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Prequel to Dune: Part 2 - Red, White, & Royal Blue Fan Reaction · This Film is Lit

• 0:09
  Speaker A: On this week's prequel episode, we follow up on our red, white and royal blue listener polls and preview Dune part two. Hello and welcome back to another prequel episode of. This film is lit. We have. Well, we don't have a learning thing segment this week, but we do have cause. We did a Frank Herbert learning things segment for Dune one episode way back in the day, but we do have everything else and including quite a bit of feedback to get to. So we're gonna jump right into our patron shoutouts.
• 0:44
  Speaker B: I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons.
• 0:48
  Speaker A: That's why we have one new patron this week, clocking in at the $15 Academy Award winning level. Nicole Goble. I think. And hope I pronounced that last name right. But thank you, Nicole, for supporting us at the $15 Academy Award winning level. Make sure, if you haven't yet, which I don't think you. The other day, I saw that we hadn't gotten a message from you. Send in that request at that $15 level, you get a patron. You get your patron request of something you'd like for us to talk about. Make sure you send that in as soon as you can so that we can add it to our list as soon as possible. Let's get to our the rest of our Academy award winning patrons, and they are. Nicole Goebbel breans beans and peen. Eric Harpo rat. Nathan vic Vega. Mathilde Steve from Arizona, ent draft. Theresa Schwartz Ian from wine country, Winchester's forever, Kelly Napier Gray Hightower gratch. Just scratch. Shelby's torn between promoting arctic fox copywriting and telling you to read Ocean's echo. Well, you did both. Look at that. That darn skag v. Frank and Alina Starkoff, thank you all very much for your continued support. And, yeah, if you want to support, if you want to promote something, this is your. You can do it with your Academy award winning patronage.
• 2:13
  Speaker B: Or two things.
• 2:14
  Speaker A: Or two things. Yeah. However many characters, you can promote as many names as characters as you can fit in a name. And also, you could do it with a lower than $15 patron. It will just only read it once, so you wouldn't want to make sure you got that name in there that you want before you sign up or as soon as you sign up so that we get the right one, but. All right, Katie, let's see what the people had to say about red, white, and royal blue.
• 2:38
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, your opinion, man. Well, on Patreon, we had six votes for the book, and one for the movie. Kelly Napier said, I voted for the book, but since Katie made all the same points I was going to make about why the book is better. Love to hear that.
• 2:57
  Speaker A: There you go. Yeah. That's validation.
• 3:00
  Speaker B: I want to talk about Texas politics instead.
• 3:03
  Speaker A: Oh, boy.
• 3:05
  Speaker B: I know. Trust me, I know. Just stick with me. The most unrealistic thing about both versions of this property is the idea that Texas would turn blue in a presidential election. I direct all the political content at the tv station. I work at thoughts and prayers. Kelly and I can unequivocally state that Texas would not have been the tipping point to decide the election. Democrats haven't won a statewide election since 1994, and Republicans have carried the state in every presidential election since 1976. I believe they talked about that in the book. The state has turned more purple than it used to be, but that's mostly focusing on the major metropolitan areas of the state, which is pretty common for red states.
• 3:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. And also is, you know, focusing on the. For a presidential election doesn't matter where the votes are coming from. All that matters is the number of them. So. Yeah.
• 4:05
  Speaker B: And what a lot of people forget is just how big Texas is. Just as an example, it would take me almost 10 hours to drive from my home in Dallas to El Paso, and El Paso is in an entirely different time zone. Assuming that Texas could flip blue anytime soon is entirely ignoring the power of the rural voters in the state who overwhelmingly vote Republican. Even in those assumed blue metro areas, it's not as widespread as people think it is. Of the big four counties in the DFW metroplex, only one consistently votes Democrat, and that's Dallas county. Plus, it's established in the book that Alex's mom didn't win her home state in the previous election. And I find it hard to believe that if Texans didn't want to vote for her before, they would suddenly change their minds just because her son is bisexual. Travis county, where Austin is, isn't that big to make that much of a difference.
• 4:58
  Speaker A: Okay, so I'm not gonna argue with you necessarily here. Cause I think you're mostly right in the sense that. Or your overall assessment is right in that it's very unlikely that Texas will flip. Yeah, I think most people are pretty grounded in the reality that while it has gotten more purple recently, it is not likely to flip anytime soon. It would take a lot, but I will just add a few notes here. One, I do think they didn't flip. I agree that her not carrying Texas in her previous election, it makes it unlikely that she would win this one. I don't think that the implication is that they change their minds because her son is bisexual. I don't think that's the reason that is implied in the movie that they were able to carry Texas. To me, it's. It's related to the fact that in the movie they make a point of stating that he was able to register a million new voters, which, assuming that's the case, that, like, registering a number like that of new voters, I assume their goal would be going after hispanic voters and young voters. To register these new voters would be my guess of what they're doing. I don't know. Just. Cause again, the movie doesn't really ever talk about it. It just kind of very surfaced, this level. And hispanic vote is complicated, but I assume the idea would be that all of these registered new voters that they got are young voters and people more likely to vote Democrat. And then that ended up swinging the election. And it wasn't so much the established vote of, you know, people who previously voted for the republican candidate voting for her. I think it's more so like, oh, we registered all these new voters, created this grassroots campaign that was able to turn out just enough of the vote to swing it. Again, very unlikely still, which is why most, you know, in general, it's democratic party does not attempt very hard to flip Texas because it is just that difficult. And yes, obviously, the rural voters have a lot, you know, there's a lot of red rural voters. But again, for a presidential election, it doesn't really matter where the votes are coming from. It just purely matters.
• 6:59
  Speaker B: Well, right.
• 7:00
  Speaker A: What the numbers are. But, yeah, obviously the. Because it is such a big state, there is a huge number of rural voters that do tend to skew severely conservative and republican. And so, yeah, again, largely, I agree with your point that it's very unlikely.
• 7:14
  Speaker B: You know, and maybe this is kind of a plus for the movie because even though it was surface level, the movie does tell us that Alix managed to register those million voters, whereas that's not in the book.
• 7:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
• 7:28
  Speaker B: Yeah. You know, that's interesting. The book is a little, at least not to my memory. Is that in the book? So I think that it is even a little bit more of a rosy view of things in the book.
