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From: cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Books into movies
Message-ID: <245@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Oct-85 16:20:10 EDT
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Posted: Wed Oct 16 16:20:10 1985
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Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Books into movies
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In article <18@ubc-cs.UUCP> andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) writes:
>>Did you see the "ornithopter" flapping it's wings in the movie?  Did the
>>Baron look to you as if he was too fat to walk without suspensor globes?
>>The book specifically mentions that the stillsuits were a slick gray
>>material, not black leather.
>> ... <more differences> ...
>     The thing is that these are two different media, which treat stories in
>two distinct ways.  It's easy to write a book which accurately follows a movie,
>but often almost impossible to make a movie which accurately follows a book.
>Everyone has a different idea of how faithfully a book could have been followed;
>in this case, the author's opinion happens to be not as hard-line as yours.
>     I read that they tried to make the ornithopter wings flap, but it just
>looked too hokey on film.  (I thought that the whole idea of ornithopters was
>hokey when I first read it!)  As for the black stillsuits - I'm sure that
>getting suits of the exact colour mentioned in the book was not a prime
>consideration, and certainly can't affect the story line too too much.
>                                       ... "I did not write
>_Dune_ to make money or to interest others.  I wrote it merely because this
>story was burning inside me to be Written..."
>     Sure.  And my real name's Kchula-Rrit.
>     --Jamie.

The plot of Dune is really very complex.  I think the problem is that
they tried to make the movie TOO MUCH like the book.  Details like
colors of stillsuits and operation of ornithopters aside, they
apparently attempted to cram in as much of the original as they could,
which is just not the right way to make a movie.  The result, as we
have seen, is complete confusion among those who have not read the book
(and many who have).

I believe Frank Herbert when he says he wrote Dune because it was
"burning inside him to be written" because of the poor quality of most
of the sequels.  These, apparently, he WAS writing for the money.

					Andre Guirard

"What?  What?"