COMPLICATED NARRATIVE IMPLIES SEQUEL

CHALAMET TAKES REIGNS OF SCI-FI FANTASY GENRE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Director Denis Villeneuve layers stylizes aesthetics onto a compelling remake in the science fiction fantasy film, Dune (2021).

Villeneuve uses an epic sweep of his camera driven by a music score that adds tone and atmosphere to nearly every scene. Hans Zimmer produces the score. Zimmer’s experience as a film score composer includes some of the most important films of the current cinematic generation, such as Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Dunkirk (2017) Hidden Figures (2016) Interstellar (2014) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Gladiator (2000).

Zimmer makes the scenes go faster and slower and even adds suspense to certain scenes, when the actors just stand in front of the camera as if posing for a magazine cover shot.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated Zimmer for 11 Oscars, including one win for The Lion King (1994).

Zimmer has made the music score in these films as important to story telling as the narrative device and the acting.

In Dune, the camera also facilitates creative thinking with each scene a showcase for the director’s pitch and roll of the lens to tell stories.

In one scene, Villeneuve pans behind the actors who are in a room on the otherside of an arched entrance way. This effect is immediately aesthetically pleasing but the same motion foreshadows assassination scenes in which the rivals to the House of Atreides use a secret weapon and the element of surprise. 

Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides is cast well with Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica Atreides, Paul Atreides’ mother. Chalamet and Ferguson share screen time and their individual storylines intermingle to drive the narrative forward.

Villeneueve uses the original screenplay as a shadow within his interpretation of the classic 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert.

Oscar Isaac playing Duke Leto Atreides, and Zendaya as Chani round out an ensemble cast required by the complicated off world storyline that includes Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista and Charlotte Ramping as Reverend Mother Mohiam.

The future is run by dynastic families controlling planets as fiefdoms within a larger interstellar empire. These noble families pass down knowledge and wealth through the generations, and survive by surrounding themselves with trusted advisors.

The interstellar life becomes consumed by the political intrigue of the secular courts vying for control of a spice mined from the surface of the planet Arrakis. Arrakis is composed primarily of sand dunes. The spice is part of a key to eternal life and lots of money.

Villeneuve takes a layer off the science fiction fantasy in an effort to draw parallels to themes that commonly divide and unite humanity in realtime.

Spice is an illicit drug of some sort, the mining of which from the surface of a sand dune planet is fought over mainly out of greed for the wealth that trading in the spice brings. 

The film shows distinction of life within different class structures. And Villeneuve also develops the mother-son relationship and the nurturing role women contribute to the family within society, which is slightly distinct from one class to another class. 

The secret codes and languages used by the House of Atreides signify the deep bond between the mother and child and the ties of kinship that maintain the dynasty from generation to generation, and from home planet to the off world plane.

Paul Atreides is well on his way to mastering life skills necessary for survival in a world of constant conflict, but he must still labor, which his mother clearly assists him with, while his father, the Duke, is distracted by more worldly responsibilities.

Villeneuve not only likes his secret codes and symbolic, metaphoric meanings, but he relies on his futuristic gadgets and machines. As Villeneuve did in Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival (2016) and even to some extent in Sicario (2015) with the guns, rifles and police motorcades, the Dune narrative is compelled in part by the movement of flying vehicles and secret weapons operating underneath a compelling music score and aesthetically pleasing shifting colours.

The texture and tone of the film shifts with the moving sand and this compelling narrative created with the physical motion of gadgets and machines.

Villeneuve has also mastered the intensity of fighting and the suspense of life and death conflict.

Timothee Chalamet shows how Paul Atreides is under constant scrutiny by his family while he is being groomed to one day replace his father and become Duke Atreides. 

The director follows Paul Atreides through this process, gradually increasing the level of conflict and the need to survive in order to succeed his father.

The 2 hr 35 minute runtime ends with a bit of a cliff hanger. The script almost lends to a sequel with much of the same fascination directed toward ongoing storylines and unravelling a secret codified society as other franchise films.

This ‘remake, sequel, prequel’ proved a real dilemma for the film. Dune is not a mirror remake of the previous attempt to adapt the novel to screen, but a few of the same scenes were recreated, such as Paul Atreides being forced to put his hand in the box of pain while his mother consents to the milestone test. The military training scenes are also repeated.

Villeneuve though then leaves out riding the sand worm, which was anticipated in the first film and looked forward to in the remake, in part to experience the same scene created within the advancement in visual effects that have occurred since the original film 37 years ago.

Cinematographer Greig Fraser blends dark and light colours of the fortified living quarters with the subtle shades of gold and silver on the planet surface. One or two scenes appear to be painted on with a digital brush, but the film overall has stunning visual quality blended well with action sequences. Fraser also worked on Rogue One (2016) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012).

Dune has several important dreamscape scenes that are integral to the entire science fiction fantasy motif that distinguishes Dune from Star Trek and to a lesser extent from Star Wars. Star Wars of course has the secret Jedi order and a united nations of interstellar civilizations, but Dune shares the secrets through a dreamscape that drives several of the narrative’s ‘reality’ scenes.

The acting stands out in several scenes with each individual actor of the ensemble cast ever so briefly giving the best of what they are known for in the film world.

Dave Bautista has a moment of simultaneous loyalty and interstellar rage, while Javier Bardem plays Stilgar, the leader of a rogue group surviving day to day in the desert in search of precious water.

Stellan Skarsgard is cast perfectly in a body suit as the Baron, but Josh Brolin seemed misfit as Gurney, the aide-de-camp. Brolin usually plays a more dominant authoritarian figure, and him serving the lead actor seems out of place. Even Brolin’s physical presence seems odd next to the petite shape of Chalamet.

Babs Olusanmokun though is cast well as the vitriolic, code bound desert nomad.

Dune is not as flawless as Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, but Villeneuve does a good job in setting up this cliff hanger for Dune 2, currently in pre-production.