Fred and Loathing on The Internet

2 Dune 2 Spice

2024-Mar-17

New format. No preamble. Just straight up content! Tagged by type! Well, we shall see how soon that tagging part on the blog_post model happens.

Dune Part 2. The one released in 2024. The followup to the 2021 adaptation directed by Denis Villenueve. Right away I would say these two films are the best cinematic production of the Frank Herbert novel I have seen. I saw the second part a few days ago in the same theater I saw the first part.

My first foray with Dune was the Sci-Fi channel series in the early 2000s. At the time I found the effects pleasing enough to become enveloped in a type of science fiction I had not quite seen before, or at least seen execute with any sophistication. I found novelty in seeing ancient world grandeur applied to future settings.

Whether I had realized it or not, the idea of human society in a far flung future spanning thousands, or say forty thousand) years, forward in time becoming more ‘pre-Modern’ rather than progressive was not a concept introduced to me in that viewing of that Dune adaptation. By the early 2000s I was well versed enough in Golden Age science fiction novels to know of several types of futures. The pulp mill of the American sci-fi market before Dune’s publication had plenty of examples of ‘kingdoms’ or ‘galactic emperors’. Even cinematically that is the premise of Buck Rogers, set tens of thousands of years forward in time.

Dune separated itself from those space opera stories and into the more rarefied circles of what I thought science fiction is supposed to be when it did a splendid job of explaining just why a story set thousands of years into the future involves barons, swords, and expert diplomacy. The idea of a well ordered space federation or constitutionally bound space emperor was something I took for granted as a necessary conclusion of human development into the stars. Dune made a very convincing case for autocracy being the only outcome from the peculiar Faster-Than-Light(FTL) travel concept the book offered with the spice of the harsh desert planet of Arrakis The book demoinstated how any galactic spanning society that is governed by the strict limits of the speed of light would eventually have to resort to autocracy to deal with the peculiarities of an empire that could take years to traverse.

A few years after catching the Sci-Fi channel production I applied myself to read the somewhat hauntingly big paperback copy of Dune I found in my dad’s library. He spoke of it fondly yet did not give me a solid reason what made it so memorable, other than to warn me about the weirdness of the novel’s internal monologues and the deep weirdness of the later novels.

Reading the book gave the reasons for just how royal houses, guilds, dynasties that were mentioned in the TV adaptation were not just space opera dressing. Dune has a society in the far future that resembles pre-Modern Europe because the expansive and expensive distance of space in Herbert’s universe facilitates a monopoly on travel and information. Monolithic guilds that control travel, information, commerce, or even genealogy are entrenched because who would rebel? And with what success? Everybody was limited by the speed of light, except for the guild who could break those rules of physics.

I mentioned the word Gothic because to me - due to an English lit teacher explaining Southern Gothic- means stories with characters working with a low amount of reliable information. The ‘dark ages’ of Europe, though overblown in Western literature, does present an example of a vast geographic distance that has each locality as an isolated nest of internal information. Travelers or news of distant lands were far and few between. In the galaxy of Frank Herbert’s Dune, the same applies for peoples of each planet.

Whole colonial settlements could have slipped into their own post-Roman dark age and forgotten their terrestrial origin for decades or centuries. Waiting for a traveler who just might come their way. Somebody who can make a costly payment to the Spacer’s Guild, the monopoly holder of FTL travel. Without them and their spice-fueled travel would be a human impossibility. That’s just what Dune brought to science fiction that I had not seen before and got excited about. A solid foundation for why the cool things in the book exist.

I mentioned earlier that Dune was presenting these medieval concepts in the year nine thousand A.D, but with sophistication. Not only was the book crafting political entities that resembled the post-Roman era of Europe, but there were swords, shields, and quite a bit of plot points that involve a society that requires political leaders to be experts at hand to hand combat. Once again this could sound like Flash Gordon pulp nonsense, but Frank Herbet took the effort to explain why every military problem has not been solved by computer targeted weapons. Personal shields make small arms very unreliable for killing, thus every soldier is more suited toward melee than long distance. The same with big vehicles, so heavy artillery is not as useful as finding ways to transport melee fighters.

What I remember being doubly impressed with in the book beyond the well thought out futuristic settings was the inner monologue that my father had warned me about. The moments involving the hero Paul or his mother drinking sand worm vomit chose the right words for me to find it psychedelically authentic. Paul’s ideas about the way forward for humanity resonated with my youthful anarcho-libertine tendencies at the time. This Paul guy appeared as a convincing enough messianic figure to me. Somebody who saw through the paradoxes of human will and societal development. I am very curious to revisit those ethereal sections of the novel to see if they are still just as inspiring. As I recall, at the timeI harkened this book’s prose to William Blake’s illuminated words.

