Dune (2021)

Not an ivory tower, but maybe a Kaminoan flat. Like Jango Fett's.
I could live there.


I dig that movie.

So you can take your 'ivory tower' remark and cork it in a bottle, Pyro. And throw that bottle in the Indian Ocean ...which means you gotta fly there first. That's right: your pithy snark just costs you a plane ticket! 

Ingram - 1
Pyro - broke

The critical reception and box office projection looks good (for the post-Covid world anyway). So hopefully we'll get the second part. Ok then, I'm in

I saw Dune: Part One the other day, and I was extremely impressed. What snarky dialogue? What lack of politics? It’s pretty much the exemplar of polished production values.

Having re-watched the main trailer last night, there's two basic words that describe my general response: dour and pretentious. That's just how I feel when I watch a trailer full of dark lighting and bleak colour palettes, a heavy emphasis on war and doom, characters speaking in morbid tones and never cracking a smile, and the now-typical emphasis on apocalyptic conflagration. The sombre, funereal tone of modern films is a serious turn-off to me. It's kinda why I like Star Wars. It deals with big themes, but is never encumbered by them ("The Last Jedi" probably gets the closest), nor is it ever in danger of gravitationally collapsing under the weight of its own self-seriousness.

The Alan Smithee/David Lynch film, as flawed and as compromised as it may be, at least has a somewhat campy, colourful texture, and good actors giving zesty, warm performances that walk a line between histrionic and humane. It's hard to beat heavyweights like Patrick Stewart and Max von Sydow. Also: Kyle MacLachlan's Paul Atreides is the right blend of arrogant, eager, uncertain, and self-assured. Contrast that Paul Atreides with this new one: He seems, for want of a fuller description, whiny and morose. Or in other words: plain emo. I guess this is "Dune" for the "Twilight"/"Joker" generation and those raised on those boorish, flabby Marvel movies. 

I feel like the line has also been erased between television and cinema. This Denis Villeneuve fella has one of those fancy auteur names, but he just makes expensive Netflix/HBO TV movies. "Rogue One" syndrome. I really can't tell the difference. Maybe it's the digital cinematography and that heavily filtered look? All this stuff just unenthuses me (is that a word?). I get the attraction. There's something cathedral-like about the images and Villeneuve's command of the frame. And he seems to be pursuing a vision of some kind. He's clearly good at what he does. But there's little I personally find seductive. As usual, the beautiful man that is Armond White nails it for me:

www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/movie-review-dune-and-doom/

Just take his opening sentences:


I suppose that's what I despise: that heavy, boring presentation of malaise -- in and of itself, dreary, and guilty of a further sin: promulgating a bleak, sallow vision of the world. Like, seriously, lighten the fuck up. A serious artist can, of course, do whatever the hell they choose. But then, when there's already a welter of movies framing things with slit-your-wrists faux-edginess and downbeat theatrics, it's hard to get excited about one more entry in the sci-fi/fantasy category that does exactly the same (no matter how well-made it may be). Instead of going against the trend (as Lucas did with Star Wars), it's riding with the trend.

I guess I've just never liked this side of the "art blockbuster" (read: Hollywood machine) experience. Never particularly enjoyed it with LOTR, the Nolan Batman films, or even the more "meta" Marvel franchise. 

Anyway, never one to hold back, White doesn't relent from criticising the Lynch movie, either:


Just thought I'd throw that in. Most people can recognise that the 1984 film is fundamentally flawed. It's ironic that David Lynch passed on directing ROTJ because he wanted to put his stamp on a different sci-fi/fantasy property (that was clearly some kind of influence on Star Wars), but he ended up being defeated by the magnitude of the project. Thus, while ROTJ is a more straightforward film in some respects, it's also a much more virtuoso performance. Maybe Lynch's "Dune" is Anakin's fever dream moments before expiring after Luke removes the mask. No wonder he hated sand.

White is speaking my language again here:


And here:


He's incredibly blunt, this Armond guy, but I love him (even those times when I disagree).

This is a more abstract concern of mine, but interesting that White raises it:


Anyone desperate to romanticise Islam and construct a one-sided, self-flagellating polemic against the West should read Ibn Warraq's "Why I Am Not A Muslim" beginning to end. At the risk of straying beyond the boundaries of this thread (and even the forum), that's all I'll say about that. 

