In my opinion, Denis Villeneuve's Dune is a science fiction film that perfectly blends
artistry with spectacle, doing what many films in the genre of this size fail to do successfully.
It's a film that unlike many others with its budget and scope, aims to achieve the biggest
yet relatable story that we haven't really seen since the Lord of the Rings theatrically. It
aims to do this within the constructs of science fiction,
yet still keeps all the higher concept stuff that we love from a Villeneuve film. While
these films may be directed more towards film fans who support intellectual cinema,
to my surprise, the approach and story of Dune can appeal to every type of viewer,
with Villeneuve definitely focussing a lot more on showing us the plot through the pure spectacle,
so that even the non-readers would understand what the filmmaker was communicating. Dune is bold,
transportive and pure science fiction filmmaking that makes me want more big movies like this
going forward. Before I get into discussing the main reasons why, if you want to keep up
to date on any of my future content surrounding Dune 2021, then don't forget to support this video
by giving it a like rating, subscribing to the channel and turning on your notifications. Also,
feel free to check me out on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Instagram at cortex videos,
which is all linked in the description below. But without further ado,
let's dive into my video essay on why I think we need more movies like Dune.
When Denis Villeneuve spoke about his adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, the filmmaker showed
his immense passion and love for the saga, even noting that he kept his prized copy, a
French-translation paperback with a unique cover that he’s owned since he was just 13 years old.
He kept the book beside him while he was working on the film and went on to say that the
person he made this movie for was himself. He made it for the hardcore Dune fan but also
the person who could be lost in this world for the first time, making them want to tackle the
historic words of Herbert. It's clear that enthusiasm was present as much as anyone,
and it's a bold approach to make a movie like this with a $165 million budget,
being only the second big-screen adaptation of the highest-selling science-fiction novel of all time.
David Lynch’s 1984 effort, was a critical and financial failure,
and while it has a cult following, many fans were dissatisfied and Lynch himself
still hates the small mention of it. That film’s failure gave the book a reputation for being an
unadaptable project with it known as being too long, unwieldy, and dense with lore to
work on a blockbuster scale. But it's clear to Denis that Dune’s immense depth is more of a
strength. His movie, although situated as part blockbuster, thrives in the little details,
rather than trying to rush through them in search of a traditional Hollywood ending. The
filmmaker described that the music he heard in his teens, was received strongly by him,
anchoring his personality. He grew up looking back at those moments, to that nostalgia. In fact,
it's a story and film that knows how to merge nostalgia with sci-fi ambition within a market
that is full of genre movies embarking too much on the nostalgic side of things. Dune
has essentially been anchored into Villeneuve’s personality since he read the book as a teenager,
and though there were things he admired about Lynch’s version, he knew it would not be the
last effort to adapt this story to film. That version he didn't take seriously,
but with Denis, he takes sci-fi very seriously, and this was the way into a project that so many
people wanted to see come to life in the way they had envisioned. But after the amazing reception
and performance of Dune since its release, why do we need more movies like it?
Well, Denis Villeneuve recognized the challenge that had dogged Lynch years ago,
of how to turn a sprawling epic into something approachable for mainstream theatregoers, while
maintaining a high-level artistry that separates it from many big-budget films we see today.
The problem isn’t bringing this book to the big screen, it’s bringing the book to the screen in
a Hollywood context. And Villeneuve did so in such a huge way. He took risks and went
to extreme measures alongside his cast and crew, wanting to shoot in the real desert, rather than
a backlot and film the story in two parts, rather than cram it all into
one. In the decades that have passed, spending so much money on a movie that lacks an ending
would have been dismissed as crazy within the industry, but Villeneuve made his pitch in 2016
when every studio was scrambling to imitate the huge success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now genre storytelling in Hollywood is valued most if it can never end, and an adaptation of Dune
seemed ideal for that. Frant Herbert produced six Dune books in total, with his son Brian Herbert
putting out more in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, and HBO Max has already announced a TV
series to further expand the fictional universe with the Bene Gesserit in Dune: The
Sisterhood. Villeneuve is attached to make Dune: Part Two, which both Legendary and Warner Bros
have officially green-lit. The filmmaker's first idea was to shoot both movies back to back,
but of course, it was too expensive, and the studios wanted to test the water with this first
film being a big risk already. It's difficult because, since around 2016, Hollywood’s push
for franchises has resulted in efforts such as Universal Pictures Dark Universe, which
has become somewhat of a cautionary tale, while DC has focused more on standalone movies than
big, interconnected storytelling. Still, though, the filmmaking within a lot of these films apart
from a few has been almost a mirror to what we see everywhere else and it honestly feels
like the industry doesn't want to take risks on franchises that strive to merge
the conventional with the unconventional anymore. Christopher Nolan is someone
who has consistently done this successfully in numerous genres, but again, it feels like only
a few directors are given the control to do that. But aside from approaches, the greatest risk to
Dune revolved around the conversation on the ongoing health of the big-screen experience,
which Villeneuve explicitly intended his film for. The pandemic delayed the release of Dune
by almost a year, but it also meant that it was included in WarnerMedia’s experiment of
putting every 2021 release on HBO Max the same day it hit theatres. Dune has done
brilliantly at the box office but there's no denying it would have done even better
if it wasn't part of this structure. Villeneuve went against the strategy in an open letter when
it was announced, calling it “a desperate attempt to grab the audience’s attention.”
Later, he said that watching Dune on TV would be like driving “a speedboat in your bathtub".
And quite frankly after seeing the film multiple times, he was absolutely right.
