There might be spoilers for Dune movies ahead, proceed at your own risk.
I was holding out on seeing Dune Part 2. I wanted to see it at the Airbus IMAX in Chantilly, VA. That’s one of the only reasons I would go to Chantilly of my own volition. Movies have become so bombastic in lieu of artistry that seeing something in IMAX just seems overwhelming, not rewarding. Dune, on the other hand, feels like a movie that needs to be seen in as immersive an experience as possible.
Instead, I bailed on my weekly Dungeons & Dragons game and got the discount movie tickets at Bowtie. Bowtie, our neighborhood cinema, used to have a Criterion Cinema on site. It did not survive the early years of our global pandemic. I am glad I saw it. Dune 2 picks up right where part one left off. There’s no last time on Dune. A brief recap in case you’ve forgotten.
We saw a movie destined for a Criterion edition. Dune Part One set up the traditional hero’s origin. The planet Arrakis is exploited by the Intergalactic empire for melange. Melange, also known as spice, powers the Bene Gesserit, a group of women who have precognition and a variety of other superhuman abilities. Spice is used by the Spacer’s Guild to power intergalactic travel. Spice rules the galaxy.
The Atreides family, headed by Duke Leto (Oscar Issac), are appointed to the planet to manage spice exploitation and to keep the native Freman in check. It’s not hard to see the parallels with the Middle East and the exploitation of oil. Freman are nomadic, deeply religious desert dwellers. They have darker complexions than the outsiders come to Arrakis.
Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) is Leto’s son. Paul is an entitled noble, but is given a sense of duty and justice from his father. Leto is a principled man. Paul is trained by Leto’s retainers. Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), a master swordsman. Gurney Hallack (Josh Brolin), a skilled musician and another sword master. Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson), a mentat and the head of the family’s assassins. And by his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) who is also a Bene Gesserit. Paul gets a comprehensive training.
Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica have fled into the Freman lands after they were betrayed by the Harkonnen family, who originally had dominion over Arrakis before the Atreides family. All their allies are dead, their family is in ruins and they don’t know how they will survive in the inhospitable wasteland that is Arrakis.
The Spice Must Flow
Part two comes out swinging. His story is narrated by Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), daughter of the Emperor (Christopher Walken) and a Bene Gesserit herself. This story is a part of her coming of age.
Paul and his mother are taken in by Stilgar (Javier Bardem), Chani (Zendaya) and the rest of their Freman tribe. There are rumors that Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib, the “Voice from the Outer World.” A prophecy manufactured by the Bene Gesserit telling of a man born from a Bene Gesserit who would lead the Freman and return Arrakis to a beautiful lush world.
Lady Jessica is concerned for Paul, her son seems to be consumed by revenge. That is not what his father would want from him. Paul is not his father, he informs her. The first cracks in the hero start to form.
Paul spends the first half of the movie integrating with the Freman. Falling in love with Chani as they push back against the Harkonnen’s and destroy their spice production. We also learn that the southern tribes of Freman are religious fanatics, number in the millions and are hidden away by a massive sandstorm. They can only be reached on the back of Shai Hulud, the massive sandworms that create the spice and patrol the desert.
The younger Freman don’t believe in religion. They are skeptical of a prophet, especially one that the Bene Gesserit promise them, and believe that Arrakis should be ruled by and for Freman. Paul manages to integrate with the tribe, earning the name Usul, which means strength. He takes the name Muab-dib after a desert mouse.
Every step of the way, Paul is fulfilling a prophecy. From riding the back of a sandworm to becoming a fierce Freman warrior, Stilgar proclaims each box being checked by the young Atreides. Paul is also coming to see himself as a Freman, not an outsider. He is one of them, in his mind.
While Paul is becoming the hero of legend, his mother is doing her part as well.
Lady Jessica is pregnant, but that information has not been disclosed. The Freman have a Reverend Mother, the highest ranking of Bene Gesserit, and she is dying. Lady Jessica is isolated by Stilgar and informed that she must take over or be cast into the desert to die. One step of the prophecy requires that Lisan al-Gaib be the child of a Reverend Mother after all.
The process requires her to drink the water of life. It is fatal to men and those who are untrained. She should have died, but as is prophesized, she survives. A miracle! Except, as Paul tells the Freman, Lady Jessica learned to transmutate as a part of her training. She can change the poison and survive. The prophecy is written in such a way that the Bene Gesserit can control the outcome, much like they can control the sex of a child before birth.
Lady Jessica’s pregnancy also comes to light during the ritual, to the great horror of the previous Reverend Mother. Alia, her unborn daughter, is also given the powers from the Water of Life and can speak with her mother telepathically. She believes it is their duty to ensure that Paul brings peace to the galaxy by taking up his mantle as the Lisan al-Gaib and the Kwisatz Haderach. A Bene Gesserit messiah meant to control the entire universe.
