cackling and syrup and wait. Let me repeat.

The baron floating around cackling is ridiculous; the doctor murmuring sweet nothings about the Baron's diseases being beautiful is ridiculous; the--completely inexplicable rain of purple syrup from the ceiling for no particular reason over the Baron while he cackles--what the fuck was that?--is ridiculous.

The Baron's sudden, sharp focus when the slave comes in, the way he loses his train of thought, is the first time I got uneasy--it didn't fit. Then the crazy-float and teh pronouncements of dire evil to his enemies and the purple syrup thing and I forgot completely about the slave arranging the purple tulips. Then the Baron, who in fact did not forget, achieves landing and heads for the slave, pulls the plug in the guys' chest that apparently goes straight to an artery and rapes him (barely off-screen, barely) over the purple tulips as he bleeds out while everyone watches in various stages of Do Not Care, I Am Deaf and Maybe Blind (Literally), Tolerant Amusement, Slight Jealousy (YOU SICK FUCK), Barely Notice, Sheer Enjoyment, and Really Fucking Turned On (FEYD WTF THAT LOOK), because this is normal. And it's all done to some seriously beyond words unsettling Rock Opera By Way of Pipe Organs.

And Feyd's grin afterward not helping.



For sheer visuals, this movie is gorgeous. The space ships, the court, the vastness of space, the utterly uncanny-divide Guild Navigators, the fact of a militarized empire where even a Duke and his son wear military uniforms that aren't as ceremonial as they are functional in a universe where everyone is a soldier.

You know, I forgot that the movie's ridiculousness is only something I really feel when I'm not watching; when I'm watching, it's amazing.

Okay, Yueh just betrayed House Atreides. Fucker. REMEMBER THE TOOTH.

...and watching someone pull out someone's tooth continues to freak me out too.

Oh, explosions. Excuse me. They are blowing up shit and this I do not miss.

Comments

[laurajv]

Hm. See, I'll have to go re-read, but the killing the slaves thing was partially because Feyd was too attached to one of the slave women, wasn't it? Besides having installed his puppet as slave-master. The Harkonnens play games, and it's -- the game with Feyd was, when you are good enough to kill me, you can succeed me, and not before, and for me, the *way* Feyd played that game was what I found creepy: he could play both politics and poison (the bit with the clean and poisoned blades in the slave arena, brrr). Unlike his uncle, he could convince people to follow him, even to love him, which I think was probably a gift from his bloodline. (He was supposed to marry an Atreides daughter; the BG are ruthless but not stupid and wouldn't risk a BG in the Atreides line with someone uncontrollable or truly evil, I think -- but someone more complex trained up to evil I find way scarier than someone just plain evil, because they tend to, hm, put more thought into it.)

[seperis]

The BG could have risked a trained daughter, though if they put her through the Agony to up her chances of survival first; all they really needed, in the end, was the offspring of the daughter and Feyd. Politics being what it was, if Feyd went too far Baron-wise, they didn't need the marriage for their purposes as much as the bloodline; politics would be one protection for the Atreides woman, as well as the fact the next Empress was a Bene Gesserit in the altered timeline as promised by Shaddam.

Also, Feyd actually liked sex with women, so it wasn't the kind of problem the Baron was to them; I'm sure they would have married someone to the Baron if his sexuality had made it even possible, but it's fairly clear his Kinsey was fairly high. The fact he didn't even bother with any kind of wife-figure or concubine is pretty indicative of his preferences, and I just don't see the Landsraad avoiding offering him a marriagable daughter just because he was evil.

The thing I wonder about is how many people not Atreides knew or cared the Baron was evil, or if he even registered when he confined himself to torturing slaves. It's fairly awful conditions, but it's not like his behavior was historically all that unusual for nobility anyway. In the book, the Baron was irritated that Pitir was going to have to watch Leto being a prisoner and tortured because Pitir wasn't royalty or nobility himself, and from context, part of the reason he didn't keep Paul for himself was a.) his Bene Gesserit training and b.) his rank.

Considering Irulan was the subject of assassination attempts by her father by her own words, teh Baron wasn't all that terrible; it does however, highlight how unusual Leto was and being called 'the Just' was a much bigger thing that it seems. And also why the Emperor was so afraid of him and his people.

[laurajv]

The BG certainly didn't need anyone married to Feyd for the bloodlines, but they may have needed it politically; it's unclear. They certainly worked to preserve the bloodline as much as they could, via Margo Fenring (side note: what, exactly, does "genetic-eunuch" mean as a description of Hasimir Fenring? I assume he's infertile, and he doesn't appear to have sexual jealousy issues; is he infertile, lacking in testicles, unable to have PIV sex? just what the hell were you doing there, Frank Herbert?)

[seperis]

*winces* Brian Herbert--and I do not consider him canon at all except in specific parts that support Franks' original--clarified that he was a genetic eunuch in that he couldn't father children.

My own original thought was that his genetic line was flawed, but that may be the reason why; his genes were really close to Kwisatz, but the flaw was so bad it was not only impossible for him to be one, but also made it impossible to father children, or he would have been their number one to father the real thing. Or possibly, considering, the flaw in his genetics was so bad it would lead to birth defects, which meant he was sterilized young to avoid say, a crazy KH or something. He married a Bene Gesserit, and since there was no genetic reason for them to get him, he had to be functional in some way or he wouldn't bother with a wife.

(Brian--and again wince wince wince--had it a love match with the Emperor's wife's friend, and while useful politically, it wasn't the reason Margo went for him; she liked his ruthlessness and oddly enough--and I say this with a very weird feeling--his internal sense of honor (if you read Brian's prequel series, it's--there. It's complex and fucked up, but compared to Shaddam, Fenrig is not nearly as awful as he is a weapon in Shaddamn's arsenal). For a Herbert book of any kind, Margo and Fenrig are actually rather sweet and don't end in blood and disaster.)

To be fair, he wasn't thrilled Margo was taking Feyd to bed either, and their relationship in Frank's novels, to me, had the earmarks of a love match as well as a Bene Gesserit political match, so--it's one of the only relationships in the books that isn't seriously fucked up, so I kind of cling to it. Jessica and Leto were the other one, with Paul and Chani around that level; beyond them, it's incest, doom, or the Idahos being terrible at picking life partners. Just terrible.

[juliekarasik]

I don't think the baron's Kinsey scale was red-lined until after Helen Mohiam. (He was Jessica's genetic father, Helen was her genetic mother.)

Note: I consider the Encyclopedia of Dune to be cannon and the Brian Herbert novels... rather not, so YMMV on this one.

[seperis]

BTW, do I love you for this discussion? Yes. Herbert's feudal model is almost-right and also completely not quite familiar in really interesting ways, I assume due to the Butlerian Jihad. It's really a surprise to realize how much decentralization there is in the Empire, and how the Empire only exists as a Mexican standoff, of a kind, between the Emperor and the Landsraad, with the Guild, CHOAM, and the Bene Gesserit more or less holding equal power themselves to any Great House. Paul's ascension lead to a hard recentralization by tipping the balance to the Emperor completely which Leto II consolidated, but it took me a while to realize that was a lot of the reason the new Empire was such an issue. He forced rule by economic monopoly and the jihad's power (and when you look at the jihad as less "way to get Paul on the throne" and more as "generations of pent-up revenge waiting for someone to show up to give the Fremen some decent transport ships, whoo, fun).