Before even that Sci-Fi channel brush with Dune, I had some idea of Dune as a media concept. The David Lynch cinematic adaptation (produced by the very cosmopolitan sounding Dino DeLaurentis) looked mysterious in it’s cover art as a Laserdisc. Perhaps it was a movie with visuals that lend itself to Laserdisc over videotape or it was pushed into my psyche as ‘the Laserdisc to own’ because of a licensing deal of what I hear is a cult classic. The movie is a product of David Lynch so I suppose the Laserdic crowd would enjoy the chance at audio commentary, 21:9 aspect ratio, slightly better resolution and audio quality than a VHS or Betamax tape could offer. Kyle McLaughlin standing tall in the middle of the oversized flat boxes that hold Laserdisc looked cool to young me.

I remember being unimpressed with the movie when I got around to seeing it in my teenage years. Did not bother finishing it. The flatness of the special effects looked hokier than Star Wars to me, which I loved at the time. I did not see the appeal in something that did not elevate itself to me anymore than any 80s space opera or fantasy movie. I revered the thoroughly described galactic society and technology of the novel Dune. I did not feel a two and half hour Hollywood movie adapting the story would not be worth a second look, despite my increased appreciation for David Lynch’s filmmaking. He did work some creative wonders with his choices in the film’s visual designs. The Harkonnens step right out of the grimey steam filled scenes of Eraserhead.

Hearing that Denis Villenueve was to take the director’s gig for a contemporary big budget film of Dune immediately filled me with hope. This dude delivered on every single movie I saw of his, including the sequel to Blade Runner. He proved he could find a new voice treading in a universe established by a prior filmmaker. Villenueve had so many things going in his favor in my prognostication for making a good Dune movie, I almost felt it was impossible for what he made to live up to my personal hype. I’d say it mostly did.

Sure, I have misgivings. I think most of them would be addressed in an extended cut available on physical media. On a modern day Laserdisc; a Blu-Ray. Much like the David Lynch effort in the early 1980s, the 2020’s version pushes the limit of what special effects can offer. This time around is not hokey in the slightest. If it were shot entirely on green screen I’d believe it. Almost every shot is breathtaking. The vistas are huge! The architecture is monumental. The technological equipment looks massive. The Baron is even bigger than before!

Villenueve I knew especially was the director for Dune from the first film I saw of his, Sicario. He loves to show very very pulled back camera shots that display just how small the actors are in the scale of their surroundings. The huge vistas felt just as menacing as the close-up danger hiding in those wide shots in Sicario. Villenueve works the same magic on the flat desert planet of Arrakis. The majesty of the technology and administrative oversight needed to move between planets with ETL hardware looks just what I thought about reading the novel. Rare have I been so satisfied with watching epic science fiction concepts shown on screen without falling into ridiculous expository dialogue, or worse: narration. Villenueve showed the audience what was happening.

This director has dialogue but lets the visuals tell the story. Each half is two and a half hours, bringing five hours total to tell about ninety percent of the plot points of a big fat novel. Something I often applaud in writing is succinctness. More So in films than novels. Villenueve condensed the crucial elements of space politics incredibly well into five hours. Watching the movies closely together fills in the gaps I thought the second part had by not repeating why the intergalactic society in 10,000 AD is fighting a war that looks like Lawrence of Arabia. The first part sets up a second half that does not stop to explain itself and instead presents the big huge space battles and sand worm attacks I salivated for when I heard what Dune is supposed to be about.

My final compliment for this latest Dune rendition is the production design for the technology. I have mentioned before that I champion the idea of ‘coldwarpunk’, which uses the design touches that have become cornerstones of the late Cold War era in military design bolted on to a future setting. The voice communications in this movie all squawk like the voices heard on a military radio since the late 20th century. I can testify that as of the late 2010s, US military radio voice communication had a slightly garbled yet steady quality. In Dune they might have perfect water recycling, trillion ton FTL space freighters, and antigravity suits. However, the sound quality of communicating over the radio of any kind still sounds like the Vietnam War. Call that an anachronism if you will. I call it a great artistic choice. In my mind, Arrakis is such a harsh environment that even a super advanced space faring society is reduced to 1960s era tech and tactics when faced with the gritty reality of sand blowing everywhere. This latest Dune gets the super thumbs up from the editorial staff.