• 7:41
  Speaker A: Let me take a look. I'm just interested, I'm curious to see in the 2020 election what the raw numbers were. Okay, so here's the thing. If Alex managed to register a million new voters, which seems unbelievably large it's.
• 7:56
  Speaker B: A very large number.
• 7:58
  Speaker A: But assuming that were possible, because that is the number they say.
• 8:01
  Speaker B: Right?
• 8:01
  Speaker A: A million new voters. Yeah. In 2020, Trump carried Texas 5,890,000 votes against 5,260,000 votes. So Biden lost by roughly 600,000 votes.
• 8:23
  Speaker B: So if there were.
• 8:24
  Speaker A: If there were a million new votes, not even. All of them would have had to. Like, even if 60% of them roughly were Democrat, you know, voted for Democrat, you would get close to being able to flip it again. I think the more unbelievable thing is registering a million. To me, that seems. That's, again, considering that in the 2020 election. Well, and even registering those voters doesn't mean those people actually vote is another.
• 8:50
  Speaker B: Thing on top of that.
• 8:51
  Speaker A: But, you know. Cause if you look at it. Yeah. Eleven. Roughly eleven and a half million people. No, like, really. Right. Right. Around 11 million people voted in Texas in 2020. That's a ten. Almost a 10% increase in the voter. Again, assuming all of them voted, which they wouldn't. Um, that's a ten. That's insane. Like, that is the part to me, that seems really unbelievable. Um, but I don't think it's as maybe far fetched as. I don't know.
• 9:20
  Speaker B: I mean, did. Didn't Georgia flip?
• 9:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. Georgia flip 2020? I believe it. Or it got close.
• 9:26
  Speaker B: If it wasn't, I I'm pretty sure it may have. I'm. If I'm remembering correctly, I think Georgia did flip blue in the 2020 election.
• 9:32
  Speaker A: I believe you're fine.
• 9:33
  Speaker B: Like, I feel like I I remember that being a big thing.
• 9:35
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Biden won Georgia 49.47% to 49.24%.
• 9:41
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 9:42
  Speaker A: Margin of 11,000 votes. So, yeah, that was Georgia flipped for the first time in, I think, quite a while. I would have to go back. I don't know exactly how long. But again, I don't think it's maybe as far fetched as it might initially kind of seem, and especially when you're living there, because I would say the same thing about Missouri. If somebody's like, oh, you're going to flip Missouri? And be like, fuck you. Fucking kidding yourself if you think you're flipping Missouri.
• 10:04
  Speaker B: Have you been to Missouri?
• 10:06
  Speaker A: Exactly. As someone who lives here, that's how I would feel about it.
• 10:09
  Speaker B: There's still trump 2020 billboards on our highways.
• 10:12
  Speaker A: Good God. So, yeah, but, you know, again, point being, I think it is very still very unlikely that they would flip it and even more unlikely that they would be able to register a million new voters. Or even more than that, I think they might have said that was where they liked their goal and they went past it.
• 10:28
  Speaker B: Or, I mean, there's, you know, maybe not impossible, but there's a lot of gimmes for that to happen within the story.
• 10:40
  Speaker A: The fantasy. This is a rom.com with a hint of kind of fantastical political fantasy with a little political fantasy sprinkled in.
• 10:52
  Speaker B: All right. Our next comment was from Nathan, who said, I'm going to go with the book because I hate being undecided and June being awesome is a good enough tiebreaker. I think her polycule with Pez and Nora was the plotline that this was already. This already way too long. Book needed more of. I would agree with that.
• 11:11
  Speaker A: There's a polycule.
• 11:13
  Speaker B: I didn't mention that implied.
• 11:16
  Speaker A: Okay. June is the sister. Right. That got combined with Nora kind of. I don't know who Pez is.
• 11:25
  Speaker B: That's Henry's friend, the. Oh, yeah.
• 11:30
  Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:31
  Speaker B: I think we only see he's in.
• 11:32
  Speaker A: The movie once, twice. He's at the very. He shows. He's also. Yeah, he's once in the beginning when he gets introduced to Nora at like, a party or something.
• 11:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:38
  Speaker A: And then he shows up at the. On election night at the very end. I think it's like the only times we see him.
• 11:44
  Speaker B: Nathan went on to say, I think both mediums were stuck on giving equal import to both Alex's and Henry's troubles, and they just never seemed equivalent. I never had, I never for a second bought that the democratic president's son coming out as bi would hurt her campaign. I think it would in some ways.
• 12:01
  Speaker A: I think it would in some ways, for sure.
• 12:02
  Speaker B: But I think it would also help in some ways.
• 12:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think at best it would. Or worst, it would be a wash, probably, and maybe help a little bit, potentially, again, with the younger vote turning out the younger vote potentially.
• 12:16
  Speaker B: Because there were so many plot lines being juggled, it seemed like none of the downturns had much weight because they were immediately cleared up to make room for the next potential problem. Yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker A: And we'll get into more into this from some of the other people about, like, what they liked about it. That kind of, I think, responds to some of Nathan's criticisms here in terms of, like, you know, the weight of the problems and that sort of thing. I will say this. I think. I think the reason that in the movie, I think if it would just like, a presidential candidate's, like, child turning out to be bi or whatever, wouldn't necessarily do much of anything in any direction. I think the reason in the movie it would potentially help is the nature of the relationship and the prominence of this huge crazy. Again, something that sounds like it was written for Tumblr but in real life would motivate, I think, a large portion of young queer voters in a way that just like the fact that, yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker B: If this story was just about him coming out as bi and having a normal relationship with some random person.
• 13:21
  Speaker A: Nobody that. Yeah. In that regard, I don't think it would really help or hurt or anything.
• 13:28
  Speaker B: I think it would. Yes. Yes. It is definitely the splashy, headline worthy fan fiction nature of the relationship and what happened.
• 13:38
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:39
  Speaker B: Our next comment was from Shelby's. Torn between promoting arctic fox copywriting and telling you to read Ocean's echo. Shelby said, I liked the book. Fine. Couldn't get into the movie. I have to say, as a representative of the weird middle ground between the US and the Brits, I've never seen such wholesome politics on either side. Yeah, the turkey scene was easily my favorite part. I can't believe I'm more familiar with American Thanksgiving traditions than you two.
• 14:10
  Speaker A: I think maybe this one Thanksgiving.
• 14:12
  Speaker B: Maybe this. Maybe. Definitely this one tradition. Luckily for every. I don't know.
