Season 3 Premiere: Episode 41-DUNE (1985)

WE ARE SOOOOO BACK BABYYYYYY!!! Season 3 is HERE, and we are ready with some PIPING HOT FRESH episodes for your listening pleasure. Today we are kicking off with one of Saysha's all-time favorite good/bad movies: David Lynch's Dune from 1985! We really make up for lost time here and dive deep into the wild, weirding world of Arrakis: yapping about such broad-ranging topics as butthole aliens, Sting's dong, pugs, skin problems, yaoi, psychedelics, and worm feces. This is also the episode where Saysha discovers that Melanie has probably never fully paid attention to The Lord of the Rings and UTTER CHAOS ENSUES!!! Wow, it feels so good to be back!!!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to VHS Sisters, a nostalgic movie podcast with two actual real life sisters. I'm Melanie and I'm Sacia. Get into some comfy clothes, grab your favorite beverage, and come hang out with us as I forced my little sister to watch all the movies she missed growing up. You know, I have one thing to say. And what's that? Just when I thought it was out. Yeah. Pull me back in. Hi everyone. Welcome back, bitches. I'm sorry. No, don't apologize. We're not apologizing in season three. That's right. That's right. We just couldn't stay away for that long, listeners. We are back. It is season three. You know what? It's it's been a summer so far. I want to hear about your summer. It's been really like exciting and nerve-wracking and all in one. Like June, I think, was possibly very peak summer. Um, maybe the most peak summer in a long, long time, especially for you in New York being so busy with everything going on. It's true. We really did have an excellent June here in New York City in the year of our Lord, 2026. And then, you know what? About halfway through summer, it just took a real turn. July. Everything that happened in July so far has been so ass that I'm like contemplating on like, you know, August, it can only get better from here. Okay. Like, we can't hit rock bottom anymore, especially in Michigan where I'm at. We've been getting hit with a lot of air quality issues with this fire. Um, we've had like just overall just bad weather. And like after the 4th of July, it's just been like kind of bad vibes. Uh, you know, so we were we're just, you know, sitting in our respective apartments, you know, many thousands of miles away from each other. And we're like, you know what? Let's let's start talking about movies again. Because the only thing that can cure this midsummer ennui is gonna be talking about movies. And today, speaking of apocalyptic weather, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna kick off season three with one of my all-time favorite movies, I'm sorry. Uh we're not apologizing. Oh, that's right, that's right. It's true. You know what? We gotta keep each other honest. We we have to we have to lift up girls helping girls, sisters helping sisters. Hi, welcome to VHS Sisters. Did we say that? I don't know, but you know what? We might as well say it. Welcome back, guys. Welcome if you're new. I'm Melanie, I'm Seisha, and we're here to chat about all kinds of crazy movies. And like you said, today being one of your most favorite movies of all time by David Lynch, though he apparently denies it. He denies it. And here's some here's some fun behind the scenes trivia for you listeners. Melanie has never seen a single David Lynch movie up until yesterday. This was the first David Lynch movie I had her watch. Those of you who know me personally and peripherally, I am a huge David Lynch fan. He you know R.I.P., of course. And we were discussing like possibly covering many David Lynch movies on the pod. I I don't know if after showing Melanie this one first is she intrigued. I will say for a movie that was made to be a blockbuster Hollywood film that was a famous flop. Um, there is a lot of like yeah, a huge, huge flop. We're gonna get into it. Um, there there are a lot of like extremely weird things in it that make it David Lynchy. I mean, real quick before we get into the movie, do you know anything about David Lynch in general? I just know he's a director. That's about it. Great, cool. You have clean slaves, starting strong, starting strong, yeah. Yeah, he's uh I I you know we don't have to get too into it, but yeah, he is considered sort of like an auteur director, very weird, very specific point of view. All of his movies, you know, the the the short description is they're all weird, and and he made one of the most famous and beloved TV series of all time, Twin Peaks, which is it's kind of it's kind of like the show that I think changed TV forever, and they just put stuff on network TV that was just like this is insane. Um, my idea for one of our other side podcasts is to have Melanie watch all of Twin Peaks and we discuss every episode. I don't know who that's for. Um, maybe it's just for me. That's fine. I'm okay with that. So, also, just so people know, you've never read the book Dune or any of its six sequels. There are also many prequels, like you don't know anything about this story. So I've attempted to watch it once with you. I think you had it like you're like, oh, we're gonna put Dune on or whatever. And that sounds like something I would say, yeah. I I could never make it past the part where it's like the goth kids bring in that like butthole alien looking guy. And like once it's that, I'm like, I can't watch this movie. I I am so disturbed by this creature, I don't want to know what happens next. Like it was just something that like we would always try to put it on and turn it off within like 10 minutes. And I think that reason alone is probably because there's just so much information in the first 10 minutes. And like you said, for Ryan, your husband, my brother-in-law. Sure. You're like, this is like ambient for him because it's just like a lot of this, a lot of chatting, you know, a lot of uh, like I said, just information that like doesn't make sense right now. So it's just hard to like suck you in. Yeah, the lore, the fact that you said it's when the goth kids bring in the butthole monster, which is literally in Lynch's Dune, the first five minutes. Yeah. And I was convinced, you know, much like you were similarly turned off of Dark Crystal because of the creepy puppets in the first five minutes. I'm like, I did not make it through. I was like, oh, they they just make me sick, you know. Right, and now they're supposed to, right, and but now the Skexies are like your favorite things. I do love them, yeah. They're they're super cool. Yeah, uh, these so the butthole monsters, we'll get into the lore. I will explain what they are. I do understand how it's confusing because this movie is, for lack of a better phrase, a hot mess. And I just have a soft spot for it. I think the main problem with this is that David Lynch was chosen to be the director. He had directed previous to this Eraserhead, which is an extremely insane horror indie, all black and white movie from like 1977. He directed The Elephant Man, which was another sort of like indie darling movie, again, all black and white. So he was picked to do this by Dino DiLorentis. Do you know? Have you heard of Dino De Laurentis? Any uh relation to good old Giada? Uh, that's her dad. Shut up. I'm brilliant. Serious. I'm serious. Yes. Wow. Yeah, Nepo Baby. Yeah, hello. Geez, no wonder why Grandma June hated her. Yeah, she, yeah, no, she she was like, she definitely benefited from having a very rich showbiz family. Dino DiLaurentis was very, very famous. Italian producer did like Conan and like like everything. Like every like huge like sword and sandal, sword and sorcery movie. He definitely like knew fantasy and sci-fi. His daughter, Raphaela, was like the main, how do I want to say, like the main like on-site producer for this movie? Um, yeah, it's it was just very weird that David Lynch got picked to do this. It's sort of like, you know, plucking like an indie director who only does like art house movies to direct like a huge Hollywood blockbuster. And at the time, I think they made it for like 40 million, which is which was like an insane amount of money. Yeah, not bad. I mean, like, I mean, in nowadays, money-wise, but back then, totally a lot of money. Also, I think maybe it flopped because this is this came out like while Star Wars hype was still very strong. Like, I think all of three of the original trilogy was already out by then. And it's like people are looking for that and they didn't quite find it in Dune. So here's the thing there would be no Star Wars if it wasn't for Dune. Well, the book, yes. Yeah, Dune came first, and Dune, yeah, Dune the book came first, and it was in like pre-production hell for like 10, 15 years before. Like they were basically trying to get it made into a movie since it was like published. Wow, and so I think at one point, like George Lucas wanted to do it, but like couldn't get the rights to it. So when Dino did, oh, by the way, I'm correcting myself, Giada is his granddaughter, not his daughter. I I I spoke too soon, but yeah, I think, yeah, yeah, Raphaella is his daughter. She was the one who worked on this movie a ton. And yeah, it they they got the rights. Um, Alexander Judarowski, do you know who that is? Another like crazy indie director, like tried to get rights to it. There's a really famous documentary called Judarowski's Dune, which he explains like it would have been like a 15-hour movie. And the book is massive, though, right? And there's many of them. I'm holding it up right now. Yeah, it's like a thousand pages. Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, wrote six, six books before he died, and then like other people took over and wrote prequels. Like the whole thing is so dense. So I think you know, not to get too much into like the backstory, but Dune really suffers. The the Lynch's Dune really suffers due to the fact that they try to do it all in one movie, and you cannot. It's like what what Denis Vellanouve is doing right now, which he he made a trilogy. That's what you have to do. It is like Star Wars in the sense, like the I which I think you can tell in the last 40 minutes of this movie, they're like, okay, and then Paul met his girlfriend, and now they're in love. And then this happened, and then this, and they just kind of rushed it. I even I even wrote a note. I'm like, wow, this movie's just speeding all the way up. I'm like, I can see why they have three parts with Timote. Yeah, no, the Timote is, I think, like after you know, this is all said and done, you should watch the Timote versions, they're way more realistic. Well, I've actually attempted to watch the first one many couple years ago. I think when it first came out, like on HBO or something. I watched, I think the majority of it, and I wasn't quite understanding what was happening. So I just was like, this movie sucks. I don't get it. Yeah, the had never seen obviously the 1985 version, which crams the entire plot into it. So, like knowing what I know now, maybe I would give it another shot. I think, yeah, because in the in the Villanouve version, and you know, this podcast is not meant to be like a comparison between the two, but I think that they just assume you've read the book and maybe watched the other version. Um, there was also like a TV mini-series of Dune that I think was like kind of good, way more low budget, but like they don't spoon feed it to you, they're just going for vibes and they're they're it it's way more grounded. Whereas the the Lynch version is like you can tell that Lynch did not have final cut of this movie, like he directed it and then it just kind of got they just took it, and I know I know this for a fact that he that Lynch wanted it to be three hours and they cut it down to like 216, hence all of like the explanation of the plot because they explain it in the beginning. The Virginia Madsen character who plays Princess Uralon, which was like put in after that whole talking head in the beginning was not in there. So she explains the plot. Um, they explain it in in narration, like she's narrating. I think Paul says it. The characters say things to each other like, by the way, do you know the emperor is going to betray the Atreides? Yes, because he's afraid that they're coming into too much power. So it's very like, you know, they they explain it like again and again. Is that why they do like this weird like mind speak or like reading their inner dialogue or something like that? Like this part kind of maybe that's like a Lynchian thing. I don't know, you know. Uh, good use of the word Lynchian, by the way. Wow, I'm I'm so proud. Um linguists. So yeah, I think a lot of like, are you talking about how like when you can hear everybody's thoughts? Yes. I think all of that inner monologue stuff is stuff that they popped in later because they had to rush the movie so much that it just didn't make sense. And so you'll hear things like Jessica, you know, Paul's mom is like, uh, I hope my son is okay or whatever. You know, like, okay, like, all right. I'm assuming you would. People looking at Paul, they're like, could he be the one? You know, like every everyone be the one. Yeah, like like no one has any secrets in this movie. We just know what everyone's thinking. Well, at first, too, I thought like maybe they were communicating with each other, like telekinesis style or whatever. I mean, yeah. That's not telekinesis. What is it? Uh telepathy. Telepathy, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, that that's you know, that makes sense that you would make that assumption because there's this all this talk about spice and what this the spice melange, which is like the whole that's the whole point of of the movie, which is like everyone's on this drug. Like that's that's the thing too. Another critique of this is that Dune is just Star Wars for goths or Star Wars for like people who like drugs. Oh, okay, yeah. I it now it makes sense. It is, and well, Frank Herbert famously was inspired to create this whole concept of like spice used for like basic trading and space travel because he experimented with psychedelic mushrooms. Hell yeah. In 1965. So it is it's very druggy and like set in a future that's like it's so futuristic that they have to like go back and use old style of combat, which I love. What like the Minecraft combat or whatever that was, where it's like cubism, the shield fighting. The she the I love that, yeah. The the shield fighting, it's like a combination of like old sort of like Shakespearean sword fighting and also technology like robots and shields and stuff like that. I just think it's cool. That's all I'm gonna say. Yeah, it's the the the world is so dense, and I don't know. I feel like if you can make your way through this, it's just like a sister reading sidebar right away. If you can if you can struggle through all three Crescent City books by Sarah J. Moss, yeah, you could read one Dune, and there you don't have to read the sequels because it gets even crazier and more psychedelic. But the first one is like, I feel like it's pretty solid and you can totally do it. Go ahead. Is the first one basically everything that's in this movie or in this trillion like the trilogy that's coming out now? You know, like is the entire story in that first book encompassed in these movies at all, or is this like book one and two, or they in in Lynch's Dune, they they cram the whole first book into this? Okay, I believe. And then the Villanouve version, the trilogy, they take it a little further. So you get to see like what happens to Paul and why it's not good to put all of your hope and faith into a messianic white boy, you know, who's like colonized your land. It's a whole thing. Like, like basically, Frank Herbert, the author, wrote this as like back in 1965, as like a cautionary tale why we should not trust charismatic leaders, and also why we shouldn't like make butthole aliens in charge of space travel. I mean, that's like so, real quick, like with the butt, and we'll talk about it because we're just gonna jump into the first part of this book. So the these butthole aliens are basically what happens to humans when they consume too much spice, so they don't really explain that well. It's kind of like Wally, you know, the Disney movie. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, they they they have so much spice. So the spice melange is this uh material that it's described in the book. I love it because they're like it's amber and it like smells like cinnamon. And I think like Paul in the movie, you know, the movie we watched, he's like, Oh, I can smell it, like I can smell the spice everywhere. And he eats like it's garam masala, yeah, and delicious. Uh the thing is like it it allows like these aliens who are in charge of what they call this the spacing guild, they take so many drugs that they are able to how they describe it is to fold space, right? Which is like an interesting concept of time and travel. Yeah. I love it. They're basically creating like tesseracs because they did so many drugs, and but but the payoff is, or I'm sorry, the drawback is what if you take too much spice, you become a butthole alien. Oh, yeah, it's not a good look, it's not a good look. Yeah, and it's like it can open you to gifts. You know, it's basically this whole novel series of books and movies are are just cautionary tales. Like, you know, don't don't trust charismatic leaders, don't take too many drugs. Yeah, I think that's pretty like solid advice at any time. And again, written in 1965, and they were just like, Yeah, this is so relevant. Like back in the day, they were just we we gotta make this. They weren't able to like pop off with a full version until 1985. Then this is this is what came out, so yeah, like I guess you know, let's get into it. Like your first impressions of like just the open, like the we'll break it up into chunks. The beginning of this movie. We got talking head princess lady. We we hear about all the different planets. There's the planet Kaladan and the planet Arrakis and Gidi Prime, and you know, that breaks it all together. I will say, so I had the option to to because you cannot stream this movie right now. At least I couldn't stream it. So I had to purchase it or rent it from Apple, and to rent it, it was $3.99 and to purchase it, it was $4.99. So I'm like, I guess I'll keep it forever or not. So I took some time and paused it and rewound a little bit to just like understand these planets and who is where and why. So like I think that alone was already helpful for me to kind of like get my bearings. But like every time again, we've attempted to watch it in the past, didn't work because I'm just like, I can't, I can't process this right now. So that was helpful. Like, you were able to like you could appreciate how, at least in this version in Lynch's Dune, like he was he was really trying to like give you the lore right out the gate. Yeah, and they were trying to make it seem like I don't know, super. I guess the effect that they use to make it seem like this, like big, like magical, mythical, sort of like, I don't know, feeling like they kept fading her in and out of the picture. I'm like, she's not done talking, just leave her on the screen. I love that. Yeah, that that's a great point to bring up. She's like dropping the lore, she fades out, and then she's like, Oh, I forgot to tell you something. I'm like, what an insane choice. It's like hitting that spice too hard. Yo, she's spicing it. Yeah, she it reminds me of like, if you ever see like I think I see it more on like Instagram, but people make like comedy reels where they're like fading in and out, like explain it's like you're shooting, you're you're like coworker at work when you're trying to explain like that you're in a band and keep like fading in and out. Yeah, that's just what I was thinking of. I was like, look at look at David Lynch like