T O P I C R E V I E W
Barbarosa
Member # 19894
posted 10-07-2004 08:12 PM
I wanted to post this here, sorry to skip the original thread...First of all I doubt that you are un-hip, or old by comparison for that matter. Heck, you cannot be un-cool by definition if you are in London. No Really!
The kitty reference is to a rather unpleasant situation in a story by Frank Herbert. Dune. My dad read this a long, long time ago, and tricked me into reading the books telling me it was like Tolkien. I think there were just three books then, but I only finished book one. Several screenplays later…
Thufir Hawat is a special human computer type person known as a Mentat (mechanical computer type thingies were banned in this culture) that is kidnapped by an “evildoer”, The Baron. (a really, really bad man) The Baron wants Thufir to do work for him against Duke Leto The Just, a really, really good man, and Thufir’s former employer.
Well you can’t get a Mentat as brilliant and loyal as Thufir to harm his liege without some leverage, so the bad man puts a special poison (amongst other things…) into Thufir. To stay alive Thufir has to “milk the kitty” (trust me, it’s a powerful visual) to get the antidote to this poison. So, as long as the kitty lives, so does Thufir.
In the movie in which this scene plays they use a Rex, a nearly bald rather exotic looking cat. I happen to think they are really cool looking and nice too, not like some Siamese… Well I think it was a rex anyway…
Many cat lovers likely were offended by the scene, but I have it on good authority that no cats were harmed in the making of that film.
Londongirl
Member # 18235
posted 10-08-2004 10:57 AM
thank you for the info, I think you win this week's well-read geek prize Trust me, ordinary people live everywhere. They don't exclude people from living in places just because they're uncool, well not in this country anyway!!! I'm not cool, I should know, I've met me
And I'm sure some of the teens here think I'm ancient.........
------------------ Londongirl Thirtysomething and not actually countingWho the **** is Londongirl?
nachtgeist
Member # 19932
posted 10-13-2004 06:38 PM
I've read Dune a couple hundred times... never actually came across that... in the book it was a residual poison... the antidote was given to him in his food, so long as it was present, he kept alive...
Oh, darn. an excuse to read my favoritestest book evar again.
I've never seen the movie. Well, I've seen the more recent version... In German... but that hardly counts. 'cause I don't speak German that well, despite living there for four years....
------------------ rocking out for the future
Are you a Master Debater?
Barbarosa
Member # 19894
posted 10-14-2004 09:36 AM
Yeah, the "kitty" scene is unique to the 1984 David Lynch movie, a real oldie but a classic none the less. The movie produced pretty much a black or white response from fans and non-fans of F.H. alike. You either loved it (me) or hated it. I found it to be a visual treat very much in the D. Lynch style. The screenplay I though was pretty true to the original written story. In fact I think if a viewer had not read the book (1st book) they may not get as much out of this particular visual adaptation.
It's stars include Kyle MacLachlan, José Ferrer, Dean Stockwell, Brad Dourif, Sting, Kenneth McMillan, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, and Linda Hunt.
The US version (130 minutes+/-) leaves out huge chunks of the story, which makes it more difficult to follow to the un-initiated.
There is a directors cut 3 hour version that gets rave reviews, but it has not been released in the US! Darn!
It sounds to me like you are a very big fan of the story, I would love to hear what you thought of this version, try to find the long directors cut version if you can.
froggy_dear
Member # 14139
posted 10-14-2004 10:14 AM
Hmmmm, I saw that version long ago. Maybe I should rent it again. Mostly I only remember Sting. I didn't realize that there were good actors in it (I'm developing a fixation on Brad Dourif.)But a few months ago we watched rented the Children of Dune miniseries, so I may have reached tolerance level.
Yeah, this is totally random reply.
------------------ I see you shiver with antici......pation