• 14:18
  Speaker A: Who knows? Maybe you know everything about.
• 14:20
  Speaker B: Maybe Shelby is a scholar of American Thanksgiving.
• 14:23
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:25
  Speaker B: Oh, wait. Lucky for everyone, I'm a scholar of these things. There we go. And by scholar, I mean I saw that stupid time traveling turkey movie for some reason. I don't know what this is a reference to.
• 14:36
  Speaker A: You say that as if it's a thing that I would register with that stupid.
• 14:41
  Speaker B: I don't know what that means. That's something that you guys covered on. Good bad or bad bad. You're gonna feel really dumb.
• 14:48
  Speaker A: No. Cause I don't think it was time. Oh, I guess it is time traveling. Is it?
• 14:53
  Speaker B: So, you saw that one where the turkey kills everybody?
• 14:57
  Speaker A: Yes. Thanks.
• 14:57
  Speaker B: Killer is covered.
• 14:59
  Speaker A: But I don't remember it being time traveling. Maybe it is. No, because there is one part at the beginning where a turkey kills. It kills a pilgrim lady, and then it's in modern time. So maybe it is time. I don't remember the details of that movie at all. Cause it's terrible, but sure.
• 15:18
  Speaker B: All right, well, Shelby went on to say, then I was on Twitter years later when people were talking about the real thing, and I discovered it wasn't all based on a fever dream. There's two turkeys. The president only pardons one of them. Something. Something. Every citizen has an equal chance of being pardoned by the highest authority in the land or something. It's very american.
• 15:40
  Speaker A: Real quick, I found it. I don't think you're just talking about thanks killing. I think talking about there's a movie called Free Birds that came out in 2013. An animated film. Never heard of this. Here's the plot summary from IMDb. A pair of turkeys discover a time machine and decide to use it to travel to the first thanksgiving to take turkeys off the menu forever. Pair of turkeys. Oh, yeah. It just repeats for some reason, but that. So I assume that's what Shelby would be talking about. Cause that would probably have relevant stuff. Whereas I don't think thanks killing had anything related to. Yeah.
• 16:12
  Speaker B: And actually, I believe Shelby is about to summarize maybe a little bit in the spirit of giving. I'll save you all 91 minutes. The point of the time traveling turkey movie is that eating turkeys is bad because the characters are turkeys, but thanksgiving is good. Actually, the solution is we should celebrate by feasting on all the other animals we usually eat instead of turkeys. You're welcome. If you're looking for a good animated bird movie, you should be watching storks.
• 16:38
  Speaker A: Okay, so, there you go. Yes.
• 16:40
  Speaker B: Not looking for a good animated bird.
• 16:42
  Speaker A: Movie, but, yeah, sure. Storks. I would. Now we're all know a little bit more about thanksgiving and about. And about time traveling animated film free birds. I've literally never heard of that. I looked at the poster, and it looked 0% familiar. I just. Crazy.
• 17:02
  Speaker B: And, I mean, we both knew that there was a turkey pardoning ceremony connected to Thanksgiving. But, like, I don't care when.
• 17:11
  Speaker A: It's also when you see. Because the reason you normally see it in America, like, the way I would imagine most Americans are familiar with it, is in. Is through media, like, this movie, where it's, like, made a joke or something. Like, I I've never seen it. Like, in the. I don't know. I see you occasionally see, like, a news reporter, but, like, vaguely like. But it's. It's not something that anybody cares about or thinks about at all.
• 17:35
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 17:36
  Speaker A: It's just one of those dumb things they do.
• 17:37
  Speaker B: It's like a dumb thing that they do.
• 17:38
  Speaker A: Yeah. And.
• 17:39
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like that White House Easter egg. Yeah.
• 17:41
  Speaker A: Or whatever. It's like. Yeah, so. But I swear, anytime I've ever seen it in media, there's only ever one turkey there. Like.
• 17:47
  Speaker B: Or, like, obviously, because that one got pardoned. Well, and the other turkey is now on the dinner table.
• 17:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, I guess that's the case. All right, fair enough.
• 17:57
  Speaker B: Which seems really dark it is. Honestly, that's very dark.
• 18:01
  Speaker A: It's even weirder than it was before.
• 18:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, our next comment was from Minty Sell, who said I voted for the book, but I did genuinely like the movie. I had a really good time watching it with my girlfriend, who has never read the book. I loved rom coms in general, so the movie was a delight. However, the movie definitely didn't capture the giddy feelings the book made me feel. I'm not a romance book girly. I usually need another genre smashed in to keep my interest. Romance by itself is too conflict free and fluffy, but back in 2020 when I read this book, it did the job. My biggest complaint about the movie is the lack of emails and quotes of historical references they do for each other. Yes, I agree with you guys. These things are hard to film, but they are, in my opinion, the soul of the book. I agree with all of that. Yeah, they are the reason you fall in love with them as a couple and why you're rooting for them so hard. I felt their absence in the movie. In my opinion, they left a gaping hole. The other thing I really missed from the book was Nora, June, and Beatrice's characters. Nora in particular was one of my favorite characters. She was funny and sassy and felt sometimes like Alex's voice of reason, and I just hate that she wasn't in the movie.
• 19:15
  Speaker A: More I would agree with that because I liked her character, the very brief moments she was in the movie.
• 19:20
  Speaker B: As I mentioned, I mentioned in the prequel episode that this book felt like a product of its time, and I want to elaborate a little. We were all hurt and sad by the 2016 presidential election, and this book was definitely a product of that, wanting to imagine something that was better or at least kinder. I've read that the author is from Texas and that the dream of flipping Texas Blue has been something they'd seen in grassroots Democrat groups in the state since their youth, so I understand why they put so much heart and detail on that particular part of the story. I also remember being touched that Alex was half Latino as a Latina myself. However, for today's standards, the book is almost offensive in its portrayal of an ideal alternative universe, which Katie alluded to at the end of the episode. A democratic president is still building the border wall and putting immigrants in cages. A democratic president is funding Israel's weapons. I know it isn't the book's fault that these things have happened since its publication, but unfortunately they have soured most of the love I had for it, and that sucks. Maybe I should have voted for the movie. Lol. Also, I'm mexican canadian. Yes, Canada was a british colony and we still have the king queen as our figurative head of state.