setting a trend like 40 years ago. Yeah. So we've got, you know, huge lore dump. We're introduced to this world. How were you feeling the costumes and the sets and the lights and the production design? Like, did you have any feelings? Um, I liked the fact that every world felt very different. Um, you know, where the emperor lives, obviously everything's very gilded. People are wearing these like period peace style outfits, and you know, it's a little more glam, although like we only really see like the throne room. We don't get the full expanse of like the lay of the land. Right. Um, whereas like Paul, his family seems like they're from this almost like maritime style, not like pirates per se, but like they just seem like like a royal navy type of family because they're surrounded by ocean. And then um the Harakon, Harakin. I love that you don't know how to say that. So it's in this version, it's Harkonen. Harakonin? Harkonen. Harkonin, yeah. Harkonen. In the Villa New version, I think they say Harkonen, which bothers the shit out of me. Because I say, yeah, family Harkonin, like like Conan the Barbarian. Okay. Um, yeah, the the Harkonen, they live in what I imagine is like the inside of a data center. Uh yes, a hundred percent. And that's what happens when you live in a data center, dude. They're fucking nuts. They're wild. I do not you know, kill fuck Mary. They're getting killed for sure. Between the three houses or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. No, they're gross. Yeah, that we have like, I love that you caught on the on Caladan and you know, the the Atreides family. It is very like piratey, but you know, like Royal Navy-ish. And I just I live for their costumes, everybody's like very Shakespearean looking, and I love it. And the contrast with like the evil Harkonin family, which are like basically what is happening, you know, what happens like when you live in America in 2026? Exactly. Everyone's like obese and ginger, and they're like, oh, my my sister will fill in for me now that I'm dead. Like, I don't think that's legal, bro, but okay. Uh why not? Sure. Yeah, it's yeah, the the world building of it is so crazy. Everyone looks insane. Um, I know that the actor that played the Baron Harkonnen, like the guy who floats around. Oh my god, yeah. His costume was so heavy they had to basically hang him up like on a hook, kind of like how they did with the the Beatle guys in Dark Crystal, a similar costume. Right. But like, was that in the book or is that just a choice? Oh, that's in the book. Oh shit. Okay. Is it in the other dude? Not that we're trying to compare, but I'm just curious. It is, and the way that it's done is very different. I would love, you know, just sort of like maybe that's a pay another Patreon idea. Like, can we do a little comparison after you've seen the newer version? Because it's similar, but the way that Denis Vellaneuve does it, who was like a huge Dune fan prior to making the movies, I don't think David Lynch even read the book. Like he was just vibing. Hell yeah. What they gave him. He didn't study. No, he didn't say he just does his own thing. Um, but like uh the the newer version is very grounded and like the interiors are very minimalist. Like all of the plot points are there and all of the the um the characters are the same, but it's like it's interesting to see like how they interpret that. Yeah, visually different. I mean, this felt very true to like 80s fantasy, like sci-fi space opera style fantasy, you know. Absolutely, and I know you haven't seen Flash Gordon yet. I was like, if you if you were intrigued by this, we have to watch Flash Gordon. We'll we'll we'll put it on the list. We'll put it. We're just you know what, guys? We're we just talked about our season three concepts, and the the season three concept is gonna be fuck it, we do what we want. I do what I want. Okay, world's ending, deal with it. I do what I want. Um, yeah, the guy who plays uh Baron Harkonen, Kenneth McMillan. Yeah, there's a lot of like all the the people who play the Harkonens, they're like very like uh sinister looking actors, and then of course we have the the world famous singer, uh songwriter, bass player, Sting. And I didn't know that while watching, and I looked at him and I'm like, okay, this guy fade kind of hot, you know, kind of kind of giving me what I need to get this through this movie. Sure. Uh and I wrote a note about him, like when we first kind of meet him, he's out there like stroking his knife very like suggestively. And I go, is this Sting question mark? It is, it is, it is Sting. And he was like, I think for that role for that role of Faye Routha, who's like the Baron's nephew, which is weird because the the Baron clearly wants to fuck him. Um yeah, it's it's very incestual and like there's a lot of stuff going on with uh House Harkonnen, including a lot of skincare problems that uh yeah, the Baron Vladimir, I think is his name, right? He is getting down with Juvederm, any kinds of filler he can get in his ugly face. And also, he was for sure on Epstein Island. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, they're they're really again, it's like a very prescient movie, and it's like, oh yeah, this just happens now. Like, this is this is exactly what has happened, and this is this is the future. Like, you have some like crackpot Dr. Oz doctor being like, I love your sores, my liege. Oh my god, I know it's so disgusting. Um, but yeah, with the fade part with um Sting, I think that they wanted to get like some kind of rock star in there. I think that they wanted to get maybe Mick Jagger in there. Oh, interesting. And he just, you know, he was the guy for the part. I think he looks good. I think, you know, as you would say, body is tea. Yeah, body is tea. I would say, like, if I had to critique, which I can't, you know, I really can't critique, but I can. Um, but you know, he could do a couple more push-ups, get them pecs a little popping, but everything else on the body is like A plus. Yeah, no, he's he's a lean bean. Um, you know, not to jump ahead, but I should just mention it because it's in my head. Um, the scene at the very end where they like prepare him for the fight with Paul, and they find him, and he he's like in this winged codpiece situation, and he does the little stretch with his arms up. It's giving uh Buffalo Bill. It is a little bit, but apparently they wanted him naked for that shot, they wanted him full dong. And you know what they should have. They should David Lynch was like, let's get that dong out there, and you know, Dino DiLorentis was like, No, we cannot have a dong in a movie. We cannot have uh uh the fur sopra sat in the you know the only worm we can have is this big worm in the sand. We cannot have any other big worms. It's it's this is actually what happened, listeners. Um, I don't know if you know that, but it is canon now. That is what it was, so um, yeah. So yeah, the Harkonens are all crazy. The Atreides are pretty, you know, just like normal hot, I would say. They're all very like elegant and kind of aloof and removed. The Atreides, they're very like Ralph Loren, you know. Oh, yes, I love that comparison. Yeah, they're very like American classic, even though the father, the Duke, is like I forget what his heritage is. He has sort of like a Italian or Spanish accent. I don't know what he is. Well, both of Paul's parents are extremely hot. So I'm like, kudos to you. Yes. Oh, sorry, not to cut you off. Go ahead. Yeah, no, no, no, no, that was it. They're just hot. Full stop here. Um, how did you feel about Kyle McLaughlin as Paul? I thought he did a good job. I mean, like, I don't feel any sort of way. I feel like not to again bring it up, but from what I remember of the new version of Dune is like the way Timothy is a little kind of like soft-spoken, too. I feel like that's just Paul's character. But then, like, obviously, as the movie goes on, he becomes like, you know, more how would you say assertive? Yeah, more assertive or something. Uh I wanted to say sentient, but that's not the word. Anyway, he becomes more assertive and you know, he's feeling his power, okay? Um, so I think like the way he played him, I don't mind it at all. I think that's just how the character is supposed to be. But I I think he's he, you know, he's a cutie. It's funny because like mom walks in while I'm I'm watching some of it and she goes, Oh, yeah, he's from Sex in the City. I'm like, Yeah, no shit. He's from like everything. Yeah, Kyle McLaughlin works. He works, yeah. He's most famous, I think, for I mean, his relationship with David Lynch. This is like where he met David and they had like a lifelong, like he Kyle McLachlan is the star of Twin Peaks and was in Blue Velvet and like all these other like incredible films and shows. So yeah, this is like I I I think it's an important film in the sense this is like the start of their relationship. But yeah, Ky uh Kyle in this role, I think he's a little old because okay, yeah. He's supposed to be like a teen, right? He's supposed to be 15. Oh, no shit. Yeah, so he's a little old. Um, if you want to be a purist about it, that's where I do think again, I you can't just not bring up the Timothy version. We always talk about Timothy on our pod, okay. New listeners, shout out to Timothy, whatever. Without you, you know, we don't have anything to poke fun at. It's so true. Yeah, I think Timothy does a really good job at like embodying like that little bit of like rich boy, he's supposed to be like a little protected in like that rich boy sort of like snootiness. That's just him, like he's not even acting, right? And that's I mean, that's good casting too. Um, Kyle does look a little like aloof the whole time. You don't really like get everything you need from him, but he you know, he looks good, he he gives you that white boy privilege, yeah. And uh one of my favorite scenes of all time in cinema ever, we're just gonna talk about it, is