I guess I just don't like my sci-fi/fantasy movies to be bland, tedious, one-note, or condescending -- let alone dull and solipsistic. FFS, do something interesting that doesn't involve heavy lashings of bleakness and whiny petulance in main characters like that's the best mankind can ever say about itself. God, I miss George.

I read on TV tropes that Dune fans hate Star Wars accusing Lucas of Plagiarism

Lucas is a plagiarist, but he gets away with it because he plagiarises well. What he plagiarises, he throws in a blender, such that the concoction that emerges may have derivative ingredients, but is a wholly original infusion: genuine cinematic gold dust. Or Jawa Juice.

I mean, isn't that what the Jawas are? Collectors of scrap. And a touch shady in their operations (by capturing droids, they are essentially slave-catchers). And then there's Anakin, who builds C-3PO (the "narrator" of the tale) and a podracer from spare parts. 

I once read and saved the following comment under an IMDb user review of "The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers":

"Great artists take what they find grandly, like conquerors; minor ones take like petty thieves."

You needn't have any doubt which I hold Lucas to be. 

The funny thing here is people can never decide what Star Wars is a pale imitation of. Is it "The Hidden Fortress"? "Dune"? "The Lord Of The Rings"? "Valerian"? I mean, listen: I understand why "Dune" fans would be pissed off. Frank Herbert's novel is widely considered in science-fiction circles to be a masterpiece of the genre -- or at least a heavyweight contender. Star Wars, especially if you're talking of just the first movie, can't really compare.

Moreover, there is a case to be made that Lucas sailed pretty close to the wind as far as pilfering from Akira Kurosawa goes. Lucas was evidently worried at the time, since he considered buying the rights to "The Hidden Fortress" (as he first tried acquiring the rights to "Flash Gordon"). And Kurosawa had already sued Sergio Leone for ripping off "Yojimbo" with "A Fistful Of Dollars", which Lucas had to have been aware of. And then Lucas effectively did it again with TPM. This time, he went and ripped off James Gurney's "Dinotopia". Lucas clearly knew he'd done wrong and made the problem go away with money (he called Gurney up, but only after TPM came out, and made a deal). Did you think Lucas became a billionaire by always being a nice, straight-arrow sort of guy? I take you back to the IMDb user quote.

Archival TFN news article about the "Dinotopia" thing here:

www.theforce.net/episode1/story/dinotopia_creator_talks_about_star_wars_80085.asp

Archival Google Groups discussion about the same topic here:

groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc/c/OJjDtWzt4Sw

Original article link here (doesn't work and isn't accessible on the Wayback Machine, either):

emag.echostation.com/interview/gurney.htm

P.S. I've read the article before and might even have a saved copy somewhere. I can assure you Gurney mentions a deal being worked out with Lucas, but that he can't talk about it.

So, you could say, it's complicated. In fact, a lot stories are basically re-tellings of other stories. There's nothing unusual in that. But where Lucas went into more of a grey area is in copying specific design elements (i.e., not just leaving it at a few names or story beats). His artistic process around the "Dinotopia" thing is very shady. He obviously gave Gurney hush money. But that's what money allows you to do: you can basically pay off anyone and control things to your own advantage (not perfectly, but you can do it). That's capitalism. And Lucas is a very good capitalist who made his father proud: the middle class American drag-racing rebel who became a movie magnate and a merchandiser extraordinaire.

But this is not really a bash. Star Wars is clearly bigger than any of its source material. It's a gesamtkunstwerk -- and those don't come around too often.

Anyway, to keep things on-topic, here is a page analysing some of the main parallels between Star Wars and "Dune":

www.moongadget.com/origins/dune.html

To attempt some measure of defense, the original novel was forever destined to be a ponderous, even jaded, screen adaptation. By Herbert's design, the story of Paul as a messiah eventually proves to be a cautionary tale and therefore in tandem with its commentary on cyclical societal failings and the stygian depths of existential consciousness, a briskly paced pulp-space adventure would not -- nor ever -- a Dune movie make. That Team Villeneuve has waded into the enterprise with such monastic cinema is in and of itself, in theory, not my issue.

Ingram
Funny enough David Lynch was offered the Job to Direct ROTJ