Dune Review: I Was Moved to Tears and Then Left Disconnected
"Where there the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
“Where there the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
— Frank Herbert, Dune
This iconic quote, unfortunately, describes my experience with the 2021 Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi masterpiece, Dune.
I was sitting there, with the larger-than-life IMAX screen playing a larger-than-life film with its larger-than-life worldbuilding. I almost cried watching the passionate rendition of a beloved sci-fi story.
Fear—fear is what I felt. Fear of this strange, new world where omens seem to lurk — as dreams in Paul's head, as demonically possessive voices of the Bene Gesserit, as the pale outlandish bodies of the evil Harkonnens.
Hans Zimmer's score put me in a trance of deep, dark spirituality that compelled me to believe in the superstitions of this world and the powers of its beings.
The faded, misty backgrounds of planet Caladan gave a terrible feeling of something mysterious lurking within its depths.
Dialogues between characters exposed their true nature. It showed who was cruel, who was caring, who was scared, who was brave, who was kind and who was malignant.
This brilliant—brilliant—world and its characters set up in the first half of the movie along with the fear that it etched deep within my bones... disappeared.
"When the fear is gone, only I will remain." This iconic line, unfortunately, describes my experience through the second half of the film.
The fear induced in the first half of the movie with its powerful characters, its booming, seemingly familiar, but strangely distorted music, its larger-than-life abodes and machinery, its mysterious depths—everything—seemed to disappear.
The mother and her son—the leading characters—were set up to survive, it seemed like. And I felt no fear, no anxiety, no anticipation of what was going to happen to either of them as they slept through an invasion that blasted spacecrafts and killed their soldiers. Or as they flew into the sandstorms that cut through the blades and glass of their ornithopters. Or as they ran through the desert with worms as big as the sun chasing behind them. Or as Paul (the protagonist) came forth to duel with a Fremen (indigenous people of Dune) on behalf of his mother.
They would survive, I knew. The stakes they were put through seemed distant. They were too safe. The main characters never faced a real confrontation. There was always someone to help. Someone who would conveniently survive at first only to die for the main charcters later in some way – like Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) or Liet Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).
And when the main characters actually had to confront a problem face-to-face like the duel with the Fremen, it was done so plainly, so simply, that it evoked no fear for Paul who has never killed a man. It evoked no respect or reverence for him when he finally did kill a man.
And so the second half of the movie seemed to be more of a series of sequences—plot devices—for Paul and his mother to get to the Fremen safely, rather than a journey of a lost mother and son through lands they knew very little of.
This opinion comes from me as a person who has never read the books. I am, however, aware of the film being considered an honest, devoted depiction of Frank Herbert's Dune. And although I never read the book, I could see the passion poured into this film.
I almost cried watching a beautiful piece of cinema unfold during my life in this universe. I trembled hearing the voices of beings unknown and of instruments unknown. I cowered to the power of the Bene Gesserit, and winced at the malice of the Harkonnens. I held my heart as the worm made pits in the dunes to swallow things like a black hole with teeth. I empathized with the mother who feared for her son, and I, myself, feared for her son.
But this universe of emotions that I felt slowly disappeared from me as the movie progressed past its mid-point. The only things that kept me hooked were the mesmerizing shots and the entrancing score. By the end, I felt no emotions or connections with the film or its characters. And so, what started out as a passionate piece of cinema that moved me to tears, ended as a series of sequences that left me disconnected.
With all that said, however, I still am eager to watch the second part of this movie and I am in deep admiration with its first half. I have immense respect for the filmmaker, his cast, and his crew.
I don’t think I have been transported so deeply into the world of a film like this in a long time. I am itching to explore its depths. I’m yearning to be transported into new dimensions, feel my heart pound to the strange voices and sounds gripping at my soul and pulling me into its mysteries and superstitions. I just hope, that this time, it will carry these emotions all the way to the end.
Read: Dune 2 is coming to theatres in October 2023.
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