Film Review: DUNE: PART 1 (2021): An Entertaining Scifi Movie Combining Style, Originality, & The Best Adaptation of The Source Material

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Dune: Part 1 Review

Dune: Part 1 (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard, and Charlotte Rampling.

The sections of this review and analysis:

Initial Thoughts

I have seen all three big and small-screen adaptations of Dune and the third adaptation, director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation, is the best film based on the Frank Herbert novel (with the TV mini-series being the most faithful to the source material). Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 1 makes a movie of the source material instead of being married to it. Showing a fervent lack of constraint by it, Villeneuve’s Dune is not the best literal translation of the source material but by not being so, Villeneuve is able to make the story-line far more accessible.

Like the TV mini-series, Villeneuve’s Dune takes big liberties with the source material, adding new things, taking risks. Just enough of the source material is present to give the viewer the broad strokes of the book’s immense and complex story-line. As it says in the book (to paraphrase): “There are plans within plans within plans” and this film does a good job of placing the most important plans (story-lines) on-screen while jettisoning the others.
There is criticism that the film is heavy on style, light on substance. That argument is not baseless on its surface. The story-line of Dune: Part 1 is extremely simplistic despite its visual grandeur. What the other reviewers do not acknowledge, don’t realize, or do not care about is that this was done on-purpose. The book’s complex plot-line is dumbed-down so that it can be easily consumed by the uninitiated. The book’s large narrative is truncated so that the main storyline can flourish on-screen and not be bogged down by half a dozen subplots, side characters, Dune-specific vernacular, and heavy-world building. If Villeneuve had kept even a third of the source material in his film, Dune: Part 1 would be slow, boring, and it would lose people.

Villeneuve wisely chose the streamline approach, while throwing in nuggets for the book readers throughout the film e.g., the head of the bull that killed Duke Leto Atreides’ father. The cost of that approach is the aforementioned “light on substance” veneer, and in some instances, superficiality, but Denis Villeneuve is balancing not just this film, but future Dune films. Going plot-heavy in Dune: Part 1 would have cost him story-line alacrity and audience engagement.

Those pluses, however, are not without their minuses. Dune: Part 1’s superficiality rears its head with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet)’s characterization. Paul is virtually an empty character and he is the lead protagonist in the film. The only character of depth in Dune is Lady Jessica, thanks to Rebecca Ferguson’s performance and the specific character-building scenes she is given.

Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 did a better job of making its down-trodden lead character sympathetic. Since Dune: Part 1 is only the first part of a two-part story, it is unfair to judge Paul Atreides’ incomplete character-arc, but I am obliged, since this is a review, to comment on what is currently on-screen and available to be seen.

The Little Things

It is the little things, the presence of certain elements, a specific attention to detail, that make Dune: Part 1 shine as a film.

The Arrakin sun and the heat of Arrakis are “characters” very early in the film, creating and inhibiting the way of life for an entire society. It is amorphous yet static, punishing some characters, rewarding others.

Composer Hans Zimmer’s music during Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV’s Herald scene is sensational, with beautiful ebbs and escalations.

The grandeur of part of the Padishah Emperor’s court, their clothing, the gravitas of the moment, the way characters carry themselves, is evocative of the former glory of Star Wars when that science fiction film franchise took itself seriously.

The rain entry of the sisters of the Bene Gesserit later in the film, Paul’s pain box test, and the apprehension before the test, are exquisitely shot and orchestrated but it is during the conversation as Jessica and Reverend Mother Mohiam approach the Bene Gesserit ship that substantive narrative and visual meat-on-the-bones occurs, rewarding the eyes as well as the ears if the scene is carefully observed. It’s in Jessica’s deference to the Reverend Mother, the way Jessica holds fast as the Bene Gesserit space ship takes off, the reveal of Paul in the mist, and the information that Jessica relates to Paul about what he might be (with the viewer taking note of the separation between the two characters – the void between the Bene Gesserit and her son – Jessica temporarily reverting back to all she had been before the Atreides).

Widescreen Scope to Visuals

Few films created in the modern age of cinema are specifically engineered for cineplexes. Director Christopher Nolan creates them, and Villeneuve has with Dune: Part 1. If you view Dune on the small screen, even with a superior home theater system, it will not be the same experience. It would be a disservice to the viewer’s movie-watching experience to see Dune on anything less than the big screen – the scope and vistas of the film are that large and impressive.

