DUNE
***
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, based on the eponymous novel by Frank Herbert.
Principal cast:
Timothée Chalamet
Rebecca Ferguson
Zendaya
Oscar Isaac
Jason Momoa
Stellan Skarsgård
Country: USA/Canada
Classification: M
Runtime: 155 mins.
Australian release date: 2 December 2021.
Frank Herbert’s modern-day classic, 1965 science-fiction novel Dune, is like a cinematic elephants’ graveyard; it’s where great filmmakers go, if not to die, to stumble and lose their footing. Directors of the stature of Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch have lost their way in the sands of Arrakis and now, regrettably, Denis Villeneuve has joined their ranks - sort of - with his cinematic version of Herbert’s book. While Dune is undeniably ‘big’ in its ambition, its vision, its artistic and production values, it doesn’t quite match up in the script department. While there are important themes under consideration (the struggle between good intentions and evil ones that play out when empires expand and contract and the human toll and shifting alliances that occur when these great contests take place), the problem is that we, the viewers, always seem to be watching from afar – we are not drawn in emotionally and, thus, the events happening on screen don’t resonate within us at a deeper level. It looks great but… In Villeneuve movies like Incendies, Sicario and Blade Runner 2049, you cared about the fate of the protagonists but in Dune, not so much. You are slightly removed from that consideration, which might be because the story we are witnessing is so drawn out that, when we finally get to the end, we learn that it’s not really the end at all, it’s the middle, and part two won’t be released until October 2023! That’s a long time between drinks.
It’s the year 10191 and the leader of the House of Atreides, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) of the planet Caladan, is made an offer that he can’t refuse: the emperor orders him and his clan to take over the mining of the precious element ‘spice’ on the inhospitable planet Arrakis. The current miners, the Harkonnens (led by Stellan Skasgård), are none too pleased to give up the rights to the highly valuable ‘spice’ because it has made them unbelievably wealthy but they can do little else but agree to quit the planet. Once on Arrakis, however, the duke and his son and heir Paul (Timothée Chalamet) quickly realise that they have been set up and Baron Harkonnen and his clan are not giving up their claim easily. Paul, meanwhile, has been having dreams about Arrakis and its indigenous race, the Fremen and, in particular, about a blue-eyed girl (Zendaya). He has been brought up by his mother, Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson), to believe that “dreams are messages from the deep”, so he is convinced that they are prophetic in some way that he is unable to comprehend. He is also receiving intimations that he is destined for something great, that he has been ‘chosen’ in some way but, for what exactly, remains a mystery. Could the girl be part of his destiny?
Dune is superbly crafted and Villeneuve deserves credit for the sheer scale of the project. Filmed in Jordan, Norway, Abu Dhabi and Hungary by Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser, it looks fantastic; in the Arrakis scenes, you can almost feel the sand in your mouth. The costumes and production design are extremely detailed, albeit with a somewhat Arthurian, medieval look. If you can build spaceships that fly and look like dragonflies, wouldn’t you develop a personal protection weapon that was a bit more sophisticated than a sword? The score/soundscape created by Hans Zimmer is loud and appropriately otherworldly but the sound design is muddy in places and occasionally indistinct. Performances are good all round although Chalamet spends a lot of time moping about under a fringe of hair that he keeps having to push away from his eyes and Ferguson is too young to play his mother; in real life, she’s only 12 years older than he is and, without the addition of makeup to age her, she looks more like Paul’s sister than his mum.
French-Canadian director Villeneuve states, “To me, Dune is a psychological thriller, an adventure, a war movie, a coming-of-age movie. It’s even a love story. There’s a reason the book stayed on my shelf, beside my bed, all those years.” And he is correct - it is all those things, plus a great many more - which is why, perhaps, Dune is better read than seen. When you’re dealing with great books incorporating epic tales, sometimes the pictures in your head are better that the ones somebody else contrives for the screen.