• 20:34
  Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, no, it is one of those things. Yeah, it looks a little too in the way that a lot of media has soured to some of us, some people in the progressive side of politics, things like uh, the west Wing or even some elements of things like, and I still think parks and Rec is a great show, but some of the kind of like wide eyed enthusiasm for the process and institutions of shows like that for some people has soured a little bit in light of the fact that, you know, the Democratic Party and just there's larger problems in general with, you know, the institutions of power in our country that some of those problems extend beyond, you know, parties. But obviously just to reiterate, one party's way fucking worse than the other and you should vote for one of the parties in every election that you can. But there are, you know, there are issues that go beyond those things and so yeah it does, it can kind of to what minthe SEl is saying, sour. The experience of watching something like that when it does look upon things kind.
• 21:44
  Speaker B: Of so optimistically and hopefully, like I said at the end of the episode, it just gets a little harder and harder to kind of set that aside.
• 21:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:52
  Speaker B: When you're looking at something that is as rosy and glowy as this is. Our next comment was from Mathilde who said, when it comes to red, white and royal blue, I recommend you start with the movie and read the book. After you get an enjoyable movie, then you can really dig more into the characters without being disappointed that this or that didn't make it to the screen. On the matter of the movie, a rom.com really only needs three leads with chemistry, snappy dialogue and good pacing. The rest is taken care of by the formula and if you adhere to it, its gonna work. I thought Taylor and Nicholas had insane chemistry. The dialogue was a little juvenile but still entertaining and given everything they had to squeeze in they managed good pacing. So yeah, this works very well for me. I've watched quite a few interviews with the director and it seems like it was an uphill battle with the studio. They were confined to 2 hours, not a minute more, which explains why they cut so much. That wasn't Alex and Henry's relationship and I do believe the budget was pretty stiff too. It does show in the distractingly bad green screen, but otherwise I think they did a heartfelt job within the confines they had. It keeps the soul of the book. And yes it's brushing over a lot, but the movie still stands on its own. I appreciated that. The movie shows us some moments from Henry's perspective. Nicholas Gliss. Oh God.
• 23:16
  Speaker A: Galicine.
• 23:17
  Speaker B: Nicholas Galitsine has that resting tragic face that fits Henry's role so well.
• 23:23
  Speaker A: That's true.
• 23:23
  Speaker B: And I found him quite good and touching.
• 23:25
  Speaker A: Does have british monarch face.
• 23:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. Also that. Yeah.
• 23:29
  Speaker A: Which I think those are kind of one in the same. Honestly.
• 23:34
  Speaker B: I think the whole cast does a great job. Except Uma Thurman who is way too wooden for my taste. Plus theres that horrible accent. I thought Sarah Shahi particularly did a great Zara. She is my second favorite in the book and I was very pleased with how she brought her deadpan humor to the screen. A couple of other moments that I loved, he grabbed my hair in a way that made me understand the difference between rugby and football. Is the most unhinged, incomprehensible yet totally relatable sentence ever. It will live rent free in my head forever. That get low eye locking moment made me say out loud, this has no right to be this cute. What the fuck? The sex scene in Paris was unexpectedly sweet and intimate. I almost felt like I was intruding watching it. It was a nice change, but from the intense but unrealistic scene you usually get in romances, more so with queer couples. Almost everything I loved in the movie I got in the book too. So no need to elaborate. I did miss my favorite parts of the book. The turkey scene, the PowerPoint presentation, Nora June Pez and their hinted relationship. Liam. He was barely in the book but I loved his scenes and most of all Raphael Luna. For a side character I found him quite complex and well rounded. He was the one character I was really looking forward to seeing in the movie. Cutting him was one big letdown that sealed my decision.
• 25:01
  Speaker A: What was he? I don't remember.
• 25:02
  Speaker B: Did you mention. Yeah, we talked about him. He was an openly gay congressman who did a double agent and went to work for the Republican. I do have a vague presidential nominee. Yeah.
• 25:18
  Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, that would have been a very. It could have been a very. I'm just struggling not to say interesting because I say too much, but interesting side plot.
• 25:28
  Speaker B: Yes. So I'm going to go with the book. But I'm really not mad about the movie at all. They both gave me that stomach swoop feeling I look for in a romance and I revisit both for comfort an equal number of times. Actually thinking back on the years since this has come out, it's become my roman empire without me realizing it. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel with the whole cast and crew coming back and with what should be a better budget and creative control, it should be an even better watch. And, yes, both the book and the movie were way too optimistic and dreamy and too good to be true. But I needed this. Life and the world have been rough and depressing, especially for LBGTQ people. And we need some uplift. Red, white, and royal blue shows like Heartstopper and young royals. They're idealistic but very much needed, as we can see by their success.
• 26:17
  Speaker A: I'm gonna cut this out if you want me to, but did you intentionally move yourself up the totem pole there when you read the acronym?
• 26:23
  Speaker B: Did I?
• 26:24
  Speaker A: You said LBGTQ.
• 26:28
  Speaker B: It's just like, oh, I was a little subtle. I was going really fast. I didn't think I should do it again.
• 26:35
  Speaker A: No, it's up to you. I was gonna call you out in the moment, but I didn't want to. It was just cracking me up because.
• 26:42
  Speaker B: I was like, I didn't even realize I did that.
• 26:44
  Speaker A: Casually moving yourself towards the front of the acronym.
• 26:48
  Speaker B: Well, you know what? Maybe it should be alphabetical. I'm joking. I know why the l is at the front. It's maybe not as high quality as some other queer content, but I'm very satisfied with content that doesn't just deal with coming out trauma or that ends in tragedy. I feel it's a step forward towards not having LGBT becoming a separate category on streaming platforms or in the bookstores.
• 27:11
  Speaker A: Okay, so, yeah, no, I agree. And this kind of was what I was talking about, because I read some of this comment relating to Nathan's comments earlier about it being so, you know, unrealistic and kind of optimistic and that sort of thing. And this is actually what I was kind of getting at with my pithy, offhand remark at the very end of the episode where I go, you know, gays deserve mediocre movies, too. That's kind of what I was getting. Or in not so many words, the point I was making without really making it, which I should have expounded on. It was this very thing that it's, you know, a movie being kind of overly optimistic and not. Not like a fantastic, realistic, amazing film is totally fine, and, you know, like, there's tons of rom coms like that that are centered around straight and cis het relationships. And so having more movies, you know, based around not cishet relationships that are, you know, maybe a little cheesy, a little overly optimistic, a little just for fluffy fun is not only like fine, it's good. And so that was kind of the same idea that I was trying to get across. And I said, you know, yeah, gays deserve mediocre movies too.
