2022 Best Picture Review: Dune
Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet, left) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, right) survey the desert planet Arrakis for safe haven. Dune is nominated for ten Oscars at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Hey, Tom is here with another Best Picture review! This time, it’s the Denis Villeneuve sci-fi epic Dune, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. It was a long one, but it was a fun one!
“Your grandfather said, ‘a great man doesn’t seek to lead. He’s called to it. And he answers.’ And if your answer is no, you’ll still be the only thing I ever needed you to be. My son. I found my own way to it. Maybe you’ll find yours.”
Alright, I’m just gonna start by apologizing because I think this might be a lengthy review. I originally got caught up in the hype around Dune when I found out that one of my favorite directors, Denis Villeneuve, was going to be adapting it. I’m not a Dune truther or someone who has been a mega-fan for a long time. I actually read the book (only the original Dune, not the rest of the series) and watched the ridiculous 1984 David Lynch version in preparation for this, so I’ve crammed about 50 years of history into a little over a year. First, let me say that I loved the book — I liked it a lot more than I thought I would since it’s a prototypical sci-fi novel from the ‘60s. The palace intrigue, the action, the way that author Frank Herbert both constructed character archetypes and fantasy tropes and struck them down in one fell swoop. All of this was expertly done. So Villeneuve’s work had a lot to live up to in my mind, and surely the minds of many others more qualified and invested than me.
Then I found out about the casting. I’m not exactly a card-carrying member of the Timothée Chalamet fan club (though I find him great in minor, comedic roles like in Lady Bird and Don’t Look Up), but when I heard he was going to play the “chosen one” Paul Atreides, I thought he was the perfect fit: a young star who has been anointed the future of the galaxy and has to decide whether to accept that fate? That sounds like Chalamet in Hollywood — he’s in many conversations as the biggest up-and-coming star that hasn’t quite come to be yet. His father, Duke Leto Atreides, is played by one of my favorite actors, Oscar Isaac. The grotesque, monstrous villain, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, is played by Stellan Skarsgard. It also features other Caroccia favorites like Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, and Josh Brolin. So far so good!
And having now seen the movie twice, it is as striking as anything I’ve ever seen before on film. Its pure size and scale are jaw-dropping. It’s massive. From the shots of the sprawling cliffs on Caladan, the Atreides homeworld, to the castle of the Harkonnens on Giedi Prime, all the way through the tankers and iconic sandworms on the desert planet Arrakis, nothing quite like what Denis Villeneuve achieved has been put on film before. In order to create these sets and landscapes, Villeneuve wanted to use as much real world material as possible. In a fascinating article by Architectural Digest, production designer Patrice Vermette described how they decided on some of the sets and locations by parsing through the source novel itself. While the interiors of each of the palaces were created at the same sound stages that Villeneuve used for Blade Runner 2049, the exterior locations spanned the Eastern Hemisphere from Europe to the Middle East:
Norway “was a response to what Caladan needed to be. It’s a planet of water,” Vermette says. Abu Dhabi provided the white skies and large, foreboding sand dunes the team was looking for for Arrakis. “It’s the mother of all deserts,” Vermette says. Wadi Rum, Jordan, was also perfect for the rocky landscape, and additional scenes were filmed in an area on the border of Jordan and Israel that had previously only been used for military exercises. “It is absolutely virgin sand,” location manager Nick Oliver said. “No one has been walking on it. The dunes are just left to wash across the desert and are constantly changing.” This made filming tricky, but also provided the breathtaking shots that are the best parts of the movie.
The sets and landscapes were marvels, but so were the costumes and the structures the team created to bring the universe (Dune-iverse?) to life. For example, the Harkonnen soldiers’ armor was designed to look “insectoid,” according to Villeneuve. This fits with the Harkonnens’ role in the story as “invaders and colonizers.” Costume designers (and multiple-time Oscar nominees) Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan reportedly created close to 2,000 costumes, including the “stillsuit” worn by the inhabitants of Arrakis. Other than that, there’s a certain scene early in the film where the Emperor’s agent hands Arrakis over to House Atreides; in this scene, we see costumes from various different factions that flaunt the impressive work done by the costume designers.