A lot of blockbuster films appear dull and cliché in today's landscape. Cinematic Universes
have become predictable, and quite frankly, putting out the same cookie-cutter plot lines,
overusing and misusing bland CGI, and doing many other things that anger fans of these properties,
makes me believe that there could be a much better and long-lasting climate in mainstream filmmaking.
That being said, there is one thing that I cannot take away from these movies.
And that's when seen on the big screen they are a cinematic moment, an experience.
This goes for any film. Watching your favourite films on the big screen, the experience they
were made for, with the speakers booming and a scale that draws you into the world
are all fundamental to the experience of watching films, especially for the first time with nothing
to distract you. But films like The Lord of the Rings and the new adaptation of Dune
are certainly examples of films destined for that experience. Quite evidently,
Villeneuve applies his innovative cutting edge technological ambitions with human endeavours
that are universal and transcend space and time. He goes beyond what’s on the boundary and the idea
that this type of science fiction is no less than a mirror image of society. There’s war in
the name of colonisation, future conflicts being conspired in the name of religion and authority,
the instinct to survive against all odds with harsh desert conditions, lack of water
and scorching heat, and these serve as metaphors for the mutilation of nature in the hands of well,
us. The enormous, convincing props and the overall set-up is only heightened by Hans Zimmer's score.
It's a film that fully displays its understanding of creating cinema that uses all of its visual and
sound capabilities the way a big film of this budget should. Of course, not all films have
to be dense or produce this kind of sci-fi, that's not what I'm saying. But when a film
like this comes along and completely raises the bar for how science fiction films can be filmed,
it makes many of the big-budget spectacles with a budget of $200 million look questionable.
There are few films that strike the perfect balance between grandeur and spectacular
storytelling, showing and letting the audience experience and feel the drama,
rather than tell them and recite the same structure we see in most fantasy stories today.
And maybe audiences are seeing this perspective too. The film has already outperformed
expectations of $250 million and is on track to make $375 to $400 million dollars worldwide
which would position it to make a profit of up to $50 million dollars even with being streamed
simultaneously on HBO max and being leaked in HD a week before it opened in the US.
The percentage drop from week to week is higher than any other film this year signalling to Warner
Bros and Legendary that this film has legs and will continue to be revisited after its release.
Meaning only good signs for Part 2 which is theatrical only. It's clear that audiences
want more cinema like this, it's just we don't get it as often as we should. For the
most part, the studios settle for the easy option and aren't willing to risk that,
especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. We've seen them try to convert more to streaming. And
Denis himself says that he loves streaming, but as a filmmaker, he wants to protect the
theatrical experience. These decisions are being made by technocrats and people on Wall Street
and while like we've discussed that the theatrical experience can be up and down in
terms of its quality and originality, it's an art form that speaks more than to just be a business.
And Dune is a stark advertisement for the theatre experience, making its HBO debut all the more
ironic. When we’re out of the pandemic, it will be necessary to make decisions that protect the
theatrical experience as people clearly want to go back to the theatre. What's worrying
is the future of the big screen and the death of art-house movies that will have less
access. Villeneuve’s recent interest has, of course, tended toward large-scale films,
but he’s one of the rare filmmakers who seems to be able to work at that level without succumbing
to unoriginality, delivering genuine event cinema as opposed to many of the more weightless-feeling
blockbusters filling screens today. He seems aware of this ongoing test as cinema is art
and we know that art is risk. Since the historical beginning, cinema has been a weird balance between
art and commerce and Denis Villeneuve clearly wants to get involved with that.
So far he's only seen a rise of interest in his films and over time they will be
appreciated to an even larger extent. But hopefully, this applies to other movies too.
And this video isn't to push forward that we shouldn't get the more conventional approach,
it's not that at all. What I'm saying is that in a market crowded by these approaches,
having a more pure sense of cinema to access for a medium that is supposed to bring that, should have
higher input from the studios. There's a reason we only get films like Dune, Mad Max Fury Road,
Arrival and Interstellar once every few years. And that's because they simply get crowded
in a market full of the same type of film. We don't get enough of the other film, but maybe
Dune is a step in the right direction and we can only hope that the audience will support
this kind of cinema as we look out onwards, out into the desert at the future of the medium.
But that was my video discussing why we need more movies like Denis Villeneuve's Dune.
Whatever your thoughts were on this first film, I think it's personally quite refreshing to see a
movie of this size get the full treatment across the board when it comes to the quality and effort
put into all areas of production. When you watch the film, understand the process behind the making
of it and how it crucially relates to today, it's obvious that this is made by a filmmaker and crew
who clearly care about what they are putting to the big screen. This was allowed because everyone
working on the film was given the freedom to pull off this cinematic accomplishment. Like I said in
my other videos, it's my favourite science fiction film since Christopher Nolan's Interstellar
in 2014 because it isn't afraid to explore the different kind of movie that exists in this
genre and big-budget filmmaking. I think after the success and mostly positive reception to the film,
there is definitely a place for this kind of cinema. Cinema that is purely made for
the theatrical experience, a piece that understands what medium it is being made for
and one that aims to set a new standard when it comes to visual storytelling, filmmaking and its
deeper meaning. It's a movie built to last and not to just serve as a single watch before moving on
to something else. It's a film that can be revisited over and over again while serving
as just a part 1 to a story that has yet to be concluded. I can't wait to see how Denis
Villeneuve brings the second half of Frank Herbert's novel to life in Dune Part 2
alongside how part 1 further holds up when this new adaptation
is finally complete. But let me know down below in the comments section whether you agree that
we need more big films like Dune alongside what your overall thoughts were on the movie.
For much more videos on Denis Villeneuve's Dune,
then subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also if you enjoyed this video
remember to leave a like rating and follow me on social media via the links in the description.
But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.