Denis Villeneuve’s Dune

Frank Herbert’s Dune is a story about many things, but perhaps the most central is the formation of a superhuman mind. Much of the story and its plot points takes place within the inner thoughts of Paul Atreides. In its written form, these thoughts are easily expressed, and the resulting story is deep and powerful. However, these inner thoughts, which are so pivotal to the story, pose a difficult hurdle to anyone attempting to translate the story to film.

Expressing inner thoughts in film is always a challenge. Mostly, inner thoughts are inferred, which normally works because the audience can put themselves in the shoes of other normal characters. Sometimes, screenwriters must resort to putting a character’s thoughts into dialog. Rarely, a voice-over is used, as was often done in Films Noir adapted from detective novels, but this weakens the medium of film, and audiences generally do not like it. Sometimes, keeping inner thoughts a secret to the audience can be used to create a surprise with a pay-off later in the film.

David Lynch chose to address this problem by using metaphorical visions and visuals to stand in for the mental revelations and changes that were happening in Paul’s mind. This probably worked okay for those members of the audience who had already read the novel, but for the rest of the audience, it simply discarded that central component of the story.

It is therefore not surprising that news of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of the book was met with skepticism by the novel’s fans. Did Villeneuve have some trick up his sleeve? Or was this new film just going to add to the pile of failures?

“Dune: Part One” shut those naysayers up. The art and style of the new film was worlds beyond anything that had come before it. Everything about it was more detailed and authentic. Lynch’s deviations from the novel were mostly done away with. Everything about it promised to deliver a film that did justice to the novel and solve the dilemma of portraying Paul’s mental changes on screen.

But they were, all of them, deceived.

Within the timeline of the story, Paul’s metamorphosis had barely begun by the end of the events in “Dune: Part One”. Villeneuve had hooked us without having to prove, in Part One, that he could solve the mental storytelling problem.

Villeneuve did try. At several points in his film, Paul demonstrated knowledge, prescience, and understanding that no normal human could have possessed. Did this adequately convey to the audience what had happened to Paul’s mind? No. However, it did make it understood that something had happened to Paul’s mind, and that he now knew things that normal people wouldn’t. This is important, because the subsequent events of the story could only happen as a consequence of Paul’s metamorphosis. If will be even more important if more Dune films are made, which seems likely, since it is the central factor driving the events of the subsequent novels.

However, what we got in “Dune: Part Two” is mostly an action film. I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed by that. The action in the Lynch film was lacking. However, the science-fiction and the political factors of the story were significantly diminished, possibly as a judgement call about the appetites for such things among American film audiences.

Overall, I would say that Villeneuve’s films are a positive contribution to the constellation of Dune adaptations. However, they are still very far from being able to replace the novel.