• 28:25
  Speaker B: And Mattel's last note here was, PS, I can confirm that Canadians are not especially gay, or at least not enough to warrant gay as a maple being a saying. We legalized same sex unions relatively early, but that's about it.
• 28:39
  Speaker A: I think you probably beat the UK, so probably would be my guess. I could be wrong about that.
• 28:44
  Speaker B: Canada was where France sent their prostitutes though, so we are a frisky people. I did not know that.
• 28:52
  Speaker A: I've never heard this either.
• 28:54
  Speaker B: Sent their prostitutes to Canada, UK sent.
• 28:56
  Speaker A: Their criminals to Canada.
• 28:57
  Speaker B: Kind of hilarious.
• 28:58
  Speaker A: Australia and France sent the prostitutes to Canada. Good for Canada.
• 29:04
  Speaker B: Over on Facebook, we had zero votes for the book and one for the movie. And our comment was from Kat, who said just the movie for sure. I was on a romance kick for a while a few years ago, and this is the book that finally turned me off the genre for a time. I could hardly get through two chapters of Alex's perspective before I had to put it on my do not finish list. The movie, however, I found charming and funny. I mean, yeah, you know, I can imagine if the perspective is not the narrator is not doing anything for you, it would be very hard to get through the 418 pages.
• 29:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously without any specific.
• 29:48
  Speaker B: Fair enough.
• 29:48
  Speaker A: Without any specifics on what about the perspective was, you know, yeah, and like, it's hard to know, but yeah, or, you know, compare it to the movie. But yeah, it's. It's interesting because, you know, most of the other comments we got and were like, oh, I liked the movie fine, but the book I liked way more. And so it's interesting seeing somebody being like, nah, I could not. Didn't even finish the book, but I thought the movie was pretty good. That's just an interesting flip of opinion there.
• 30:11
  Speaker B: Over on Twitter, we had one vote for the book, two for the movie, and one listener who couldn't decide. WB deadname out soon said, won't quite make it through the episode till after the next prequel airs, but may give it to the movie. For the line, I will brexit your head from your shoulders. I'm sure I'll listen to the episode and find that's a mistake and the book's better, which would be fitting with Brexit fantastic. On Instagram, we had seven votes for the book, two for the movie, and one listener who couldn't decide. And that listener was Percy Girl 20, who said, can I please say both? Yes, you can.
• 30:54
  Speaker A: You can.
• 30:55
  Speaker B: The movie put faces, very hunky faces, on the characters. And both Taylor Zakar Lopez and Nicholas Galitsin did amazing jobs in bringing to life our favorite couple. The book has the entire email correspondence, so you learn how devastating the leak is. But then the movie has Alex's speech on the outing of them. Swoon.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: There you go. Fantastic.
• 31:19
  Speaker B: I love things to like in both.
• 31:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. And, uh, thanks for. I don't. I don't know if this is a commenter we've had before.
• 31:26
  Speaker B: I don't think so. I didn't recognize. I wonder if this is just a.
• 31:29
  Speaker A: Red, white and royal blue fan who decided to hop in on this episode.
• 31:32
  Speaker B: Possibly. Quite possibly.
• 31:33
  Speaker A: Well, if you're listening, thank you for commenting.
• 31:37
  Speaker B: All right, I didn't have any action on threads this week, but on Goodreads, we had one vote for the book, zero for the movie, and we had our comment from Miko, who said, I don't care about romance novels. And this being a gay romance didn't change that one direction or another. A quote on the COVID of my copy described it as outrageously fun, romantic, sexy, witty, and thrilling. I would not use any of those words myself. I just found myself reading it mechanically. I'm usually good with details. They just stick in my mind even when I don't want them to. But while watching the movie, I was constantly asking myself, is this how it happened in the book? I can't remember at all. The book just felt like fan fiction. And I didn't find stuff like the president making a PowerPoint presentation to her son. Fun, but slightly cringey. I mean, it is cringey, but that was part of what made it funny. To me, at least. It's just not my genre. You brought up basically all my issues with the movie, like the terrible news shots and the green screen. Maybe. Controversially, Stephen Fry as the king just didn't work for me. I've watched him on QI way too much to take him as seriously as the role needed. I'd say he has prime minister Poshness, not King Poshness. Or maybe I just think he's too young. Thanks to all the recent heads of UK being ancient.
• 33:01
  Speaker A: I thought he was fine. I didn't think he was, like, amazing or anything. I thought he worked, and I thought he looked plenty old. Stephen Fry's getting up there. And I thought he looked properly. I think he does look more well and definitely used to look more like a prime minister. But I think in this movie, something about him I read. I was like, yeah, that guy could be, like a king. I don't know. So I thought it worked.
• 33:26
  Speaker B: Thanks for clarifying that it's gay as a maypole and not maypole. I didn't realize I too had misheard it even during the movie as I had to watch it without subtitles. Also, you're not the only one haunted by HRH Prince. Dickhead poop emoji. I think I have to give this to the book. Not for any particular reason, because neither the book or the movie were to my taste, but at least in the book, we got a better understanding of Alex's thoughts. And I can see people liking the book more than the movie. And they overall did.
• 33:58
  Speaker A: They did.
• 33:58
  Speaker B: Because our winner this week was the book with 15 votes to the movie. Six, plus our two listeners who couldn't decide.
• 34:06
  Speaker A: There you go. All right, thank you, everyone, for all your comments. Always love hearing those and getting to interact with them. As I mentioned earlier, we don't have a learning thing segment this week. I couldn't come up with anything super interesting. And we already did a Frank Herbert one previously on the last Dune episode. So if you want to go hear that, you can listen to that. Although I will say this, the book facts we're about to do, if you go re listen to that prequel episode are basically exactly the same.
• 34:31
  Speaker B: Basically the same. It's the same book.
• 34:32
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 34:33
  Speaker B: In all fairness.
• 34:34
  Speaker A: But we decided to redo at least some of them. So let's get into those now as we learn a little bit about Dune, the book.
• 34:45
  Speaker B: This world is beyond cruel.
• 34:50
  Speaker A: You've been fighting the Harkonnens for decades.
