Another day another post this time it’s a movie review post, so thank God for that. I will only make this review into one post I promise, I don't have the strength for three parts for this one. Today I’m going to be reviewing the 2021 space sci fi classic Dune starring Timothee Chalament, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Fergursson and a host of other star actors and actresses, directed by the guy who gave us Blade Runner 2049 Dennis Villeneuve. In my opinion and some might not agree with it but this film is the a modern work of art in film making, something to be compared to the first installment of Star Wars back in the day. Matter of fact, some might argue that this film is the Star Wars of this era and I quite agree with that comparison myself. Those who argue that it’s only a slow overhyped space Sci Fi thriller will agree with me that it’s at the very least an otherwordly audio-visual aesthetic experience in cinema.
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In this post I will be addressing some key aspects of this film that I believe make it work as a whole, from the story told, to the pacing, to the breathtaking audio-visual shots, to its character expressions and most importantly, its’ simplicity. First of I will begin with the simplicity of the story because this I believe it is the core trait that holds this film together and makes it work with all the other aspects of the film. I’ll like to start with the simplicity of the story.
The simplicity of the story
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All great films have one common denominator and that is they all have comprehendible stories or plot and even when their plots are convoluted the filmmaker or scriptwriter carefully and artistically unwraps the story before the eyes of the audience helping them understand the plot better. (bear with me I will be interchanging the words plot and story regularly)This basically means is that for any film to work, it's story has to be a simple one everyone can relate with and understand. I’ve said this in one of my earlier posts on here that the best stories are stories that resonate with the emotions of everyone and anyone who see them (well that’s not exactly how I said it but let’s all pretend I said it that way… you know what I mean). The best stories, the most relatable stories are the simple ones, the simple stories that divulge into much deeper broader topics and still end up with a comprehensive convincing and understandable conclusions. For example a love story, or a revenge story, or a story of one’s ambition or aspirations, a story of victories and losses.. that kind of story. These are the best stories and this is the kind of story that Dune tells us. Deninis Villenuve clearly understood the power of a good story that’s why for this film he chose to stick righteously to the source material because they tell us a simple story of a Paul Atriedes and the House Atriedes who travel to the desert planet of Arrakis to take control of the most valuable resources of the planet only to immediately get betrayed by the emperor and a rival house. He then proceeds to escape into the desert to find the desert people and plot his revenge against his enemies. That’s it, that’s what the whole Dune part 1 is about….. but guess what, it executed perfectly. The best films are the films which execute the simplest of stories perfectly. The best stories are the ones that speak to our emotions, the things w see and believe as universal truths. That’s what this story is about it’s a simple story of a young naïve boy who is thrown into the chaos of the world with nothing but a promise of greatness and the guiding hands of providence on his side. He is lost, confused and alone and he must find a way to make sense of his world as well as confront the chaos that stands before in the form of the house Harakonnen. It’s narrative that everybody can understand because we all confront chaos differently while we try our best to fight our circumstances in the hopes of triumphing. That’s what makes Dune such a epic film. It is the telling of a simple, common, universal, relatable story in a most spectacular fashion.
The Style, Audio-Visual Designs & Aesthetics
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Alright remember the groundbreaking, outer-worldly audio-visual shots I talked about earlier in the intro well let me talk about it now. This movie ladies and gentlemen was an absolute spectacle to behold. It has arguably the best cinematography of 2021 and by all means deserves an Oscar for it. (But alas it won’t be recognized by the academy and the award will probably go to some unknown Dutch film). I remember seeing the shot in one of the early scenes showing the description of the planet of Arrakis and the Fremen, the usefulness of their spice both to themselves and to the intergalactic empire which is immediately followed by the scene showing the arrival of the Herald of the change, followed by members of the imperial court, representatives of the spacing guild and a representative of the Bene Gesserit all arriving on the home world of House Atriedes; Caladan. The somberness in everyone's faces and the eerie musical score that accompanies their arrival, the way the message is delivered by the herald to Duke Atriedes and the seriousness in the faces and the demeanors of all who are present in this exchange gives you an idea of how much detail went into conveying the severity of the situation the House Atriedes find themselves. In fact in the scene Villeneu tries to quill the situation by having Duke Atrides tell his head commanding officer Garney to smile even when he himself isn’t smiling to which Garney responds ‘I am smiling’ whilst having the most serious looking face ever.
