Dune, part one 2021

[Chris Knipp]

You make an eloquent case. However, I'm thinking many of those "reasons" can be understood intuitively. With all due respect, the ultimate question isn't whether Villeneuve's film satisfies you but whether it works as a film. Iim also curious whether all Herbert fans are as displeased with the film as you are. I think not.

On his blog/website Inverse, Ryan Britt, a Herbert fan, perhaps fanatic, and writer, would agree with you on much being left out but still thinks the film masterful. And he argues that in any form, including the books, the nature of DUNE is to be incomplete: "The truest Dune is the unfinished Dune."

[cinemabon]

I think I need to go back and watch the film again. I think I'll go sometime this week before it slips into smaller theaters. Right now (locally) its in our biggest theater of the complex. I'll wake up early and go to a matinee. Then I'll know if my feelings have changed.

[Chris Knipp]

Personally what I urgently need to see now is Wes Anderson's THE FRENCH DISPATCH. But I am also rewatching DUNE, piecemeal, at home on HBO. On the small screen the immensity is lost, but it's still exquisite, and I can turn down the volume of Han Zimmer's score to a manageable level.

The two films' Metacritic ratings are very close, DUNE 74% and THE FRENCH DISPATCH 75%. But from the sound of the most enthusiastic criticisms, Anderson's is the more unqualified success and career best. But, there are problems with both (in comprehension, in encompassing the complexities), and both are a matter of taste and not for everyone.

[cinemabon]

I am so looking forward to seeing French Dispatch after reading so much about it and seeing some of the behind the scenes special effects. HBO just aired Moonrise Kingdom (one of my faves) but I have to say my favorite is Grand Budapest; I love watching that film again and again. So much to see that each I time I see, I see something else. I love that movie.

[Chris Knipp]

I had to go out of my way, drive 15 miles on complicated, crowded highway, to see it this morning but it was worth it My review goes up now. Will you put your FRENCH DISPATCH review on the thread I started as I put my DUNE one on yours?

[cinemabon]

Yes, once I get the chance to see it... probably next weekend is what they're saying, November 5th

[cinemabon]

2021 versus 1984 – A look back, a look forward

(Author’s note: I watched Dune 1984 and Dune 2021 twice within five days before I decided to write this comparison.)

“Dune” is one of those complex science-fiction novels ever written, similar to “Lord of the Rings” in that it encompasses an entirely new universe that is different from ours, where the laws of physics and normalcy don’t apply. There’s magic; magical thinking; and extraordinary devices imbued with supernatural abilities. These are not ordinary people. These are not ordinary places. Both books were adapted to film, first in the late 20th Century, and then again in the age of digital special effects which tend to realize an author’s vision more realistically than miniatures and matte paintings. Peter Jackson gave us the definitive LOTR. I doubt anyone else could or should attempt to outdo his monumental accomplishment. Now Villeneuve gives us the definitive Dune.

In 1984, Dino de Laurentiis attempted to accomplish this feat when he acquired the rights and discovered an enormous fan base that he could capitalize on, if he could get the film made. After the usual go around with writers and directors, David Lynch committed to the project and even helped with adapting Frank Herbert’s gigantic work into a usable screenplay that he could bring in on budget. The film would use the Emperor’s daughter as a narrator. She’d introduce the various parties and acquaint the audience with the novel’s unique terms before the opening credits. He assembled a strong international cast and when they finished production, edited a four-and-a-half-hour work, rejected by the distributing studio (Universal) and the film’s producer. Lynch refused to cut it and so de Laurentiis hired an uncredited editor to cut almost two hours from the film. Furious over this butchery, Lynch wanted his name removed but it was too late. The prints were made and film debuted in December 1984 at two hours and seventeen minutes. The movie flopped. On a budget of $42 million, it made only $30 million box office. Critics panned it.