Blade Runner 2049 achieved a similar yet claustrophobic scope due to its mostly urban settings. In Dune, Villeneuve’s widescreen vision is fully realized. Think of the beautiful moments in Ben-Hur created and captured by director William Wyler. Villeneuve does that in Dune: Part 1, e.g., Lady Jessica exiting the Atreides’ ship, freshly arrived on Dune, her ladies-in-waiting carrying the trailing portion of her flowing dress.

With a pulled-back-camera on moments like this, it’s not just Lady Jessica who is the centerpiece of the shot, its everything – Lady Jessica and the environment (the ladies, the dust in the air, the soldiers, the ships in the background, and the crowd watching), all captured as Jessica walks. It’s beautiful.

The Tripod

The Duke, his bound concubine, and the Bene Gesserit form an interesting tripod in Dune: Part 1, a situation brought into the open when Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) addresses the Bene Gesserit, the person he barely knows, and not Lady Jessica, during a scene in the first act of Dune.

Rebecca Ferguson’s acting in that moment, and in her walk to the meeting chamber where her bottled emotions blubber free, are what make the scene.

Jessica knows she has not been 100% forthright with Leto and Leto knows and accepts it. It is in Leto’s eleventh hour that he finally tries to communicate with and tap into the Bene Gesserits’ power, the Holtzman Shield that is always there protecting, guiding, and supporting Jessica.

It’s the Bene Gesserit that has always stood silently by in the room when Jessica spoke, her Dexter-like Dark Passenger, minus the latter’s vile impulses. When Jessica’s “Passenger” steps to the forefront in later moments in Dune: Part 1, it is fatal (or nearly fatal – by her leave) for all those that stand in her way.

Ferguson gives the most nuanced portrayal of a character in Dune, with competing motives and emotions playing off each other during critical moments, e.g., Paul’s pain box test with Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) as Jessica is forced to stand outside the room. Throughout a major portion of the film, Lady Jessica is being conterminously pulled in two directions – toward the omnipresent needs of her family and toward the wants and the desires of the Bene Gesserit.

Lady Jessica’s Use of Voice

Lady Jessica’s use of Voice in Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 1 is far more practical than in other incarnations of this story-line, including the source material. In this film, Voice’s usage is direct and to the point. Put more accurately, its vicious. Villeneuve takes an inconsistency in the book and clarifies it but not only that. He creates a build up for it during the first act of the film and makes it’s eventual offense and defensive usage dramatic.

In the TV mini-series, Voice is more of a toy. In the first film adaptation, it’s traditionally used i.e. a play on emotions for the most-part. In Villeneuve’s Dune, it’s a sword, steered directly into an opponent’s vitals.

The Sardaukar

The Sardaukar are no longer the babai of The Empire like in the source material, where they were nebulous and revered for their fanaticism and fighting prowess.

Will the viewer of Dune: Part 1 miss this mystique? No. What is on-screen blows past any utility it could have had in this film.

Instead, the viewer will be very impressed by the brutality on-screen (even for a PG-13 film) regarding the Sardaukar and Salusa Secundus: the dead, unworthy recruits strung up, their blood dripping down into metal basins, dotting the foreheads of all the soldiers that successfully completed the training. Dune: Part 1 screenwriters Jon Spaihts, Eric Roth, and Villeneuve don’t have to say the mortality rate is high on Salusa Secundus or that its soldiers are regimented. They show it.

Idaho’s Corridor Battle

Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa)’s final battle is one of the tensest in Dune: Part 1, aided by Fremen that are disappearance artists and Sardaukar that are like apparitions that appear in silence, stalk, and kill their opponents in a steady swarm.

It is this environment that encompasses Idaho’s doom as he stands guard outside of a room housing the new Duke. The ensuing battle, yet again, shows Idaho’s high-end fighting ability in the age of energy shields and swords. It’s the shot composition on-screen, the silences, and the creeping of opponents that make the scene so good. It builds upon itself.

The viewer knows something different is going to happen this time around when Duncan salutes Paul, his former student, his Duke, then closes and locks the corridor door. When the death blow is struck, it is as much a surprise to Idaho as it is to the viewer, but Paul’s vision saw him dead and this moment plays into that prescient glimpse. Villeneuve uses that previous visual queue from the first act of Dune against the viewer, plays into the viewer’s expectations for the scene, and then exceeds them as Idaho silently begins to pull the sword out of his chest.