the picture above was taken from my phone
I admit I was so happy seeing musician Benjamin Clementine (the guy in the picture above) play the role of Herald of the change. In the few seconds he was on screen, his portrayal of the character was absolutely stunning. He understood the assignment of the character and convincingly showed us severity of the situation even for a first time actor, I'm assuming this is his first role. Well done to you sir (take notes guy who played Liu Kang in 2021’s Mortal Komabt; we will not be forgetting your silliness in the name of playing a character)
Every shot is well detailed and compiled correctly so as to portray the full extent of the emotions of each scene, while imprinting the message of the whole story permanently in our minds. Ain’t no way we are forgetting this film anytime soon. Let take a look at another scene that accomplishes this same feat perfectly, the scene where the sisters of the Bene Gesserit come to inspect Paul.
the picture was taken from my phone.. Honestly look at this shot how can you not fall in love with it
The scene once again begins with a spaceship coming through a wormhole. One interesting thing to note in this shot is how at the rear end of the worm hole you can see only a side of the planet the space ship is arriving from, but it is only visible through the wormhole while on the other side of the wormhole which is our view you can see the whole planet of Caladan. Another nod to the level of detail placed on the aesthetic designs of this film.
That's what I'm trying to describe
Anyways the music once again prepares us for the eerie tension of the scene we are about to witness. We don’t know what is really going on but from the sound of the music we can tell it’s not good. It then cuts to the shot of a woman shrouded in a black robe waiting under the rain for the arrival of the space ship into the planet, we have our suspicions of who she might be but we remain unsure nonetheless. The camera then switches to her face and our suspicions are confirmed, it is the Lady Jessica, which is followed by what I dare say is the most iconic shot in this whole film; the shot of the sisters descending from the spaceship in the middle of the night under the rain, all shrouded in robes of black just like lady Jessica. In this moment we can only assume the worse that someone is about to die or at least someone is in a lot of trouble especially seeing as we saw the look of terror in Lady Jessica’s face earlier, we can only assume it is Paul who’s in danger. The camera cuts to Paul being awaken from his sleep by his mother to get dressed and accompany her to see the reverend mother Gaius Helen Mohiam whom we discover is the head of the Bene Gesseirt and she would like to meet Paul about the dreams he has been having. We then proceed to that epic scene where she compels paul to kneel before and causes him to endure pain in order to see the extent of the power he possess. I like to call this scene the Gom Jabar scene and it is definitely one of my favourite scenes.
An animal caught in a trap will gnaw of its own leg to escape. what would you do?
It stands out to me because it shows the extent to which Lady Jessica and her group have power over the intergalactic empire. We are even made to understand that asides the sister being strategically married into all the great houses, they are able to choose what chromosome to give to their child thereby determining wha gender their children would be. We also learn that Paul is destined to be a sort of messiah like great leader transcending both space and time who would lead the entire empire into a better future, the one known as the Kwisatz Haderach. The music and the visuals that accompany the delivery of this message as well as the scene of the Gom Jabbar test that sets up the revelation of Paul’s true nature all work together perfectly to instill in our minds an unforgettable image and a most memorable scene because the visuals and the music don’t work independently from the story, instead they are added to the tension that is created from the story itself, hence the music and the visuals don’t give the tension instead they are there to intensify the already existing tension of the confrontation and the eventual revelation of this scene. What can we learn from this, well simple, tension is not created by music and visuals, tension is created by the story while audio-visuals act as intensifiers of the already established tension.
