ARRAKIS TO EARTH: EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION
Recorded 10/28/2021
John Wright: This is an emergency dispatch from your pals at n/a, our first such effort, and I think it will be a bit rambling, a bit rough around the edges, but we’re okay with that. Because we need to discuss something with you, dear reader, and we need to reckon with it ourselves. Alex, America’s cravin some DUNE.
Alex McDonough: America’s got DUNE fever. Whole world’s got DUNE fever.
JW: DUNE-a-mania is running wild.
AM: It is kicking ETERNALS out of theaters. They’ve already announced that ETERNALS is being taken off the calendar year. They’ve cancelled it, they’re putting Kumail Nanjiani down. They’re taking him out back and they’re saying “be free.” They’re making a DUNE sequel, DUNE TV series, they’re doing DUNE Funko Pops, they’ve established an entire factory in St. Paul, Minnesota to fulfill the need for more DUNE.
JW: DUNE is creating jobs in fact! When I think we had all quietly come to terms with the movie coming out, being liked by people that already liked the book and then just going away, no. It appears as if Denny V pulled it off.
AM: He pulled it off!
JW: He did what no one thought was possible, least of all me.
AM: I was impressed. I guess we should reveal our background with DUNE. We both read the first book. Have you read the others?
JW: I have read nothing beyond that, I dunno about you.
AM: I read MESSIAH, I haven’t read the other ones yet but we’re both big fans of the original book. You’ve seen the David Lynch movie?
JW: Oh yeah. I actually think it’s pretty fun for what it is; fun and hammy.
AM: We’ve both seen the Lynch film. We have not seen the SYFY miniseries. What’s your Villeneuve track record? I’ve seen BLADE RUNNER 2049, ENEMY, and ARRIVAL.
JW: I have actually not seen BLADE RUNNER or ARRIVAL. I’ve seen SICARIO. Liked it quite a bit. Made me happy to see Josh Brolin and Villeneuve collaborating again.
AM: I’ve been excited for this since it was basically announced and it delivered on what I thought it could do. I’m very excited for the sequel. I’ve got critiques that are mostly just nerd quibbles that people have when they are very invested in an adaptation. I’m very pleased with how it’s doing. I am happy that it has taken on the popularity that it’s taken on.
JW: It appears to be taking on, we’ll see, it’s got momentum.
AM: It’s got that momentum, that’s important. It feels to me at the moment that this is kind of how it felt when AVATAR came out. Where people were talking about it and they were telling other people about it after they went to see it and they said to them; “you’ve got to see this in theaters.”
Denis took the book and put it on screen…and he did it without dressing it up at all because Dune’s world is deeply alienating.
JW: It’s interesting that you bring up AVATAR, because when I rewatched it earlier this year I came to the conclusion that that scale was the key thing. That was the thing I felt was really impressive about AVATAR all these years later. The scale, the visual coherence within that scale, had never been touched to date. People will bring up INFINITY WAR or ENDGAME but for me I’d take the Pepsi Challenge with those and AVATAR. I’d be shocked if I didn’t consider the latter bigger and better to look at. And DUNE has reforged the yardstick I think.
AM: There are some films, I think, since AVATAR that have flirted with that sense of scale. The AVENGERS movies do take place on different planets but I think they scale down to home televisions pretty well. I think that PROMETHEUS kind of reaches a similar intergalactic scale but bungles the landing. Its scale is good but it’s saddled with the baggage of the ALIEN series and makes messy decisions like casting Guy Pearce as an 85 year old man.
JW: I didn’t know about that until recently, why did they cast Guy Pearce as an 85 year old man?
AM: Incredible question. They were originally gonna cast Max Von Sydow which would have been phenomenal.
JW: Okay, who denied my man Max Von Sydow a check in his golden years?
AM: I think he was busy.
JW: He was busy taking a pleasant walk along some lake in Scandinavia.
AM: Why they selected a man who was 600 years younger than Max Von Sydow eludes me.
I think that BLADE RUNNER 2049 also has that incredible scope. It doesn’t take place on an alien planet but it made the world of BLADE RUNNER feel vast, mysterious, hostile. Villeneuve brings those exact same qualities into this DUNE adaptation which is what I wanted to see.
JW: Absolutely. That’s what I keep coming back to; Denis took the book and put it on screen in a way I did not think was possible with DUNE and he did it without dressing it up at all because DUNE’s world is deeply alienating.
AM: Even just as a physical book, not even talking about what’s on the page; DUNE is chunky. One thing that’s interesting about this film is that it doesn’t have a three-act structure.
JW: It’s the first act of a two act drama. They just decided not to make a five hour movie.