the boxing where the Bene Gesseret mother comes to see him and it's controversial because uh just a little bit of lore. Uh Jessica was supposed to uh bear a girl child because she is the part of the Bene Gesseret sisterhood, which is a cult. It's a cult of uh telepathic witches, space witches who who are plotting to control the universe. Um yeah, so it seems like every planet has one, you know, like there's one in Dune or Arrakis, technically. There's one, obviously, with the Emperor, who is the one who comes in to put put your hand in the box. Yeah, yeah, that's the scene I'm talking about. And it's just like I that that scene, not to overuse this phrase, but that scene lives in my mind rent-free every day. Um, I can quote it from top to bottom. The actress who plays the mother, Sean Phillips, who's um, she's so fierce. Like it's the whole the whole idea of the Benet Gesseret sisterhood, people have critiqued it into being like like, oh, it's this really like sexist idea that like powerful women try to, they're basically like uh like the Illuminati, right? And they're out here like trying to manipulate bloodlines so they can create something called the QuizAx Hadrack, which uh Ryan and I joke about all the time. We always we call it the Quiznos Shadrach. Do quiznos, yeah. Um, it's just funny because, like, yeah, their whole MO is to create a super being. Okay, and they're like, it can't be a boy. Jessica was supposed to give birth to a girl, but so that they could marry the girl to one of the Harkonens. That yeah, they're they're out here trying to like puppet everybody. They're playing Sims. That's how I play Sims. They're playing Sims, and yeah, people were like, Oh, this idea of like these powerful witchy women like trying to control everything. I'm like, no, that honestly, that gives me life. I love that. I have no I have no problem with this. Yeah, the whole thing about like him sticking his hand in the box and like the the very famous monologue, fear is the mind killer. I mean, this is like a super nerd thing, like people get it tattooed on them when people say it, like this whole idea of like you have to follow the fear in your life and you go towards it and you walk through it and you become a stronger person. I live. And just like she's so fierce in that scene, too. Um, two questions. Yes, would you get a dune tattoo? Um, yeah, I think I I yeah, I would absolutely. And I like in my mind, I just had a couple ideas. I would a hundred percent get a worm tattoo. I would a hundred percent I live for those those spice worms. Yeah, definitely like uh, you know, uh, you know, fear is the mind killer. I would get, yeah, any anything. I would get I would get I would get a tattoo of uh what's it what's another what's another cool like Dune tattoo idea? That's a box. Oh my god, yeah, the box. Get the box. Get one of the pugs that was in the movie for about 30 seconds. I was gonna say, uh, my second question, because I want to touch on the pugs in a minute too. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, is do we commit to the Benet Jezeret style look and just shave both of our heads? I'm not joking. In deep COVID, when I I mean, I shaved my head previous to COVID, yeah, just for like, you know, to serve a look. But I it looks great. Thank you. Yeah, I got really into it in COVID because I couldn't go get my hair cut. So I was like, fuck it, I'll just shave it. I there was a period of time when I was like really in a dune phase, and I would walk out like with a mask and like a full headdress, and I would just be like, ha ha like the full on, full on. I was like, yeah, now I'm just like an evil space witch from hell, and this is gonna be my midlife journey. Yeah, I love it. Um I I'm not mad at it at all. I love it, yeah, yeah. No, I I think that again, people people see them as sort of like a misogynistic read on women in power. I don't see that at all. And I know that there are there's like a whole series about them on HBO, which I have not watched yet. Oh, there's a whole sp yeah, I haven't even gotten into it yet, mostly because like you know, it's hard for me to watch TV shows. Um, I'm currently re-watching Sopranos right now. So that's that's kind of my I'm like fully attacked. Maybe after I'm done with my uh summer Italy arc, yeah, I'll I'll get into like the the uh post-apocalyptic desert arc. Sure, yeah. No, no new shows right now. We need comfort in this trying time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm I also I have to say, like, something about desert content. That's why I always come back to this movie. It's like Lynch's Lawrence of Arabia, which I also love, which I also asked if you had ever seen. Yeah, bits and pieces, because it's a family favorite here. It's a family favorite, and also they're very similar in the sense that they're both sort of like white man's burden movies. That's like, oh, poor me, I'm the rich white guy coming to the desert to help all the brown people. And yeah, yeah, oh, so sad for me. Which you know, we should acknowledge, but it's like that's also kind of like the point of both stories that like it doesn't end well. Yeah, um, spoiler alert for the rest of the Dune series. Uh, it does not go well. Oh boy. So um, where were we? Oh, yeah, Bene Jezeret. Yeah. Uh what how how were your feelings about our sisterhood? In that scene, or just in general, like their their look and their vibe and they're very cunty, you know. Um, it's like, you know, as I was watching it, I realized that the mom Jessica, which I'm assuming is like her chosen white girl name kind of thing, she grew her hair back, which was of either a very luscious wig or great hairstyling. Um, so she's a witch technically, and they're kind of all over the place. But I did like them. Like I thought that you know, she looked very regal. I loved that style of like head dress and that real crispy. I don't know if it was a a cap or not, but it's like great bald head energy. And uh yeah, I felt inspired. Uh the box scene with Paul though felt very rated like M for melange. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It was a little sensual, like uh, you know, it's like it's like the popcorn bucket trick at the movie theater. You think you think that the the the um how do I want to say? Oh, I have to remember her full name. The Reverend Mother. Reverend Mother, yeah, I could. I just want to say the mother, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. That's a lot to remember. But she's like Silky Nut, Dr. Reverend Silky Nutmeg Ganash. It 100% is. Yeah, she's the she's the one that is like the emperor's advisor, and she's Jessica's superior. That's the thing, too. It'll like go back and forth between these like very elaborate, sort of Shakespearean names, and then like there's a character named Jessica. There's uh there's a character named Duncan Idaho. Duncan Idaho is crazy, is a very funny name, and that's like Paul's friend who ends up getting killed in the battle. But um, yeah, no, Lady Jessica is like she's a bit of a rebel, and the thing is, she's not even married to Paul's dad. That's she's a concubine, and that's the whole thing, like you know, in the middle, like when you know they're on Dune, and you know, Duke Leto's doing what he's gotta do. He's like, Oh, I should have married Jessica. I'm like, Yeah, you should put a fucking ring on it. Okay, she's a baddie. What are you doing? She's a baddie, yeah. You get a sense, like in this world, that like marriage is for political purposes only, right? And it's very important. Like everything is about like buying and trading and peace negotiations, and yeah, it's and it's all controlled again by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. They want to make sure that like this Quisno Shadrach gets made, who is gonna be the one to like who's gonna be basically like a super being or like a Christ figure, and it's just I just think it's interesting, especially with like what goes on politically today, and how like we were supposed to have a real like a separation of church and state, and that's very much not happening now. Right, you know, things people are just kind of trying to like manipulate everything, and but yeah, no, the Reverend Mother is very impressed by Paul. She's like, Oh, okay, he's got some gifts, he's strong, he can stick his hand in the box and not be scared by me. Stick his hand in my box, uh yes, you know, hey, yo. Um, and so she's like, it's cool, I'll let him live. And so they all get shipped off. You know, they're they're all being sent to Dune to, you know, do some sort of like peace negotiations with the Harkonens. Well, they're like taking over their like job, essentially, right? Like it's like a plot to be like, oh, well, actually, we're gonna have the Atreides family come in here and deal with this because you know, they're not doing so well, but like it's supposed to be a trap to get them to like have this fight, this battle, if you will. Right. Like the emperor is sending them to Dune under the guise of like taking over, but really it's a setup because no one likes how powerful the Atreides are. That's like the simplest way to explain it. Again, if like you get into the book, it's like, oh, it's very like all these layers of like factions and stuff like that. And you can really get into it. Yeah, so they're sent away from Kaladan to Dune. You get you come to understand. That they want to the Harkonens are on dune because that is like the center of spice production, even though it's a real problem with all these worms, or like, oh, we got to deal with all these worms, but we got to get this spice because this is really important. And so I love how I said in the beginning, I'm not gonna break down the plot and let I just cannot help myself. Help it, but it's like, you know, I'm trying to understand a lot of different things about the movie, and it's easier to kind of go in order, but at the same time, like, because I could like jump ahead