This week I saw the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune.
You’ve probably seen the glowing recommendations. I’ll confirm that the movie is very good, a visually stunning experience. I certainly think it cements Villeneuve’s adaptation as the definitive cinematic treatment of Frank Herbert’s novel. I recommend seeing it, although it’s worth first watching Part One again if you haven’t seen it in a while. Part Two takes off immediately from where it leaves off.
As I noted when reviewing the first part, it adapts Frank Herbert’s far future story of the rise of a new religion. This is a universe where AI has long been banned, requiring that humans develop in new ways to compensate. It’s led to a feudal interstellar civilization, but one with specialty societies of people with various superhuman capabilities, each with their own agendas.
The movie ends up focusing a lot on the Bene Gesserit “witches”, their political manipulations behind the scenes, and their long term plan to breed a Kwisatz Hederach, a male who would have the same powers they do, but see more than they can. One of their members does something she’s not supposed to, which leads to the Kwisatz Hederach arriving a generation early. The first movie establishes how the Bene Gesserit paved the way on Dune for a religious messiah to be expected. In this one, we watch as Paul Atreides and his mother make use of that preparation.
The movie, like the book, starts off inviting us to see this as a hero’s journey. It’s made explicit with the portrayal of the Harkonnen family, the Atreides’ bitter enemies, as villainous in a fairly comic book fashion. Their home world and society come off as a high tech version of Mordor. But Herbert’s portrayal of this story is pretty nuanced in the first book, making clear that there are many dark aspects to what’s happening even on the “hero” side, something Herbert became more explicit about in subsequent books in the series.
The movie front loads some of this. So we watch as Jessica, Paul’s mother, becomes radicalized after drinking the “water of life” and paves the way for her son to become exactly what the most fundamentalist factions among the Fremen are expecting. Paul is initially resistant, because he can foresee what will happen, a holy war that will kill billions. In the end, he’s forced onto the path, and ends up drinking the water of life himself, something that usually is fatal to males. He emerges as a changed man.
The movie does diverge from the book in a number of ways, some of which are cool and I won’t spoil. But a pretty big one is Chani’s skepticism, despite her love for Paul. She ends up giving voice to the unease we in the audience are feeling as we watch the story unfold.
All of which sets the stage for Dune Messiah, the second book which Denis Villeneuve hopes to eventually adapt into a third movie. I think it does this better than the book did. (Although it’s been decades since I read the first book and my memory is hazy, so I may not be remembering all the foreshadowing Herbert put in.)
So definitely a movie worth checking out. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll definitely enjoy this one. (If you didn’t enjoy the first one, then be aware this movie doubles down on the weirdness.)
Have you seen it? If so, what did you think?
https://selfawarepatterns.com/2024/03/09/dune-part-two/
#Dune #philosophicalFiction #ScienceFiction
