“A great man doesn’t seek to lead; he is called to it,” Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) says somberly to his son Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), in Denis Villeneuve’s dynastic epic space odyssey “Dune.” The Duke speaks to duty, purpose, and destiny, but the words are laced with burden and uncertainty for Paul, seemingly undecided about his future. When Villeneuve (“Sicario,” “Prisoners”) once spoke about making “Dune” as a “’Star Wars’ for adults,” he wasn’t kidding. His solemn, grandly ambitious, and epic film about chosen ones and messiahs is awe-inspiring in scale but not at all entertaining in the traditional sense. It’s an arthouse blockbuster in the vein of his “Blade Runner 2049,” but even less concerned with commercial appeal, which is admirably bold. Brooding and hypnotic, though packed with tension, kinetic danger, and action too, it may not be the fully accessible franchise Warner Bros. might be hoping for, but it’s artistic and deeply captivating nonetheless.
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Thankfully, “Dune” isn’t particularly hard to follow, but it is very involved, with many characters, sprawling in shape, and difficult to explain (you’ll see). Essentially, it’s an imposing space opera about feudal interstellar empires battling for control of the mélange, aka “the Spice”—a magical and addictive resource that allows people to see the future, travel through space, and is the single most powerful and treasured element in the universe. It’s sci-fi on the surface, but it’s also mystical, a mix of the spiritual, the political, historical, and the cultural. Arguably all things that “Star Wars” features too, but just much more dense, sophisticated, and less child-like. Two houses, noble and ignoble, wrestle for power, the great Houses of Atreides and Harkonnen, one being honorable, one being rather ignominious and malevolent, to put it politely.
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The spice is harvested on the planet Arrakis, and of course, caught in the middle of it all, is the indigenous human civilization called the Fremen, who have been so oppressed and invaded, they’ve evolved over the years, having learned to survive and thrive on the inhospitable and austere deserts of Arrakis, teeming with perilous and massive sandworms. The spice should be rightly theirs, but they have watched interlopers take over their lands over the centuries, which should echo with anyone who’s ever read anything about MENA and Palestinian history.
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“Dune” begins in earnest when House Atreides accepts the stewardship of Arrakis, otherwise known as Dune, at the behest of the Emperor. After serving as caretaker of the planet Caladan for 20 years, Leto is politically savvy, fair, compassionate, and feels like the perfect honorable leader, but he tends always to see the best in people, and this leaves him vulnerable to deception (though much of this texture from the books is subtle and lost, the movie only having a few minutes to establish each character). And there’s plenty of duplicity lurking in the shadows of the various religions, cults, and political backchanneling intrigue going on in the Dune cosmos.
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In short, House Atreides is set up to fail in an intricate trap, adopting a derelict and decrepit system from the former rulers of Arrakis, House Harkonnen (represented by nasty, fat sack pustule played by Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his right hand many played by David Dastmalchian). The scheme, conspired by the Emperor, Harkonnen, and the savage Sardaukar military force, is essentially to force a vote of no confidence when Atreides fails to harvest the spice properly, which the entire universe is dependent on. But really, it’s more just an assault and occupation, as Atreides barely has a moment to start production (much of this predicament, the failure, and political transition to control Arrakis is deeply compressed for time).
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Before the invasion starts—a brutal, entrancing, and monumental spectacle to experience—that takes House Atreides by surprise, leaving them crippled and helplessly overwhelmed, “Dune” sets up two major subplots. One is the story of the Fremen (represented by Javier Bardem, and later Zendaya), who wants nothing to do with the Atreides clan, even as they try and broker peace. The second is the Bene Gesserit, a critical social, religious, and political force, but essentially witches with telekinetic powers. The latter element involves the concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Duke Leto’s courtesan, and the mother of Paul Atreides (Chalamet). Cutting to the chase, Paul Atreides is half Bene Gesserit, half-human, and possesses some of the powers bestowed to him by his mother, but he has yet to master them, as shown in the merciless, vicious annexation of Arrakis by the axis of space, evil (Harroken, etc.)
More importantly, he is rumored to be a potential messiah and keeps seeing inexplicable, prophetic visions of a young Fremen woman who later turns out to be Chani (Zendaya), who he meets in the unmerciful desert once he has escaped the invasion by the skin of his teeth.
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In watching Villeneuve’s moody, brooding, simmering, and hypnotic“Dune,” it’s easy to see where David Lynch’s 1984 version failed (aside from the filmmaker having the absolutely wrong sensibilities for this kind of thing). Part of the success of this version—also a drawback too—is the early apt decision by Villeneuve and writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth to cleave the book into two movies. This gives the “Dune” time to breathe, meditate in its creepy, expressive, ostentatious worlds, set up its machinations and characters, and, most importantly, build this universe via culture, religion, belief, and political systems. However, it makes for an incomplete story yet unfulfilled. “Dune” definitely ends with an ellipsis, the full story saved for another chapter that will hopefully arrive one day.
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Meant to be Homeric, a mythic hero’s journey, “Dune” is that too, but has to juggle so much more. It’s essentially a three-pronged film: one of world-building and set-up, one of betrayal, and one hinting at the future destiny that lays before young Atreides. The real meal doesn’t really begin until Part Two, and that’s probably one of the minor disappointments of its inconclusive finale.
Aesthetically, “Dune” is pretty damn monumental and enveloping, and for audiences that potentially may find the plot confusing, the film still works on a deeply experiential, visceral level. Composer Hans Zimmer inspires great awe with a booming but atypically Zimmer score, and not one BRAAAM in earshot, thankfully. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is always spectacular, but one has to wonder if the desaturated look the movie features always has to look so drab. To that end, and to bring it back to “Star Wars,” Fraser also shot “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” and much of the visual appearance of “Dune,” for shorthand anyhow, could be described as a less colorful, more sinister, less inviting version of Gareth Edwards’ Jedha city milieu (also modeled after Middle Eastern culture). Accordingly, all the appropriation of MENA culture and very few, if any, MENA representation will be sure to upset some (not even to mention the white savior aspect of Paul’s story). Then again, the Fremen story barely begins in “Dune,” only hinted at and only getting play in the third act.
A complex, byzantine space extravaganza about family rivalries, tribal clashes, social oppression, and ecological disaster, among the still-to-be, explored ideas of transcendence and religion in Part Two, Villeneuve’s “Dune” has much to shoulder before its heroes journey begins. Still, it does about as good as a job as humanly possible given the constraints of time. Those who find Villeneuve to be a self-serious, humorless, and pretentious bore likely won’t be changing their minds anytime soon after “Dune,” but that just might be their loss. Whether Warner Bros. accepts the call to make a sequel in a climate of dismal box-office returns remains to be seen. But that’s not our concern at the moment; “Dune” is undeniably impressive, spellbinding, and evocatively immense, regardless [B+]
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