Dune: Part One (2021)

I’d like to call myself a Dune fan, but I am not. I have finished my Dune adventure on Heretics and only now am I planning to finish the saga¹ Though, I think this still puts me well above most people calling themselves fans now. I loved eveything I’ve read, but I have never reached the end.

Dune: Part 1 is the second movie based on the 1956 Frank Herbert’s classic SciFi epic. Well, it is not. It is the third attempt to show the first half of the book. There was the David Lynch verion (which I adore) and there was a TV Series. There were also games, but only two of those have any resemblance to the plot of the book. So yeah, Dune was considered impossible to transfer to any other medium. Sadly, I still have to agree.

I think everybody (and their dogs) know what Dune is about but: Dune is a story of distant future, where all powerful houses rule the known universe. The technological progress was halted thousands of years ago, after a thinking machines raged a war against humanity. After their defeat it was forbidden to create such machines. Arrakis (aka Dune) is a sand planet, the only known source of Spice - a narcotic allowing humans to traverse time, and therefore spaceflight. Spaceships are operated by mutated humans, who after exposure to Spice can see into the future and steer the ships. Now, the Emperor orders the control of the planet to be shifted to th House of Atreides. The previous stewards, House of Harkonen will not make it any easier.

Ignoring the mutants, this sounds like a run-of-the-mill SF series. But Dune It is also story of social engineering spanning millennia, of false prophets, and a million other crazy things. The first book keeps it almost sane, but there is a significant dictionary attached, and the first time reader will need to use it extensively. Later the saga goes completely off the rails. We’ll get back to this.

Note, that Frank Herbert wrote only the first few books. After his death, his son - Brian Herbet took over and wrote dozens of other ones. The quality differs significantly, as I’ve been told. I’ve read the Houses trilogy, and it was quite nice.

Now that we’ve got the introduction out of the way, let’s go to the movie. Let me start with saying that I adore it. It’s not what I’d want (as the young vloggers say “hear me out face value it’s as close to perfect SF movie as they go.

Dune: Part 1 is directed by Denis Vileneuve, who previously directed some of the greatest SF movies of this century - Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. His other movies are also amazing (I can’t recommend Enemy enough), so I was pretty stoked when it was announced that he will direct Dune. I am no longer a movie buff², but he may very well be my favorite living director.

Technically, I can not find any fault with the movie. The story makes sense (I’ll return to Lynch in a second), which by itself is an achievement. The acting is superb, and works as a reminder that TV series are still not on the level of the greatest movies. The special effects are astounding³. The music is, for the most part, at least great. I hated the main theme with screaming lady. Music is supposed to work with the movie, not to hide it with loud noises! But that’s the only thing I disliked.

I loved the tempo of this movie, as I never enjoyed action-packed shoot fests of the other franchise dominating cinema for decades. Everything is slow - the actors speak slowly, the scene have time to breath, the camera is moving on a low gear. Even things fall down slowly! This adds an amazing dream-like feeling to most scenes. Sometimes I felt like I’m watching a Tarkovsky movie and not a big budget Hollywood blockbuster.

And this the greatest and worst thing here. It’s meditative. You feel like yoy are in a trance. You fully buy accept you see here.

But the world of Dune is weird. It is full of things that make you go “huh?”. It has mutants who traverse time, but it also got mutants who are computers. There are reanimated corpses, living furniture, hollow planets, vision quests. Denis omitted everything that was not essential to the plot, and what he left, he grounded in reality by omitting the wtf. There are not even the crazy names! Some strange things he left, but they are shown without explanation. It’s just there, without any context. But, to be fair - context would only add confusion.

But this is where Lynchs version shines. It makes little sense, it is rushed - sure. But it conveys how twisted the world is. It’s not a trace, it’s a full on narcotic trip straight out of some hippie story.

And this is why I don’t think that this movie is a great adaptation of Dune. It is a great movie on its own. It perfectly adapts the adaptable and pretends that there is nothing else. It makes Dune: Part 1 the hit that it is, and it allowed us to get Part 2. But since making this move appeal to mass audience is not my problem, I’d like to see the full picture.

It’d also like to see the world less cold. The architecture is devoid of heart, it’s brutalistic. It looks amazing (I think I mentioned that), but the crazy colors and abstract layouts we see in Lynch version is something else. It’s a Vileneuve style. It looks exactly like his previous movies - it’s controlled, clean, cold. As much as I loved it in his other works, I’m not sure if it fits the degenerate houses we meet.

But that’s just me. As it stands, this is a groundbreaking movie which makes me want more. Not only more of Dune but more of serious, intelligent SciFi movies. We had those and may get more!

It’s better in any conceivable way compared to all previous attempts at adapting the source material, and I think all my nitpicks are kina moot. It fits 2024 esthetic and it’s crazy intelligent.

Highest recommendation from me. 4.75/4

And, hey! Sardukars no longer look like welders!