When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late. — Frank Herbert, ‘Dune’.
Here’s the long and the short of it. How can Frank Herbert’s admittedly problematic, seminal work of Science Fiction be adapted and embraced by a wider, more diverse, representative audience? Will Villeneuve ultimately deliver what he promised on correcting?
Dune the novel was a stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism, and cultural politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
David Lynch’s Dune (1984) love it or hate it, (full disclosure It’s a guilty pleasure) tells a choppy and admittedly campy yet complete story. Dune 84’ did a journeyman’s job at delivering the story at a crisp pace toward a satisfactory conclusion. Denis Villeneuve’s beautiful Dune (2021) remake though in all ways a superior production, just…ends.
Frankly not very satisfyingly.
- Dune ’21 was like going to a fancy restaurant serving excellent, yet meager, gourmet fare, leaving you famished enough for greasy drive-thru.
- Dune ’84 was Fatburgers.
A beginning is a very delicate time. — Princess Irulan, ‘Dune’.
Planet Arrakis (Dune) is sole source of the geriatric spice Melange, this spice is vital for life extension, space travel & interstellar commerce. The future aristocratic House Atreides led by Duke Leto, is lured to its destruction on the desert fiefdom soon after displacing hated enemy House Harkonnen.
Betrayed and hunted, the Atreides family survives through the machinations of Duke Leto’s concubine Lady Jessica, a powerful Bene Gesserit (a shadowy cult of women eugenists) mother to young heir Paul, a well cultivated potential genetic Superman.
Paul is rescued by and enlists the aid of the native populace of Dune, the nomadic Fremen and ultimately fulfills his destiny, which encompasses the worst fears of the powerful cabal of The Emperor, The Spacing Guild, & House Harkonnen that oppose him. Dune (2021) only gets about 1/3 of way through this story.
Where Lynch was campy and bizarre, Villeneuve is thoughtful and innovative. Villeneuve, his cinematographer, and sound production team used the kind of sweeping scale and grand filmmaking combined with stellar performances that are rarely successfully used today.
“Lawrence of Arabia in Space” is a very apt description of this troubling and triumphant vision that Villeneuve attempts to deliver.
Like David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia Director, Villeneuve is a brilliant craftsman, and the epic grandeur he employs from the largest battles to the smallest room details and costume choices are something to see. I enjoyed his world-building and scale.
Everything is shot with this relatable idea of scale, a planet, spaceship, or battalion of troops on an airfield. Everything is shot with us, the viewers in mind, being drawn in, able to identify something in the frame, and marveling at its monumental scope.
The performances of the actors all around were equally impressive, if thin. Leads and supporting characters were well cast and thoughtfully portrayed. It’s fundamental for any successful film franchise to achieve. “Do I care what happens to these people?”
I’m a nerd for Dune. I’ve read every book, I’m not sure If I were a casual viewer, I would understand or care about The Fall of House Atreides beyond the cinematography, score, and the boom-boom, stab-stab of it all.
If I didn’t already read Frank Herbert’s Dune many times over, would I have enjoyed Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) adaptation as much as I did? I don’t think I would.
Here’s the “Maker in the room”. Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia also used the exotic desert backdrop to retell universal themes of colonialism and religious indoctrination in support of rampant capitalism. T.E. Lawrence also is portrayed as a white savior who “goes native” and is an embraced and beloved colonizer.
“White man that is loved by the natives.” has always been a popular balm for the American public and a hallmark of White Hollywood. Dances With Wolves won seven Academy Awards including the best picture that year. Avatar, arguably the same picture, is the highest grossing picture to date adjusted for inflation.
These fantasies are a staple of white American identity. They are the popular American myths we tell ourselves about being the “Good Guys”. Even when the US has broken promises as Indigenous Americans lack access to safe water, a crisis worsened by Covid-19.
These ideas are high lit in a great piece – “Maybe Dune, a Story about a White Superman Created by a Eugenics Program, is Not the Film We Need Right Now” by Paul B. Sturevant
In both, the hero is a white representative of a foreign power at war in a desert land. In both, they integrate themselves with the local Arab/Arab-coded powers, and in both, they lead a daring guerrilla war against imperial power, and win.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeBut that is where the stories diverge; in Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence ultimately fails in his quest to help the locals achieve self-governance because, as the film tells it, those locals are too invested in old grudges and jockeying for power to keep the lights on.
This is a deeply racist idea that has been recapitulated in the media coverage of the governments of post-American invasion Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Dune (2021) people of color die to save the “messiahs” and the rest are used as tools to further their cause. Any aid given conversely only as a means to an end. And as far as Dune (1984) in this regard, David Lynch clearly didn’t know any black actors.
“He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”
Now given time and the space to develop as a series, these racist tropes and stereotypical portrayals of indigenous people of color accepting and ultimately being led and sacrificed for a white savior could be turned on its head, only if the lovey rainbow coalition of supporting cast members are given more to do other than getting killed for that white lady and her son.
