Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners,” “Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”) longed to adapt the 1965 sci-fi behemoth ever since first becoming awestruck with Frank Herbert’s loaded text as a child.
Though a proper screen translation has oft-been ruled an “impossible undertaking” – especially with the (unfairly) earned ironic prism through which many adore David Lynch’s 1984 box-office bomb that he himself disowned – in 2021, after many delays, a new “Dune” has finally dawned. In fact, “Part One” stands as a triumvirate success – popularly, critically and at the box office ($40 million its opening weekend, even while also streaming on HBO Max). Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. announced through their socials on Tuesday that a sequel was due in theaters only come October 2023.
Most everyone has heard the sales pitch for “Dune” used to convince the unknowing party: “It’s ‘Star Wars’ for adults.” A reputation well deserved, as much of the setup within the novel and its several live-action gestations track as Jedi-adjacency.
Primarily covering what’s paramount within the first half of the novel that influenced George Lucas with the creation of his own industry-shifting force, Villeneuve’s loyal but singular interpretation also expositorily mirrors Lynch’s space exploration – more than fans well-versed would initially assume.
At the same time, a top-of-the-heap Villeneuve, recognizing an audience hooked on nostalgia like the Fremen in “Dune” are on the spice “Melange,” traverses through the obligatory story motions with the confidence of an artist capable of forging his own path through the narrative landscape now at his leisure. He does so, without also proclaiming a desire to outdune his predecessors.
He’s Cream going down to the “Crossroads,” despite Robert Johnson cornering the market there once upon a time; not seeking to supplant, merely to remind one what earlier depictions of the same vast sand dunes brought forth, then expanding upon what they best not forget. And now that the special effect waters contemporary cinemagoers currently surf in have met a high tide worthy of “Dune’s” scope, Villeneuve’s vision especially leans into the IMAX-shot and shown guarantees of today – encouraging an experience of total immersion with no fear of drowning on the viewer’s part.
As per usual, “Dune” jumpstarts matters through the lens of Paul Atreides. Played by Timothée Chalamet in Villeneuve’s “Game of Thrones”-meets Pink Floyd’s-“The Wall”-evoking take, plotlines run through but are not necessarily exclusive to the film’s de facto protagonist – the boyish son of a Duke (Oscar Isaac) and a defiant within the ranks of a secret sisterhood (Rebecca Ferguson). Wars fought for the planet of Arrakis’ precious resource prove greater than any one dreamer – Atreides – who, prophetic as he is, never has one over on the audience quite like Villeneuve allows us to have over him.
Villeneuve had the luxury of working with a King’s ransom of other collaborators on “Dune” as well. Co-writers Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”) and Jon Spaihts (“Doctor Strange”) joined the director in laying the screenplay groundwork for the film, seamlessly fusing the political with the spiritual on each page. These same elements would subsequently burst to life on screen thanks to an ensemble of additional A-talent performative marksman including: Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya, and Stellan Skarsgård as villain Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, an all-around Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando’s “Apocalypse Now” character) tribute.
The most notable crew contribution on “Dune” from someone other than Villeneuve came from composer Hans Zimmer. When the kings of water cooler accosting attempts to citizen arrest you for watching “Dune” at home rather than in theaters, it’s less about the act of seeing the big-in-scale on the biggest of screens than it is about the sound barriers Zimmer’s score breaks en route to putting the ‘opera’ back in “space opera” just as he did in “Interstellar.”
At its worst, “Dune” won’t have the utterly lost plot detectives reeling for too long because of said instances where Villeneuve could take an extended beat if needed and let the conductor take over. As an escapist work, “Dune” provides destination refuge through the juxtaposition of grand imagery cut to grander music for those who don’t mind being swept away on their ways away from their own lives.
With the restraint to refrain from consolidating an otherwise page-turner into a sprawling movie first and film of substance second, Villeneuve bet on himself with 2 hours and 36 minutes of more-or-less base establishment, and it worked. “Dune” scans the nerd and popular herd world over because it’s not just “Star Wars” for adults like the prophecy foretells; it’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” for everybody.