Character expressions and the dialogue
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Alright so here we have the last thing, character expression and dialogue. Of course you all knew I was going to talk about the dialogue there is no way I’m going to skip that. The first thing you notice when you watch this film is that it is a highly visual film. It relies heavily on what the audience sees on the screen to convey the emotions and the essence of the story. It also wisely uses the beautiful musical scores to back up these visuals which further enhance the mood of each scene. We see an example of this in several scenes, in fact in almost every scene in the film. The scene which showed the departure of House Atriedes from Caladan to Arrakis was basically this short scene of completely filled with the beautiful visuals of caladan and the emotions of Paul leaving the planet. It then proceeds to something similar when he arrives on the desert planet of Arrakis. The point is the movie is not very heavy on dialogue and so because of this is the moments where dialogue is used, it is used intentionally to pass across not just information but to also progress the story forward. Dialogue for the most part in the film is used to establish the nature of characters and the qualities that make up these characters. An example of this is when we see Dave Bautista’s character Rabban Harkonnen. He doesn’t have much screen time but the brief moments we see him on the screen we can obviously tell he is bad news and the one thing that adds most to our feeling of terror and dread we feel from him is in his first interaction with his uncle.
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We see his sharp change of expression and dialogue with his uncle from a calm and reverenced tone to a sharp burst of anger and frustration even directed at his Uncle and from this short dialogue alone, our suspicions about him are confirmed. Another character whom we learn a lot about through their dialogue and interaction we others is Duke Leto Atriedes, Paul’s father. When we initially are introduced to him we have this sense of respect and admiration for him, not because we does anything initially to suggest it to us but more because of the way his subordinates treat him especially Commander Garney. At first it isn’t so obvious to us that we feel this way towards until we start learning more about him from the way he talks to others. When he receives the royal imperial decree from the empire’s representatives even when he knows that it is obviously a trap set for him by the emperor, to the way others speak of him even going as far as letting us know that other great houses respect him the most in the empire, even to the way the enemies speak about him saying that he [Duke Leto] has become so powerful and respected amongst all the houses that Emperor sees him as a threat. This information are made know to us through dialogue and like I said previously they subtly make us build an image of Duke Leto personality in our minds a personality that is further solidified when we see the scene with sand worms in the desert. In the desert scene with the Duke our notions about him are finally confirmed when we see him prioritize the lives of his subordinates over the valuable spices lost to the sand worms. All this is made know to us by the dialogue his character shares with others. From the way he speaks and from what he says, we can tell he is a compassionate kind man who values lives and people over position and property. He says to his son that even if he doesn’t want to be the head of the house he still loves him as his son, he says to his love interest that he regrets not marrying her, he orders the miners of the spice to leave the mining ship when their lives are threatened even going to the point of taking part in the rescue mission himself, all these expressions and words give makes Duke Leto more than just an idea but a likeable leader. The same goes for all the other characters, lady Jessica’s expression of her fear over the life of her sin during the Gob Jabbar test lets us know she truly cares for her son but she is caught up in the dilemma of either choosing her duty or her son and it’s one she cannot make wholeheartedly. Commander Garney’s show of affection towards Paul in their sparring session shows you how much he loves Paul and he is loyal to the House Atriedes. Duncan Idaho’s salutation towards Paul after the Harkonnen re-invasion of Arrakis and his eventual sacrifice to protect Paul and his mother shows how much that his allegiances to the House Atreides goes beyond duty, it is also out of love, the kind of love that would make one sacrifice his life to save his younger brother.
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Alright this is the best I can do because of the word limit I set for myself in this post I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. I hope you got something from it and I honestly want to hear your opinions about the film. What do you feel about Dune? Have you seen it? Do you like it? What do you think about it? Let me know in the comments section and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again.
I saw it twice. But the reason was that the first time, it was late, I was exhausted from all the things I had to do during the day, but I was stubborn and decided to watch it, too bad I couldn't enjoy it because of my age. Two days later I saw it again, early and this time I loved it visually, I already knew the story, I like the slow pace, it's only the first part and I'm glad they have already confirmed that they will continue the story of this universe.
It is an amazing story
This movie was amazing. I watched it twice in a row, and I'm sure I'll watch it again just before watching the sequel.
I don't know how the story will continue, because I haven't read the book, but from what I observed in this first part of Dune, it is the classic monomyth story, so despite the elaborate plot and complex schemes of political intrigue, this movie is easy to understand and universally enjoyable.
Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors of the moment, his latest films are visually stunning. I love Blade Runner 2049, and now he makes this. Fantastic. I haven't seen his first three films yet, but his filmography is really very good.
Exactly.. simple universally enjoyable stories
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