and stuff where like the worms basically like become their friends, you know, like Paul's like, I'm gonna tame this worm. Yeeha! Yeah, and then like my question is is like I know that they're there collecting the spice, right? Correct. But like you don't really see the production, like how they get it or like what it really is. Like, I guess it's like that powder, but I'm like, in my mind, is it like because at the end they're like, oh, the worms are the spice or something? And I'm like, oh, is that because it's like their poop? Is it like a dead worm? You know, like how like a dinosaur is basically oil to us now. Is the worm like a dead worm spice? That I don't know. That is su I love that you're like, is it their poop? Yeah, like what's the product? Like, how do we get the product? Because everything else is looking like sand. Because if that's the spice, y'all should just be taking a bucket out there and start scooping that sand up. It's not the sand, it's something that they're digging out of the sand. So I'm like, is it a dead worm? Is it something else? I never saw like the raw form of the spice, you know? So that's just me. So it it the production of spice is actually like really complex. And I think if they had tried to explain it in the movie, it would have been another 45 minutes. Like, that's the hour, you know, that's the extra hour that Lynch wanted to put in. But I think the best way to explain it is like so, like deep beneath the sands, it's like the larva of the worm. They they extrete the substance that mixes with the underground water, the substance. Yes, the and so basically the once it's exposed to the heat and the sun, it transforms into what they call the spice melange. So it's like so, like they need it. I I think it's kind of like I mean, I don't know what worm babies, it's worm babies, and then also I feel like maybe I don't know, I can't speak for Frank Herbert, he's dead, but um he I think he was probably inspired by like silk production, you know how they need silkworms, silkworms, yeah. It's like, but it's like deep beneath the sand, okay, and so like basically they're mining for oil, do you know? Like and you think and you think of like the setting, like also like all of the names and everything, and how everything's like Muadib and you know, all this stuff like that. I was like, was he thinking of the Middle East and oil production in the Middle East? Like, probably, probably was thinking of that too. So, yeah, it's like, yeah, the more I talk about it, I'm like, ah, yes, this is why I love it. It's like, it's like taking actual like things that are happening happening like geopolitically in the world today and like putting it in this crazy fantasy setting that's so far off in the future that again it goes back to like old old style stuff that I love. It's like, yeah, it could be the earth 3,000 years from now. Well, yeah, or 8,000 because it's the year 10,000 something, right? Right, right, right. Yeah, exactly. It's like super, super far off future, but yeah, once the um, once the uh the Atreides are on Arrakis, the planet Dune, you get introduced to all of like this crazy desert technology. So, like we just explained, all the spice mining. Also, my favorite thing, the still suits, because I want one. Yeah, yeah, those are actually really cool. I was I called it the Dune suit. Um, but I like that it's like it's ergonomic, it's uh fashion with purpose and science, you know? And I like that because it's like let's repurpose our bodily ways. So you can talk about how you can poop in the suit and how you can pee in the suit. Like those are details I didn't know that I needed, but you know what? Now I know and I feel better for knowing it. Yeah, and it's all explained by Dr. Kines, who's played by the legendary Scandinavian actor Max von Saido, who like it's I mean, you can tell like he's been on Dune a while, even though he's not like a Fremen, he's not one of the indigenous people. He's got those like glowing blue eyes, because that's like what the drugs do to you. Oh, which I like yeah, that's why everybody has blue eyes. It's like the first step of like the because it's just like in the atmosphere, like that worm, that worm goop is everywhere. Yeah, well, I'm wondering, like, and maybe that's just an aesthetic choice, but like the Harkonnen and the Emperor don't really have those blue eyes. They don't because they want like what again, like the Fremen, the people who live there have. Like they, they, they want all the stuff. But it's like, I think there's like a deeper lesson there. It's like the the Fremen, you know, all the people who Paul eventually aligns with, they're it's like part of the land and they are them. And it's do you know what I'm saying? Like, like in a very Native American kind of way. Yeah, but also I'm thinking too like evolutionary, like science-wise, it is, you know, what it is darker, longer, having lighter pigment, you can absorb more light, and these people are kind of living underground, so it's like having the lighter or like the blue eyes or whatever. Maybe they can see better underground. That's my thought. Yeah, in the books, it's described, it's I mean, again, if you if this intrigues you, please read at least the first book because it's all explained. But the in the book it they're known as um, the eyes are known as the eyes of Ibad. So again, like this very like uh I want to say like uh Middle Eastern inspired, Arabic inspired, but it's due to this lifelong heavy dietary exposure to the spice because the spice permeates the food and the water and the air, and they're constantly ingesting it. So the exposure permanently stains their sclera blue. That's like the whole thing. So it's like it basically, if you're a noble or like an off-worder, you can you can you can consume the spice, but it won't turn your eyes blue. And also, this is another nerdy fun fact. Um, people who are addicted to spice wear contact lenses so people don't see that they're addicts to it. Oh, interesting. Yeah, it's like it's a pretty good fantasy sci-fi world building. Like he really thought of a lot of stuff, and like you can whatever, you can poke holes in world building like with any book. But I was just like, that's a cool idea, right? Just the idea of like having to adapt just because you're addicted to a substance. How can you hide your addiction in this world, you know? Right, because if people know again, like this is this is like one of the most it is the most valuable substance in the universe. So yeah, next to water, apparently, because water is life, right? Water is life, yeah. They talk a lot about yeah, like like everything on Dune is sort of like adapted to surviving the harshness of it. Um, which, you know, again, I want a still suit just because it's starting to look like Dune out there. I I I need the still suit, you know? Yeah, and they're like you you put the nose tube in and you can breathe through your mouth, and it's fine, and you can just shit yourself every day, and it's all it's all good, but it just runs right out of you. I have to imagine there's like a catheter in you. Um I I do love there's a moment there, I feel like I'm really nerding out on the details of this movie, but there's a moment when Dr. Kines is like, he's meeting Paul for the first time and he's like, Oh, somebody put you in the suit because the way you put it on is like desert style. And he's like, No, I just did this. And this idea that like Paul was meant to be here and be the leader of these people, and he just intuitively knew how to do his suit. Like, it I don't know, I it just gives me like a chill. I was like, I love that so much. And I they talk about that a little bit in the newer version too. Like he has dreams, just like he has dreams in this version that it's like it was meant to be. And I I don't know. I I think that the the chosen one trope in sci-fi fantasy can be kind of boring because it takes away like he doesn't get to make his own choices, right? Like he's uh he's predestined, yeah. He's predestined, and that can be kind of boring, but I think it's I don't know something about this movie, it's like he's discovering like how cool it is to like be a part of a people that he was always told were like bad people, and I think that's a that's a cool plot point, too. Yeah, yeah, so they're on Dune, they're just on it, they're on the desert, it's dry, they're on it, baby. They're living for that desert and these worms. I know. I keep wanting to say, like, not the boar worms, but I know that's Flash Gordon. That's Flash Gordon, which you haven't seen yet, and we're going. You know what, listeners? If you want Melanie to watch Flash Gordon, write us a comment. Write us a comment, like and subscribe. Exactly. Um, I have some questions. Sure. Just a couple things. I mean, like I always have questions, but uh, two off the bat, which are kind of silly and totally off plot. But why pugs and bulldogs when they're in space and these dogs can't breathe, anyways. You know, they bring a pug to Dune. It's like, don't bring the pug there. He can't breathe. He can't breathe. I think that I don't know what Lynch's whole idea was putting these dogs in the movie. However, I do know historically, like we know, because we are dog lovers, that pugs and bulldogs are always associated with nobility. Definitely pugs, especially in China. Bulldogs were used for like fights, you know, back when they weren't as mutated as they are now. They were kind of like a Roman dog. Yeah, they used to be a little bit beefier, like more like Staffordshire Terriers, you know, a little little huskier. I I do think that I mean, maybe David Lynch just liked dogs, maybe they were just like, we just want dogs on set. Um I just want to pet a bulldog, so I'm gonna put them in this movie. Bulldogs are in it for like one second. Pugs, um, Patrick Stewart straight up carries one into battle. At the end, he just carries it in his arms, and I'm like, that pug's gonna die. That pug's dead already. That pug's dead already. He's holding just holding a dead pug in his arms. Um, yeah. Shout out uh Patrick Stewart as Gurney. Um he looks the same even today. He literally, though, he's timeless. That's the that's the benefit of being bald. Yeah, no, you are sort of like ageless in that sense, and yeah, it's funny because his character is supposed to be very warlike, and you just see that come across in his character. He's supposed to be sort of like a jacked, like noble warrior guy who also like teaches music. Like, I'm like, put me, put, put me in that role. