Logo for Sci-Fi Channel's 'Dune' miniseries from 2000, written and directed by John Harrison
As we have become aware, Paul Atreides goes on a spiritual journey. It starts with his role as the son of a duke. From there, rumors of the Kwisatz Haderach, or the one the Bene Gesserit have been waiting for, take hold of his subconscious.
In the near future Paul will assume the title of Muad'Dib, named after the tiny kangaroo rat, symbolic of a creature who roams the plains of Arrakis and manages to both come and go without notice. Paul will also attempt to embody the long-awaited Mahdi, or "the One who will lead Us to Paradise." His goal, whether he knows it or not, is to associate his actions to those of a religious leader.
All of this has been preordained, mostly through Lady Jessica's interpositions to her son, as a way of ensuring their survival among the primitive tribespeople we know as the Fremen. Little does anyone know (at least, not at this point) that it was the Bene Gesserit order that initially planted the rumors of an off-worlder, or the one who will liberate the planet and the known universe from the clutches of Imperial greed.
That's a lot of info to take in at once. Fortunately, viewers are given ample opportunity to digest the profusion of revelations they will soon be fed. As for Paul, he must step up to the plate, in a manner of speaking, slipping back and forth into several roles at once, as the person who can unite the disparate forces into a cohesive whole that foments outright rebellion.
He learns, for instance, to use the Fremen's hit-and-run tactics to his advantage. "Desert power" is the term of art employed, which involves Paul's exploitation of the force of his own personality to lord it over those of the emperor and his minions. In the process, he must vanquish House Harkonnen by removing them from the equation. The more difficult task, however, would be to win over the Spacing Guild. More on that aspect later.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of malice in the palace. Treachery is afoot, in the form of maidservant Shadout Mapes' murder and Duke Leto's overthrow and assassination. The Harkonnen have taken over the stronghold. All seems lost! The duke's betrayer, Dr. Yueh, has joined his wife in what the Baron poetically refers to as "removal from her mortal coil." Yikes, that means death!
One major character who gets short shrift in the teleplay is the brainy Mentat Thufir Hawat (Jan Vlasák), the chief of security (yeah, right!) and so-called "human supercomputer" whose advanced mental powers come to naught. In Frank Herbert's book, he's used and abused by the wicked Baron, until finally gaining the upper hand. Thufir is given some prominence in the David Lynch version of the story, if that's any consolation, while also appearing in Denis Villeneuve's 2021 feature.
It's just as well, since too many secondary personages would confuse the narrative further than it already is for those lesser fans of Herbert's work.
In a sequence not in the original US version (but in the European one), we learn that Baron Harkonnen has banished Jessica and Paul to the desert, basically to be engulfed by the forces of nature. Certainly not to his knowledge nor by his own hand, heaven forbid! The point being that if he exposes himself to a Reverent Mother Truthsayer, he could claim total ignorance of their whereabouts and, it can be presumed, their eventual death.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave... You know the rest.
Here, we witness the Baron rubbing his right temple with his hand, a gesture that will be repeated with great import later on. "Never trust a traitor," our portly villain spouts, "even one you create." With that, Dr. Yueh is dispatched to meet his maker. The Baron himself narrowly escapes death (remember the poisoned tooth?) - for now!
Paul and Jessica find themselves alone in the desert. Will they survive the heat and desolation? To their rescue comes Duncan Idaho, at last! He provides for their escape via a "borrowed" ornithopter. He does not bring them a sack of Idaho potatoes (hah, hah!), but something better, that is, a way out of oblivion: Still suits, those lifesaving full-body overalls.
Duncan whisks Paul and Jessica off to a Fremen cave, where the younger Atreides is handed the deceased duke's ring, the symbol of his father's high office. It's all up to Paul to take on the mantle his dearly departed paterfamilias has left behind. Wasting no time, he and Jessica flee the approaching Sardaukar.
Other ornithopters attempt to follow them into a raging dust storm, certain death in the open desert. But the Sardaukar do not pursue - a wise move, indeed. For nothing survives one of those storms, as it is commonly known. Miraculously, Paul and Jessica make it through intact, but at the loss of their aerial conveyance.
That Bloody Red Bard!The Shakespearean analogy is pronounced throughout the series, with the Bard's most famous plays, Hamlet and Macbeth, becoming evident by their very absence. One can also throw in King Lear for good measure. For example, Paul is Prince Hamlet. Duke Leto (as we have observed earlier) is Hamlet's father, or if you prefer a more benevolent Duncan. The Baron Harkonnen, a bloated, twisted parody of both King Lear and Macbeth. His ruthless nephews, Rabban the Beast and Feyd Rautha the Fair, are caricatures of Goneril and Regan (or Malcolm and Macduff), but with their natures reversed.
What do we make of the final confrontation (still to come) between a supposedly outmatched Paul - now, revealed as Maud'Dib - and the preening, overbearing Feyd? They are, by default, Hamlet and Laertes, only in this context Hamlet/Paul prevails over the dashing Laertes/Feyd, who bites the Arrakeen dust in like manner, and in the same position, as Paul had dispatched his Fremen challenger Jamis (Spoiler alert, spoiler alert!).
What of Shakespeare's women, i.e., Hamlet's "saintly" mother, Gertrude, and his off-again, on-again romance with girlfriend Ophelia? How about Claudius the adulterous king? Or Hamlet's trusted confidant and friend, Horatio?
We see the Lady Jessica as Gertrude, who later becomes a Reverend Mother herself. Our old buddy, the Emperor Shaddam IV, is obviously Claudius; however, he's no adulterer but more of a less compassionate monarch. And the sleepwalking Ophelia? To be honest, she can be split between the war maiden Chani (a veritable Wonder Woman, as previously observed), Paul's official consort and concubine, and the haughty Princess Irulan, his spouse in name only. But we do get ahead of ourselves, don't we?
