Know then that it is the year 2024, and not only is it exactly forty years since the release of David Lynch’s admirable but unsuccessful adaptation, we have now finally returned to Denis Villeneuve’s vision of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune in the latest chapter of his adaptation. The film covers more or less the second half of the novel, with the official title being Dune: Part Two. Now it could be of special interest to note that in the time between the two films I have finally made the commitment to actually read the book. This led to an interesting discussion I had with a friend of mine that was at the same screening as me, and I think it comes down to the two of us having very different ideas about what a good adaptation should do. But I will save that discussion for later on in the review. Let us first dive into the meatier aspects of the film, which is the story.
The film begins with a brief overview over the events of the last film, but it’s done in such a way that it fills in enough of the blanks for newcomers who haven’t seen the first film must feel obligated to watch it ahead of this one. Although I can’t really understand why someone wouldn’t watch the first film ahead of this because it truly enriches the experience of Part Two. Nevertheless, the film more or less picks up where the first one left off. House Atreides has fallen, and the Harkonnens have regained control over Arrakis and spice production, restoring their original wealth and status along the Landsraad. They were secretly assisted by Shaddam IV, the emperor of the Known Universe. He’s played by Christopher Walken, and alongside him is his daughter Irulan, played by Florence Pugh. Unfortunately for them (and indeed for everyone else), two key members of the House Atreides, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), have escaped the massacre and are now fleeing with the Fremen. Here, Paul’s ascension as a prophetic messiah, the Lisan al Gaib, begins to take root among the religious Fremen with the help of centuries of intrigue and plotting from the Bene Gesserit sisterhood of which Jessica is part of. Soon, the Fremen’s guerilla warfare leads to a confrontation between Paul and the heir to the house Harkonnen, the psychopathic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler).
That is the gist of the story, but of course, being Dune, there is much more going on. But unlike the second half of the David Lynch version, there is no rush to the finale this time around. Villeneuve maintains the masterful pacing he displayed in the first film. Throughout his work he has demonstrated that he understands the need for a film to move along at a certain pace to make it engaging for us in the audience. And it is of a special level of importance when you’re dealing with a nearly three hour long film such as Dune: Part Two. Credit must be given to editor Joe Walker, who has a knack for working with auteurs with a keen understanding of form, style and pacing, and consequently can help out making what could be slow meditative films maintain momentum when they need to. Good pacing is essential to good filmmaking, and that is found aplenty in Dune: Part Two. You will not feel the three hours by the time it’s over.
Joe Walker isn’t the only returning collaborator to bring added depth to the scope of Villeneuve’s vision. Cinematographer Greig Fraser and composer Hans Zimmer are back to bring their respective talents to the table. Fraser maintains the same visual style that he developed with Villeneuve in the first film with his stark imagery and compositions. But he also finds moments to jazz things up with different color temperatures in some of the Arrakis scenes, particularly the opening action scene. And our return to the Harkonnen home planet of Giedi Prime offers plenty of new and exciting visuals whilst also finding Villeneuve and Fraser playing with black-and-white and even infrared cameras, making some of the shots on Giedi Prime reminiscent of Nazi propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
Someone else who offers up more to the table this time is Hans Zimmer. Whilst bringing back some of the themes from the first film, there is an added aggressiveness to some of the pieces, befitting the film’s more action-oriented approach and the darkness of the overall story. But he also introduces us to some fine new pieces, including a more romantic piece to accompany the scenes between Paul and Chani (Zendaya) of the Fremen people. Some of the pieces are eerily reminiscent of his and Lisa Gerrard’s Gladiator score, but in a way that works for the film musically.
On the subject of Paul and Chani this could be a good moment to bring us back to the discussion me and my friend was having after the film was over. He brought up the fact that there were a number of key characters missing from the book. Not only does Atreides mentat Thufir Hawat (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson in the first film) not return, the character of Alia, Paul’s sister, appears only via voice-over and a ten second appearance from Anya Taylor-Joy in a flashforward, and Paul and Chani’s son Leto who is murdered is nowhere to be seen. This could be because the film skips the four-year time jump that is present in the book. I remembered all of this and more (and additional subplots from the book absent in the film), but I honestly wasn’t that aware or bothered by any of these differences as I was watching it or thinking about the film in the days since.
What Villeneuve is more focused on, to my eyes, is the core of what Herbert was trying to say in the book, which is to not blindly follow charismatic leaders or prophecies, as such prophecies are merely further tools of imperialism and oppression, and the charismatic leader can persuade a nation to go to war and kill millions of people in the process. With the rise of far-right populism throughout the world and war in the Ukraine and Palestine, often at the hands of populist leaders or so-called “just causes”, it feels safe to say that Herbert’s warning remains as relevant as when he wrote the story in the 60s. That is what is brilliant about the original story, and that I think trumps any other aspects of the narrative for me. If I wanted all of those missing characters along with their intrigue and motivations, then I would simply reread the novel. What Villeneuve and co-writer Jon Spaiths have done is transfer that essence of Herbert into cinematic terms. Sometimes simplified yes, but simplified in a manner that works as a cinematic experience as opposed to an audiovisual book.
I will have to read Dune Messiah, the sequel novel written by Herbert, as Denis has stated his desire to adapt this novel as the third part of a cinematic trilogy. It may have taken two movies to do the original behemoth of a novel justice, but I suspect Dune Messiah can be done fairly succinctly in one movie given the book’s mere 300 page length, as opposed to the original’s near 600. This will not have a happy ending, but a happy ending is not one befitting of Arrakis. This is an intergalactic tragedy, on a scale that can be summed up in one word: breathtaking.
A Fistful of Film 