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to rock. Basically, I love Gurney. Um, Josh Brolin plays him in the new version. He's very good. That's so funny. Yeah, it's like yeah, he's supposed to be like kind of like a rough and tough, like manly guy who is like um one of Paul's yeah, basically, and he's like one of Paul's teachers. Um, oh yeah, speaking of all of Paul's teachers, yeah. We have, yeah, it's it's Gurney, it's Thufer, who has the biggest eyebrows ever. Uh, next to um I know uh Brad Doriff, who plays Piter, who's like one of the Harkonnen advisors. Everybody's got like a crazy eyebrow in this movie. There's no waxing happening except for on Paul's planet, and then we have uh, I bring this up just because this is a plot point, but we have Dr. Yui who's played my call him Dr. Yowie. That's a different movie. Dr. Yowie, hello, Dr. Yowie is evil. I didn't expect it. Uh he's evil. Well, he's like, he just like betrays the he betrays the Atreides, which is funny to say. He betrayed them. He betrayed them, and yeah, that sort of like kicks off the second part of the movie where it's like he he betrays the family, they get double crossed, the Duke dies, killing uh Brad Doriff's character, which is like with a poison tooth. It all happens so fast. I was like, no, Brad Dorof, I love you. You know who you know, Brad Doriff, the guy with the really funny eyebrows. You know who that is. No, you don't know who that is. Oh my god. So you've watched all Lord of the Rings. So he plays Grima Wormtongue, who's the guy who, like, you know, in the second movie, he's like, Your uncle is tired, go away. Like, he's the creepy guy who tries to like infiltrate. But in like which scene, like, where is he? Oh, he's like a huge part of the movie. Never mind, I'm cutting this out. Um, he's uh he's like uh Brad Doriff was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Brad Doriff was the voice of Chucky the doll from the child's play movies. We're gonna have, you know what? My idea is we're gonna have Brad Doriff month because he's he's incredible, he's just like a fantastic character actor. He was in uh Exorcist 3. But yeah, I I feel like we recognize him from Lord of the Rings. I obviously he's in costume. Okay, we're gonna like okay, hold on, hold on. Um, we're gonna do this right now. Do L O T R. L O T R. No, no, no. Let me let me send you this picture. We're gonna have the real life reaction on the show. Because you've you've watched you've watched all of the Lord of the Rings. I have, but I haven't watched them recently, so that's like on my list. Melanie. It's on my list. Melanie. The director's cuts. I haven't watched those yet. Again, I watch those every year at least once. At least once. Ew. So Greenwood is like the creepy guy who's like, don't listen to them. You know, he's he's uh he's the uh isn't that what's her face's dad? Sure, yes, he is so he is somebody's dad. What are you talking about Brad Dora for the king? The king in the movie or in real life? In the movie, yes. It's a girl, right? I can't get into this right now. We're we're already talking about the lore of one movie that is so dense I cannot possibly begin to okay, okay. At Chris, okay, listeners. You tell me during Christmas, do I make Melanie watch every single Lord of the Rings director's cut all four hours of each movie? And we talk about Lord of the Rings, that would be a Christmas present for me. I I think Melanie would never speak to me again. No, I I like Lord of the Rings, that's the thing, but it's like I haven't seen it through in quite some time. You wait, so you've never read the Lord of the Rings books? No, Melanie. Why are you out? Why sorry? Let me just sidebar for a second. You so you read everything that Sarah J. Moss has ever put out. You read fucking fantasy TikTok novels where girls be getting their butthole blown out. No, I don't always read the butthole blown out ones. And you haven't read have you read The Hobbit? No. Oh my god, I'm gonna leave. He's in the hole. I'm gonna leave this whole. You've never read The Hobbit. Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, this is just gonna be all sci-fi fantasy this season. I'm saying it right now. We will not we will not watch a single love movie. Well, I'm okay on the love movies, but something. Give me some variety. Holy shit. We do what we want, okay? We do what we want, but in the meantime, gotta get through Dune. Almost there. We're almost there. Yeah, I mean, at this point, sorry, it's it's it's almost like we can do what the movie did because there's a big, huge battle with pugs. Jessica and Paul get thrown into the desert, and then it's like a speed run to the end, basically. It really is. Yeah, they're like talking about, you know, Paul. If before they did that, Paul's like rolling off the spice, you know, and he's like, I feel nothing, you know. I'm like, damn. That's fucking that's rough, bro. Uh he's he's he's so zonked out, he doesn't feel anything. Even like the thing, like what they call the weirding way, you know, the weirding way, nothing else came to mind when making this. I love the term the weirding way, because again, it's just weird. Like, how else do you describe it? They use, they basically use the power of sound to kill people, and sometimes they'll like focus it through a weapon. So you see, like sometimes the Benet Jezeret sisterhood, like Jessica, you hear the Reverend Mother do it, they use like a weird voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I think is the coolest thing. It's like using your voice to like basically, it's basically Jedi mind tricks. Like uh fucking George Lucas rip that off totally. Like they don't do the voice, but it's just like it's very much like these are not the droids you're looking for. Like you can you can manipulate through your voice. So um, yeah, that that comes to play like later in the movie when they're just like, oh, right, like with the use of all of these with the spice and the the training, you can use words to basically kill people, which is kind of sick. That's kind of like a DD spell, it's like power word kill, which is like one of the most powerful DD spells, like 12th level, whatever you can let like you say a word and just drop someone. We we we never played a campaign that long to like get to that point, but you can kill people with a we gotta get there. Let me see here. We're talking about eyebrows, people don't trust people with crazy eyebrows. The fucking alien comes back again at some point, and I wrote, I hate this ugly ass alien, bro. I'm so over him. I'm tired of this alien. Stop putting him on my screen. Where where did when does the alien come back? Like, like they're uh I forget. Like, I think something's like the emperor's trying to leave, or like he's coming to do now or something, and then he got the little alien goes out there and floats around and they're folding space. Oh my god, off my screen, bro. Yes, you you do so. Yeah, you see the yeah, they're called like transporters or something. Yeah, yeah. You see them in the beginning, and then like, yeah, when they in the middle of the movie, when the Atreides are like when they're going to Dune, they need these butthole aliens to get them there because I'm just gonna call them that. They are they need they need them to use their powers to get them to another planet, otherwise, interplanetary travel isn't possible. So, yeah, like these butthole aliens basically like you know, they run a monopoly on the whole transpose system, which is crazy. Yeah, like no one should do that, but yeah, it's like yeah, towards the end, it is a little like rush because again, they're trying to like cram this thousand-page novel into less than two hours. So, like once the family is betrayed, you know, the Harkonens are like, haha, take Jessica Paul to the desert. They end up like defeating the soldiers, you know, by using the voice and you know, uh, physical combat, whatever. They end up in the desert, they meet the Fremen, who are the indigenous people, and they're like instantly friends with them. Like, that's the thing, too. Like, that's not what happens. Like, Paul has to like basically earn their trust. And it's it's all so fast. It's like, oh, I meet the Fremen, you know, here's the leader of the Fremen, Stilgar, who's played by Everett McGill, who's also in Twin Peaks, like has been in like uh another movie that we're gonna see this year. He's a great actor. Paul meets Chani, who's the girl from his dreams, who's like, tell me of your homeworld, Usil. I say Chani, like the astrology app. Yeah, Chani, is it yeah, Chani, Chani, Chana Masala, Chana Masala, yum, delicious, the spice, masala, yeah. That again, it's all it's all about delicious, spicy food. Yeah, it's it's pretty quick from that. It's like, yeah, he meets the girl who he dreamed about, they fall in love, and then it's like four years later, they're bucking, and it's four years later, and Paul has created an army, and you get to and like basically towards the end, it's like battle scene, battle scene, battle scene, talking, battle scene, the end. Like that's It but also let's not forget before the Duke died, he blew a load in his wife, and she was like, Yes, I'm gonna have a baby now. Like, I don't know, like they seemed like they were in love, so I'm surprised Paul didn't have any more siblings, but you know, you get this weird