• 34:53
  Speaker B: My family's been fighting them for centuries. And they were massacred alongside my father. Your father didn't believe in revenge.
• 35:05
  Speaker A: We believe in fremen.
• 35:09
  Speaker B: Let me fight beside you. Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel by american author Frank Herbert, set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society. And the novel Dune then spearheaded the Dune franchise, which includes six separate novels at least, right? Are there other.
• 35:34
  Speaker A: I think there are other ones.
• 35:35
  Speaker B: I don't. I don't know. I don't know, man. I just googled, how many Dune novels are there?
• 35:39
  Speaker A: I think there are six actual Dune novels and then a handful of bonus material. I could be wrong about this. I don't know. Sorry.
• 35:49
  Speaker B: Sci-fi authors.
• 35:50
  Speaker A: Go ahead.
• 35:51
  Speaker B: Anyway, Herbert began researching for Dune in 1959. He was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his writing career because his wife went back to work full time as an advertising writer for department stores. So she was the breadwinner during the 1960s while her husband pursued his writing career. Analog Science fiction magazine. Initially published June in two parts comprising eight installments. But following that, it was then rejected by nearly 20 different book publishers. However, a Sterling Lanier, who was an editor at Chilton Book Company had read the serials when they were published in analog, and he really liked it. So he offered a 7500 advanced, plus future royalties for the rights to publish them as a hardcover book. Unfortunately, that first printing did not sell so well and was also kind of poorly received by critics. So Chilton, the press, considered the publication a write off, and Lanier was subsequently fired.
• 36:58
  Speaker A: There you go.
• 36:59
  Speaker B: Poor guy.
• 37:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, just real quick. So there are six Dune books written by Frank Herbert, which is the main number, but they're. According to this article from IGN, there are 23 Dune books his son started writing.
• 37:12
  Speaker B: Of course he did.
• 37:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, a bunch of them. And there's also short stories and stuff. So there's more. But there's six main Dune books written by the original author.
• 37:21
  Speaker B: Okay. All right, so I wasn't.
• 37:24
  Speaker A: You're not wrong, ro. But I just. I knew there was, like, a lot more. But yes, there's six primary novels.
• 37:30
  Speaker B: All right. So that initial publication did not go so well, especially not for Sterling Lanier. But over the course of time, the book did gain critical acclaim and its popularity spread by word of mouth. And by 1968, Herbert had made around 20,000 from it, far more than most science fiction novels of the time were generating. Still not enough to let him take up full time writing. I would imagine that not, you know, not too bad.
• 38:00
  Speaker A: 20,000 over the course of, what, eight years is not even in 1960s. It's not like full time money, I don't think.
• 38:07
  Speaker B: But Dune did tie with Robert Zelazny's this immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966. It also won the inaugural Nebula award for best novel. And moving forward in time, it has been regularly cited as one of the world's best selling science fiction novels. And in November of 2019, the BBC News listed Dune on its list of 100 most influential novels.
• 38:35
  Speaker A: That seems reasonable to me.
• 38:36
  Speaker B: And if you want to hear the full extended version of our Dune book facts, you can listen to the original Dune prequel from, like, 2021 or whenever.
• 38:46
  Speaker A: 2021, I believe. Yeah, or 2021 of the two. And it also includes the Frank Herbert.
• 38:54
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 38:54
  Speaker A: Facts. So if you want to know more about Frank Herbert, which probably includes the fact that there's 23. There's probably more information from. I don't remember because it's so long ago, but yeah. All right. That is it for our book facts. It's time now to learn a little bit about Dune part two.
• 39:17
  Speaker B: I got that. Thanks. I won't be fighting for him.
• 39:23
  Speaker A: I'm fighting for my people.
• 39:29
  Speaker B: You young pop.
• 39:34
  Speaker A: Do you believe in Paul? There are sons.
• 39:42
  Speaker B: The prophet.
• 39:43
  Speaker A: Why is that a bad thing?
• 39:45
  Speaker B: You it.
• 39:46
  Speaker A: Because all my visions lead to horror. Because you lose control. Because I gain it. Dune part two is a 2024 film written and directed by Denis Villeneuve, who's the director of Dune. Blade Runner, 2049, prisoners. Sicario. I read prisoners in there twice. Prisoners again, arrival. Other movies. There's something. Enemy or enemies? Enemy or enemies. I think that one of those prisoners is supposed to be enemy, I think. Anyways, so Denis Villeneuve wrote and directed it. And it was co written by John Spates, who wrote Prometheus. Arch nemesis, Doctor Strange, the mummy. Not the good one, the one with Tom Cruise.
• 40:35
  Speaker B: Oh no.
• 40:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. Passengers, which is also supposedly a terrible film. And the first Dune. So among other things, the film stars Timothy Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Leah Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem, amongst quite a few others. It has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 79% on Metacritic, and an 8.6 out of ten on IMDb, which actually has it as the number 31 top movie, which a lot of times movies, when they first come out, kind of.
• 41:12
  Speaker B: They'll like inch up the list, they'll go up higher.
• 41:14
  Speaker A: Then they. Ultimately, they'll kind of settle further down. A lot of times. Not always, but very often. The film made $711 million against a budget of 190 million. It was the. The smash hit of the summer of the. I said of the summer of the spring. It came out. No, it was last. It's a 2023 film. Why did it say 2024 on Wikipedia?
• 41:41
  Speaker B: Hmm.
• 41:43
  Speaker A: Because that movie, it came out. No, I guess it was this spring. When did it come out?
• 41:47
  Speaker B: What is time?
• 41:50
  Speaker A: No, I think it is. Yeah, you're right.
• 41:52
  Speaker B: None of us have any concept to time anymore.
• 41:55
  Speaker A: Come out this. This year. Yeah, it came out March 1. Holy cow. All right. Well, yes. So. God, that seems like it came out forever ago. And it was like three months ago for some reason, in my head, it came out forever ago.
• 42:06
  Speaker B: What is time?
• 42:09
  Speaker A: So, yeah, made 711 million against a budget, 190 million. It was like one of the biggest box office hits of the year so far. Dune Part two was officially greenlit on October 26 of 2021 after the first Dune film, which at the time was not called Dune Part one and still may not be. It still may just be called Dune because they weren't sure if they were going to be making a second one, but they greenlit it after Dune performed fairly well in the box office. Not like huge success, but like moderately successful, I think, from my memory, and did very well on HBO streaming. Like it.
