This is an egregious difference. I understand artistic license and, okay, sure, you have to make some compromises when changing from one medium to another but this is just obscene.
Can’t believe they went woke smh
The books is based on the 80s movie tho
I really like how the book expanded the bare bones almost summary like quality of the film. Even created space for the sequels to the novelization.
realtalk tho what the fuck are they doin in the second movie with the changes they made that actually mattered, stilgar is a fanatic, chaney is jealous and petulant, they cut out 2 years and paul’s first child, as well as the birth of his sister, very weird stuff
Stilgar is supposed to become a fanatic, it’s a very impactful line in the book:
“In that instant, Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.”
I haven’t seen the second movie (don’t know that I will,) they just have him like that from the jump?
Yeah, it’s one of the worst changes from the book - Stilgar is a believer from the beginning, and is even described by other Fremen as being kind of a religious fanatic who sees prophecy everywhere. It’s an unfortunate change, as this was one of the most important themes in the book, the way that fanaticism debases people.
It’s a bummer that Stilgar doesn’t go on that journey in thia film, especially consider how much it beats us on the head that the prophecy is a cynical manipulation.
I think they applied Stilgar’s whole arc to the “northern” Fremen concept. They go from skeptics who laugh in Paul’s face to being indistinguishable from the southern fanatics by the end. Paul even has a line similar to the one posted above, but applied to the Fremen broadly (“They used to be friends, now they’re followers”).
I do wish we got to see Stilgar go through more of a transformation himself, but I like Bardem’s performance enough to overlook it.
That’s so lame, many of Paul’s fever-dreams are agonizing over this exact thing, the transformative impact of the jihad and seeing it ripple through culture and history. The other changes AOCapitulator mentioned are pretty bad/annoying, but I am really not a fan of this one.
Literally he is a punchline. He is a religious zelot that Chani and other zoomer fremen rag on for being fundamentalist, the audience laughed several times at what a religious sap stilgar is.
he still had some good lines and its a good stilgar performance, but DAMN they just skip right to it, stilgar is already transformed and lessened
I honestly like the changes they made with Chani. This also may be my favorite version of Alia, even if the artistic liberties are extreme. Don’t get me wrong, the (book accurate) creepy toddler in David Lynch’s version was phenomenal. I just like
spoiler
the psychic parasite better.
Garamond Paul easily blows both of these away.
