The discussion of Dune is in full swing, and commentary and interpretation have already overwhelmed.
Among them, there are many long-winded popular science and whiplash analysis: there are introductions to the various political forces and feudal caiyi systems in "Dune"; there are historical memorabilia that comb through the "dune universe" according to the timeline; there are reviewing the film history of Zodrowski, David Lynch and other pioneers who "folded the sand"; there are proper terms that popularize the dune world; there are metaphors from a geopolitical point of view; there are desert ecology focusing on the planet Erax; and there is an analysis of the "great silence" that has always been consistent in Velonneuve's science fiction films. aesthetic......
Dune 2021
Advent 2016
There are so many topics that can be extended from Dune.
So, let's start with a small point and answer one of the most basic and important questions: Can ordinary viewers who know nothing about Dune, have neither read the novel nor done their homework in advance, understand this movie?
"The biggest challenge is to make sure that the audience can enjoy the film without having read the original, but at the same time, it's more important to me that the fans of the book can find all the elements, the poetry and the atmosphere of the original they loved." Dennis Villeneuve once said this in an interview.
Villeneuve on the set of Dune
Exploring the artistic expression of "in-depth" for the broadest public is admirable, but it has to be admitted that it is almost an impossible task. "The most difficult novel in history" is by no means a waste of time. Originally, any novel that wanted to be transformed into an outstanding audiovisual product would encounter the first stage of the script of "simplifying complexity" - especially for the magnificent six-volume IP of "Dune", which is comparable to Marvel and Star Wars, this "subtraction" is too difficult to do.
Dune includes 6 novels by Frank Herbert and dozens of fan works
Dune's ideas encompass politics, religion, philosophy, ecology, and even the ultimate proposition of where humanity will go. Faced with such an "encyclopedia" that has never been successfully put on the big screen - to choose between a voluminous volume of texts and a large number of characters, it is easy to fall into the fog and get lost.
But this is Villeneuve, after all. Can he do what he says? —— Although there are slight regrets, it is basically not a broken word. The ratings of Chinese and foreign fan websites are proof of this.
Next, let's talk about Villeneuve's specific operation of "subtraction".
1. Velonneuve's "subtraction"
First, of course, to split this epic film into two parts. In fact, the film is only half the content of the first dune film — which is much more reliable than David Lynch's version of Dune trying to swallow the entire novel.
Dune 1984
Convincing the producer Legendary Pictures did not bother Villeneuve too much, first, he established his position in Hollywood with "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049", and second, Legendary Pictures also intended to see "Dune" as the beginning of a series of films. Today, when many classic IP dividends have been exhausted and traditional theaters are facing the decline of streaming media, it is also a helpless move to sacrifice a new "Dune Universe" signboard.
But even if it is only a "simple" part of the novel, Jodulovsky's words at that time are still in the ear: "I don't know what the first 100 pages are saying." What Villeneuve had to do was to be like the navigator of the Astronautical Guild, to show the audience a clear path of understanding in the vast universe of the dunes, while satisfying the encyclopedic background. He said, "Try not to let a lot of exposition confuse the audience at the beginning." It took us a long time to find the right balance. In my opinion, this way to find "balance points" is to cut out unnecessary characters in the relaxed plot advancement, and throw out countless "proper nouns" that belong to "Dune" one by one and insert them into the whole film step by step.
Take, for example, the opening scene before the official appearance of the film: Neware shows a war scene of the Fremmans against the Haknan colonization. Through the mouth of Chini, played by Zandaya, we can only learn about the four "new terms" of Erakos, Spice, Haknen family, and emperor (Shadam Corino IV) for the time being. Attracted by the grand war scenes, even for audiences who know nothing about Dune, it is not difficult to remember these four "knowledge points". Look at the treatment of the scene after that:
In the dinner table scene between the film's protagonist Paul Urtridi and his mother Jessica, Villeneuve continues to release two "new terms": voice control and the Beni Jesserite Sisterhood. Because these two proper nouns are more complex and difficult to explain for a while, Neware quickly moved to the next scene after only a little preparation. From this, we find that whether it is the opening war scene or the argument scene at the dinner table, Newva chooses to release the "new term" in the strong dramatic scenes - which makes the audience feel boring to receive but not clear for a while.
This is followed by Paul's "one-man show" of learning about the planet Erracos, where the quiet atmosphere allows the audience to patiently receive a lot of information. Therefore, the radio began to explain in depth the most important core concepts of Erakos, Freyman, sandworm, and spice mentioned in the opening paragraph to strengthen the audience's cognition. During this period, Newva introduced new terms such as the Astronautical Guild and the Navigator, which are not so important to the main line of the film.
