[MUD-Dev] OT: Books

[coder at ibm.net]

On 18/12/97 at 10:43 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said: >On
Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Maddy wrote:
>> On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote: 
>> > On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Sauron wrote:
>> > > Matt Chatterley wrote:
>> > > > On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 s001gmu at nova.wright.edu wrote:
>> > > > > On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Adam Wiggins wrote:
>> > > > > > Frank Herbert's Dune.  See Tolkien.
>> 
>> [Lengthy discussion about the Dune books]
...
>> > And the film was *dire*!
>> 
>> Actually I liked the film - it helps if you disassociate the book from it
>> and treat it as a seperate thing.

The Dune film had for me one extremely notable point:  They used the sound
track and only the sound track to carry the pacing and continuity for the
entire movie.  Turn the sound off and the movie falls apart into a
collection of fractionally related scenes.  Put it back on and all of a
sudden it starts back together, items relate, a plot starts to appear,
there is continuity, etc.

Dune actually isn't a bad movie for all that, tho I would have much
preferred to have seen it with the original classical sound track.  You
just need to watch it in its own right, as a happenstance similar to the
books, not a version of the book.

Re: Highlander.

>> > > > Heh. I am repeatedly impressed by the quality of the TV show, as far as
>> > > > spin-off shows go. The first movie was a *classic* (Chris Lambert, AND
>> > > > Sean Connery!), the second was utterly bizarre, and the third sucked.
>> > > 
>> > > I really loved the first, the second one was well I don't know what it
>> > > was, and the third on its own was a fairly good movie, but when compared
>> > > to the rest of the "franchise" it is disappointing. 
>> > 
>> > The third was reasonable as a 'run of the mill action movie', something
>> > which I counted the original above. This is the trouble with sequels - you
>> > compare them to the originals, and they have generally lost the sparkle.
>> 
>> The 2nd Highlander film should be ignored completely - it only makes sense
>> if you see the highly editted version of Highlander that the Americans saw. 
>> Basically they removed all the plot, charactisation and just made it into a
>> full action movie.  McCloud lost all of his past etc. and so they were able
>> to make one up for the 2nd film.

I'll confess to finding all the Highlander movies and TV productions, err,
I think the term used above was "dire".  They are excruciatingly terrible
and hackneyed.

>> - The Xanth series: Piers Anthony.
>> Likewise, very funny.  Putting puns in a mud would probably be a bad idea,
>> but humour definitely is.

I lived up the road from him in Florida FWLIW.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...