Dune!

I just saw Dune at Movie Tavern in Brookfield, and I'm happy to report that all the hype was worth it, for once.

This is no mere repeat of what was done before. This isn't something strictly true to the book, either. This is a project of love which takes some radical departures.

As in earlier versions, Paul's dreams take a central part in the opening. Unlike other versions, the Reverend Mother doesn't put Paul's hand in the infamous box right away. That event happens long after Paul has his introspective dialogues with his father's captains, and he finally resigns himself to his fate on a different planet.

Almost no attention is paid to the navigators or the folding of space. So many other sci fi franchises have paid attention to the mechanics of how world A reaches world B that audiences have become inured to it, and Denis Villeneuve understands that. So, he skips it entirely. The Navigators are interesting, and their mutatious past adds mystery, but they have no place in this movie. At least, not part 1.

Or, as my wife put it, "Didn't the other movie have some sort of weird creature inside a giant tank?"

There are other languages featured in this version. The Fremen native tongue, for example, goes beyond merely a word here or a phrase there. There is some sort of ancient Caladan language which Dr. Yueh speaks to Paul just before his ordeal with the Reverend Mother. And a series of sign-language hand-signals, not featured in the Dune series until book #2, is a prominent feature of this movie from the very beginning. David Lynch tried to insert a character's thoughts into the film with a voice-over effect. In this version, private thoughts are expressed in a native language, muttered aside, usually to Paul, as Dr. Keynes does when noting how Paul seems to know Fremen ways as though he were born to them.

Particular attention is paid to the Orange Catholic Bible, another feature found mostly in later Dune books, but which takes center stage in this film. Many people are depicted reading from it in various scenes. Gurney Halleck even quotes from that Bible on a few occasions. But those fans unfamiliar with the later books might wonder what on earth that particular Holy Book might be.

A little bit of the extended Dune books have their material woven in. For example, in a conversation between Paul and his father, Duke Leto, it is pointed out that the Old Duke, Paulus, died in a bullfighting accident. But that little detail isn't described until House Atreides - a novel co-written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Brian Herbert is later credited as one of the executive producers, so it's little mystery how that detail got written in.

Certain pivotal points cannot be avoided, but it is interesting how different writers and directors approach them. For example, in all versions, a tooth filled with poisoned gas is put into the mouth of Duke Leto by Dr. Yueh, the traitor. The Duke later mistakes the face of Piter DeVries for that of the Baron, crushes the tooth, and exhales on the wrong man, killing nearly everyone else in the room, but leaving the Baron intact. In this version, the Baron activates a body shield. So when Duke Leto exhales right in his face, the Baron survives - but sustains significant injury.

In this movie, there is no appearance from either the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, nor his daughter, the loquacious and literary Irulan Corino. Her musings played central roles in all earlier versions, and her father laid out plot exposition rather nicely, but none of that appears here.

There is also no appearance of Rabban's deadly brother, Feyd Rautha. One expects he will make a stark appearance in Part 2, but until then, his absence is conspicuous.

In this version, The Beast, Rabban, is as ruthless as ever, and Dave Bautista plays him beautifully, but he is not the mindless tank-brain of earlier versions. This Rabban appears slightly more calculating, although quite deferential to his ruling uncle, the Baron.

The Baron, for his part, is not so covered with sores, but he is so blubberous that he needs anti-gravity suspensors to move about, often floating through the air as in earlier versions. He is not the near psychotic red-haired spastic played by Kenneth McMillan, nor the hyper-calculating expositor played by Ian McNiece. This Baron is played by Stellan Skarsgard, who exudes a kind of Godfather-esque vibe, giving orders in a tired manner that nevertheless carries impressive force based on the reactions of everyone around him. The novels depict the Harkonnens as being red-haired, but the Baron (like Rabban) has no hair at all. He is very reminiscent of the mob boss character of Cyrus Redblock, featured in Jean-Luc Picard's holodeck adventures as Dixon Hill, but more ghoulish, more macabre, and frequently covered in sweat, grime, or crude oil.

This movie emphasizes the small interactions among the characters rather than the political intrigue behind the trap that is Planet Arakkis. This saves time for the overwhelmingly cool special effects that come later on during the Harkonen attack. A great deal of time was spent in the book and in the SyFy channel version regarding how the Atreides learned about the presence of a traitor, and how speculation regarding who that traitor might be led to mutual suspicion. "So this is how it works," says Alec Newman as Paul. "First they sow the seeds of distrust, and then get us to turn on each other." That deep intrigue was one of the things I loved most about Dune, and with it gone from Villeneuve's version, I found that I missed it. But the movie more than makes up with it with visual excellence.

Paul is more acutely affected by the spice in this iteration of the mythos. While rescuing the crew of a doomed harvester, the Duke suddenly realizes Paul hasn't re-boarded their ornithopter. And why didn't he? Because he breathed a cloud of spice-dust and ended up kneeling in front of the harvester, muttering to himself. Fortunately, Gurney Halleck grabs young Paul and hauls his ass up before a giant worm swallows the harvester whole.

A word simply must be said about the ornithopters. They are described as insect-like in Herbert's novel, and this movie doesn't disappoint. David Lynch's version had a very underwhelming version. So did the SyFy Channel. But this version? The fliers are so dragonfly-like that they blow you away! And in the prolonged fight scenes, more elaborate than any version heretofore, they play a dominant role.

Only one gender-flip has been made among the cast, and that's the character of Dr. Liet Kynes. The Emperor's planetary ecologist does carry some weight, but doesn't seem to have the nearly god-like status that the more masculine versions of Kynes had. On that count, the gender-flip is a disappointment, because what sense is there in making Kynes a god-like figure if we can't have a goddess-like version? Yet Kynes is, in the final analysis, a John the Baptist figure, paving the way for the Mahdi which is to come. One cannot be too disappointed in the depiction of a character which is a precursor rather than the main protagonist.

Paul's visions plague him throughout the film, and it is sometimes difficult to know what is real and what is dream. As events unfold towards a fateful duel between Paul and a Fremen named Jameis, Paul has flashes of a future in which he is stabbed and dies. He seems to even welcome such an outcome, knowing that his survival will mean endless wars to follow. But in the end, he not only beats Jameis, he humiliates him before doing so, putting his throat under the knife a few times and asking him to "yeild." Jameis responds to this with such anger and rage that Paul knows he has no choice but to kill him. And after killing him, the other Fremen hold Paul in at least as much esteem as they held the fallen Jameis, because he bested him in battle.

"This is only the beginning," says Chani, Liet's daughter, as she and the other Fremen lead Paul and his mother, the Lady Jessica, off into the sand.

And so it is! This feels like the rebirth of a great franchise.

Eric

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