Suiting up for the new 'DUNE' movie

It is about time... we highlighted this epic science-fiction production coming out this September (after being delayed due to Covid-19). 

 

It will be an important movie because it remains an important book (1965). The only other adaptation of this visionary sci-fi novel by James Herbert was made back in 1980s by equally visionary director David Lynch. The result was a doubly resonant cocktail;  a cult classic, but which divided audiences despite being deeply distinctive whatever you - personally - gained from it. 

 

 

Dune: but what is it and why?

 

It was also a classic PC game, but if you’ve read the book, it’s possible you’ve forgotten why it’s such a powerful read, since it’s also rather convoluted, although brilliant. There are two ‘houses’ of power and there are betrayals, and there is an overlooked warrior people hidden within an advanced civilisation. And there is a mysterious substance called the Spice Melange. The Spice is also a key to space travel, so whoever controls this, controls all the power in this universe.

 

For those already familiar, or just with the vivid David Lynch movie, it’s something which produced some charged and memorable scenes in the 80s, long before Game of Thrones. We also learn more about the intoxicating nature of the Spice.

 

In the new version, from equally visionary director Denis Villeneuve ('Blade Runner 2') it seems like we will see some of the scenes represented again, in his updated depiction. 

 

The story, based in a galaxy far, far away (but imagined pre Star Wars), stands as a spiritual saga depicting a rise to power, a revolution against a once all-powerful Emperor and an ecological or cultural one too, born out of the 1960s and 1970s spiritual revolution.

 

It’s this latter element which also makes it as relevant and timeless as ever, to this present age, as we desperately attempt to adapt ourselves better to our planet. 

 

This is through its depiction of the tribal people who live in technological harmony with their environment, (see ‘permaculture’) which seems far ahead of its time. The ‘Fremen’ are a group of tight-knit, secretive people living close to a landscape, perhaps also inspired by the Australian aboriginees. But they have adapted special suits for life without much water, and here, they await a new leader who must first adopt their ways, and understand them, before leading them to their destiny.

 

In the context of an inter-planetary struggle between houses, and involving control of the Spice, this could also relate to the nuclear struggle for power in the 1950s between the east and the west, and the space race to the moon. 

 

James Herbert also wrote many sequels, making Dune into its own saga, but which remain relatively lesser known than the first. He continues some decent storytelling, interlaced with reflections on the nature of revolutions (carrying too the seeds of their own destruction). However, many agree that none re-capture the strength of the first book. 

 

So… when the new ‘Dune’ movie adaptation comes out, you’ll get to witness these themes vividly again, and bear them in mind, in their new interpretation.... Don’t miss it!

 

 

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Note: An adaptation of another classic science-fiction book, Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' (1950s) is also emerging this year. We will cover this in an upcoming blog post.