Dune (2021) Review!

Dune: Part One is epic sci fi cinema with an incredible cast and fantastic visuals!  This is the first part because the original novel was 412 pages.  The film is directed and co-written by Denis Villeneuve who last directed Blade Runner 2049 (2017).  Co-screenwriters include Jon Spaihts, who also wrote The Mummy (2017), and Eric Roth, the writer of the adaptation of A Star Is Born (2018).  It is of course based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert.  

He had written a total of four novels in the series.  His son, Brian Herbert, is executive producer and co-writer of Dune prequel and sequel novels expanding its universe.  The other author with Herbert on the Dune novels is Kevin J. Anderson, creative consultant for the movie.  The first film, Dune (1984) was directed by David Lynch who also wrote the screenplay.  Next, there was a mini-series of Dune (2000), and Children of Dune (2003), which adapted the next books; Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976).  Dune is currently playing in theaters, its epic scope almost requires viewing at large format theaters like IMAX, and also streaming on HBO Max.  


Darkness, there is a strange, metallic voice in Sardukar, “Dreams are messages from the deep.” Sardaukar are the Emperor's elite soldiers that are later seen along with Salusa Secundus, the prison planet.  There is some drums during the studio logos and then some thumping sounds, the thumper is a device that attracts the attention of the sandworms.  The music is by Hans Zimmer who also crafted the otherworldly sounds with Benjamin Wallfisch for Blade Runner 2049.  We get the narration of a woman, Chani (Zendaya) speaking about Arrakis, her homeworld.  Zendaya is currently in the dramatic series, Euphoria.  


This is an interesting beginning because the character of Chani shows up much later, but centers the film on Chani and her people, the Fremen.  There are beautiful vistas of the desert while the thumping continues.  Greig Fraser is the cinematographer, he also worked on 2019 episodes of The Mandalorian and Vice (2018).  Chani notes that you can see spice in the air.  The spice, called melange, is native to Arrakis and becomes a precious commodity that keeps the known universe functioning and heightens awareness, lengthens life, and makes intergalactic travel possible.  Then, there is the massive churning of a spice harvester.  They are landed at night and monitored by the Fremen including Chani. 



We see the offworlders, the Harkonnen, and the black armor is seen of other soldiers. Then, there  is the warrior, Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista), who walks up steps to see the fleet of spice harvesters in rows like beetles.   Bautista played Sapper Morton in Blade Runner 2049.  Here he has a bald head and pale skin common for the Harkonnens.  The Harkonnen soldiers have black, insectoid face plates with their robes.  Out of the sand, the Fremen warriors burst out and stab the offworld soldiers. Several rifles, lasguns, destroy the harvesters.  


Then, explosive shells like flares split apart and detonate at the Harkonnen positions.  Chani and the other Fremen retreat to rocky caves and she notes that the Harkonnens were withdrawn by the Emperor.  Endless rows of Harkonnen soldiers march towards the bay of a massive ship.  As the Harkonnen ships leave Arrakis, Chani wonders about the next occupiers of her world.  This sets up the conflict of the colonizers and the natives.  Next, we find Paul Artreides (Timothée Chalamet) asleep, Chalamet is in the upcoming film, The French Dispatch.  He perfectly captures a young noble caught in a world of deadly machinations.



Paul wakes up troubled by the brief images we see of Chani, the opening captures her character, and also Paul’s connection through the dreams.  A glowglobe hovers over him.  We see in Paul’s room the date, “Year 10191”, the far future.  Then, clouds blanket dark mountains with lightning rippling beneath patches of clouds blanketing “Caladan, Homeworld of House Artreides.”  Paul is at a dining table with his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).  The actress was also in this year’s sci fi movie, Reminiscence.  


This dining room has three circular windows with wooden panels and a bonsai tree.  She tells him to wear full dress for the Emperor’s Herald and tests him to force her to give him a water glass.  Lady Jessica wants him to use the Bene Gesserit technique of The Voice, using vocal tones to manipulate people.  She is part of the Bene Gessert sisterhood that are an ancient order of women that influence events across the galaxy.  Paul’s voice comes out distorted, but he has failed.  Paul is caught between trying to follow his mother's Bene Gesserit training and his father's sensible noble rule.  In his room, Paul listens to a book recording of information on Arrakis, and he looks at an illustration of a Fremen still-suit.      