Dune is going to win most, if not all of the technical categories at this year’s Oscars. It’s one of the most spectacular universes I’ve ever seen put into a visual medium. Villeneuve and the production team took words and concepts from Herbert’s novel — a novel whose details are often hard to visualize — and extracted them from the mind’s eye onto the big screen. Much of the work in legitimizing Dune as an excellent adaptation is done through its effort at submerging the viewer into a different world. This movie does that as effectively as any fantasy/sci-fi film I’ve ever watched.
As for the characters, I find it interesting that a book written in 1965 - i.e., years before Star Wars was a twinkle in George Lucas’s eyes - would both introduce certain tropes and archetypes to the “space opera” genre and subvert them at the same time. Take Timothée Chalamet’s Paul, for example. You’ve seen countless films and TV shows and read a ton of books where the (white, male) hero is preordained by some prophecy or royal lineage or something of the like, and although he is reluctant to take the mantle, he eventually rises to the occasion and saves the day. Paul fits this and he doesn’t fit this. Part of what complicates things is that he’s not only the heir to his patriarchal throne of House Atreides, but he is also a form of royalty through his mother’s side. I won’t go through what the Bene Gesserit are because it’s too nerdy for this already super nerdy review, but essentially they’re a quasi-religious group of women for which there is a “chosen one” that happens to also be Paul. The Bene Gesserit’s aims are often at odds with the Atreides clan. Because of this, each of Paul’s decisions and actions has a ripple effect through both sides of his ancestry. It colors everything he does and adds to the political intrigue. Chalamet, as a generally cold actor, inhabits this detached, resistant role while subtly and slowly growing into a capable leader throughout.
And while Paul’s initial mission is to learn as the protege of his father Leto (Isaac, who is excellent as always) and his set of close allies (among them, Gurney Halleck, played by Josh Brolin and Duncan Idaho, a scene-stealing Jason Momoa), but his most lasting and fleshed out relationship is with his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). Jessica is the heart that holds the film together, carefully guiding Paul through predicament after predicament while instilling in him the ability to trust his instincts. Ferguson’s strength is that she plays Jessica through her eyes: her intensity, love and resoluteness all shine through in equal measure. In my opinion, it’s by far the best performance in the film. I was pulling for her to get a dark horse Best Actress nomination, though that didn’t come to be.
All of these main performances, coupled with the likes of the aforementioned Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Zendaya as Chani, as well as Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Sharon Duncan-Bruster as Dr. Liet-Kynes, and many more, all contribute in different ways to Paul’s quest. Paul’s path leads him to attempt to to deconstruct his dreams, determine whether power is something worth attaining and whether a just and fair ruler can exist, or whether, as the adage goes, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s a fascinating quandary in the context of the film, and while the entirety of the supporting cast has a role in helping Paul find that answer, the answer to Paul’s questions will unfortunately have to wait until Dune: Part Two. He also wanted to find the hot girl with the glowing blue eyes he was dreaming about (I get it, man—he’s still in his late teens).
Dune: Part Two, which was greenlit in October, is scheduled to release in October 2023. Added to the film will likely be more Zendaya, whose Chani is much more involved in the second half of the novel than in the first. Other possible additions include Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan, the emperor’s daughter, and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, the Harkonnen counterpart to Paul famously played by an absurd Sting in the 1984 film.
But as for what we have in front of us now, Dune: Part One is a sci-fi epic that built a massive, immersive world rarely, if, ever seen before in film. Everywhere from Caladan to Arrakeen to Giedi Prime breathes differently and feels like separate segments of a shared universe. The care and detail that Villeneuve put into this film is staggering. I would be completely stunned if it didn’t win 90% of the technical awards this year. It’s the rare blockbuster that was hyped for years and actually panned out and lived up to the hype. I can’t wait for Part Two!
Rating: 9/10