She heads to the southern tribes to spread the gospel of Paul. The same Paul who has been having troubling visions. If he heads to the southern tribes, billions will die. He is just a pawn. He has no desire to lead, he just wants to return Dune (the original name of Arrakis) to the Freman and get his revenge on the Harkonnen family. He seeks the council of Stilgar and pushes even further into Harkonnen territory. Bigger and bolder plans succeed. A response is brewing.
Chani sees Paul. His passion. His drive. His genuine care for the Freman. His feelings for her. How he rejects the prophecy in pursuit of the important issues. She listens when he grapples with the decision to move south. She also is silenced anytime the messiah moments happen. She is cast to the side and minimized for speaking the truth, protected by Paul’s closest allies because they know how much they mean to each other. She believes in Paul and his desire to do the right thing.
Fascist Fantasies Come To Life
The movie strips away some of the grimier details of the books. Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) is a brutal dictator still, but his predilection for young boys is removed. The homophobic undertones now gone, his casual cruelty and greed are allowed to take center stage. He’s a lazy, power hungry leech. He rules through fear and power.
Denis Villeneuve washes out the color when he shows the Harkonnen. It is a black and white world, they are good. Their enemies are evil. There’s no room for nuance in their world. The Freman are rats and anytime someone tries to humanize them we are reminded that they are subhuman. They are roadblocks to progress and nothing more. They must be exterminated like the rats they are.
They are albinos draped in vintage Nazi/fascist aesthetic. They are white supremacists who rule with spectacle and power. Frustrated with his nephew Rabban’s (Dave Bautista) failures on Arrakis, Baron Harkonnen calls upon his other nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to get Arrakis under control. Feyd-Rautha is sadistic. He kills his servants when he’s done with them. He wins fights in the arena by drugging his starved opponents. He also uses superior tech. They never have a chance.
He’s a candidate for the Kwisatz Haderach. He’s the failsafe in case Paul doesn’t succeed. The Bene Gesserit must always win, you see.
Princess Irulan serves as an audience insert throughout the film, piecing together the manipulations and machinations. She sees that her father’s rule is over and is forced with a choice on how to proceed. Feyd-Rautha’s cruelty manifests in an attack on a Freman civilian center that also was home to a religious site. The Freman armies are forced to retreat and Paul is left with a decision.
Does he continue to wage his war of revenge by going south and fulfilling another piece of the prophecy or does he walk away saving the lives of billions? Paul, at this point, is capable of surviving in the desert. He and Chani could have a life in the north, he could rebuke his “destiny.” It’s at this point, Adrianne leaned over and asked “Is Paul a bad guy?”
And from here, the moving pieces come to a head.
Adapting the “Unfilmable”
What Villeneuve has accomplished is nothing short of amazing. Over two films and 5 plus hours, he took a dense, sprawling epic and hit the major story notes while still keeping the important themes intact.
Paul is the ultimate white savior. He integrates with the native people, he learns their customs and ways. He knows his prophecy is nonsense. He still goes along with the nuclear option because it allows him a pathway to revenge. He sees using his status as a means to an end, whenever he’s achieved his goal he can move on.
Chani finds herself swept up in Paul. He is charismatic. He is learning the way of her people. He genuinely cares for her and her friends. He openly decries the prophecy and explains the manipulation. He is an ALLY. And a great fighter. He is fighting with them and for them. He hates the Harkonnen as much as any Freman. She loves him because he’s nothing like he’s supposed to be.
The Bene Gesserit stand in for organized religion, always working in the background to facilitate control. They are Islam and the Catholic Church. They rely on faith in miracles they manufacture. They exist in every culture and are always trusted advisors.
Harkonnen employees might know what they are doing is wrong, but they still fall in line. The Harkonnens themselves care for little beyond staying in control. They create their own narrative about the Freman to recruit allies into war on Arrakis. They are always the hero, it’s hard not to see parallels to the current United States in their presentation.
The Freman story is very dense. We see the impact of religious fanaticism and what would drive one to that. The power of propaganda, how can Paul not be their religious hero when he is checking boxes that he should be able to check with his background? The radicalizing effect of attacks on vulnerable people. It’s hard not to draw parallels to the ongoing situation in Gaza.
Stilgar forces the issue anytime Paul might not hit one of the Lisan al-Gaib benchmarks. In part because he wants the influence. In part because he really wants the promised land that Paul could bring, the desert turned lush once again. He knows his role in this story, but also finds himself in awe of Paul.
Princess Irulan is forced to a reckoning throughout the film. Where she believes in her father, her empire and her religion, she sees that none of them are what she was taught. They always have a choice. Taking your place in history comes with a cost.
People in this story make decisions knowing the outcome. Knowing the ramifications. Also, knowing sometimes there’s not another viable choice if they want to keep people in their lives safe. We see the people held up as heroes making self-serving decisions they know are wrong.
We all know where this story is going to end before it gets there, but it doesn’t make the ending any easier to watch.