• 42:43
  Speaker B: A lot of people were still not going to the movies at that point.
• 42:46
  Speaker A: It also simultaneously released. This was one where it came out on HBO Max and on and free on HBO Max. From my memory. I think it was included in the. Maybe you had to pay for it, I can't remember. But yeah, it came out on HBO Max and the theaters at the exact same time. So that was part of the reason the box office wasn't quite as big. So in March of 2022, and again, the film got greenlit about six months ago. At that point, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler were reported to be joining the cast as princess. I don't know how to pronounce that. I just realized I've been reading it for the last couple weeks and I don't know. And fade Routha Christopher Walken would then later be announced in May to be joining as Emperor Shadam the fourth. And Leah Seydoux will be joining as late Omargo fin ring Anya Taylor Joy's casting was actually kept a secret up until the film's premiere in February of 2024. So just, you know, four or five months ago. And Villeneuve was actually surprised that they managed to keep this a secret for so long. And it was actually ultimately revealed to the world in some casting credits on Letterboxd, apparently.
• 43:52
  Speaker B: It does seem pretty incredible that they managed to keep that under wraps.
• 43:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, she has a small role. I actually think I know who she plays, but I'm not 100% sure. But yeah, she, not a huge role shows up at the very end, kind of. And yeah, but it's not Taylor Joyce.
• 44:12
  Speaker B: Is it a tease for the next movie or.
• 44:15
  Speaker A: It's less of a tease for the next movie and more of a. I think the character she plays, I think does become more important in Dune Messiah, which is the next one, but it's complicated. I believe she plays the unborn child of I believe. I think that's who she plays. It's confusing. There's so many characters and it's hard to remember, but I'm pretty sure she plays the unborn fetus baby.
• 44:44
  Speaker B: I think.
• 44:45
  Speaker A: Think I could be wrong. Filming took place from July 18 of 2021 to December 12 of 2022. With filming primarily started in Hungary before it moved to Abu Dhabi. And a lot of the filming took place in the jordanian desert. The team was able to shoot, apparently this is, I thought was super interesting. They actually were able to shoot during a partial eclipse on October 25.
• 45:10
  Speaker B: That's pretty cool.
• 45:11
  Speaker A: And they used this footage in the opening fight scene of the film. So there's part of, there's a, like a sardaukar or battle or Harkonnen battle or something at the beginning. And some of that was shot during the eclipse. And they were able to use that in the film. So Anya Taylor Joy's film or scenes were apparently filmed in Namibia. Just, they were all, just all over Africa and the Middle east filming this thing. And Europe, apparently. So it's a globe trotting film. The fade route gladiator scene at this point, famously shot in a special black and white infrared camera with the goal being to give the skin of fade routha in the other, because it's shot on Getty. Well, the fight takes place on Yeti prime, which is the Harkonnen homeworld, I believe, which is like this weird alien planet, obviously. Those.
• 45:59
  Speaker B: The bald guys.
• 46:00
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 46:00
  Speaker B: Oh, my God, I remembered something about this.
• 46:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. And so they wanted to give them the skin, a translucent alien feel. So they filmed with these special infrared cameras. I've seen bits of that in the trailer, and it looks super cool. So this cracked me up. I had to write this quote directly. This comes directly from Wikipedia. The scene of Paul Sandworm ride was filmed practically what the article literally in the next sentence goes on to explain the process of filming it on a set with a worm that was like a partial bit of the worm, and then they cg'd the rest of it. So define practically. Like, this is the thing that drives me reading this. This is the kind, oh, I could go off on this forever because this kind of shit drives me crazy. I like, I know I'm gonna love this movie, but, like, everybody goes over a gugu over this movies for the practical effects and all that. And that is a big part of it is they film a lot of stuff practically. And they, and but it's really, it's the way they incorporate the cg with the practical effects. That is what really is really impressive and what makes the films doom part one and I assume doom part two look so good, but, like. But that's the thing that people just boil it down to. Oh, they filmed it practically. It's like, oh, he wrote a giant sandworm around in the desert. No, he fucking didn't. He was on it. They were on a set, and he was on a fake worm, and they filmed it, and then they cg it up. Like, that's the same way they do, like, everything. Sure. And I will give this. Maybe more of the set and more of the stuff was practical than maybe some other productions would do. Like, maybe, you know, maybe they built out more of it than some other productions, whatever. But that sentence, it just cracked me up so much because it's the scene of the sandworm ride was filmed practically, and then literally, the rest of the sentence is explaining all the ways it was not filmed practically. Like, you don't know what that means. You're just using that word, filmed practically. I don't think it means what you think it means.
• 47:53
  Speaker B: Although I do adore the implication that they got an actual sandworm for him to ride on. Love that.
• 48:00
  Speaker A: Cracking me up. And again, I'm sure it was filmed practically in some sense, but then, in that case, almost everything is filmed practically in some capacity. Not everything, obviously. There are some things that are completely cg, but whatever. Shit drives me crazy. So Austin Butler and Timothy Chalamet were said to have trained extensively for their duel at the end of the film. Spoilers for the film. They fight each other at the end. And at least according to Wikipedia, because I don't know how much I believe this, they performed the entire scene by themselves. Again, I think this is almost assuredly not true, but I haven't seen it. So who knows? Maybe they did because the Wikipedia article says they even. Even in, like, the wides and stuff they do, everything is, like, the implication. And they may have done a lot of it, but I would be astounded if they did.
• 48:51
  Speaker B: I would be astounded if they did the entire thing. But we haven't seen it.
• 48:55
  Speaker A: No. Again, I haven't seen it, so I don't know. It's possible. Maybe there's nothing too crazy.
• 48:59
  Speaker B: Maybe I'll watch it and totally believe that they did all of their stunts.
• 49:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. Cause, like, you know, it's one of those things where, like, you hear similar things about, like, some of the Star wars prequels and stuff. And there's truth to that in a sense, that, like, Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen really learned a lot of fencing and choreography and stuff and did a lot of the fighting in those movies, but they did not do every single shot of the lightsaber fighting in those movies. It's just simply not true again. So we'll see. I don't know. We'll see. I was skeptical about that as soon as I read that. This also came, like, very shortly after the part about filming the sandworm, practically. And I was like, okay, so speaking of fade Routha, Denis Villeneuve described the character of fade, Routha Harkonnen, who was played by Austin Butler, as, quote, a cross between a psychopathic killer, an Olympic swordmaster, a snake and Mick Jagger. And, fun fact, Jagger was actually attached to play fight fade Rautha in Jodorowsky's Dune.