The book notes the sandworm called Shai-hulud by the Fremen.  They have the Eyes of Ibad, a Fremen term for their blue-within-blue eyes caused by the spice.  The book also covers the Spacing Guild which uses Heighliners, giant tube-shaped ships, to fold space and travel across the stars.  A shuttle from the Empire, an incredibly tall, egg-shaped vessel, makes a landing.  Representatives of the Guild, white-robed with face-less helmets filled with spice gas walk out with the Judge of the Change (Benjamin Clementine) in front of them.  


The Artreides representatives include Duke Leto Artreides (Oscar Isaac), Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), Lady Jessica, and Paul.  Isaac is in the dramatic series, Scenes From A Marriage, and Brolin is in this year’s drama, Flag Day and was also in Villeneuve’s crime film, Sicario (2015).  Gurney is the Artreides Warmaster.  Also, there is Thufir Hawat (Stephen Henderson), his eyes go white as he calculates to the last solaris, the trip of this congregation.  Henderson was in the sci fi series, Devs.  Thufir is a Mentat, able to make calculations at the speed of computers, which were banned since the Butlerian Jihad where humans had overthrown the thinking machines.  Mentats have a vertical, black stripe on their chins.  Much of the details of the Dune world are shown without explanations so I'm just filling in bits from research and my own knowledge.    



The Herald of the Change announces that he is there sent by Emperor Shaddam IV of House Corrino, he is mentioned, but not seen. Duke Leto stands forward and accepts the stewardship of Arakkis to the assembled officers roaring, “Artreides!” He seals the document with his signet ring.  A ship sweeps over the land and descends at a hangar. The pilot in a flight suit and helmet, is Duncan Idaho (Jason Mamoa), he leaves the ship and greets Paul. Mamoa currently stars in the dystopian sci fi show, See, with the new character is played by Dave Bautista.  


Idaho is the swordmaster for the Artreides and he is being sent out on a scout mission.  Paul confesses to him that he saw in a dream Duncan with the Fremen and that he dies on Arrakis.  Duncan shrugs it off and leaves.  Paul later sees his father at his grandfather’s grave to ask to go on the scout mission.  His father says that House Artreides has influence with the Great Houses and the Emperor creating a situation on Arrakis turning into a war that can weaken both houses.  Duke Leto hopes Duncan make an alliance with the Fremen.  He is a clever man who knows the forces against his house and wants to protect his family. 



Paul is combat training when Gurney enters and unrolls several blades.  He throws a dagger at the desk next to Paul.  Then, he starts his attack.  Paul activates his Holtzman generator on his leg, this creates a flutter as the shield surrounds his body, very similar to the book, instead of the blocky squares that are in the Lynch version.  Gurney warns Paul about the Harkonnen, he was in the slave pits and recieved his scar from Beast Rabban until saved by Duke Leto.  This shifts to the grey world of “Giedi Prime, Homeworld of House Harkonnen” with an industrial dome palace.  


A shuttle brings the arrival of Beast Rabban, who walks up next to Mentat, Piter de Vries (David Dastmalchian).  The actor was a standout as Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad.  Beast Rabban tells his uncle that they have left Arrakis and screams that the Emperor took away the Harkonnen's power.  Baron Vladmir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) behind steam, wipes his bald forehead like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979).  He has plans for Arakkis.  It is raining on Caladan when the Bene Gesserit sisters arrive.  Lady Jessica wakes up Paul to take him to the library to get checked by Dr. Yueh (Chen Chang).  The actor starred in the historical war film, Red Cliff (2008).  He warns Paul about the Bene Gesserit.  Lady Gesserit uses the Artreides battle language, a secret sign language to tell Yueh to keep silent about the meeting.  