If you’ve seen the film, did you get any idea that Thufir Hawatt was a Master of Assassins, served House Atreides for three generations, trained Paul, and was the most feared Warrior Mentat in the Imperium? Only if you’d read the book. In the film? He just disappears. We (poc) tend to end up on the cutting room floor.
Here is a video that quotes actor Stephen McKinley Henderson and an important scene that was cut.
People of Color need more screen time, given agency and backstories that their characters already possess within the pages of Frank Herbert’s original stories. And if need be, reclaimed as anti-racist stories. There are precedents for adapting problematic authors’ work at HBO.
A perfect example is the well-documented reactionary racist H.P. Lovecraft, whose original stories were adapted brilliantly in the HBO hit horror series Lovecraft Country.
Dune is a novel that though brilliant, is a product of it’s time and in many regards remains problematic in how it depicts Muslim & Arab coded people & culture, women and their agency. What it says about racial “purity” is very Alt-Right. I wrote about forced sterilization at our southern border and this eugenics argument is among other things Villeneuve needs to address in his retelling.
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Plus. In today’s Anti-Asian climate making the only Asian character in the film, a traitor isn’t a good look.
The stars and director of Dune talk about the film’s universal themes and why they will resonate with all audiences, and the importance of Denis Villeneuve to the success of the sci-fi epic.
Villeneuve, if given the opportunity to continue his story, must show us on screen the modernization not just tell us in the press junket what he was trying to convey. How can Villeneuve both honor & contemporize the source material as he claims to?
The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. — Frank Herbert, ‘Dune’.
In the novel and the film, Paul is plagued by precognitive dreams. He sees all his possible futures. This genetic ability is triggered by the spice.
During the film, in one possible future, Paul is befriended and taught Fremen ways by an older warrior, Janis. But, as their actual meeting plays out, Janis challenges Paul’s mother and Paul champions her. He kills Janis in the duel. Janis ironically teaches Paul the way of the Fremen, but not in the way he had expected.
In the book. Paul’s relationship with Janis & his family is an important step in his assimilation with the Sietch, the Fremen term for a community or village. Jamis’ death bought Paul his sietch name, Usul, and made him one of the Ichwan Bedwine
with the manhood name of Paul-Muad’Dib. It was for Jamis that Paul ‘Gave water to the dead’, shedding a tear at his unnecessary death.
What about Janis’ widow, Harah who by rights is now Paul’s wife? Befitting a man of his standing, Jamis was given a full ritual funeral. Paul received Jamis’ water, as was the custom, and inherited his yali, or possessions (excluding the funeral gifts). How will Villeneuve navigate this conflux of gender equality and cultural awareness? Will he choose to address it at all?
It’s Fremen custom Paul bears responsibility to Janis’ surviving family. He killed Janis in personal combat so he becomes responsible to be the head of Janis household, and seeing his worldly possessions distributed throughout the tribe. Will they jettison or embrace this potentially sticky situation of Paul adopting and raising the sons of Janis? In the book, they grow to accept Paul.
There are nuances of the gender-bending of Liet Kynes, in the book, Chani is the daughter of Imperial Planetologist Liet-Kynes his Fremen wife Faroula, and later the mother of the twins Ghanima and Leto II Atreides.
How will this part of her background be updated? Or was it just stunt casting? Is Chani only there as a plot device or will she grow to become the vital partner she was in the book?
There is a vision of Paul & Chani both overlooking his ancestral home on Planet Caladan reviewing fanatical troops below. How will this all play out?
Will he continue to shrug and accept total war as inevitable? There is clearly a macroscopic view that I feel will span far past a trilogy of films or a season on HBO MAX.
Just as individuals are born, mature, breed, and die, so do societies and civilizations and governments. — Muad’Dib, ‘Dune’.
What Villeneuve and the company created has the potential to be both culturally relevant and THE next Game of Thrones level hit for the struggling HBO MAX streaming service. Employing many women of all ages and a robust, diverse cast. On this level of storytelling, with the important topics barely scratched, Dune deserves nothing less than a series.
With some of the problems I outlined addressed, this story would be a no-brainer hit AND be conscious to rectify the white savior narrative that remains dominant in the industry. Otherwise, why retell this story? Who is this for?
Herbert had much to say about colonialism, feminism, theocracy and patriarchy. What will be embraced by Villeneuve? What will be rejected? What new take will he uncover through this retelling?
The length and depth of a series could allow the entire cast to live in their performances and allow us to see the cultural growth promised, yet to be delivered by the filmmakers.
Villeneuve could settle quite comfortably for “Dances with Worms” and count his money. But, if he walks his talk about raising consciousness and shifting the paradigm of the troubling views this work is based upon. I hope he strives to do more.
Say what you will about Villeneuve making the film he wanted to make and dismissing my concerns about diversity and representation, however, movies are a volume business. It cost $165 million to make Dune (2021) not including promotion. HBO is leaving plenty of money on the table with such a backwards-looking franchise. Inclusion isn’t only the right thing to do, it puts butts into seats.
I remain curious how much Villeneuve will challenge the status quo in this rich continuing story or is this all Oscar bait to yet again only go as far as to dip into the “white savior” well?
Only Shai-Hulud knows.
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