story filled with peril and intrigue, suspense and anguish, romance and adventure. It has been called "one of the monuments of modern science fiction," and in 1984, was brought to the silver screen by director David Lynch. Although the movie was formidable for its time, the length and grandeur of the novel made it extremely difficult to do justice within the movie's two hours and seventeen minutes. Furthermore, there are several discrepancies in character and plot, which take away from the author's original meaning.
Thankfully, the director has kept consistent with the novel in terms of each of the character's names. However, the casting of the characters seemed to be one of the biggest flaws between the movie and the novel. Kyle MacLachlan played the protagonist, the hero, Paul Atreides. In the novel, Paul is listed as a boy who is "'small for his ageâ¦yet he's already fifteen.'" However, MacLachlan is a full grown male in the movie.
Thufir Hawat
Gurney Halleck
Gurney Halleck and Paul Atreides dueling with Holt...Throughout the movie, Paul is full-grown, taking away from Herbert's descriptive molding of Paul throughout the novel. Other characters are skewed as well because of the actors chosen. Thufir Hawat, House Atreides Mentat and Master of Assassins was played by Freddie Jones. The novel described him "feeling old and tired and storm-leathered." He has served "three generations of them now," yet Jones does not look as old as Hawat is describe by Herbert. The "deeply seamed face" was lacking in the movie. This was a disappointment because Hawat's old age contributed to his inefficiency as a Mentat in the novel. Jones looked as if he could still calculate many things. Gurney Halleck, as described in the novel, was a "rolling, ugly man" with a "beet-colored inkvine scar on [his] jaw," and he walked with a limp. Portraying the part of Gurney in the movie was Patrick Stewart. He had neither a limp, nor a scar nor any other disfigurement of any kind.
Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan) wielding a Weirdin...