Dune
released 2021
www.ink2quill.com

“Dune” is an American, scifi, action, adventure film produced by so many talented people which include Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, Vasco Xu, Thomas Tull, Richard P. Rubenstein, Mary Parent, Byron Merritt, Tanya Lapointe, Fuad Khalil, Kim Herbert, Brian Herbert, John Harrison, Joshua Grode, Herbert W. Gains among others. The music was created by Hans Zimmer and it was written by Eric Roth, Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts. It was directed by Denis Villeneuve and stared a huge cast that included Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, David Batista, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, David Dastmalchian, Charlotte Rampling, Babs Olusanmokun, Benjamin Clementine, Souad Faress, Golda Rosheuvel, Roger Yuan, Seun Shote, Neil Bell, Tachia Newall, Gloria Obianyo and many others. This is a film from the book of the same name (Dune) written by Frank Herbert.

Dune 2021 film IMDb webpage

“Dune” is a complex story in a strange galaxy at some other time, who knows when but that is not important. The universe is run by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. This is a galaxy under a feudal system with the collective wealthiest, most powerful families known as The Landsraad. The universe of Dune is a place where the most powerful people and organizations worry most about one thing. It is a substance that allows the Guild to fold space so that space travel is possible, gives the Bene Gesserit their power to influence all areas of power in the galaxy, allows the emperor a longer life span etc. That substance is the spice Melange, also known as Spice. And this Spice is only found on one planet, Dune, also known as Arrakis. The struggle to acquire and control the Spice leads to machinations of all kinds from all areas of power in the galaxy. At the center of these machinations is a plan by the emperor to annihilate the House Atreides. Another secret plan is for the Bene Gesserit sisterhood to create the universe´s super known as the Kwisatz Haderach. Those two plans collide into the protagonist Paul Atreides who turns out to be that very being.

There is no reason to go into too much detail about the story because the film does such a good job of explaining the complex story. In the film we really get to see the bind that Paul´s father Duke Leto is in and how his fate is really sealed in spite of all his best efforts. Another great part of the film was how they explained the secondary villain of the story Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, (the Emperor Shaddam IV being the first), his background and all so we got a good picture of him. We got to see for example that he is an immensely wealthy, twisted man who loathes House Atreides and the Duke Leto. That is a fact less clear in the 1984 film version of the book. The fact that The Baron had the mining equipment on Dune destroyed when he left was another touch that added to the story. All of these touches made the story more understandable for viewers who did not read the book and it is something that the 1984 film version lacked.

Let me start by saying that casting a person who is a lot like Paul Atreides in the book was a good call. In the book Paul is a small, 15 year old. Besides that Timothee Chalamet did a fantastic job bringing the character of Paul to life. He very much was what I pictured Paul to be like.

Another well written character with fine acting was the Duke Leto Atreides, played by Oscar Isaac. I cannot stress enough how well this character was written and well played by Oscar Isaac. You really got a good sense of him doing the best job he could under the circumstances he was in and through it all was the love he had for his family and his determination that his son Paul would live no matter what happened to him.

The Lady Jessica Atreides was so well played by Rebecca Ferguson. I only wish they had shown us more scenes of her with her son Paul because that was a very, very important part to Paul´s survival and success and their relationship was a very deep one.

I liked the way Javier Bardem played Stilgar. He really gave it a unique touch with a likable edge. He instilled in the character of Stilgar a kind and parochial minded person in an scifi way. The way he did not observe or care about any kind greeting protocol and was in a hurry to get back to his neck of the woods, so to speak, was funny. Or maybe he was asserting a right to remind the Caladanians that they were on his planet, not theirs. Maybe that this was his way of demanding respect. It was probably for both reasons. Either way Javier Bardem knocked it out of the park.

So many bloggers have described “Dune: 2021” as the most beautiful scifi films ever and that just might be right. The cinematography was just incredible. That is something Denis Villeneuve is known for. He manages to assemble great scripts with beautiful world building and in the genre of scifi he might not have an equal. Take a look at “Blade Runner 2049” and you will see that his success is not just a fluke. The imagery of Paul first encountering the Spice in the desert is an image that tells a thousand words.

Sharon Duncan-Brewster was also a brilliant Dr. Liet Kynes. I loved the way she injected personality into her role and I only wish we had seen more of her. What great acting.

This film is so well done that I you could see it and have a good idea what is going on before reading the book. But either way read the book because it´s sooo good. One of the strengths of this film is its script. It is really well written and clarifies so much about the complex plots, twists and turns of this story. Now this being a movie you have to understand that so much will be left out but this does not keep us from a good understanding of that universe and its people struggling for survival and power.

There is one flaw that I can see in this film and that is the explanation of how the powerful Bene Gesserit manipulate cultures and produce the Kwisatz Haderach, the universe´s super being. By over explaining the manipulation of cultures by the Bene Gesserit it makes Paul look like a kind of fraud, and for anybody who has read the book(s) we all know that Paul is anything but a fraud. He is as powerful as others claim and more. The Kwisatz Haderach is a being powerful enough to steer the entire human race in a single direction by means of his holy war – The Jihad. His powers as an individual are galactic controlling the different threads of possible outcomes for the human race. It´s not just prescience or power through violence he wields. It´s much more than that and in other books we understand the reason for his powers and his plan.

So, I strongly recommend you check out the best version of “Dune” out there. It is well worth it and it´s a lot of fun.

John Ink2Quill

I2Q Blogs / The Visual Medium dune / ink2quill / john / melange / quill /