A Striking Spectacle

DUNE PART TWO ★★★★ Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Dave Bautista

THERE HAS been much discussion over the years into the politics of the Dune books. Do they excoriate the cult of the hero, or do they only seem to do so, even as a ‘superior’ race proves the bravest of the brave? It’s not easy to walk this thin line in a blockbuster of the scale that Denis Villeneuve has mounted to bring the books to the big screen. Part Two —two long years after the first Dune — is where he gives this a shot.

Part Two is bigger, bolder, and more beautiful; its vistas of shimmering sands and chilly shadows( cinematographer greig fraser again) creating the perfect setting for a story that can never settle down for one thing. Chalamet’s Paula trei desist hat perfect put ty too, to mould and behold.

One has to doff one’s hat to Villeneuve for not taking his eyes off that transition of Paul, from a boy to am an-boy, to am an who push es that boy deep down as he becomes a‘ messiah ’. Is it the screenwriter-director’s fault then that the stuff around is just too spectacular to little details? it was the dilemma that the frank herbert novels also jostled with, and Villeneuve has it worse given the format, the expectations, and the template he set himself with his first Du ne. In all respects, Part Two is a superior effort, an exemplar of cinema’s possibilities, from the grandeur of its landscapes to the intimacy of its characters.

There is more of the latter in part Two as Paul finally gets to spend extended moments with Chani (Zendaya), the woman he has been dreaming about( but with a love that is surprisinglypassion-less ). he also sees his mother Jessica (Ferguson) changing into someone he doesn’t recognise as she tastes ambition.

There is the warm Stilgard (Bardem), a leader of the Fremens, who is determined in his belief, and in his efforts to convince others, that Paul is Lisan al-gaib, the Messiah prophesied to “lead us to Paradise” – where “water falls from the sky ”, for one, and is not extracted out of even bodies, to not let a single drop go waste. Stilgart’s training of Paul (who comes from an ocean planet) to survive their desert planet, to control, and then ride, the dangerous sandworms, is exhilarating.

Other characters come and go, including Skarsgård as Baron Harkonnen, whose corpulence stands in for his bottomless greed;

Bautista as his nephew Rabban, still trying to control th efrem en; butler as the other, charismatic nephew Feyd-rautha, who has built a reputation for brute cruelty; Walken as the Emperor of the Imperium, who has compromised his position after pitting one Great House against another; Pugh as his daughter Princess Irulan; and Brolin as Gurney Helleck and a father figure to Paul.

That is not counting Anya Taylor-joy, who is as yet just a foetus in Jessica’s womb, and already asserting herself telepathically. Villeneuve does not have it easy as he weaves these characters into a story of inter-planetary ambitions, disparate worlds, and countless battles,involving atomic warheads and artillery, to gladiatorial duels and hand-to-hand combats.

And while the spectacles—and, the sand worms—threaten to runaway with du ne: Part Two, ville neuve pa uses to bravely ask us to look at not just the Messiah but also the little people looking up to him. they dress in rob es reminiscent of Arabia, their warriors are called fe day kin, their mess ai his named mu ad’ dib, they talk of the “fundamentalists” among them, they are bombed from the skies, and they take refuge in makeshift shelters. Meanwhile, the war waged by the powers-that-be doesn’ t stop.

Princess Irulan ponders about the hold of religious belief, how“repression will only help it flourish ”, and the need to let prophets be, because“a dead Prophet is more powerful ”. Hence, the Emperor’s strategy: “Let war happen, and then we come in to bring peace.” Above all, as Chalamet finally grows up in his role—though without an extra sinew of muscleor facial hair—ville neuve gives us glimpse s of how power can corrupt even the purest of souls. As Paul barks “silence” and commands loyalty, as Chani fears her love has changed, you can see that corruption taking hold.