Then, she introduces Paul to the leader of the Bene Gesserit, Reverend Mother Gaius Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling), the actress played The Abbess in Benedetta (2021).  The Reverend Mother has a black, tall hat like a chess piece and a veil.  There are incredible costumes by Bob Morgan and Jacqueline West.  She uses The Voice to force Paul to kneel in front of her and has him put his hand in a rectangular box.  The Reverend Mother holds a poison needle, a Gom Jabbar, at his neck which she will use if he removes his hand from the box.  Outside, Lady Jessica stands guard, but feels Paul’s pain.  


Paul struggles and she repeats the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, “I must not fear.  Fear is the mind killer.”  He seems to get strength from his mother and looks steadily at the Reverend Mother passing the test.  Lady Jessica and the Reverend Mother walk back to her ship and the head of the Bene Gesserit says that Jessica has went against their orders.  She had a child believing he would be the Kwisatz Haderach.  This is the messianic figure that the Bene Gesserit have manipulated centuries of bloodlines to bring peace to the universe.  Paul has overheard their conversation and thinks he is forced to be a pawn.  When the Artreides finally reach Arrakis, the Fremen crowds shout “Lisan al Gaib”, “The Voice from the Outer World”, when they see Paul.  Thufir takes Paul and Lady Jessica in an ornithopter, transports that have six wings that flutter like hummingbirds, again right out of the books.  



He takes them to the city of Arrakeen which is next to the Shield Wall, a large range of mountains to protect from storms and sandworms.  In the novel, it was owned by Count Fenrig, a man close to the Emperor. Thufir takes Lady Jessica to review Fremen housekeepers and picks out the Shadout Mapes (Golda Rosheuvel). She was Queen Charlotte in the Bridgerton series. The Fremen woman has brought a weapon as a gift, a chrysknife, this is a Fremen blade made out of a sandworm’s tooth. Paul later reviews the book that explains the Fremen sandwalk, the walking motion that breaks up sounds that attracts the sandworms. Out of the wall, comes a mosquito-like hunter-seeker to assassinate Paul, but he is able to destroy it.  


The Reverend Mother has arrived at Geidi Prime to tell Baron Harkonnen that Jessica and Paul are under Bene Gesserit protection.  They meet in the Cone of Silence, a field to distort any audio from their conversation, but isn’t this like the same device in Get Smart, the comedy spy series?  The Baron rises up on suspensors to float above Piter with his black robe falling below him.  Thufir takes Duke Leto, Gurney, and Paul out to see the sabotaged silos.  Duncan has returned and tells them about the Fremen sietches, underground living areas.  Then, they meet with Stilgar (Javier Bardem), trusted by Duncan, who gives a Fremen greeting.  Bardem is in the upcoming bio drama, Being the Ricardos



In the morning, a carryall takes a spice harvester out to the desert.  Duke Leto meets with the Arrakis Judge of the Change, Dr. Liet Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).  She checks on Duke Leto’s stillsuit that cools and preserves body moisture allowing survival in the deep desert.  Duncan-Brewster was in Intergalactic, a sci fi show.  This is a gender change for the character, which I like, originally he was the father of Chani.  She guides them in an `thopter to see spice harvesting in the deep desert.  Kynes notes that there are spotter aircraft to check for wormsign, a sandwave that indicates surfacing of a sandworm.  Something like the Graboids in Tremors (1990).  The spice harvester is a flat, long vehicle on treads.  


Duke Leto is able to spot a sandworm.  Dr. Kynes contacts the spice harvester about the warning.  The carryall is about to dock with the spice harvester, but one cable is unable to connect, sabotaged by the Harkonnen!  Dr. Kynes notes that there is a crew of twenty one on the harvester.  Duke Leto has the crew escape on the `thopters.  Paul goes out to bring in the spice workers, but when he steps onto the sand, he is affected by the spice and has a vision.  Shai-hulud is approaching!  Paul hears, “The Kwisatz Haderach awakes!”  Gurney goes out to pull Paul who is kneeling by the harvester.  They escape as the sandworm engulfs the sand harvester!  The downside to the movie may be its pacing at two hours and thirty-five minutes, but an epic needs patience to unfold the story.  The destiny of Paul Artreides is arriving in Dune, he has to survive a Harkonnen attack, and the desert to meet the Fremen and Chani!  


Four Chrysknives out of Five! 


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