> I have never even picked up the book, so I can't comment on that. I did see the film a couple of times, however, that has been quite a while. What I do remember: that big fat guy who had to be levitated around, they did a good job of making him about as repulsive as possible. The desert suits were pretty cool. I thought the entire concept of a weapon that is powered by specific words was pretty inventive.
>
> (There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when you post to a thread that you have barely any knowledge of, and contribute about the same.)
>
> What was up with Sting in that Jetson's diaper thing?
> I've never been able to shake that image.
>
> Tra "He who controls the spice, controls that other thingy, too." nio

As with any movie that is based on a novel, the moviemakers took certain liberties to make the movie more interesting. But on the whole, they did a good job representing the world that Herbert created.

One thing that bugged me though-- as I said before, I saw the movie before I read the book. When I read the book, I kept looking for references to the "heart plugs" that the Harkonnens had implanted in all their subjugates in the movie. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, in the first scene with the evil floating fat man, Baron Harkonnen kills a servant at the end of the scene by pulling out his heart plug. Rather nasty.) They can't be found in the novel at all; they were a completely new invention of the moviemakers. Of course, it does fit in with the character of the Baron for his servants to have such devices.

As for Sting in the Jetson diaper (LOL!); I think they were just trying to make him look as strange and as weird as possible. Remember Corrino mentioning that computers have been outlawed in the Dune universe? Well, that's not completely true. *Artificial intelligences* have been outlawed, but they still have computers--*human* computers, known as Mentats. They train on some special planet and drink something called "the juice of sapphu" to unlock the full potential of their minds. Sting's character in Dune was a mentat, and one who had also been trained, apparently, in fighting techniques. I suppose the strange metallic diaper was some sort of weird Mentat fashion.

Gri"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapphu that the mind acquires speed; the lips acquire stains; the stains become a warning; it is by will alone I set my mind in motion."shny