Introduction
Dune by Frank Herbert was one of the most expected film adaptations for decades. It is an epic science fiction franchise that consists of six novels and a short story written over twenty-two years starting in 1963. The fandom that Dune earned over the years is huge, even though it did not have a deserved film adaptation until 2021.
The story behind adaptations is long and sad because of many failed attempts, including the 1984 David Lynch movie and the 2000 John Harisson miniseries. It was considered “unfilmable” and unable to adapt in any visual form because of the deepness of the lore and fantastic fictitious creatures, locations, etc. After almost sixty years of waiting, the fans received the film adaptation they wanted, directed by Danny Villeneuve with a sufficient budget to produce incredible CGI and visual effects, Oscar-winning original music created by Hans Zimmer, and a star cast in the face of Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, and others.
Brainstorming
While I agree with the film critic Mark Kermode about “Danny Villeneuve riding the sinewy worm of Herbert’s sacred text with aplomb,” the movie seems not enough for new heights (Kermode, para 9). Kermode’s main ideas about this adaptation are that it has great visuals, and it was the right decision to make it the first part of the series of movies. I agree with these statements, but at the same time, I think this movie is not accessible to new viewers, and the setting is not suitable for a movie adaptation.
Villeneuve created a stronghold of fan service with his adaptation of Dune. Kermode states that before that movie was released in 2021, “it seemed that the 2013 documentary about the failure to make a great film out of Herbert’s novel was the greatest film ever about Dune” (para 1). And that is true because, in addition to unsuccessful attempts to adapt this movie that saw the world, many of them were canceled for valid reasons. One of their most famous examples is Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film project. For many decades this unreleased movie was considered the most ambitious attempt to adapt the novel and even the greatest unmade film ever. Jodorowsky wanted to create fourteen hours-long psychedelic space operas with Pink Floyd and Magma music. He planned to cast Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. He also planned to cast Salvador Dali as Shadam IV that agreed to play his only speaking role as an actor for a hundred thousand dollars per hour payment. His son Brontis should have played the main protagonist Paul Atreides.
The 2021 Dune cast does not include the singer of one of the best rock bands in the history of rock and one of the prominent surrealism representatives. However, it is good enough to show the story without distraction. The actors play their roles and demonstrate the novel in new colors. Kermode states in his review that it is wise to “sensibly tackle only one manageable section of the story” and position it as only the beginning. However, the beginning of the saga looks blurry for new viewers. The movie is full of unknown characters and their connections that viewers cannot understand without knowing the world of Dune before watching. It is hard to find fault in the adaptation of Villeneuve because it is pictured great with perfect music, excellent actors, and a fantastic director and his team’s work. This movie is a celebration of fan service, but it is hard to watch if the viewer is not a Herbert reader. It is impossible to tell if this movie series will succeed, but Villeneuve did excellent work adapting this novel under lock and key.
As Kermode mentions, the film’s plot is well illustrated by the director and co-writers Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. They created “clear plot lines that accent the contemporary colonial parallels” (Kermode, para 5). However, the story lacks connections between characters that grab the audience. Dune feels like a perfect film adaptation of Herbert’s novel created by artificial intelligence. It is the same with the characters that make an impression that after the victory over machines, people became like them. Maybe that is what a future without machines will be like. The visual part of the movie is on top with the help of Paul Lambert and his team. Kermode says that “the giant sandworms that splash through deserts like eels through water are no longer silly but instead spectacular.” In the movie, Jason Momoa’s character Duncan Idaho noted that “dreams make good stories, but everything important happens when we are awake” (Villeneuve). Herbert’s Dune is a wonderful sci-fi world that inspired many other cinematic universes like Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Mad Max. Maybe the adaptation of such a classic cannot be perfect for everyone.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Dune film adaptation by Danny Villeneuve is the most accurate and successful movie based on Herbert’s novels in many senses. He skillfully demonstrated the world of Dune, its people, rulers, their subordinates, and the life of all of them. It is not perfect, but maybe Herbert’s stories are not for movies with new heights and audiences. However, nothing in this world is perfect, which is why this adaptation deserves attention.
Although Kermode’s claim regarding Dune being an excellent adaptation is quite substantiated, it appears that Kermode’s critique omits the narrative flaws in the representation of the book and the lack of adjustments needed to translate the story into a movie narrative seamlessly and makes it more palatable to new viewers.
Works Cited
Dune. Directed by Dannie Villeneuve, Warner Bros., 2021.
Kermode, Mark. “Dune review – Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic gets off to an electrifying start.” Review of Dune, directed by Dannie Villeneuve. The Guardian, 2021.