“It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.”
As a young man I watched the 1984 adaption of Frank Herbert‘s Dune. I loved Star Wars and the idea of another epic space movie excited to me. From the opening seen it was clear to us both that this was another type of movie altogether. where Star Wars attempted to merge a cowboy movie with a space flick Dune focused more on deep thought, methodical plot and shock.
I recently rewatched this movie and parts are still a mystery to me. I’ve always assumed that the books would yield more insight but never found the time. Still, the idea of a movie set in the year 10191, with worms hundreds of meters long and weapons made of sound fascinates me.
A great deal of political back stabbing occurs in its 137 minute runtime but what do you expect from the founder of Scientology. The main character is Paul Atreides the son of a duke and a member of the Bene Gesserit. An exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and abilities that can seem magical to outsiders. After 90 generations Paul is the first boy born to a member and is believed to be the Kwisatz Haderach, the chosen one.
Paul, like Luke Skywalker is a unique character with a specialized almost mythical weapon, who has an adventure on a desert planet, leads a rebellion, can control the weak minded with his voice, has an equally powerful sister and fights against an evil space empire.
Unlike the epic stories of George Lucas, Dune takes a slow deliberate path. It is an adventure movie with great special effects (for the 80s anyway) and demands your patience and attention. Every time I walk away from the movie I find myself reflecting on the symbolism for quite sometime. With its epic score and bizarre characters I’m surprised it doesn’t get more love from sci-fi fans like me (currently 6.5/10 on IMDb).
In looking for images to share in this post I learned there is an updated version of the movie in the works. I will be excited to see what 36 years of advancement in movie making yields but I doubt they will be able to top the excitement I felt when I saw Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Sting sporting Holtzman shields and weirding modules.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer.
PLEASE NOTE: I had some issues with the web publisher program and this did not get published on the day intended. This was originally written for publish on 1/22/2021..
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