Dune: Part One (2021)

[kate_nepveu]

Despite the advertising, the title card very specifically says "Part One." So, there's the first thing to know—well, and that Part Two has not been green-lit yet.

Chad, SteelyKid, and I watched this on HBO Max last night. Chad is the only one who's read the book; he and SteelyKid both enjoyed it, while my main reaction was, "Is this movie actually incredibly slow, or is my fundamental impatience with the story it's telling getting in my way?" I mean, when Jason Momoa (playing the improbably-named Duncan Idaho, and having fun in a way that no one else appeared to be) is saying how he lived with the Fremen and how much he admired them, I leaned toward Chad and said, "They're very Noble Savages…" And though the movie apparently tweaks things to be more sympathetic to the Fremen and what they've suffered under Imperial rule, it's still at base a story about the sensitive white boy who's prophesied to save the natives [*]. So, you know. (The fact that SteelyKid liked it does suggest that the pace was partly me, honestly, as patience is not a distinguishing characteristic of SteelyKid's approach to media.)

[*] Who are heavily coded as Arab and Islamic, which is a complicated thing that's been thoroughly hashed out with regard to the novel. Paul's reactions to his prophetic visions are kind of interesting to me, not having read the novel, but again, this is Part One.

Visually, it's very big and expansive and horrifically monochrome, I went and rewatched an episode of the Heaven Official's Blessing donghua just to get some color in my eyes. Possibly there's a worldbuilding statement being made there, but we don't see any Fremen interiors for contrast, so it's hard to say.

Additional content notes: blatant fatphobia WRT a villain; non-gory torture; occasional mind control; death, including deliberately self-sacrificial.

In conclusion:

John Rogers jonrog1
11:00 PM · Oct 23, 2021
My God we are in the very depths of the This Is Serious Sci Fi So It’s Slow And Portentous part the cycle, aren’t we.

Kate Nepveu katenepveu
11:04 PM · Oct 23, 2021
... did you also watch DUNE tonight?

(His response: "There are a few choices for that tweet.")

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Comments

[thomasyan]

I loved the first book and even mostly enjoyed the sequels. I was also really impressed with Arrival.

I'm worried about how I'll find this movie. The trailer was only okay, which makes me leery.

I'm not sure whether seeing it on the big screen (preferably for now without a large audience) would vastly improve the experience for me.

Plus, my wife especially doesn't take SF/fantasy movies seriously, so she's unlikely to be impressed.

[kate_nepveu]

Chad liked the book and also the movie, but beyond that I cannot say!

[stranger]

Your description of the movie sounds a great deal like the book (the first book, the singular Dune), with pretty much the issues the book itself had. It's subjective, of course, but all the Arrakis scenery *reads* as monochrome, somehow.
I'm guessing the prospective Parts Two Et Al would get into later books -- especially if it's showcasing Momoa as Duncan Idaho, and he's allowed to have fun.

[kate_nepveu]

Oh no, this movie is the first 60-ish percent of the book Dune!

[stranger]

Well, that's kind of sketchy, if it ends before Sietch Tabr as melita66 says. That's roughly half of the political plot, or less depending on how much Galactic-level backstory they've worked into Part One. Sort of like ending LotR where Gandalf returns as White, without getting to Gondor or Mordor at all.

[kore]

I kept hearing "They shot the first half of the book," and no, that's not the first half! It's at least the first two parts.

[melita66]

They're on their way to sietch Tabr (Paul and Jamis having fought) at the end of the movie.

[melita66]

I haven't read the book for years, but have read it several times. There are parts of the book that I skip when I reread it. I saw the second half of this part 1 and liked it but did think it was moving slowly--much like the book. My partner loved it, one kid did like it while the other one got bored early on. The kids are both 9.5. I told my partner some of back story afterwards like why the emperor has it in for the Atreides.

IIRC, in the private quarters--blankets, rugs--in the sietch, and in the women's clothes, they do use bright colors.