In the "Fengzhi Play" after the "one-man show", Newvale did not introduce new terms, because this play was so important as the beginning of the emperor's political conspiracy and the power struggle between the two major families, he had to let the audience see clearly, and temporarily alleviated people's fatigue of "new word acceptance". This forms the breath and rhythm of the film.
That is to say, except for a few concepts such as "distillation suit", most of the proper nouns in "Dune" are not explained clearly at one time, but are scattered in the specific plots of many chapters and pieced together little by little.
Neware's way of distinguishing between the two sets of concepts of "disposable" or "slow" is to try to clarify the concepts that are closely related to the main story of "The Prince's Revenge" and the war scenes (such as spices and sandworms) as soon as possible in the first half of the plot. Concepts that are more abstract or off-line (e.g. sororities, voice control, shielding fields, saviors...). ), the method of laying out the groundwork and slowly clarifying is adopted, and the audience who does not understand the novel needs to "guess" the correct interpretation based on the impressions accumulated earlier.
For viewers who have not read the original work, it is difficult to understand how to break through the shielding field for a while
Of course, there are also some terms that Villeneuve simply abandoned, such as the "Lanzlad Federation" mentioned by Duncan when questioning Keynes (an alliance of major families to restrain the emperor).
The above is the treatment of the concept, and as for the side characters outside the main line, Villeneuve is not soft on simplification. He retained only Baron Hakenam's eldest nephew, the Beast Laban, while the role of Federosa, played by the legendary musician Stine, like baron's younger nephew in the old Dune dunes, was removed. The reason is that in the prologue to "Dune Universe", Newval only wants to be as close as possible to the protagonist Paul's personal experience and show the people who are closely related to him.
Lynch's character in Dune was removed
Another example is the "Mentet" of the two major families, Hawat and Peter, whose appearance makes people familiar with "Dune" smile. And viewers who have not read the original novel will only remember that there was a "rolling eyes" person next to Duke Reito who was calculating, and Baron Hakenin had a bald man who died of poison gas - but what effect does this have on understanding the whole story? If you want to explain the "Gate Tate", not only is it not enough in a limited time, but the "crystal power" of the general audience is afraid that it will not be able to keep up.
Duke Leto's "Mentet" (crystallographer) Duffy Hawat
Only by making a lot of "subtractions" from the characters and "intellectual background" of the film can the audience feel the courage and growth of a teenager in this future story under the framework of the Middle Ages. Velonneuve has done its best to protrude the main line and "go deep and shallow". "The plot is actually very simple, the difficulty lies in the density, richness and complexity of the world"—in fact, he successfully portrays a spectacular and tortuous alien adventure, and also "embellishes" the complexity of the grand worldview behind the story.
In contrast, in David Lynch's version of Dune, an important reason for the tragic waterloo is that the story is flooded with a huge amount of information, thus appearing fragmented and lacking in center of gravity. The same is the opening scene: in contrast to Cheni, who appears frequently in Paul's dreams, Lynch chooses the emperor's daughter as the narrator. But she was like the main speaker in the PPT courseware, smashing almost all novel concepts on the audience's head: Erracos, The Fremans, Spices, the Astronautics, the Prophets, the Prophecies... This is not enough, after the opening of the film, Lynch continues to popularize the major families on the major planets in the form of voiceover... Compare that to Newva's treatment: The Hakenam family didn't officially debut until the 20th minute of the film.
Lynch's Version of Dunes
Lynch's "Dune" was dizzying from the beginning, and then had to frequently use the low-level method of "inner monologue" as a narrative strategy, which was very dramatic. It can be said that the whole movie is like a large PPT or chaos museum.
Earlier, it was said that Velonneuve made a "subtraction" for the film, in fact, there is subtraction naturally there is addition, subtraction is the character and noun explanation, what is added? - Details and spiritual core.
2. Villeneuve's "addition"
"The story is so rich and so complex, and its power comes from detail and poetry," Villeneuve says. So, what are the details in Newvale's eyes that need to be amplified? - It's the desert.
Some people accuse Dune of being too "slow" in its plot development, but we should note that the "slow" parts are almost all directly related to the desert - such as the dragonfly-like flapper, the wings unfolding and shaking, taking off and landing, the dive and ascent during the mother-child escape, and Newvale repeatedly presents it from various positions.
Another example is the scientific principle of how to maintain moisture in the "distillation suit" and the unique "desert dance steps" of the Freymans, the huge sandworms that reveal their true faces twice, the tremors that engulf everything where they pass, and the deafening work scene of the spice harvester, compared to a character who has been brushed or omitted, these portrayals of the desert scene can be described as colorful.
Individual shots are simply "extravagant" in a limited time and "too fast" narrative: aerial shots of the desert city of Erakos, close-ups of mice in the desert, Paul caught in a dream, carefully picking up a piece of earth, even a palm tree needing 5 people a day to pay attention...
Why is Neware so "favoring one over the other"? Just because focusing the lens on exotic wonders is convenient to carry forward the aesthetics of the past?
Also because they are closely related to desert ecology.
That is to say, in the "encyclopedia", Neware simplifies the expression of politics, history, and religion, and highlights the ecological side alone. For example, the drama related to "palace fight"--how the Hakenan people conspired and attacked on a large scale, why Mr. Yue rebelled, etc., the narrative rhythm is not too slow but too fast.
Zhang Zhen plays Dr. Yue
This choice actually captures the core of the original work: because the part of Dune that stands the test of time and satisfies the scientific self-consistency is precisely the expression of ecology and the relationship between man and nature.
Therefore, The Erlakos in Newar's lens is not a simple spectacle, but a dynamic desert full of vitality. Like a group of mysterious and powerful Freymans living there, Newvale replaces our daily experience of the desert's lonely, vast expanse with a subjective experience of mystery, danger, and the unknown.
Only this experience fits the dreams, awakenings and allegories that the film wants to express. Therefore, with the support of strong industrial special effects, Neware also has to lead the whole crew deep into the desert hinterland of southern Jordan and shoot hard in the hot sun. However, due to the length of the article, Neware cannot explain the ins and outs of the sandworm and the deep relationship with the spice (the spice is actually the excrement of the sandworm), and these "regrets" can be left to him in the future.
"Its power comes from detail and poetry" – if Villeneuve's details are "deserts", then the greatest poetry of the whole film is undoubtedly "dreams". This is obvious: the first subtitle of the film is "Dreams convey a message from the depths", and the first shot is the desert. Whether you've read a novel or not, you should guess the mysterious connection between dreams and the desert—Paul's ability to foresee the future comes precisely from the spices of the desert. The first time he visited the desert to "see" Chini stab herself, and after the plane crashed, he "saw" the holy war waged in his own name because of exposure to spices. As the inhalation of spices increased, so did Paul's abilities, and the attentive viewer would find that he could foresee the future without the stimulation of spices on his way to find the Freymans and before dueling with Jamis.
According to the description of the movie, the future and horror go hand in hand. In the film, a proverb from the Beni Jesserrit Sisterhood appears twice: "I must not be afraid, fear is the killer of the mind." Fear is the little grim reaper who leads to total destruction. I will face the fear and let it pass through my body. When fear passes away, I will open my heart and eyes to see its trajectory, where fear passes, leaving nothing behind, only I am alone", which shows its significance to the theme of the film. Or simply: it's the subject of this movie.
But like another line in the film - "The mystery of life is not to solve any problem, but to experience life itself completely." "What about the world of the past falling apart? What about the confusion in front of you? A person must find his own direction in the dangerous journey and carry the fate of the uncertain future.
This is the "poetry" of life that Villeneuve wants to convey, a kind of courage that knows that it cannot be done. But this "poetry" is actually not as arrogant as I just explained, otherwise Dune would be a big cool film similar to Luc Besson's "Interstellar Agent: City of a Thousand Stars".
Star Agent: City of a Thousand Stars, 2017
In fact, for the audience who understands the original novel, Paul's dream and identity as a savior, as well as the final tragic ending, have a strong fatalistic component, and it is difficult to say that he is active. Looking at this movie alone, it seems to depict the rise of a young hero similar to Avatar, but in fact, Paul is not such a simple character like Anakin in Star Wars. "Dune" is not only an anti-colonial hero legend that "freely guides the people", but also a tragedy and reincarnation of a "dragon slayer boy who eventually becomes a dragon".
Neware also opened several openings for this potential "second theme", one is that in the scene of the "Pain Box Test", the prophetess who has manipulated the direction of imperial politics for thousands of years says to Jessica, "We have prepared everything for you"—showing that everything is predestined.
The second is the dream that terrifies Paul the most: he is high up in the air, accepting the worship of everyone, watching the earth's life and blood flowing into rivers — in the original novel, although Paul the "revolutionary" overthrew the emperor, he also became an incompetent dictator. All the roads to hell were initially headed for heaven.
It is appropriate to suggest this part of the message only consciously and ineffably, because this is not the content of the first part of the Dune novel, and it contradicts the positive theme that the film will create in this part. Even Anakin was transformed and blackened in the third part of the Star Wars prequel: Revenge of the Sith. Good science fiction works should be amplified by extracting some of the spiritual core on the basis of the original book—rather than trying to include all the thinking.
Regardless of how Villeneuve portrays Paul's psychological transformation in the second part, and develops the characters in this film to maturity (such as Javier Baden's Stigar and Paul's sister), as Cheni said: Everything is just the beginning.
Today, when superheroes have become the end of the crossbow, we expect this magnificent and classical epic to continue to shine in the hands of Velonneuve. We've been waiting too long since The Lord of the Rings in the early 2000s.