Jodorowsky's Dune Uncovered

Scene 61-69 : Atreides Ball

In the Government Palace the Atreides are throwing a ball. The first floor is divided up into four distinct parts.

The first has the rich industrial classes of Dune and their 50 generals, who are tormenting 3 small beggar children.

In the second section the Fremen are listening to music and playing a game of chess with giant pieces. Among the Fremen are Stilgar, Farok, Duncan and Kynes.

The spice searchers occupy the third area, and is full of eating, drinking and drunken mischief.

Finally, in the fourth room, are the smugglers led by Esmer Tuek. They engage in games of strength, including wrestling a hippopotamus!

Leto, Paul and Hawatt, observing all this from a second floor balcony decide that they have to combine all four parties into one.

Back at the entrance industrialists guests are washing their hand in bowls of water, drying them with towels which they then throw to beggars. The beggars fight for the towels, desperate for the water they contain.

Leto intervenes, telling them to stop this old custom and distribute water to all during the dance. Hundreds of grateful beggars arrive and line up for the water.

A group of business men playing cards observe this complain among themselves at the Duke's actions. However Lingar Webt, the Water Trader, tells them that Leto can change the customs as long as he doesn't interfere with their business operations. Among them they control the water, food and transportation on Dune, and if they combine their bodyguards they could form an army to attack the Atreides.

Although the above takes places over 9 scenes there are no available storyboard images of this section of the script, we do, however, have a comment made by Stephen Scarlata (producer on the Jodorowsky's Dune documentary) on an episode of The Projection Booth in which Stephen says:

"...one sequence there are four [parties] going on at the same time ... when you look at the storyboards ... this could have took up maybe 15 to maybe 30 minutes of the movie".

So while not a lot to go on, it does perhaps suggest that some version of the above appears in the Moebius storyboards.

Continue to Part 24: Suspected Traitor