Another Dune, and another ambition unabated

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2001)

There are two books I'd like to turn into films; two fantasy worlds that are so fully realized that I want to try to get them onto celluloid: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Dune. I'm a big fan of both, and have read the books, related books and books about the books, so I have certain expectations of films made from them. And, since I have yet to see a film that does a good job adapting them, I'd like to see if I could take the very complete vision I have of them and make a movie. FOTR, much like the two adaptations of Dune I've seen, does nothing to lessen these desires. Most of the comments I make refer to David Lynch's version of Dune, since I'm much more familiar with it, and I don't think it's fair to compare a six-hour miniseries to one-third of a trilogy (though LOTR will be twice as long as the Dune miniseries at its present pace). Let me say that I don't have a problem with adaptations that are well done. Interview with the Vampire, The Stand (it even matched that dead spot in the third quarter of the book), Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, Titus, William Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet and Lawnmower Man (even as far afield as the last went from the source material) are all excellent adaptations of written works that incorporate more or less of those works and are effective. Sadly, Dune and FOTR don't fall in that category, but this isn't to say that these aren't very good films in their own right, each with great moments. But even that's skewed by their attachment to the books. In both cases, there are times when the director and/or screenwriter is trying to throw a bone to the books' fans and it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the film; that's what caused Dune to have more loose plot ends than an angora sweater has loose hair ends, and it's what made every ham-handed use of a chapter title in FOTR jar me from any semblance of the suspension of memory I needed to enjoy the film. Another problem both films share is the jarring changes from the tone of their source material, tones that preclude an easy transition from page to screen. The Dune series has very little external competition; Dune has the most battles, and these are presented as small-scale affairs of knife parry and thrust. LOTR (both book and film) has more swordplay, once you get into The Two Towers, but it's not very central to the plot. Tolkien's handling of time in relation to plot is almost Swiss, and changing any part of it would necessarily have far-reaching effects. Therein lies my first major problem with FOTR: the changing of Book I into a John Woo western. I guess I could stand to see Arwen taking Glorfindel's place, though the strange "let my grace" scene didn't do anything for me. The treatment of all the elves, with the exeption of Legolas, really disturbed me. I mean, sure, Galadriel bugs bad boy Boromir, but she isn't creepy! Hugo Weaving kept reminding me of Ronny Cox as Dick Jones in Robocop with his portrayal of Elrond (I do have to admit that it took a while to figure out that he was Agent Smith in The Matrix, so it wasn't a bad performance). The plot and dialog made me think of dadaist experiments with cutting up a source and pasting the clippings back together in random order. How else could an entire scene from the chapter Shadow of the Past move from Bag End to Moria? The use of exposition, both in direct dialog and in voice overs, really made the filmmakers' attempts to make comprehension by those unfamiliar with the books obvious. These unnecessary (to my mind) changes make the story a shallow version of its former self, and are much the same sins Tolkien derided himself for succumbing to in The Hobbit This isn't to say there aren't good points: it's probably the prettiest movie I've seen since Oh Brother Where Art Thou or The Apostle; Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Orlando Bloom as Legolas are great, and Viggo Mortensen, while not my idea of Aragorn, does a fine acting job; the orcs, uruk-hai, hobbits and dwarfs are all great looking; and the sets are nothing short of amazing, even if, again, they don't match my personal vision. In all, this is another film lightweight fans and non-readers will enjoy, but I suspect the wholesale (and meaningless) plot and dialog changes will be too much to ignore for Tolkienphiles.