The 1984 Dune fell into obscurity with the success of Star Wars and Star Trek. No one thought they’d ever hear of Dune again… until around 2000, when talk started to surface that Ridley Scott was going to direct a remake (he’d been hired for the first version and quit to make Blade Runner). The film went in and out of many hands, many studios, until 2017 when Legendary film productions acquired the rights and Villeneuve expressed interest in directing. They gave the film a $165 million budget and one year to make. Villeneuve not only finished on time, but on budget… and then something happened, a pandemic.

Anticipation for the film went through the roof. Fans around the world waited for almost two years before the studio announced the release date. Finally, in October 2021, the film opened in both theaters and on pay-per-view via HBO Max (those revenues are not published). Compared to the James Bond film, two weeks prior, Dune did not open to great box office numbers. However, less than a week after its opening, Warner Brothers (distributors) announced they’ve greenlit part two for 2023.

Villeneuve approached the screenplay from a different perspective. Instead of loading up the opening with as much backstory as possible (the David Lynch approach); he opens with a brief narrative about Arakis as told by one of its native tribespersons – Chani. While we do not associate her voice with any character, she will become prominent later as “that dream girl” in Paul’s visions. Villeneuve is more expressive with his use of scale – the story is told on an unbelievably large scale… not armies fighting over castles, they’re fighting over space territory and planets. To do this, they use machines so large in size, they can be seen in broad daylight from a planet’s surface. With scales such as these, we see tiny specks as spaceships emerge from the opening that travel down to the surface. However, on the surface, the scale changes again. Instead of specks, we see ships larger than any spaceships we’ve ever seen in a science fiction movie to date, dwarfing people standing nearby into tiny specs.

All of this size comparison gives us a scale to measure the vastness of Arakis’ desert, the size of the worms, and the incredible power these militaries wield when it comes to expressing that might. I did notice one caveat this time I didn’t notice the first time I watched Dune 2021. The Baron says: “The Emperor won’t allow any satellites over Arakis.” Presumably because he doesn’t want the “Landsrad” to know how much spice he’s mining and the profit he receives, even though the Harkonnen’s are the ones taking the risk. Their motive for staying on Arakis is profit. One might ask, “Why don’t they just take their big ships and wipe out all the Fremen from space?” Because they can’t find them… not only that, Arakis is a cruel harsh planet with sand storms that blow winds over 800 kph (note how they use the metric system). These storms are over 5000 meters high (almost as high as Everest, at 8800 meters) and wipe the area clean of anything in their path. They don’t kill the worms either based on an edict from the Emperor (although his order is based on information given to him by his “ecologist” Dr. Kyne).

Villeneuve injects political tensions into the story rather than focus on the myriad of minor plots the 1984 film tried to duplicate from the novel. His idea is that most of these details are superfluous to the overall story – how Paul is actually a superbeing that has yet to understand the true depth of his abilities. The Bene Gesserit allude to this throughout the first hour of the film. Once the revenge attack takes place, the movie is all about Paul’s survival in the desert. Written as an homage to the likes of T.E. Lawrence, the Koran, the Talmud, and even an ecology story about spreading dunes in Oregon, Herbert’s tale of Dune is a complex one that even the novel’s writer finds difficult to grasp as to which plot point is the most important – Paul’s power, his romance with Chani, his priestess mother, his enemy – the Baron, even his relationship with the Fremen – all come into play during this gargantuan story of science fiction (over 400 pages).

Villeneuve sets us up with a different “true focus” for the story. That the story’s main focus should be how Paul survives his trials in the desert (starting with a duel). Everything else in the film is just a setup leading to this moment. Dune becomes an epic film – like Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, and even LOTR – told by a masterful filmmaker in a modern sense. He isn’t concerned with the color of the Baron’s palace on Geidi Prime or style of robe Emperor Shaddam the IV is wearing. His focus is Paul and the gritty life he must live in the real world of Arakis. This is a contemporary film told by a contemporary filmmaker using contemporary methods for a contemporary audience. Forget 1984. It’s passe.