Adapting a famous novel is always challenging work. Especially if the novel has a rich fantasy or sci-fi world built-in with interconnected storylines and complex characters. And the director is in more trouble if the book has cult followers. Not many adaptations have been successful in this game. To name the most successful adaptation, name of Lord of the Rings or in terms of small screen Games of Thrones first couple of seasons comes to mind. And about Dune, it was named as unadaptable because of its many captivating ideas, rich world, and multidimensional characters. But after watching this adaptation by Denis Villeneuve, it is safe to say that this adaptation of Dune is more than any readers or audience can hope for.
Dune tells a story of a realm. A realm far from our time. To be precise almost 20000 years after our time. A realm where there are several planets living under an empire call Padishah. Different planets are under different houses. Such as House Harkonnen, House Atreides, etc. Our hero, Paul belongs to the house Atreides. Where the antagonist Baron is the chief of House Harkonnen. The whole warfare, politics, economy of this realm cycles around spice aka Melange, a precious psychoactive chemical product without which interstellar travel is impossible. It also enhances awareness of beings who comes in contact with it. And it is also seriously addictive which means people across the empire who have taken it, need it on a daily basis. Thus spice became the most important element in the globe. And it can only be found in the desert planet Arrakis. Those who control the Arrakis, control the whole economy. House Harkonnen has been controlling Arrakis and the spice production for the past 80 years. Suddenly emperor decides to change the authority of Arrakis to house Atreides. And that's where all the chaos began.
Dune remains a political story just like the book. There is no doubt about it. Everyone is a stakeholder in what's happening, everyone has an agenda. There are massive planets, massive ships, massive militaries across the houses, but despite having these gigantic establishments, the figures and politics remain the potent element of the film. The relationship between them is what plays an important part in the film. Like Paul and his mother Jessica, or Paul and his father Leto, Paul and the girl from his dream Chani, the Bene Gesserit's, everyone made some contribution to the whole story. While political conflicts created the way of the story, characters shaped the story's fate alongside themselves.
The brilliance of this film's political intricacy is what made this film so tense and exciting. This might be promoted as a sci-fi action flick, but deep down when you see it, you can see how gritty adventure political drama it is actually. Leto is worried about what will happen to his family after they go to Arrakis, Harkonnen is angry, there might be a treacherous snake in his legion, what's Bene Gesserit is up to, even Lady Jessica is sounding menacing as she is mysterious as any Bene Gesserit can be, what's the empire's motive behind all this - All of this came masterfully to the runtime of almost 145 minutes. And delivering all this tension with Paul's journey of self-discovery was phenomenal. Paul's mental state, dilemmas, vision, abilities everything poured out fully from Paul. To carry such a heavy character of Paul was a heavy task and Timothee Chalamet passed with flying colors.
As anyone can see, why Dune was called unadaptable as a film because of this extremely rich world filled with all those subplots and a storyline with complex themes and ideologies. But Dennis Villeneuve took his time with Dune Part One and built the film from the ground for the audience. He gave the key characters time and dialogues to realize their potential but put little details all over to give an idea about that Dune world. Without messing with the pacing he introduced many characters and adjusted them into this semi-political thriller. Many characters got little to no screen time throughout the film but I can't say any of their presence went in vain just because of the tight script. Not all had momentum, but almost no one wasted their moments.
There are many other key characters throughout Dune's book such as Mentat who does the thinking work, The Guild who controls interstellar travel, Bene Gesserit's, etc. Among these characters, only Bene Gesserit got enough screen time to give an idea about who they are. They are intriguing and key figures throughout the book and it's relieving to see how Denis managed to give them an astute portrayal. An important thing to mention here to the non-book readers is that Bene Gesserit is a sisterhood who has some sort of powers like controlling people with the voice, and other mental ability which is taught in school focusing only on women. They have been exchanging bloodlines between the families to produce the so-called Kwisatz Haderach (the messiah). Even Duke Leto or Baron Harkonnen is the product of this blood exchange. Every royal house must marry or take one Bene Gesserit as a concubine for the sake of producing the Messiah. And anything significant happens in the empire, they always influence the events from the shadows. For those reasons, even the empire itself is spooked by the sisterhood. Although not all powers or not all their influences are shown in the film, their image and their capabilities had become a matter of interest to anyone who watched the film.
If the storytelling's brilliance is kept aside there are also two big standouts in the film - production design and the score. From the meticulous dresses to the grand ships and buildings, the audience will get lost the moment they see the world created by the Dune team. It's grand, it is lavish, it is harsh, it is brutal, and the way the cinematographer captured the film, saying it eyegasming would be the least.
As for the score, I wouldn’t say Hans Zimmer outdid himself neither it is his best work. But the best thing about this particular score and sound mixing is that it just fits perfectly with the film. It's mystic, feels very dark, has a nice touch of excitement with an alien world vibe. Every now and then when there is a thrilling scene, the score did pound heart a little but it didn’t out shadow the scenes or dialogues themselves. So, Hans Zimmer's work here remained apt alongside the brilliant score design and mixing.
As for now, I don't have any complaints about Dune part one cause I'm pretty overwhelmed with all the frames and moments of the film. I had a hard time digesting the fact that Dennis actually made this possible. But yes, there are some things about Dune's world and characters that couldn't be mentioned due to adapting but that doesn't take away the amazing experience of a film that is Dune's. From beginning to end it's a masterpiece. Some are complaining about the mere ending of this epic but it's what makes this great in my opinion. Things ended in a place where Paul had a major character moment and made a serious decision about himself which makes the audience excited for the coming parts and in some ways, cautiously hopeful too. If you look once again, you can see how brilliantly done the ending is. You can also leave a smile upon hearing Chani, "This is only the beginning".