Screenwriters: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, based on the eponymous novel by Frank Herbert.
Principal cast:
Timothée Chalamet
Rebecca Ferguson
Zendaya
Oscar Isaac
Jason Momoa
Stellan Skarsgård
Country: USA/Canada
Classification: M
Runtime: 155 mins.
Australian release date: 2 December 2021.
Frank Herbert’s modern-day classic, 1965 science-fiction novel Dune, is like a cinematic elephants’ graveyard; it’s where great filmmakers go, if not to die, to stumble and lose their footing. Directors of the stature of Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch have lost their way in the sands of Arrakis and now, regrettably, Denis Villeneuve has joined their ranks - sort of - with his cinematic version of Herbert’s book. While Dune is undeniably ‘big’ in its ambition, its vision, its artistic and production values, it doesn’t quite match up in the script department. While there are important themes under consideration (the struggle between good intentions and evil ones that play out when empires expand and contract and the human toll and shifting alliances that occur when these great contests take place), the problem is that we, the viewers, always seem to be watching from afar – we are not drawn in emotionally and, thus, the events happening on screen don’t resonate within us at a deeper level. It looks great but… In Villeneuve movies like Incendies, Sicario and Blade Runner 2049, you cared about the fate of the protagonists but in Dune, not so much. You are slightly removed from that consideration, which might be because the story we are witnessing is so drawn out that, when we finally get to the end, we learn that it’s not really the end at all, it’s the middle, and part two won’t be released until October 2023! That’s a long time between drinks.
It’s the year 10191 and the leader of the House of Atreides, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) of the planet Caladan, is made an offer that he can’t refuse: the emperor orders him and his clan to take over the mining of the precious element ‘spice’ on the inhospitable planet Arrakis. The current miners, the Harkonnens (led by Stellan Skasgård), are none too pleased to give up the rights to the highly valuable ‘spice’ because it has made them unbelievably wealthy but they can do little else but agree to quit the planet. Once on Arrakis, however, the duke and his son and heir Paul (Timothée Chalamet) quickly realise that they have been set up and Baron Harkonnen and his clan are not giving up their claim easily. Paul, meanwhile, has been having dreams about Arrakis and its indigenous race, the Fremen and, in particular, about a blue-eyed girl (Zendaya). He has been brought up by his mother, Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson), to believe that “dreams are messages from the deep”, so he is convinced that they are prophetic in some way that he is unable to comprehend. He is also receiving intimations that he is destined for something great, that he has been ‘chosen’ in some way but, for what exactly, remains a mystery. Could the girl be part of his destiny?
Dune is superbly crafted and Villeneuve deserves credit for the sheer scale of the project. Filmed in Jordan, Norway, Abu Dhabi and Hungary by Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser, it looks fantastic; in the Arrakis scenes, you can almost feel the sand in your mouth. The costumes and production design are extremely detailed, albeit with a somewhat Arthurian, medieval look. If you can build spaceships that fly and look like dragonflies, wouldn’t you develop a personal protection weapon that was a bit more sophisticated than a sword? The score/soundscape created by Hans Zimmer is loud and appropriately otherworldly but the sound design is muddy in places and occasionally indistinct. Performances are good all round although Chalamet spends a lot of time moping about under a fringe of hair that he keeps having to push away from his eyes and Ferguson is too young to play his mother; in real life, she’s only 12 years older than he is and, without the addition of makeup to age her, she looks more like Paul’s sister than his mum.
French-Canadian director Villeneuve states, “To me, Dune is a psychological thriller, an adventure, a war movie, a coming-of-age movie. It’s even a love story. There’s a reason the book stayed on my shelf, beside my bed, all those years.” And he is correct - it is all those things, plus a great many more - which is why, perhaps, Dune is better read than seen. When you’re dealing with great books incorporating epic tales, sometimes the pictures in your head are better that the ones somebody else contrives for the screen.
