I am endlessly torn on Villeneuve’s Dune Part One. He’s possibly my favourite working director, made a brilliant sequel to my beloved Blade Runner, and has somehow been given the chance to finally do Dune right, over two films, with a great cast and huge budget.
But something doesn’t quite work. Maybe it will finally click with Part Two, and one day seeing the films as one big story that does the book justice. I’m one of those hugely frustrated at where he chose to end Part One, feeling that its the worst possible ending he could have chosen. I struggle with it whenever I have returned to the film. Every time I watch the film (which isn’t as often as you’d think or I’d have expected) I ask myself “what the hell were they thinking?”
David Lynch’s Dune is a misfire. Its a painful lesson in not squeezing all of the book into one movie. But it does such a lot of things very right- the prologue, setting the story up, the Great Houses, the planets, its brilliant shorthand. If only they could have managed to pull a similar trick with its last hour (had it been a three-hour film, I think the film might have worked very well indeed). And the sets, the art direction- glorious. I think it casts a big shadow over Villeneuve’s film because his film… well, that brutalist ‘look’, the dour cinematography… it should be big, huge, spectacular, wildly colourful, Dune is set so far into a future so alien to us it should be like a Giger painting but with every colour of the rainbow. Kubrick in the land of Oz.
Well, okay maybe not that far, but you know what I mean. Its an aesthetic choice of Villeneuve’s that I regret, and whenever I watch Dune Part One and they are on Arrakis I marvel at how I just don’t feel the heat. It never feels ‘hot’; there’s no blinding light from dazzling sun or massive heat shimmers over the desert, sweat pouring off faces, eyes dazzled, folks collapsing from sunstroke/exhaustion. In contrast, I imagine seeing Paul out at night in Arrakeen under a blue-night sky, bright silver moonlight, cool sand… maybe with his father discussing the tension of their predicament, then jump-cutting to blinding, dazzling light, noise and heat as they go out in the Ornithopter to see their first worm. You know the desert scenes in Lawrence of Arabia, how you can feel the heat? I don’t think Villeneuve captured that. Characters mention things like ‘you can’t stay outside here’ or ‘we have to get inside’ but I don’t think its visualised, put across sufficiently. Maybe that’s nit-picking, but its telling that even on the 4K disc they dial down the HDR completely; its clearly by choice how Arrakis looks.
I don’t think the music really helps either, its okay but… I think Dune needs something big, symphonic, romantic and strange like Goldsmith or Horner or Vangelis. I know, I know, they are all gone now but it just needs an aural character, soul, not such typical Zimmer muzak/ sound design. Some of the music-spotting… for instance, it annoys me when Paul is taking the test with the gom jabbar and his hand is in the box and suddenly that music cue drops in with that wailing woman like its some kind of super-hero ‘ta-da!’ moment. Pulls me out of the film every time. I almost prefer the Toto score, at least it gives Lynch’s film a fairly unique identity. Its funny how only today can they really pull off the visual effects to bring Herbert’s novel to life but at the same time they have lost the musical talent and style/substance that films used to have which could have elevated this film. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a largely broken film but my God that score it has, still lifts it up to some other level.
I’ll see Dune Part Two on Monday. I’ll see if that fixes things or not (I’m avoiding all reviews etc) but… I guess what I’m saying in a long-winded way is, I don’t LOVE Dune Part One and I should. Its one of my favourite sci-fi novels so the film should be right up my street, and yes it does so many things right but there’s just something missing. Maybe I’ll find it in Part Two and it’ll finally be one huge sci-fi masterpiece, and come the summer or winter with both films on 4K it’ll be an epic night in. We’ll see.
the ghost of 82 
I definitely had some of these complaints the first time I watched Villeneuve’s Dune, especially with regards to the overall production design. Something more out there, almost fantastical, would seem to fit the distant far future better. People like to talk about Villeneuve as a kind of great visionary director, but his desaturated ‘realistic’ style is a feature of so many movies right now. I think he’s very good too, but he’s hardly swimming against the tide. His Dune films are as much a product of the current cinematic landscape as they of his particular vision.
Still, I came to terms with the style more on a rewatch — it is what it is, and I can accept it as that. Other things, like the music, I guess is always a matter of personal preference. Not that I love Zimmer’s current style or anything, but I do like some of his (or his team’s, whatever) music here.
The music is fine, it just occurred to me though that one of the reasons why Blade Runner had such an impact back in 1982 was that Vangelis score- not only did the film not look like anything else we’d ever seen, it also didn’t sound like anything we’d ever heard. I miss seeing/hearing something so bold and different, I think. It wasn’t just Blade Runner; just look at how different Alien looked and sounded.
With regards Zimmer, its partly that he’s a victim of his own success, both he and his team of associates; that ‘sound’ has been disseminated through so many films and genres of films now. Some of the highlights of Dune’s score sound eerily similar to those of Gladiator, for instance. It can’t be helped, its just Zimmer aiming for an ethnic sound. But it limits Dune’s impact?
I’m afraid my misgivings about part one have been intensified with a couple of rewatches.
Usually if I’m well-disposed to something despite its flaws then repeat viewings will sand the edges off and I’ll end up accepting it for what it is: Sunshine, for example, where the good so far outweighs the quite bad that I’ve come to love it despite a slightly rocky first viewing.
The opposite end of the spectrum would be something like Event Horizon where even after several viewings at different stages in my life, the wonderful photography and astonishing production design can’t save a shoddy, hasty, derivative hack movie. Though apparently I’m a piece of shit for thinking that way. Hi Tom!
With Dune I was absolutely 100% prepared to love it… but I was… I kills me to say this… a bit bored. It was a bit lifeless.
As you know my specific criticisms mirror yours. But after a mildly disappointing IMAX screening, I went back to watch it in a Dolby Vision cinema, and then a couple of times on 4K. And each time I’ve been admiring the imagery but not feeling much, and looking at my watch as the last hour went on.
I can’t help thinking there’s a structural problem – or expectation built into us over years of exposure to Hollywood blockbusters – that you should end with your biggest moment, or imagery. Part One really kind of fizzles. The last scenes and images should be something that burns itself into your brain – but instead we had some scurrying around on a rock-face and conflict with a character we don’t know.
Instinct tells me it should have ended by adding something more breathtaking – a second armada of Harkonnen and Imperial ships arriving to guard the planet, thus upping the ante for what our heroes have to face? Something more visually interesting anyway.
I’m sure expecting to like part two slightly more, if only because I know it’s resolve a bit better and there are more exciting things in it. But unless the visual and dramatic approach has changed I’m not going in this time expecting to love it.
I’ll be going next Sunday on my birthday so will no doubt be back to bore after that. Bet you can’t wait for that.
Great review. I’m definitely looking to see this one soon. I’m such a huge fan of the first “Dune” which I consider to be a sci-if classic. Adored the authentic depiction of the Middle East in that film. Here’s why I loved it:
Great review once again. On the subject of “Dune”, I admire Denis Villeneuve as a filmmaker. He has proven he has ability to make movies about complicated sci-fi topics that are entertaining. Besides his sublime work on “Dune”, I also admired “Arrival”. A vastly different film on every level, but just as great. Here’s why I highly recommend it (if you haven’t seen it already):
Excellent review once again. I recently had the chance to see the sequel and absolutely adored it. A fantastic movie managing to surpass the high standard set by its predecessor. Here’s why I love it: