Dune

I kept thinking about reverence throughout the movie.

 

People just don’t have reverence for things anymore (if they ever did.) People have opinions and values but those are all self-centered, in important ways. If you revere something, that implies an obligation to it. People revere their religious faith and that impels them to act in certain ways. They willfully, happily agree to take on duties. It implies actions consistent with the thing revered.

 

In Dune you will see factions and groups who revere different things. Duke Leto of the House of Atreides reveres his family, both ancestors and expected descendants and therefore he takes certain actions consistent with that. It’s not that he’s good, necessarily, but he is drawn to act the way he does in service of the things he holds important.

 

The Fremen, the people of the planet Arrakis, revere the planet itself and act accordingly.

 

Then there is Baron Harkonnen, who reveres nothing. This is the contrast in the movie. The Baron has nothing he places above himself and his desire for more, more, more. More money, more power, you name it.

 

I think the director felt a responsibility to this story, which did not begin as his own. That responsibility led him to a vision for how to tell the story correctly and in a way that would mean something to fans and to people who are new to Dune. He seemed to let the story work through him, rather than the other way around. Again, reverence.

Someone online said it was time for a movie that wasn’t afraid to be earnestly portentous and grandiose. It worked for me.