Have you seen and liked Lawrence of Arabia? Because it's definitely in a similar style and story.

[kate_nepveu]

good to know about the bright colors eventually, maybe!

[athenais]

Oh man, it is SO SLOW the first half hour. Until they get to Arrakis it is really nothing-burger.

I thought this time the Harkonnens were rather anodyne villains. They're ominous, but there's nothing personal in their hatred of House Atreides. I thought it could have used more politics.

Very monochrome, but I liked the cinematography and costuming a lot (except for the disco handmaidens holding onto Jessica's scarves/train/outfit that streamed behind her). I thought it was visually dark a few too many times, though. We were squinting at our tv screen. Might have worked better on a theater screen, but I am not going to ever go to a cinema again so I'll never know.

[kate_nepveu]

I gather from Chad's there's definitely a lot of politics that got elided! It definitely seemed like we were supposed to be thinking the Harkonnens were bad because of their bodies and that's it.

[mkozlows]

The intro voiceover went on a bit about how the Harkonnens were harsh colonial masters even by the standard of an imperial colonizing system, and when the Atreideses arrived, there was talk about how the Fremen were lined up for them because they were used to the punitive Harkonnen style.

[kate_nepveu]

oh yes, true, I was thinking about the Harkonnens specifically with respect to Atriedes in response to that comment!

[gentlyepigrams]

I'm a little anxious about it. I know the book was written in the 60s and is a little older than I am, and I read it, but that was a long time ago. My standards for treatment of women, among other things, are a lot higher now.

I did love Arrival, and the cast is very pretty, so there's that.

My experience as a reader was I read the first ... four, I think? The trilogy and one more. And then I wisely stopped. But I think I would tolerate the gender essentialism a lot less well now, where it was ... better than a lot of things I read dealing with gender written by men in the 60s. Let's leave it there.

[kate_nepveu]

The movie did genderbend one male character! ... it isn't one who survives.

[gentlyepigrams]

To be fair, a lot of people don't survive the first half of Dune.

[kate_nepveu]

Alas!

[kore]

I really, really wanted to see it on the big screen (ditto Eternals and In the Heights and Black Widow and....) but I have no idea when we're going to go to the theatre ever again. I think it probably definitely suffers from being on a small screen; I'm jealous of the people who saw it in IMAX.

It was....sssssssslloooooow. Slow and Deliberate and Srs Bsns is about right. I also thought it was very monochrome, but that could have been our TV set. The colour scheme seemed very....cold a lot of the time? But again, TV set.

Someone pointed out to me that (spoilers) gur enprorag (naq bar traqrefjnccrq) punenpgref -- Yrgb, Yvrg Xlarf, Wnzvf naq Qhapna Vqnub -- nyy qvrq, juvpu vf n ohzzre. I hope in Part 2 the increased number of Fremen means that kind of thing won't happen again. -- Also the fatphobia and grotesqueness of the Baron was toned way DOWN for this movie, the Lynch version had him looking like a pustulant hot-air balloon. I think the miniseries at least gave him fewer facial boils.

This is a miniseries Baron Harkonnen actor gush post.

[sporky_rat]

I fucking love Ian McNeice as SciFi's Baron Harkonnen. If we could have young Sting as Feyd and Ian McNeice as the Baron, I'd be happy.

Ian McNeice moves his body in such a way while acting that you don't even notice his size until he makes you and it's utter fucking perfection and he never ever really seems like the David Lynch Baron ....except in being ruthless.

There are only imitators.

. I think the miniseries at least gave him fewer facial boils.

None, in fact! He was just a larger actor being terrifying and brilliant. Give me more of that Harkonnen.

[kate_nepveu]

re: your ROT13, uh-huh; how interesting would it have been if they'd gone further?

[kore]

Well, (SPOILER) is a clone and comes back in later books, so we might at least see him again! And I am pretty sure Stilgar makes it to old age. But still, it was depressing.