My Spoiler Free Dune Review.
The mystery of life was not to solved, but up until now it was to discover how Denis Villeneuve would adapt one of the most difficult sci-fi stories ever told. Both Dune films are meant to be seen in theaters, and part two gives you even more, immense visuals and visceral sounds and even more orientalism. You could feel Dune bombastic in sound and in its quiet intimate moments and there’s tons of sand and battles and yes, worms.
The future 20,000 from now looks as bleak as it does now. Maybe it’s worse because we’re still dealing with white supremacy and using the master’s tools to take over the house. We even get to see more of the great houses including House Corrino with Emperor Shaddam IV ruling the known universe.
As for House Harkonnen, Geidi Prime was so alien with the masses afflicted by pollution and black Sun. The stadium scene with its fury of the orgasmic masses was a standout. The masses lost their humanity and they were as monstrous as the engineers on Alien. The Harkonnen’s seductive BDSM was on full display. Their world was a hellish Dante’s inferno of an industrial wasteland where dog eat dog is the rule of the land.
As a book fan, I had to process the plot changes, especially things in the book that made this universe so compelling. As someone who can geek out for hours on the themes of the novel, I felt that the film rushed relationships by shortening the timeline. The book had the complexity of CHOAM trading monopoly, the spacing guild, the Lansraad balancing the power of the Emperor, the individuals who had rich interior lives and inner dialogue that revealed their motivations. But the movie relegated entire planets to mere servants, rather than the roles outlined by their social station. However I understood the choices for streamlining the novel’s circuitous plot within plot within plot. The mother, maiden, crone still played a critical part in shaping Paul. Chani (maiden) served as the moral core of the film and her role was expanded in a satisfactory ways. Lady Jessica (mother) is fierce and terrifying. Reverend Mohiam(crone) demonstrates the cruelty and manipulation of indirect power.
While the film highlighted the life of the Fremen, it still flattened them to warriors in a primitive society. The people of Arakkis were diverse, but they were adverse to color and dye. The Fremen become the same on their drabness. They had a few sophisticated tools, but the environmental determinism that shaped Fremen social order was swept over. Arakeen was not a city with bustling trade in stillsuits, goods, water, or spice smuggling. It was just a militarized depot. It had no function besides export, no people of the streets only pilgrims from part 1.
The film could have highlighted that Fremen. oppression predating Arakkis for 20,000 years to our modern age today. It did a good job of personalizing the skeptics and humanizing fanaticism. We got a sense of fundamentalists in the South, but not the Fremen of the pan and grable who would join the fray last minute. In the book it took a lot of community organizing to win over the Fremen and 1:1’s, not just singular. knife fights. But lots and lots of knife fights.
In the book we get a lot more Fremen complexity, but the movie simplified the motivation to holy war simply duty or fanaticism. In Dune Messiah we learn some joined the jihad so they could go an adventure and see the wealth of oceans on alien planets. Fremen were not only creatures of manipulation, but some willed to power.
The film landed the ending as I believe the original author intended. Frank Herbert presents ways humans brutalize each other and twist truth to justify the murder of innocents in war, including children. The Atreides is a cursed lineage and the empire, which was headed towards stagnation, will go through violent upheavals as a lesson to humanity. The ultimate tragedy in the film is the sacrifice of women of color, who are teachers, friends, and lovers, at the hands of white power. Dune shows us just how cruel the universe can be. I am wrecked.
