As the winter begins, the days get darker earlier, and we seek more nocturnal entertainment.
A night at the cinema becomes more appealing and ‘Dune’ is the first big blockbuster to attempt to fill that void in your schedule. It is pure sci-fi; pure escapism; and another film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction opus.
So… is it any good?
For a long time, Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel ‘Dune’ was the greatest story never told on the big screen. There are six books in the original series. They explore a galactic empire set way off in the future, the year 10191. A shadowy emperor runs the galaxy with the aid of many houses and the story plays out like an intergalactic ‘Game of Thrones’, as each house battles for supremacy and favor with the emperor. This sprawling story was commonly acknowledged as being too vast and too complex for it to ever work as a coherent film.
Every movie studio had a Dune script “in development”, with maverick director Alejandro Jodorowsky coming very close to producing a 14-hour film adaptation of the novel in the mid-’70s. Although this never got off the ground, the pre-production work of the French novelist Moebius and Swiss artist HR Giger inspired many sci-fi classics such as ‘Alien’ and ‘Star Wars’.
As the rights expired for Universal studios, a big budget ‘Dune’ hit screens in 1984 and the film subsequently bombed at the box office. The critics savaged the script and upon its release, even its director David Lynch disowned the final cut. The franchise died a death and was seen as a poisoned chalice for all the major studios.
Step forward, Denis Villeneuve, acclaimed director of films such as ‘Prisoners’ and sci-fi classic ‘Arrival’. This is also the same director who gave us a sequel to ‘Blade Runner’, a film of huge importance in the sci-fi genre and with a fervent cult following. ‘Blade Runner 2049’ was a critical and commercial success. An adaptation of ‘Dune’, therefore, is in seemingly good hands and, in my opinion, the film is a roaring success.
It focusses on the fates of two noble houses as they vie for control of the planet Arrakis, or ‘Dune’. Despite a peaceful handover of control of the planet by House Harkonnen, a threat of war hangs in the air. This is an environmentally violent planet, where sand engulfs the planet and water is a scare source. What is plentiful, however, is the most valuable commodity in the universe: spice. The spice, to the local inhabitants, is a magical dust; a sacred hallucinogen that prolongs life. To ‘off-worlders’, this is the element that is key to navigating interstellar travel. Whoever controls the harvesting of spice is in line for enormous wealth and power.
This is a tale of colonial oppression as well as a battle of greed over nature.
The movie’s plot is coherent and quite easy to follow, even for someone as simple as I am and without any previous knowledge of the books’ lure. The names and terminology are hard to follow at times, but you quickly catch up. The opening hour is essentially a world-building exercise, introducing us to the characters and creating the overall motivation for each character. The film is surprisingly basic in its production, with a minimalistic approach to the use of CGI effects. The effects are saved for the war sequences, which are truly spectacular and scored bombastically by Hans Zimmer.
Other incredible visuals include the dragonfly to spaceships that glint in the mist and the enormous sandworms that act like the ‘Jaws’ of the film, lurking sinisterly in the background. The fight scenes are like watching medieval knights in space, with the combat involving samurai-style swordplay rather than guns or fancy futuristic weapons. They feel epic in nature and in scale.
We see a lot of hand-to-hand combat. These sequences are expertly choreographed, carried out almost effortlessly and with a regal nobility, as if performed by a knight of the round table.
‘Dune’ is a dark film, in its tone and colouring, and everything seems to happen in the shadows. This can be annoying, as it is often hard to follow certain sequences. However, it also adds greatly to the tone of the film. Death and magic loom over every scene in this film. You are always on guard and never fully at ease, as if you were watching a horror movie, waiting for the next big scare. The pace of the film is slow; lingering long on scenes as if Villeneuve wants the audience to gaze at the wonder he created. This can be tedious and possibly unnecessary, especially as there is such a long story to tell. The film demands concentration and, I believe, will go over a lot of children’s heads. This not a simple action movie but a great story made into a purist sci-fi film.
‘Dune’ boasts an unbelievable cast, including Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, and Rebecca Ferguson, to name a few. Stellan Skarsgård steals the show as the ruthless Baron Harkonnen. He looks like, and has similar mannerisms to, Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz in ‘Apocalypse Now’. Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, the possible messianic figure who could bring salvation to the local Fremen and, in turn, to the galaxy. This is a reluctant hero, beset by visions of the past and future. You are never quite sure if the character is actually going to be a hero, as he is calm and considered, rather than heroic and brave. This adds a sinister nature to the character and adds greatly to the film, as you are never quite sure where the story is going and the plot beats are not easily predictable.
As the opening scene explains, this is Part One — an introduction into the mythology of the world ‘Dune’. The film provides a taste of a world, a spicy starter to what promises to be a spectacular main course.
Whether you like or dislike it, you will want to visit this world again… that, I can promise.
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