This is followed by another exciting moment in Dune: Part 1 and a mistake no Swordmaster of the Ginez would make. Idaho should not bellow when he gets back up off the corridor floor. Is it dramatic? Yes. Entertaining? Yes. Cool? Yes. Strategic? Absolutely not. Idaho has the drop on the Sardaukar. Their backs are turned. If he goes for the femoral artery in their legs, he could kill three or four of them before they know what is going on. Alternatively, he can begin stabbing them through the back. These are the ways a military tactician would play the situation, especially one out-numbered and mortally-wounded. A military tactician would quickly calculate through years of training and experience the best course of action and execute it, i.e., silent kills from behind.

A sturdy argument can be made, however, that Idaho roars to swiftly stop the Sardaukar from using the laser cutter on the door that leads to his Duke, that Idaho doesn’t know if he can get to the Laz Gun operator in time thus roars to draw their attention and give Paul and Lady Jessica more time.

Or perhaps Idaho just isn’t thinking straight from the wound and all of the chemicals it sends surging throughout his body, least of which is Adrenalin.

Whatever the reason for the way the fight ends, illogical or needful, it is entertaining.

Dr. Keynes, the Sardaukar, and The Maker

Dr. Keynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) is portrayed as a person in constant conflict, existing in two worlds, balancing the needs of both, serving both (a similar push and pull that Lady Jessica endures throughout Dune: Part 1). That self-status complexity is tested when the Atreides are attacked by the Harkonnens (aided by The Emperor that she serves). Through this attack, Dr. Keynes is given a character arc in Dune but it is so small, it is almost to the point of non-existence, but it is there.

A surprising and lingering question surrounds Dr. Keynes’ last moments on-screen: though exciting and concise with fist-to-sand, featuring Keynes in full Fremen persona, why don’t the Sardaukar use the suspensors on their belts to avoid the jaws of the Sand Worm? These soldiers are trained to act quickly yet they feel themselves sinking into the sand and no one yells “Suspensors!”? None of them simply touch their belt to activate their suspensors and float over the gaping mouth of the Sand Worm and/or fly away? It is a great visual, a sound and thorough comeuppance for these Sardaukar, but it defies logic. Again, why don’t the Sardaukars’ hands automatically slap against their belts to activate their suspensors and The Holtzman Effect?

The Jamis Duel

After the practice session with Gurney Halleck and the vision of desert combat with Sardaukar clad in golden armor, there is little doubt who the victor will be in the Jamis / Duke Paul Atreides duel, though it begins with two question marks (one larger than the other):

Will Paul’s death vision at the hands of Jamis come true? His vision of Duncan Idaho’s death did.
Why doesn’t Jessica take up the challenge herself instead of letting Paul fight?

The first question can be explained away as another Villeneuve feint or a vision of an alternate future, but not the second question.

The moment surrounding the second question is strange in Dune: Part 1 – like in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker when The Emperor says to Rey “Kill me and we will be joined as one” (to paraphrase), she kills him, and then nothing happens. In Dune, Jessica says with vehemence that she will defend Paul with her life, that moment arrives, i.e., a potential Jamis duel, Jessica is silent, and doesn’t do anything to try and stop it (or offer a counter-challenge to Jamis, a bold move that will shield her son with her life). In the book, this is corrected. Jessica steps up and tries to take the challenge herself but is denied. In Villeneuve’s Dune, she doesn’t even try. Why?

This is most-likely done to simplify the plot (spoken of previously) but it also creates a completely unnecessary inconsistency between word-and-action for Lady Jessica in the process.

All of this, however, is an entrée to the most important part of the Jamis / Duke Paul Atreides duel – the Jamis / Duke Paul Atreides duel.

Unlike the other adaptations, the TV mini-series being the bloodiest, this Jamis / Duke Paul Atreides duel truly shows how advanced a fighter Paul is, with Paul easily slipping and bypassing every Jamis move at the end of their fight, pausing at the death-stroke numerous times, enraging bested Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) to great effect. Paul doesn’t want to kill Jamis and has a sense of honor. Like with the harsh realities of Salusa Secundus, Villeneuve practices the art of showing this through key on-screen moments and not having characters say it.

This adaptation of Dune contains a few of Paul’s visions of the future and alternate futures, including a mentor-ship with Jamis. This is what makes the duel that much better. Paul is fighting someone that, in a different future, would have taught him the ways of the desert, may have been his friend. This consideration is not emphasized or played up in the duel (I wish it had been), but the apprehension and subtext (from Paul’s visions of Jamis) are there.

In Closing

Dune: Part 1 could be the beginning of a rewarding science fiction film franchise on an epic scale if the satisfying and entertaining first film is any indication. Like Star Wars is known for its Episodes, Dune could become known by its Parts.

Rating: 8.5/10

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