like fetus scene, and I thought the baby was dead. Turns out it's alive. Um she's alive and she's fucking crazy. I know, yeah. That's uh yeah, that's that's his sister Alia. So that's the whole thing about Jessica. Like, she just can't have a baby willy-nilly. She, because she's a part of the sisterhood, she's supposed to only again get married to who they tell her to, and only have a baby if it's gonna be like bred and wed to something, you know, so something that's gonna make a difference in this universe. And so she basically like wills herself to have this baby who becomes Paul's little sister, Alia. Yeah, who's a badass, who's a fucking badass, who in the book and the movie is described as being born fully formed with thoughts, like an adult, like a baby just popping out, like, hi, how are you? I I'm a baby, I'm a baby, and I know everything. She has she basically is born with like the knowledge of like everything, so she's like a super being, and it's she's played by Alicia Witt, who also is on Twin Peaks. Wow, it's like this is the thing about David Lynch, and you can whatever you're loyal, you can form your own opinion of him. He is loyal, he's like a director like Christopher Guest or Robert Altman, where he like has a crew of actors and he's like, These are my people. I'm gonna make a movie with all of them every single time. Very Adam Sandler coded. Yeah, yeah. Though similar, where he's just like, Okay, these are my pals, and I just like making a movie with them, and I don't have to like teach new people how to do things how I want them to be. Right. So, yeah, Alicia Witt is like, it's funny because I always think of her as you because we also have like we also have like a huge age gap. And also, like you did just you were sort of born like fully formed. You're just like, you're like, hey, what's up? I'm hungry. And my one of my favorite scenes at the end is like when Alia's like explaining that Paul is like coming to his own, he's become like the prophet, the messiah, whoever, and she's she's in the court. And I'm sorry, you you can explain it. No, I don't have to, but it's the best part I feel like of the movie. Get this child out of here. She's like abomination. Yeah, she's like, kill the child, kill, kill the child, it's an abomination. And Ali is like, Yes, but you haven't told the emperor what my brother is. And then the Reverend Mother's like, get out of my mind. And how can this be? Yeah, it's it's very quotable, it's a very like quotable, insane kind of movie. And yeah, the ending is like the yeah, the last 40 minutes. Again, this is a person, me, myself, Seisha. I have such a soft spot for this movie. I do watch it once a year, just like all the Lord of the Rings, which soon you will too. Like uh now, now Melanie's seeing her future and it is dark. No, it's good, it's dark. See, here's the thing, here's the thing, though. We had a tiny window of like incredible summer, peak summer, as you said in the beginning. And now we're slowly sliding back into the reality check of the fact that we live in the end of days, and it's fine, but let me tell you, the only way to survive and to get through is to watch these epic fantasy movies in which they kind of tell you how to navigate it, and they're all written by men who are, you know, grew up in the first half of the century, they had to deal with world wars and see like the worst of people and like the post-industrialization and like all the all the actions in government that have brought us to the future. And you're just like, Oh, they were they were telling the future, and they're telling us how to live, and we're we're gonna do it. We have to take more drugs according to Dune. We have to take more drugs, we have to learn hand-to-hand combat, we need uh some still suits like right now. Yeah, I needed that shit like a week ago. Oh, you're gonna need it again. Well, that's what I'm saying. I needed it and I continue to need it. Yeah, I do think we should get some kind of like body armor going. That'd be kind of fun, actually. Let's design armor. I think, like, honestly, for Renfare this year, which is coming up soon, I usually do kind of like an easy breezy feminine design. I have done armor before, but I feel like if I could get some leathers, like some fighting leathers, how sick would that be though? Be pretty sick. I'm I'm kind of ready. I think I'm fully ready to embrace like my warrior era. What did you think about the scene where the Baron Harkonen got to suck the blood of the frightened Twink? That's when I was like, oh, this this man was fully on Epstein Island with Papa Alien from Mac and Me. I'm making a list of people from these movies who are on that island, and he is definitely at the top of the list. I just love that. That's like a classic example of like the weirdness of the movie. There's so much in like the Harkonnen world. You could see like David Lynch was comfortable. He's like, Okay, we're we're gonna have Baron Harkonen floating around like the Goodyear blimp. Yeah, like he did that uh fizzy lifting drink from Willy Wonka. He did, and then there's like you know, just like random twinks running around with like a little heart port that you can like drink their blood. There's a lot of weird animals, like so we talked about how the Atreides have pugs and there's bulldogs. There's also like there was that one scene at the very end of the movie with the cat, like a hairless. Mr. Bigglesworth. Mr. Bigglesworth was there in a scene where it's like it did not need to be in there because you can see they've trapped Fufer, who's like the Atreides mentat. They don't really explain what a mentat is, but a mentat is like a a role, a person who has like he's basically like a human library. Yeah, he's like a scribe, but he's a yes, he's not writing shit down. It's all it's all he he's like a baby. It's all up here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that yeah, there's that one scene, and we never get we never see him again, but they're like basically like we gave you poison, and if you want to live, you have to milk this cat every day of your life. I'm like, who who said like I don't remember that from the book. Maybe it is listeners, chime in if that's in there, but I don't remember that. I think that's just a weird lynch thing that happened, yeah. And you know what else is fucking weird is the line that creeps me out the most is like when Baron Harkonen is over, like stepping over Jessica and is like, just some spitl on your face, like he wants to spit on her face, and like just some spital on your face. Like, who wrote that? That's so fucking nasty. It's nasty. I don't get down with spitting or anything like that. He, I think that Lynch maybe wanted to make this like a rated X movie. He wanted to put the dong in, he wanted, you know, bring bring back the lynch cut. We want to see Dong. We want to see Sting's dong. We want to see if you're gonna do like full-on spit, you know, sexual humiliation. Let's just go, I guess. If you buckle up, buckle up, baby. Um, yeah, do you have like were there any highlights for you? I know this was a weird movie. Let's talk about did anything hit for you or was this were you all were you just watching with like your jaw a gape the whole time? My jaw was a gape, I will say, for a lot of it. I was just letting it happen to me rather than like really experiencing like the highs and lows myself. But now after after having a day to process, I feel like a lot of the highs were I would say the Benetzeret. Like honestly, I think that they are fierce, and I love that you know they're trying to control the world, whatever. But I just like uh I think just the complexity of all the different characters and seeing how they interact, I think that was probably the most interesting, and like the high points for me. Um, obviously, like I didn't feel anything when Paul fell in love with Chani because it happened in two seconds. Yes, this movie should have been probably three hours. I feel like it might have been even better if so. But like having the gist of it, I think it's really interesting. And I ended up actually liking it as a whole. Um, you know, more lows for me as far as like the butthole alien, not really seeing the spice. Again, things that could be solved with having a longer movie. But yeah, overall, I mean, do you want my rating? Yeah, let's just say it. What it would what do you rate this movie? Honestly, I'm gonna give it an A minus. Oh my god. Well, B plus A minus territory. I want to push it to A minus because of how camp it is. It is camp, and it's so funny because listeners, so yeah, we were we were discussing themes, and I I felt bad that we left out June, you know, we we've taken a break for June and July, and I was like, Oh, we're missing pride. And and you were like, Well, is this movie pride? And I answered you in sort of like a roundabout way, and I just want to say, what is more gay than riding a worm with your best friend? That's pretty gay. Like that looks like an uncircumcised dick. Yeah, I I mean, I do I think you are a hundred percent correct in clocking like the the campiness of it. It is over the top, it is crazy. Um, I don't think this movie could be made like this anymore. And I think, like I said, if you want to watch the Villanue version, it's way more grounded. It's like it's it's like today, you know, like it's it's made like in a very present sense, like, oh, this is happening now, very minimalist. Everything is like bone white, and we're inside of like everything's like stucco and like scrubbed, and there are no colors. It's like a Montessori or something. It's it's very Montessori school, yeah. Like Timothy's wearing like um ochre the whole time, and you know, but there are a lot of like it's cool, it's it's it's very cool. It's just like a different universe completely. Whereas like when I watch Lynch's Dune, I'm like, choices were made, colorful choices, um, ugly choices, ugly choice, yeah, things that are