One of the main themes of Dune, Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic, is that blind trust in authority is dangerous. As I wrote shortly before the release of the first half of director Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation:
In a 1980 essay describing the origin of Dune, Herbert wrote that the story emerged out of his belief that “superheroes are disastrous for humankind” and that “even if we find a real hero (whatever — or whoever — that may be), eventually fallible mortals take over the power structure that always comes into being around such a leader.” And in a 1981 interview, he claimed that “there is definitely an implicit warning” in much of his work “against big government and especially against charismatic leaders,” because “such people — well-intentioned or not — are human beings who will make human mistakes.”
Even so, in more innocuous areas of life, certain authorities are worth at least considering. Such an area as, say, film, and such an authority as, perhaps, Steven Spielberg. The legendary director behind such classics as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and many more has now given part two of Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation his approval.
Appearing on a podcast with Villeneuve, Spielberg said Dune: Part Two “is truly a visual epic and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters” such that it’s “one of the most brilliant science fiction films” he has ever seen. Per film-industry website Deadline, Spielberg also placed Villeneuve in an elite class of directors he described as “builders of worlds” — i.e., those capable of creating a new reality and totally immersing viewers in it. He listed Georges Méliès, Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Ray Harryhausen, Federico Fellini, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Guillermo del Toro as examples. Modestly excluding himself, Spielberg added Villeneuve to the list.
The real reason to trust Spielberg’s authority on this, of course, is that it aligns with my own positive assessments of both parts of Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation. It can be risky to trust in any one person’s authority blindly. But if you’re going to do it, you might as well trust in mine. What’s the worst that could happen?