AM: Even the HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, that was split into two movies, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS-
JW: They did this with all the YA adaptations towards the end of that trend.
AM: TWILIGHT had that too, but even those movies have a three-act structure in their first halves. There’s rising tension, falling action, all that stuff. This film doesn’t have that so it just kind of ends. Which people have been-
JW: Justifiably, I think, a little frustrated by.
AM: Having re-read the book two months ago, it ended exactly where I thought it would. I only wish there was more movie right now which is my only true gripe. Currently the film is just about itself, it doesn’t have any real thematic depth just yet. It’s setting the stage for itself which is how it’s gotta be to get it made.
JW: Unfortunately. It worked though! It somehow worked!
AM: We’re getting the sequel. So that kind of criticism is moot unless Warner Bros fumbles the ball and hands it to the Russo Brothers or hires Joss Whedon to write it. I don’t think they’re gonna do that. They’re not gonna hand the keys to Taika Waititi.
JW: I do think that, just to come back to it, the world itself that they’re trying to put on screen is just not fun. I know everybody likes the Mœbius DUNE illustrations with all the fun colors and the crazy intricate costume design. I’m sorry but that was never going to happen.
AM: The Lynch film was a lot more visually fun even if it was hostile and Gigeresque. Here, I don’t know if it’s closer to what Herbert envisioned, but it nails the visual aspect that whether they’re Harkonnens or Atreides, they’re all fascistic colonizers whose architecture is designed to intimidate and impel the population towards subservience. I think it was a smart decision even though I’m sure people wanted something a little more 60s psychedelic.
JW: The thing about DUNE as a novel is that you can read it as a younger person. Herbert’s prose isn’t particularly complicated but it’s a very thick book.
AM: It’s a doorstop.
Currently the film is just about itself, it doesn’t have any real thematic depth just yet. It’s setting the stage for itself.
JW: If you’re a little Martin Prince and you have nothing better to do you can read it as a kid and it’s a fun space adventure. Once you get any kind of political awareness and revisit that story you’re like “oh wow this is a hellscape.” Without stopping to explain it directly to the camera, the movie does a very good job of communicating how awful everything is.
AM: The opening scene where it shows the Atreides being granted control of Arrakis and they have the whole consulate come down; the framing of it with their uniforms and crowd formation, it looks scary. If you’re going in blind, you’re thinking “These guys are the heroes, presumably” though you know something’s up. These guys aren’t the Skywalkers.
JW: You have pure lawful good and pure chaotic evil house as your two choices. They’re ultimately the same. One is just crueler than the other. Which is another thing the movie does well without having a character explain it in a snappy way which will look good on a tote bag.
AM: The opening narration in the film is provided by Chani. In the books it’s provided by Princess Irulan, who is not a character in this movie-
JW:- and will likely be a character for maybe fifteen minutes of the next movie.
AM: Paul briefly mentions that he intends to marry her. Otherwise, Chani provides the opening narration, and she specifically refers to the Harkonnens’ occupation of Arrakis as- calling them oppressors-
JW: “Who are our next oppressors going to be?”
AM: And it’s the Atreides.
JW: Right.
AM: It intentionally frames this as a story of oppression by these foreign occupiers which is an incredible re-framing that is simpatico with today’s sensibilities. In the 60s this type of story, it would have been a surprise for the protagonist to have the character arc that Paul does, with these prophesises of galactic scale genocide occurring as a result of his hero’s journey. In 2021, that sort of plot twist is less surprising. I think that if they’d just played it straight, people would have watched the sequel and thought “Oh, it’s just a subversion, that’s no big deal” which, valid response given the series’ reputation. This cuts it immediately; states outright “No, Paul’s the bad guy” and there’s drama in that because Paul doesn’t want to be the bad guy.
The casting of Timothee Chalamet is pretty solid because he looks the part, one, and two Timothee Chalamet, you want to like him. You trust that he’s being sincere when he’s doing something morally conflicted. He’s not Barry Keoghan or Miles Teller where you kind of get the sense that this guy is kind of a little bit of a shithead.
JW: Up to something.
AM: To clarify, I’m not talking about their actual personalities but in reference to the star qualities of these actors. Barry Keoghan has this unseemliness that shines through in THE GREEN KNIGHT. The rumor currently on the ground is that he’s being cast as Feyd-Rautha in the sequel. I’m more of a Lucas Hedges guy but I’ll take him.
JW: We’ll take him if we can get him. Get him onboard the DUNE train.
I think that if they’d just played it straight, people would have watched the sequel and thought “Oh, it’s just a subversion, that’s no big deal.” This cuts it immediately; states outright “No, Paul’s the bad guy” and there’s drama in that because Paul doesn’t want to be the bad guy.
