Siskel And Ebert Get 'Dune' Totally Wrong

With the death of Roger Ebert this week I have been reading many posts about him. Over at the Retroist I found this great clip of his old TV show, At The Movies, which he hosted with Gene Siskel. It's an added bonus that they are talking about DUNE, a movie that changed my life and led me to the great series of novels by Frank Herbert.



I remember seeing this review and going to see the movie anyways. My friends all came out saying that they hated it but I thought they totally missed the mark. I loved it. Half that time, it's true, I had no idea what was going one but after another viewing, reading the book over a week at Christmas and a third viewing, I was totally up to speed. I know to some this movie doesn't hold up today but any fan of the book still loves it for all the things it is and all that it tries to be.



Many claimed the original novel was unfilmable because of it's complex histories and political maneuverings of a dozen characters. Jorodowsky certainly tried and spectacularly failed. You are immersed into a world unlike any that has been created in Science Fiction before or since. The story of Dune is not a new one but the WAY it is told is visionary. Frank Herbert got it right as strangely did the SciFi Network who produced 10 great hours of the first three books in the series (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune). Those are also must-viewing for any fans of the novels.