Message-ID: <1014@opus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 00:20:04 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.1014
Posted: Wed Jan  9 00:20:04 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 06:49:05 EST
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Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
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Here is an article from the Boulder Daily Camera, Sunday, Jan 6, 1985.
It is by Kathryn Bernheimer, the paper's film critic.


Novelists are notoriously critical of what film directors do to their
books.  They leave too much out.  They try to put too much in.  They
distort the author's intention.  They alter the tone.  They spice the
story up with unwarranted sex and violence.  They omit the best scene.
They rewrite already perfect dialogue.  They change the ending.

Frank Herbert is the exception, a completely contented writer.

"Dune," to hear Herbert tell it, is not only an admirably accurate
adaptation of his sci-fi classic, it's one hell of a good movie.

You just can't coax a grumble out of the man.  And that's after he's
read the mostly negative reviews.

"The movie is absolutely faithful to the essential thrust of the book,"
Herbert said cheerfully during a recent phone interview.  "It creates
a charismatic leader just the way I did.  Some scenes are precisely the
way they are in the book.  Others are better visually.  David (director
David Lynch) actually helped my writing by getting me to think more
visually."

Herbert served as technical advisor on "Dune," and reports that the
filmmakers actually listened to him.  He only had to put his foot down
once, and was in perfect agreement on a number of important points,
such as the decision not to cast a well-known actor in the leading role.
(Newcomer Kyle MacLachlan was cast as Paul Atreides after a year-long
search).

Herbert did not write the screenplay -- at least not the one used, which
was written by Lynch.

"I wrote a dismal screenplay," Herbert candidly remarked.  "It was too
long, and I didn't choose the right visual metaphors.  It's a major
problem to condense a book with so many layers in it."

Since Herbert's first "Dune" book appeared in 1965, followed by four
sequels with a fifth due to be published in the spring, numerous attempts
have been made to bring his best seller to the screen.  Directors such
as Chilean filmmaker Alejandro "El Topo" Jodorowsky tried their hand at
transformig the mystical, mythical novel, which has sold more than 10
million copies and been translated into 14 languages, into a workable
screenplay.  Jodorowsky's plans for a 12-hour film failed, and he lost
his financing in 1975.

Producer Dino de Laurentiis purchased the rights to "Dune" three years
later.  De Laurentiis and his daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis, who
eventually co-produced the $40 million "Dune," promised Herbert they
would remain true to the book.

They kept their word, according to Herbert, who noted that "Hollywood
is notorious for the cheap shot.  But when director Ridley Scott mentioned
that he wanted to introduce incest between the hero and his mother to
Dino, he was out."

Lynch was chosen on the basis of "The Elephant Man," which garnered
eight Oscar nominations.  Herbert admired the 1980 film for the way
the director "took you to Victorian England without focusing hard on
the environment, but on the characters," Herbert said, adding, "I
think he did the same with 'Dune.'

"It's a real departure from hardware science fiction films because
the focus is not on special effects but on ambience.  He keeps your
eye on the characters.  Even the textures have the right mood; they're
not the bright plastic, chrome and white jumpsuits you usually see.
In the book, I was working on the idea of a feudal society, so Lynch
looked at Renaissance and rococo art for the background, which suggests
a feudal society to the audience."

Herbert is delighted with Lynch's flair for finding the appropriate
visual metaphor, but he is equally pleased with his thematic treatment
of the story.

"I know that the themes came out clearly because I hear people coming
out of the theaters talking about them.  It makes people question exactly
what I wanted.

"The main idea is an openness to change.  We have to be able to deal
with change because adaptability is the key to survival as a species.
You have to adapt to new conditions or you are dead."

Herbert is often called a futurist, and terms like "future think" are
often applied to his writing, but Herbert is wary of being considered
a visionary.

"I do write future histories, which I think of as adventure fiction
or technological fiction, but I don't think I have to put on the
mantle of prescient futurist.  The number of things we can't predict
is astounding.  It is the surprises we have to be able to deal with.
When we get down to it, we are talking about technological changes
in society and how we cope with them.

"I'm interested in the things I read into history.  For example, I
think it's a dangerous misapprehension to think that absolute power
corrupts absolutely.  I think that power attracts the corruptible.
I also think that all bureaucracies become aristocracies.  It's close
to that now in our military, which is a dynasty where the powerful
pass power to their children.  My theories haven't changed (since
"Dune" was written 20 years ago).  In fact they have been borne
out by history."

The sixth in the "Dune" series, "Charterhouse: Dune," deals with
"the evolutionary thrust of a society that has come out of 'Dune.'
It's about a collision between two enormous forces, and if you want
to draw a comparison between America and Russia, be my guest."

Since Herbert acquired a word processor, he can turn our a book in
about six t eight months.  But "Dune" took six years of research
before he even began writing.  The idea for the novel began when
Herbert, then a reporter who worked newspaper night shifts so he
could write fiction during the day, was researching an article on
the ecology of sand dunes.  While flying over the desert in eastern
Oregon he began to think about a desert planet.

Herbert went to live in a desert in New Mexico and began reading
about desert ecology.  Soon he was immersed in research dealing
with comparative religion, linguistics, political science and the
psychology of mass movements.

It all went into the writing of "Dune," and now, Herbert thinks
it's all up there on the screen.

"We wanted to challenge the viewer," Herbert said.  "It's probable
that people who haven't read the book will have to go back and see
the movie again, or go back and read the book.  In any event, you
have to pay attention to the movie.  Very close attention."
-- 
======================================
Kirk Webb

..!seismo!hao!nbires!kwebb (USENET)
NBI, Inc. Boulder, CO