Movie Scene: If you’re fond of sand dunes

IN the early ‘80s, George Lucas was looking around for someone to helm the third film in his Star Wars franchise ‘Revenge of the Jedi’ (it would soon be changed to ‘Return’). He asked David Lynch if he wanted the job but the director, who didn’t fancy helming a film featuring feral care bears declined, instead deciding to adapt Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi tome ‘Dune’. He did and it flopped but the film has since become somewhat of a cult classic.

Recently, Denis Villeneuve, he of Blade Runner 2049, Sicario and Arrival fame, decided he was going to have a crack at adapting the same book.

The desert planet Arrakis has for years been mined for a substance called ‘spice’ by the tyrannical Harkkonens, led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard) and his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) and with the consent of the galactic emperor.

However, the emperor then decides to strip the Harkkonens of that power and instead give it to the house of Atreides, led by Duke Leto (Oscar Isaacs) his wife Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and his son Paul (Timothee Chalamet). For his part, Paul is plagued by dreams, which his mother believes will help him fulfil an ancient prophecy.

For years, Dune was considered an ‘unfilmable’ book and Lynch’s version did nothing to dispel that notion, taking the book’s dense narrative and multiple plotlines and truncating them into one film.

Villeneuve wisely only chooses to do one part of the book, creating clear plotlines for the audience to follow and immerse themselves in, parallels of the recent colonial incursions of Iraq and Afghanistan are obvious.

The sparse, clear storytelling can at times move glacially slowly but it’s not all bad.

There’s a tense scene between the young Atreides and head of the Bene Gesserit, Mother Mohaim (Charlotte Rampling) and a spectacular Harkkonen raid on the Atreides Arrakis stronghold.

As well as that, Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa’s) fight scenes are great with long shots of the vast, beautiful world created by Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser – a whole galaxy away from the steam punkish world of Lynch.

Ships as big as cities, the Mayan-inspired architecture of the Arrakis stronghold and not forgetting the imposing sandworms for which the film is primarily known – all of these things evoke a sense of wonder and the world building is nothing short of spectacular. It really is just incredible what they’ve created here, all of which is accompanied by a pulsating if slightly overbearing Hans Zimmer score.

All of this is lovely to see, but there are moments when you just wish they’d get on with the plot.

The two-hour-and-35-minute run time allows the stacked cast enough time to breathe so that no-one feels left out and they all perform admirably, especially Chalamet and Ferguson who are terrific.

The only person who might feel aggrieved is Zendaya playing Chani, a mysterious girl who haunts Paul’s dreams, edging him towards his supposed divined destiny. She’s reduced to shots which look like she’s either filming a biblical epic or another perfume advert, although I suspect the role is expanded in part two, should it ever get made.

Despite its potential flaws in the plot department, Dune part one is still an engrossing, visually stunning treat.

By Paul McElwee