One of the big movie premieres in October was the new adaptation of Dune, the far-future sci-fi epic novel by Frank Herbert, directed by Denis Villeneuve, probably best known in the States for Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. There is not much point in discussing the movie without spoilers. After all, the story actually pre-dates Star Wars, and while it is not nearly so well publicized, it has been publicized well enough to where people have heard terms like “gom jabbar” and “wormsign.” It has been said by critics that Villeneuve immerses the viewer immediately and doesn’t really bother telling the audience much about the background, but I thought the exposition in the movie did a perfectly good job of setting things up for the audience. If one still needs it, here’s a brief primer:
The various electronics and media that were revolutionary in Herbert’s day and ubiquitous today are in this history banned under a “Butlerian Jihad” that occurred after a revolt of artificial intelligences. As a result much of the technical work of civilization is done by “mentats” who use mental disciplines and a few drugs to attain the heightened memorization and thinking abilities to allow them to serve in the role of computers.
The main drug used in the civilization is melange, or “the spice”, which is psychoactive, physically addictive and absolutely necessary to the galactic society, because the altered states it produces are what allow navigators to “fold space” and achieve interstellar travel, which would otherwise require computers. However the spice is only produced on one planet, Arrakis (or Dune), which is so hot and dry that a human body would desiccate simply from exposure to the atmosphere. To survive, colonists and local humans (the Fremen) invented stillsuits, which are full-body jumpsuits that contain the body’s moisture and recycle all its excretions – yes, including shit – into water to rehydrate the user.
Psionic powers are real, and most mystics focus on clairvoyance or “prescience.” The main mystic order is an all-female group called the Bene Gesserit, who are embarked on a subtle breeding program with male nobility to create a male offspring called the Kwisatz Haderach – the one whose prescience will allow him to “bridge space and time.”
Despite the advanced features of this society, it is basically a combination of corporatism and feudalism where noble families under an Imperial dynasty rule the galaxy in order to preserve the trade routes and the flow of spice to the planets. As the story starts, Arrakis is ruled by the House Harkonnen, the most corrupt, dysfunctional and perverted family to hold a position of authority prior to the Trump Organization. But the Emperor has recently handed their fief over to the House Atreides, which centers on the foresighted Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), his Bene Gesserit consort Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and their only son, Paul (Timothee Chalamet). Paul is developing prescient abilities from a young age, which are periodically tested by the Bene Gesserit on suspicion that he is their prophesied leader. As the family moves to Dune, Paul is also haunted by visions of a young girl who turns out to be a Fremen named Chani (Zendaya). Chani and Paul seem to have a psychic bond, or perhaps Paul is seeking out Chani because she is the only being in the galaxy who is more ethereally pretty than he is. Meanwhile, it is unclear exactly why the Atreides were granted control of the planet, and Leto (rightly) suspects a courtly trap.
The Dune franchise expanded considerably from the original novel, but Dune itself, with its extremely long and involved storyline, has long been considered an unfilmable property. This is best demonstrated by the fact that the most famous adaptation before now was directed by David Lynch, who has produced more unfilmable narratives than any other director in America, yet everyone (including Lynch) thinks he got it wrong. So everyone was asking how Denis Villeneuve was going to fit it all in to one movie. The obvious choice he made was: not to. The other more successful adaptation prior to now was a SciFi Channel production from 2000, which was done as a miniseries. This film ends at about the point in the original story when things start to get interesting. The sequel (which is now planned) is supposed to be the second part of the novel after Paul begins to live among the Fremen and plans a confrontation with the Emperor. So while the movie is marketed as Dune, the title credit clearly shows it as “Dune – Part One”.
As it is, Villeneuve’s Dune basically impresses on sheer scale. Like, everyone remembers the first scene of the original Star Wars where Leia’s ship is pursued by an Imperial Star Destroyer that sweeps over the movie screen. Well, the people in Dune use ships that make a Star Destroyer look like a Winnebago. It’s a pretty good action movie, when it gets to that point. It has good to great acting, with Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa being their usual badass selves as Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho respectively, and Chalamet giving an intense performance as the “little boy” who is starting to realize his true potential, even as it terrifies him. This movie doesn’t capture the exotic, decadent weirdness of the setting like Lynch’s movie, but then the only director who could beat Lynch for exotic decadent weirdness actually decided he couldn’t film Dune. Villeneuve takes the project seriously, and that sense of scale goes from the sweeping visuals to the often overwhelming sound effects. Meaning, that while Dune is streaming on HBO Max, this is a movie that must be seen in a theater.
Just don’t buy anything else while you’re there. I mean really, they can drop a matinee ticket down to five bucks, but they charge $5.99 for a bottled water or small soda?