re: Having a hard time getting into Dune

A lot of people have that problem. It took me about 5 tries to get through the first one. I think it’s a really good movie, just took me awhile to get through.

I’ll try to lay out the universe a bit to give some perspective.


There are a number of factions vying for power on a number of levels as well as some other groups which would be considered “support factions.”

Major groups / factions-

The Emperor - Head of House Corrino and ruler of the known universe. His prized Sardukar stormtroopers are the most fearsome soldiers in the universe.

The Lansraad - All Houses, major and minor, which are nominally under the Emperor. Individually, they are far weaker than House Corrino but, combined, they are far more numerous.

For the purpose of Dune, two of the major houses of the Lansraad are the Atreides and the Harkkonens. The Atreides are blue blood cousins of House Corrino, the Harkkonens are powerful due to money from selling resources on their own world and control of spice mining on Arakkis (Dune), and the two houses have been in kanly (vendetta) for generations. Pretty much an intergalactic House Stark and House Lannister.

The Spacing Guild - They hold a monopoly on all intergalactic transport, be it passenger travel or shipping of goods. They travel by “folding space”, which is effectively teleportation, which can only be done by Guild Navigators who are under the influence of the Spice Melange. They charge a lot for their services and, while they may not have direct power, the ability to deny service means that they could destroy any one entity by cutting them off if they chose to do so.

CHOAM - The merchant guild which pretty much controls most commerce in the universe in the galaxy. They are in charge of most transactions involving shipping from one world to another and get a cut from it, though they only hold this ability through the Spacing Guild allowing them to have merchandise shipped on the Guild ships.


“Support” factions-

The Bene Gesseret sisterhood - An all female order which has supernatural powers. They practice secret breeding programs through seduction of various individuals to pursue several potential goals, nominally to influence politics by providing daughters or heirs to specific houses by their members either being wives or concubines.

They also use their powers to serve as “truth-sayers” (living lie detectors) to the Emperor and other powerful houses.


Mentats - Specially trained humans who have the ability to process vast amounts of knowledge and perform analysis in their head. They perform the functions of computers in this universe because it is forbidden to have a machine which can think like a man.

Pretty much all houses have a mentat who will handle strategy for their house under the leadership of the head of house


Suk doctors - The best doctors in the universe. They are trusted by every faction from the Emperor on down in part because of conditioning which makes them incapable of harming any of their patients



Other-

Arakkis - The planet, informally known as “Dune”, is an inhospitable desert planet which would be ignored if it weren’t the source of the Spice Melange, the most valuable substance in the galaxy, which has life-extending properties and is used in many different ways such as allowing Spacing Guild navigators to see long distances in order to “fold space” (teleport).

Control of the planet is under the Harkkonens at the start of the story, with the Emperor declaring that the Harkkonens are to relinquish it to their rivals, the Atreides.

The Fremen - A mysterious faction of desert people on Dune, who are the natives of the planet. No one knows their numbers but they are ever-present in their stillsuits (wetsuit-like skin suits used to prevent water loss in the dry environment) within the cities and desert of the planet.



A lot of it boils down to a bunch of different factions who have some level of power but, in some instances, a nominally powerful individual can be undercut by one or more of these other factions in some way.

If you are a book reader. Check out the books. Or at least the first one.

If you do like sci-fi, Dune is the genesis of all the others. Frank Herbert fleshes out scenes and thoughts like very few writers can. I cant even start reading Dune again without continuing to read all 6 books. They culminate with Chapterhouse which is the perfect completion to the series.

None of the movies truly capture what experience you have with the books. THey are very good, especially the new movies.

If you cant get into the first one, then I get it. You just dont like the way Frank herbert writes or the world he creates. I get it.

But I do hope you get into it.

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Does anyone else feel the same way and have a reason why?

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Most of the acting is bad. I still like the movies though.

They cared more about getting big name actors than they did about proper fit for the characters. They also thought shouting really loud means what you’re saying is important.

The two best actors in the films are Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgard, and coincidentally they never shout randomly in the middle of a sentence.

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they never did adequately explain the betrayal of Dr. Yueh (and it is such a turning point in the movie

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No adaptation really does, mainly because it is normally referenced with some throwaway lines about his wife and no real detail, in part because he avoids talking about it with anyone except the Baron when asking to rejoin his wife.


Without heavily using inner monologue, it is hard for him to say “my wife has disappeared and the Harkkonens are either torturing her or have killed her”, as he can hardly tell the people he is betraying about this.

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The Spacing Guild - They hold a monopoly on all intergalactic transport, be it passenger travel or shipping of goods. They travel by “folding space”, which is effectively teleportation, which can only be done by Guild Navigators who are under the influence of the Spice Melange. They charge a lot for their services and, while they may not have direct power, the ability to deny service means that they could destroy any one entity by cutting them off if they chose to do so

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So like the The Crescent River Port Pilots Association Inc.

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. I owned and loved the 1984 version on dvd. I have tried twice with the lastest version and end up finding something else to watch.

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Bottom line, the new one(part 1 anyway) simply isn't as good. It's little things, but they add up.

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They seem to have taken the approach that fans will know what's going on, and if you do, it's great.

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if there's one thing i feel like GoT did very well is that they didn't overwhelm with you with all the history of Westoros episode one. hell even for the first season. you could walk in and figure things out as they were necessary. The first 3 star wars did the same.

Dune and Wheel of Time both just require you to know so much more than what is going on currently and neither of them lend themselves to letting you now all the lore and history without reading it.

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Duke Atreidis is on alert of the Harkonens trying to get back in Arakis and he totally whiffs on this hole in his armor?????

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the empaths (can't remember the exact name) are supposed to be immutable and uncorruptable. not where you'd expect to get hit.

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The Baron figured out that he could use Yueh’s love for Wanna to break the conditioning but had to keep that very quiet and dispose of Yueh afterward lest that open a massive can of worms. Hence why he created the perception that the traitor was Lady Jessica to various people inside and outside the situation as misdirection.

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If I recall the book correctly (its been awhile), that was why the Baron thought they had broken Yueh, but that Yueh had guessed that she was probably already dead. His betrayal was ultimately because, after the relentless torture of the Harkonnen, he concluded that killing the Duke was a justifiable cost in order to kill the Baron himself; hence the poison tooth, and helping Paul escape with the signet ring.