This movie is a masterpiece. It is also problematic. I loved watching it, but the more I think about the more little nitpicks I see in it. Here are my thoughts. They are extremely rambly, you have been warned.
I’ll start with probably the biggest change. In this movie, the Fremen society are divided into two groups: Northern, and Southern. Northern Fremen are portrayed as being more secular and younger and with gender equality. Southern Fremen are portrayed as religious zealots. I liked how the narrative of the movie used ‘Show, don’t Tell’ to show that a patriarchy dominates Southern Fremen society. Early in the movie, the narrative had two groups of Northerners and Southerners on screen together: the Northerners led by Chani had young women mixing together with young men; meanwhile the Southerners led by Stilgar were all men.
I liked this change from the book. It did a great job of organically showing that the Fremen are not a cultural monolith. This change was important for actually pushing back against the ‘white savior’ trope. The book was always about poking a hole in the ‘chosen one’ narrative, so this change is a good modernization. The Northern Fremen are of the opinion that ‘the Fremen should free ourselves,’ which echoes more modern sentiments. As the Southern Fremen religious culture comes to dominate the Fremen as a whole, I liked how the last remaining Northern Fremen secularist chose to die rather than switch sides and worship Paul.
I also liked how Chani and Paul wound up on opposite sides of the Northern/Southern, Religious/Secular divide. By making them the eventual leaders of both factions, and then driving a wedge between their relationship, it helps hammer home the importance of the factions.
I liked the changes made to Reverend Mother Jessica. In the books, after she takes the Water of Life she recedes into the background of the book. I liked how the movie kept her relevant by having her play a active role in converting the Fremen to the worship of Paul. Having her being nefarious was brilliant characterization, helping the movie-watcher realize that ‘maybe the heroes are morally grey here.’
I tolerated the change to Alia. In the books, she’s born. In the movie, she remains in the womb. I don’t think it is better than or worse than the book version. In and of itself, I value this experiment by Villaneuve; I think this change worked.
I enjoyed the Harkonen black-and-white homeworld scenes. They were beautiful. They felt a bit self-indulgent, going on a bit too long, but overall good. HOWEVER, the more I think about it, I do not like the whole ‘creepy, bald, albino cave animal’ aesthetic of the Harkonens. In the books, Lady Jessica has red hair, and the Harkonens also have red hair. This is a clue early on that Lady Jessica is secretly the daughter of Baron Harkonen. Overall, I feel like the movie version of the Harkonens are too over-the-top evil. Even in the book they are evil, but the movies decided to one-up the books in terms of making them satanic.
Here are a few minor nitpicks.
In the movie, there’s a scene between the Reverend Mother Gaius Mohiam and Princess Irulan, where the Reverend Mother admits she engineered the fall of the Atreides because the Atreides were too difficult to control. This contrasts with the Harkonens, who Mohiam treats with favor. I was baffled by this change; I feel it undermines the characterization of Reverend Mother Giaus Mohiam and makes her seem stupid. In what universe are the psychotic Harkonens the better option than the normal Atreides? It it is preposterous to assume that Feyd-Rautha would be easier to control than Paul. I feel like this scene should have been deleted, it made the Bene Gesserit seem stupid.
About the guns in this movie. This movie has laser guns and regular guns, contrasting with swords. In the book, the personal shields everyone has prevent guns from doing anything. Laser guns explode when they are used against a shield. However, the movie never does this necessary worldbuilding. The movie wanted to show people sword fighting on the same battlefield as people with guns, but never did the work to show why swords and guns can be used on the same battlefield. I LOVED the aesthetic of swords+guns, but it just didn’t work without the necessary worldbuilding.
And finally, the last battle kinda sucked. It was over really fast. I was left thinking, ‘Wow, they must have run out of budget. This final battle was only five minutes long.’ After the nukes went off, it was basically over. When writing a heist story, you often have last-minute complications which your heroes have to improvise a solution to on the fly. Using that metaphor, this movie needed a last minute complication which the heroes would have to improvise a solution to on the fly.
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