” A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. “
The line from Dune is extremely significant for filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve who are genuinely striving towards redefining the genre of science fiction in celluloid.
The movie is another adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic that goes by the same name, published in the year 1965.
The Roger Ebert website describes the novel as “a futuristic geopolitical allegory that was anti-corporate, pro-eco-radicalism, and Islamophilic.”
The director quite dexterously attempts to narrate a story evidently different and many folds more profound through his retelling of Herbert’s classic. An attempt however doesn’t come without apparent drawbacks. Specifically in moments where Villeneuve tries to alter the structure of the narrative and reveal enthusiastically a little too much, a little too ostentatious.
The attempt however must be lauded irrespective of the outcome. Denis Villeneuve’s brave attempt of inducing profundity within the peripherals of sci-fi pyrotechnics is a leap worthy of appreciation. Credit must go to the one who tries to break horizons and therefore if not fully Dune and Denis Villeneuve have been partly successful.
The thing that makes Dune different is the conviction with which Frank Herbert wrote the novel. The same conviction led Denis Villeneuve to take a bold step in the domain of cinema. The intent in both cases has a lot to do with deconstructing a certain structure which (barring a few exceptions) was previously followed by authors and directors.
The beauty of dune exists in the absence of popular tropes in the movie. It becomes more profound by the minute as the viewers dive deep into the psyche of the characters. Their powers, their vulnerabilities, their fears and their machinations become the unique selling proposition of an otherwise science fiction adaptation.