Let’s circle back, talk about the casting because I think it’s astonishing how perfect basically everyone is.
AM: We’ve known the cast list for a while now, seeing it in action is totally different. Who are your three standouts?
JW: I would say [Jason] Momoa has to be one of them. Rebecca Ferguson just because I knew the least about her coming into this movie and she was excellent and a lot of the movie. For the third, I suspect this will be even more the case in the second movie, I’m gonna say Javier Bardem just because he’s awesome in general.
AM: For sure, I thought he was great as Stilgar. Top of my list is Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck.
JW: Yeah, he’s perfect.
AM: I love Patrick Stewart’s Gurney in the Lynch version but Josh Brolin, he reminds of, and I mean this in the best way possible, Mel Gibson. I think that Brolin’s characterization of Gurney gives a nationalistic fervor to the character that will make his eventual character arc really interesting. He’s got incredible line readings so I’m excited to see where this portrayal goes in the next movie.
JW: I’m interested to see him be in more of the next movie because he’s very good in what he’s in but he’s not in a whole lot.
AM: Gurney’s purpose is back-loaded mostly. Jason Momoa as Duncan, perfect casting like you mentioned. Duncan and Gurney function as flip sides of each other. They’re both mentor figures but with contrasting personalities and only one survives. You begin to see Gurney embrace qualities that Paul admired in Duncan and it’s fascinating. I think Jason Momoa captures why Duncan Idaho is charming, cool and why he’s someone to admire. My other favorite casting, which I know you weren’t as hot on, was Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
JW: I thought he was good. It’s a personal thing, I wish it were a little hammier but that’s not the movie they’re making here. I’m at peace with that.
AM: I’ve heard that complaint from a few people so you’re not alone in that. I think that the campier qualities of the Baron in the book are of their time in a way which wouldn’t play well to modern audiences. Instead, there are suggestive elements of Baron Harkonnen that are, to be blunt, less homophobic. They kept him as gluttonous and menacing which I liked, I thought that was an essential part of the character.
JW: Him being obese is probably the most foundational element of the character.
AM: It’s important that he’s as gluttonous as he is because so much of Dune is predicated on the notion that resources are limited, meanwhile he’s stuffing his face with a feast for thirty and wasting food. The whole Empire does that, including the Atreides.
JW: That’s part of what they cut out. In the early goings before the action picks up, there’s a whole scene where they have a dinner party where Paul gets high off of spice coffee and is getting hit on by the daughters of local government functionaries -
AM: but they’re trying to suss out how to assassinate him -
JW: Right, and there’s a tradition where you’re meant to put a washcloth by the door so the water can seep out letting the beggars lap it up.
AM: There’s a lot of water traditions that are passed over in this movie. The movie’s already 155 minutes long and while I’d have done a 180 minute movie with a 35 minute dinner scene, I’m not a director and Warner Bros. wouldn’t allow me to be.
JW: Regarding the Baron, I do like that they went the Muumuu Homer Simpson route for the costuming.
AM: That was a good choice.
JW: I liked that the antigravity harnesses that carry him can be played as both comedic and menacing. It makes him just a bit too tall. It works well however Villeneuve wants to play it.
AM: It was pretty menacing, especially because in the Lynch DUNE, Harkonnen does Fizzy Lifting Drinks style floating where he’s a balloon man. This version I thought was more threatening. It felt like when Darth Vader is flying in the STAR WARS games -
JW: Yeah, a little bit.
AM: He’s got this heft. When he lands you’re gonna feel it.
JW: Do we have gripes on this one? Any grievances we want to air that we haven’t or are we gonna do a tongue bath on this one and make an earnest recommendation that everyone should go see it?
AM: I think that everyone should go see it. I’ll give it my highest praise in that I think it’s very good for what it is. I don’t think it’s going to change the world. I also think that it is functionally incomplete but if you are interested in DUNE or like DUNE, Denis did it, he made a DUNE adaptation.
JW: Denis did it. He made DUNE.
AM: He made an adaptation that felt faithful, unique and cool. I’m excited to see it again, which is something that very rarely happens. I’ve seen a lot of movies that have come out this year and wanting to go twice is rare.
JW: I would second most of that. The movie I was looking forward to was worth looking forward to and whenever that happens, that’s pretty nice. I don’t have too many gripes aside from ones owing to this being two two-and-a-half hour movies as opposed to one five hour movie.
AM: It should have been a five hour movie. That’s my biggest complaint.
JW: Five hours with an intermission, let me get another soda and I’ll be good.
Denis did it. He made Dune.
