The ‘Dune’ Movie Is a Beautiful, Faithful Tease

Last month, I asked a question: Will director Denis Villeneuve capture the greatness of Dune? Writing in advance of the release of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic, I wondered if the film, which I have been anticipating for years, would end up as the masterpiece that the talent involved, both behind the camera and in front of it, suggested it could be. Having now seen Dune, I am pleased to report that the answer is, for the most part, yes — with one major caveat.

Here’s a brief summary for those of you who have somehow missed my borderline–obsessive writing about Dune. In the far future, mankind has taken to the stars, yet exists in a kind of feudal political arrangement: a grand empire in which competing dynastic families vie for dominance. One such family, the noble Atreides, takes control of the desert planet Arrakis (or Dune) from a rival dynasty, the malevolent Harkonnens. In ceaseless pursuit of the spice melange, a drug that exists only on Arrakis and that enables a kind of prescience for users on which space travel depends (making it the most important substance in the universe), the Harkonnens have oppressed the Fremen, the indigenous population of Arrakis. When the Atreides arrive, they seek to make amends with the Fremen, but their efforts are snuffed out when the Harkonnens, with the empire’s help (as it fears Atreides popularity), ambush the Atreides in an attempted extermination.

Last month, I asked a question: Will director Denis Villeneuve capture the greatness of Dune? Writing in advance of the release of Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic, I wondered if the film, which I have been anticipating for years, would end up as the masterpiece that the talent involved, both behind the camera and in front of it, suggested it could be. Having now seen Dune, I am pleased to report that the answer is, for the most part, yes — with one major caveat.

Here’s a brief summary for those of you who have somehow missed my borderline–obsessive writing about Dune. In the far future, mankind has taken to the stars, yet exists in a kind of feudal political arrangement: a grand empire in which competing dynastic families vie for dominance. One such family, the noble Atreides, takes control of the desert planet Arrakis (or Dune) from a rival dynasty, the malevolent Harkonnens. In ceaseless pursuit of the spice melange, a drug that exists only on Arrakis and that enables a kind of prescience for users on which space travel depends (making it the most important substance in the universe), the Harkonnens have oppressed the Fremen, the indigenous population of Arrakis. When the Atreides arrive, they seek to make amends with the Fremen, but their efforts are snuffed out when the Harkonnens, with the empire’s help (as it fears Atreides popularity), ambush the Atreides in an attempted extermination.