More is More -DUNE PART II

By Maribeth Thueson

“Power over spice is power over all.” So we are told at the beginning of Dune: Part Two. Spice, which is produced by the giant sandworms of the desert planet Arrakis, makes space travel possible, and gives mind-altering powers to those who are sensitive to it, making spice the most valuable substance in the universe. It’s no surprise that the Imperium’s most powerful factions – the Emperor, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Harkonnens, the Atreides, and the other ruling houses – fight over Arrakis, to the detriment of the Indigenous people, the Fremen.

Substitute oil for spice and Arabia for Arrakis, then consider that the Fremen are based on the Bedouins and that the Fremen language is based on Arabic, and you’ll have some idea of why Frank Herbert’s novel 1965 Dune and its sequels have continuing relevance, from the lasting effects of colonialism to the tooth-and-nail fight of entrenched oil interests to keep the oil flowing despite global warming’s existential threat.

In director Denis Villeneuve’s first installment of the story, Dune (2021), which covered the first half of the novel, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), his Bene Gesserit concubine Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and his son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) travel from their ocean planet Caladan to Arrakis to take over spice production at the behest of the Emperor. However, this is only a ruse to allow the previous rulers, House Harkonnen, to eliminate the Atreides. The Harkonnens attack, killing Leto and forcing Paul and Jessica to escape into the desert, where they take refuge with the Fremen. 

Dune was a feast for the eyes and ears, but some people felt it moved a little slowly. Not to worry. In Dune: Part Two, the action ramps up as the feast continues, with more sparkling desert, more crashing chords of doom, more explosions, more Bene Gesserit headdresses, more worms, and more lightning-fast hand-to-hand combat, as Paul learns the ways of the desert from Fremen Chani (Zendaya) and Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and leads a guerilla war against the Harkonnens. Meanwhile, Jessica imbibes the toxic Water of Life, which enables her to become a Fremen Reverend Mother. She’s pregnant, and the drug makes her fetus preternaturally aware. 

But it doesn’t stop there. When Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) fails to stop the guerillas, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), who soaks in a vat of what looks like crude oil, orders his other nephew, Feyd-Rautha, to take over the job. Austin Butler steals the show as Feyd, a charismatic psychopath who is handy with knives and competes in rigged gladiatorial contests on the Harkonnen homeworld, Giedi Prime. The planet has a black sun which leeches color from the environment, rendering it in a stark black-and-white. These scenes were shot in infrared by cinematographer Greig Fraser, without the gray tones of normal black-and-white photography, making them eerie and otherworldly. Feyd-Rautha feeds on pain, and when Butler’s black maw opens and smiles in his bald white head it’s like a medieval hell-mouth coming to devour you. When he kills his opponents, fireworks explode like black inkblots against the white sky. A confrontation between Feyd-Rautha and Paul is inevitable.

Even as the action ramps up, the socio-political themes become more apparent, and the performances deepen. Ferguson gives Jessica a steely ruthlessness as she schemes with her in-utero daughter to exploit a Fremen prophecy, planted generations ago by the Bene Gesserit, that a messiah would free the Fremen. She works to convince the Fremen that Paul is that messiah. She’s more.

Some of the Fremen, like Stilgar, believe he is. Others, such as Chani, don’t believe in the prophecy, and think that instead of following a foreigner the Fremen should free themselves. Chani and Paul are in love, and work well together fighting the Harkonnens, but Chani is deeply distrustful of any larger ambitions Paul may have. She’s more.

Paul, for his part, has disturbing visions of the death and destruction he could cause if he embraces the messiah myth and he tries to deny this fate, but circumstances spiral out of his control. Chalomet reveals a darkness we haven’t seen from him before, and he disrupts the white savior narrative by showing the toll such expectations take on Paul. He’s more.

Josh Brolin and Charlotte Rampling return as Gurney Halleck and the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and there are new characters: Florence Pugh as the Emperor’s daughter, Princess Irulan, and Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot Fenring, who is assigned by the Reverend Mother to seduce Feyd-Rautha. You’d think “poor girl,” but don’t worry, she’s Bene Gesserit and up to the task. Christopher Walken plays the Emperor as a worn old man, without his usual shtick, although someone else might have been a better choice. They’re more.

The special effects are top-notch, especially when it comes to the sandworms and a thrilling sequence in which Paul first learns how to call a worm and ride it. The camera rides the top of the worm with Paul so the audience experiences his limited point of view, with the wind blowing and the sand streaming as Paul desperately hangs on as the worm speeds across the sand. It’s better than a roller coaster ride. It’s more.

The entire movie is more. But surely even Part Two is not enough, and there must be more Dune, especially with the way the end of Part Two sets up a future movie. Why yes, Villeneuve is working on the script for Part Three, which will be based on the second novel in the series, Dune Messiah. It won’t be out for several years, though, so in the meantime, see Part Two on the largest screen you can and store up the memories, because this is absolutely a film in which more is more.