• 50:02
  Speaker B: Oh, the bad one?
• 50:03
  Speaker A: No, not the bad one. The one that never got made. So Jodorowsky's dune is a film that never. It's a failed adaptation. It never came to light. There's a documentary about it that's supposed to be very good. No, the one you're thinking of is the 1980s David lynch version in which fade Routha is played by Sting. Yeah, which is interesting. And in a funny twist, Austin Butler famously played Elvis. So something about singers and Faye Ralph as a character is something that directors just can't get away from.
• 50:38
  Speaker B: Is Austin Butler still doing Elvis voice? Please, somebody let me know. I don't want to look it up on my own.
• 50:43
  Speaker A: I don't believe he is. I don't believe he is. So Stellan Skarsgard, who plays Baron Harkonnen, the big guy, his body makeup took 8 hours to apply in the morning and 2 hours to remove every day at the end of shooting. And so apparently during shooting, he wouldn't drink anything and took imodium pills to avoid having to go to the bathroom while they were shooting.
• 51:06
  Speaker B: Rip, you're in pure organs.
• 51:09
  Speaker A: Not ideal, but yeah. And then finally, some reviews before we wrap up here. Richard Roper, writing for the Chicago Sun Times, gave the film three out of four stars and praised it, technical and narrative aspects, saying, quote, even as we marvel at the stunning and immersive and Oscar level cinematography, editing, score, visual effects, production design and sound in Dennyville news, Dune, part two. We're reminded at every turn that this is an absolutely batshit crazy story. It was self edited in the review, but I can curse. So I assume that's what he meant, which I agree with if you've ever read Dune. Yep, batshit crazy is pretty accurate. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg praised the film, saying, quote, it's one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen. And going on to say, quote, it's also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters, yet the dialogue is very sparse. When you look at it proportionally to the running time of the film, it's such cinema. The shots are so painterly, yet there's not an angle or single setup that's pretentious. James Cameron, also a fan.
• 52:14
  Speaker B: The fact that Spielberg said it's such cinema is hilarious. I don't believe that. It's not that. There's not a single thing that's pretentious that makes me not believe that.
• 52:25
  Speaker A: I know it is kind of funny, that juxtaposition of such cinema. It's not pretentious, though. This is pretty funny. I don't think it's pretty. I mean, the first one wasn't pretentious in my opinion, but the Hollywood Reporter. Love you. Oh boy. Garky Garchy. Jarky I do not know. I am so sorry. Praised the technical aspects and performances in a film, but found that it failed to fully adapt the book's nuance on themes such as imperialism. Nicholas Barber for the BBC said that the film is, quote, one of the most jaw droppingly weird pieces of art house psychedelia ever to come from a major studio. Psychedelia DeLia whatever, ever to come from major studio. But thought that the film's grand scale made up for those issues. And then in a more negative review, Noah Burlatsky, writing for CNN said the film failed to, quote, present an effective anti colonial vision, end quote. By still being centered around Paul's destiny despite the film increasing Chani's role in the film, which is something that I was aware that Chani has her role character beefed up and has a little more agency and stuff like that than she does in the book as she is kind of the voice of the, quote, unquote, you know, indigenous kind of people in this story or is the main representative of them in the, in the film. Some other commenters have, and I think we mentioned this in for Dune part one.
• 53:51
  Speaker B: I'm sure we talked about this because.
• 53:52
  Speaker A: I remember mentioning some other commenters have criticized the film for inadequately dealing with the original books, Middle Eastern and or Middle east and north african influences, which is shortened to Mina Mena and also not incorporating enough representation from the region. Ferva Shaw, writing for UK's Cosmopolitan said that she was, quote, frustrated as a muslim viewer and criticized the film for a lack of mena casting among the leads. Despite the use of the region's culture and superficial use of Islam, the new Arabs. Hannah Flint also criticized the use of arab and islamic cultural items and lack of Mena casting, but she did praise that swiss tunisian actress Suhelia Yaqub was a win for arab representation. She must have a small part because she was not listed in the primary credits. So I assume she's maybe one of the Fremen. I would assume so, yeah. Some similar criticisms about some of the representation in the film and maybe being a little appropriative of Middle Eastern, which is things dune criticism, Dune itself has also dealt with over the years in different ways. We probably won't get into that too much in our review because we don't really have a, you know, it's not our background necessarily, but it is out there. So this seek out those voices that are, you know, critical of it in that way because I think it's definitely worth hearing out. So, Katie, before we get to where people can watch Dune part two, we wanted to remind you, you can do us a favor by hanging over to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, all those good places, follow us threads, follow us, interact. We'd love to hear from you. Drop us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify YouTube, or head over to patreon.com. thisfilmislit subscribe get access to bonus content we just put out yesterday our bonus episode for June, which was covering one of my favorite childhood films, the Rocketeer. If you've never seen the Rocketeer, highly recommend. It's on Disney in America, probably other places. I assume it's on Disney most places, but I don't know, because it is a Disney movie, so. But highly recommend checking out the film and our bonus episode on it because it was a lot of fun to talk about. Katie, where can people watch Dune part two?
• 56:03
  Speaker B: Well, you can try your local library or a video rental store. I assume this got some kind of home media release?
• 56:11
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
• 56:13
  Speaker B: Barring that, though, you can stream this with a subscription to HBO Max, or you can rent it for around six to $7, at least in America, from Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube, Fandango at home or Spectrum.
• 56:29
  Speaker A: There you go. All right, that's gonna do it. Very excited to drop back into Dune part two because that was, I will say this, the first time reading the book, the second half of the book did not enjoy it as much as the first half. I'm interested to see how I feel upon my reread this time. I'm sure it'll change a little bit, but yeah, I did not really the first half of the book really got me. And basically where the film, the first film ended, and then from there to the end of the book, it was. I don't know, just didn't hook me in the same way. So I'm interested to see again on this go around how I feel about it. But that's in one week's time we're talking about Dune, part two. Until that time, guys, gals on binary pals and everybody else keep reading books.
• 57:09
  Speaker B: Watching movies, and keep being awesome.