just grotesque, like all the body horror stuff, you know, the weirdness of it is just like I it's it's one of the weirdest movies you'll ever watch, and that's really why I wanted you to like start this season. I'm like, we're you know what? We're gonna as uh as Frank and It's Always Sunny says, we don't got a lot of time left, we're gonna get real weird with this. So that's that's how I feel. This is you know, season three, we're gonna get experimental. Wow, you gave it, you gave Dune an A minus. I am thrilled. What would you give it? Obviously, I'm assuming a solid A. A solid A, solid A. And it's like, and I do know it it probably should be a little lower. It is very, very biased, but this is like a comfort movie for me. I don't butthole alien and all. I just I put it on for vibes. I love the soundtrack too. Soundtrack famously made by Toto, the band. Toto, I go, how like when I saw that, and you get the intro to Dune, and it's like the sand blowing and everything. I go, how sick would it have been to have Africa playing over this? Yeah, they're like, yeah, it would have kind of ruined the world building, but yeah, they they you hear them in all the guitari things, like the triumphant battle scenes. I think the composer Brian Eno did one song, which is like the prophecy theme when Paul has all his dreams, all that like Cynthia stuff. So I do think like the soundtrack really adds to the vibes of it in the new movie. It's like a typical like Hollywood Hans Zimmer kind of like score. So back to when we were, you know, what our favorite thing to do is, which we're not necessarily gonna do for this right now, but when you want to like recast people, one of my choices for Jareth if they were to do a remake for Labyrinth is to have Austin Butler. Now, Austin Butler is in Dune, right? The new version. Is he basically Sting? He is Sting. Yeah, he plays Fade Routha, and he is one of the best things in the movie. Oh shit. He's incredible. And I, yeah, you gotta, you just gotta watch it. You gotta see his version of it. Yeah, this this excites me because I'm like, okay, now you know about the Dune universe. I do think that like this movie is a better intro to it as opposed to watching the Villaneo version, because again, they stretch it out over three. The third one hasn't even come out yet. So you've got such like a slow burn. Whereas this this gives you like the Cliff Notes version, just with a lot of weird. It's like the it's like you you took acid and then you read the Cliff Notes, right? And you're like, okay, okay, I get it. Everyone's got blue eyes, it's crazy. We got these little hypodermic needles floating around trying to kill people, it's all good. Yeah, it's that thing too. It's like the more I talk about it, I'm like, oh, right, and then this weird thing happened, and then this weird hit like you can't even fit it all into like you know how weird it is. Yeah, in in like I don't know how long we've been talking, an hour and a half podcast. Uh probably like five hours. We folded space, we did fold space. You know what? It's like it's like we never stop potting, honestly. I know it feels good to be back, it feels good to it. Does it feels correct? Yeah, it feels correct to oh, sorry, I'm just looking over my notes to make sure I don't forget anything before we uh cut and print this. Did you clock the David Lynch cameo? No, okay, that's right, because you don't know who he is. So David Lynch has a cameo when they're first coming to Dune and they go to the spice harvesting plant. And oh, is he the guy on the phone or something? Yeah, and he's he's like, Hey, I got what uh uh yeah, we got a real big worm down here because that's how he sounds. He's very okay, he's got a very distinct voice. Ryan does an incredible David Lynch impression, but he's got that kind of voice where it always sounds like he's a little deaf, you know. Ryan, Ryan has is great at impressions, honestly. We this week we were like, because we were talking about like five-year plan career in you know, the time of the apocalypse, and I was like, you need to do voiceovers, like you need to do cartoon voices. Like he's so talented, like he can do an incredible Arnolds, he can do an incredible, like like basically any cartoon character, he could do like every character on The Simpsons, and I'm like, You're so much better. Yeah, he should do um, like I don't know if Adult Swim is still things. I'm assuming they are. It's not probably this at the same level it was 10 years ago, but like that would be a great place for Ryan. Like, what was that show that Seth it's Seth Green, I think, created? Oh robot chicken. Robot chicken, yeah. Yeah, he would be so good on robot chicken. And I think Ryan knows a lot of those people. Sidebar, maybe I won't put this in, but like he worked in MTV animation, so I feel like he knows a lot of people like that. Um, maybe that's the way somebody learn animation real quick.

unknown 1:22:34

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:36

So we can start making our own cartoons. Hey, you did do that whole cut and paste animation thing. I did, I love that. That's fun and that's up my alley. When we were at the Museum of Moving Image last fall, when we released our Dark Crystal episode, we went to see the Henson exhibit. Melanie did a really incredible uh, how do you want to call it? A cut and paste animation project there. Oh, yeah, like a stop motion. Yeah, you know, we really gotta, we really gotta get down with the arts. Oh, my husband's back from the laundromat. Must be 90 minutes have passed at least. To end this, as you were mentioning about five-year plans and trying new things, you know. The quote from Dune that I have to bring out is without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. Oh, yes, I love that. It's true. Yeah, the sleeper, the sleeper has awoken, gets brought up a lot. The whole idea of like waking from your sleep. Uh, I love that. That's a great quote. Yeah, next to like fear is the mind killer, like that's the one. You know, and you know how you wake up from sleep, take more drugs. I was gonna say go back to sleep. Good night. Good night. Yeah, I don't know. Like, yeah, maybe this is the year I get really into psychedelics. Oh, wow. Yeah, listeners, I don't do well on drugs, and you know, I like I like control. I'm gonna focus my energy on physical training. There you go. Honestly, how about you? Are you into drugs or physical training? Um, I would say more so physical training at this time of my life. Uh, maybe there was a time for more spice in my 20s, but I am now evolved into my next Pokemon evolution. Yes, I don't know. I don't I don't really have a lot of time for that right now. But uh I, you know, I I uh if you want to go on a psychedelic journey with me, I'll happily, you know, hold your hand. All right. But uh, you want to hear mom's review? You can totally cut this out. No, no, I want to hear it all. Let's hear it. Okay, so mom's never seen Dune. Okay, she's not, she still hasn't watched it. Maybe I will make her watch it now that I own it. But her association with Dune is that I've never watched it. There's a lot of sand. I saw enough sand in Star Wars. I'm good. Wow, I was gonna say, is this a legit review for mom? Because there's no way in hell she would sit still for a two-hour and 16-minute movie. That's that's her review. There, I already saw enough sand in Star Wars. Star Wars, I'm good. I see, and now I gotta get on the horn and say, you better put some respect on Dune's name because if there wasn't Dune, there wouldn't even be a Star Wars. And George Lucas is a hack. Oh shit. And and he should get his own ideas somewhere. That's fighting words, fighting words, and George George Lucas, if you're listening, it's a sellout. You're fucking sellout. Honestly, yeah, George Lucas. While I'm here, you put the stupid aliens in the new version of Star Wars. No one asked for that. No one, you should have just kept that for you. We didn't need to see that, is all I'm saying. You mean like Jar Jar Banks? No, I mean like they redid the old Star Wars and they popped in all these really bad CGI things that didn't need to be in there. Oh have you not seen them? It's another movie that's on all the time. Am I catching every detail? No, okay. I'm gonna clockwork orange you for the rest of the season. We're watching every single Lord of the Rings and also every single Star Wars. You know what? This is Seisha's season of punishing punishing Melanie into watching every nerd franchise that you know we're gonna watch every Star Trek. Listen, I made you do themes, okay? I that was my revenge. I said we're doing themes and we're gonna stick to it. But we're gonna know we're gonna do what they're doing this season with British Bake Off, Great British Bake Off, where they're they have an episode this season I've heard where it's gonna be like audiences' choice. So I feel like we need to hear more from our listeners this season. Y'all uh tell us what you want us to review and watch. Anything's better than the greatest, or uh sorry, anything's greater than when they did on Great British Bake Off, the tacos. Oh yeah, that was a that was a dark time, yeah. Mexican week. I'm like, they don't they don't know what that is. They don't know. I'm sure that there are Mexican immigrants there, but yeah, but like not like here. I tell you what, the British people they don't know about that spice. They don't unless they're stealing it, you know. Hey, and with that, we're back. Thank you for listening to our woke podcast. Hell yeah. Um, it's been great being back and feels like we never left. That's it. Dooney. Dooney, we'll see you next time. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of VHS Sisters. We hope you've had a fun and cozy time. Please consider liking, leaving a review, and following us on your podcast platform of choice. If you'd like to chat with us, please email us at VHS Sisters Podcast at gmail.com. Love you. Bye. That's it.