Finally, war master Gurney Halleck can be viewed as Horatio, as can Duncan Idaho for that matter. Duncan will experience renewed vigor - call it a new lease on movie life - in the Sci-Fi Channel's sequel Children of Dune. He's played by another actor, though, which is about as far as we will go.
All of these parallels are worthy of note, especially when contrasted with the ludicrous David Lynch version from the mid-1980s. Lynch's film is a freak show by comparison, neither true to its source nor high up on the classic sci-fi meter. As far as we can tell, Villeneuve's 2021 Dune production, the first of two parts (the second of which will be released in October 2023), echoes many of writer-director John Harrison's notions and visions for the Sci-Fi Channel's edition. And why not, since Harrison appears to be listed as an Executive Producer on Villeneuve's project.
Size Matters (or Not)"A sense of scope and distance and openness." Harrison's bold phrase starts off Disc Two of Dune. Yes, the look of the series has expanded to immense proportions, due mainly to its having been filmed in Prague, Czech Republic and on spectacular sound stages many meters high and many meters wide.
Paul and Jessica are in the high desert, alone but in their still suits. As we already know, Paul has been given his father's ring, so in essence he is the new duke - Duke Paul Atreides, as it were. And he's A-Number One in our book. He's also testing his newfound Bene Gesserit powers and abilities, in that he knows that his mother is pregnant with his baby sister, Alia. Whoa, how did he figure that one out? Hmm, that's for viewers to discern!
Harrison reminisces about how the casting for the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV came about, in that actor Giancarlo Giannini and award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro were "very good friends." Which likely sealed the deal in Signor Giannini's favor by being assigned the crucial part - ah, those lovable Italians!
There's a heavy Oriental-Japanese influence in the Baron Harkonnen's kimono-like outfits. Initially, Harrison wanted famed Tokyo-born art director/costume and graphic designer Eiko Ishioka to design the wardrobe. Unfortunately, she wasn't available despite her interest. The honors went to Czech designer Theodor Pištěk, who came up with some lavish concepts that rightly fit the starkness of the Harkonnen's décor. In addition, the samurai "look" of the Sardaukar soldiers added to the general feeling of medieval Japan under the shogunate.
Paul continues to experience visions of masses of hooded figures gathered as one, endlessly mouthing the chant "Muad'Dib, Muad'Dib." Visions of a mysterious girl (Chani, of course) with glowing blue eyes, continue to cloud his mind, along with those of his dead father Leto charging him to make good use of desert power (here we go again!) - all of these occupy his thoughts and invade his private meditations.
Harrison and his team resume their discussion about charging the emotional content of a scene through lighting cues and subtext - from brightness to darkness - and how certain color schemes would affect Paul's evolving nature: from petulant teenager to a leader of men; along with the religious fervor and one-track mindedness of a born savior, a messiah if you will. These are all reflective of the staging, backlighting, computer graphics, etc. They all come together in believable, artful, and spectacular sets and soundstages.
Personally, I love the sheer theatricality of it all. For me, it smacks of science-fiction epic theater, of a stage play come to life. Perhaps, even an opera! Yes, a space opera!!!
Paul and Jessica manage to outrun the gigantic sandworm. They narrowly miss being swallowed up when they hear a thumper sounding in the near distance. The sandworm dutifully follows the sound, thanks to the prudence of our Fremen allies. In the cave where they find refuge, Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar and his sietch men. It's here that the company is given a live demonstration of the mystical "Weirding Way" (courtesy of Lady Jessica) as she glides behind the unsuspecting Stilgar and handily subdues him, thus giving Paul time to find cover behind some rocks.
Thinking all is well, Paul is outed by the cagey Chani. Hah, there's no sneaking up on this girl, that's for certain. Chani is the mysterious figure haunting Paul's dreams, either in daytime or nighttime visions. Some gorgeous cycloramas are showcased as backdrops, in addition to glow globes that provide efficient lighting inside the caves. "Everything comes from natural sources," Harrison claims.
Instinctively, Jessica is aware they need to take advantage of Fremen mythology. We already know that much of this mythology was planted long ago by Bene Gesserit missionaries. Playing along with or, more commonly, subverting another race's culture by using it for one's own purpose smacks of our modern-day notion of cultural appropriation. In this instance, it's more of a mis appropriation.
To his shock and dismay, Paul gets called out by the hotheaded Jamis (Christopher Lee Brown), who Paul bested in their initial encounter in the cave. Jamis must defend his "honor" in a duel to the death via hand-to-hand combat. Just as in Herbert's tale, this is the pivotal moment where the young Atreides heir must show his mettle before his soon-to-be fellow Fremen. In this production, their fight foreshadows the final battle between Paul and Feyd, a trained killer; with the outcome not always in doubt but a real nailbiter nevertheless.
Yes, Paul kills Jamis with a crysknife, sculpted from a sandworm's tooth and/or cartilage. He stabs Jamis through the chest, a horrible way to die. Yes, Paul will go on to kill many more victims, both the innocent and the guilty, in the jihad that is to come. For now, though, Paul has made his bones as the tribesmen mourn their loss. And to the victor go the spoils of war: they offer Paul the dead Jamis' water, his life essence. But there's no time to rest. Not while there's a planet to be rescued. And the bloodthirsty Harkonnen to dispose of.
When news of Paul's supposed "demise" hits the planet Kaikan, Princess Irulan is not amused. And she tells her father so. What's a parent to do? You can't please everybody, even a spoiled princess. But do not be fooled by her demeanor: Irulan is wiser and more perceptive at the game of politics than she is given credit for.
Still, the challenge of leadership must be upheld. It's brutal, it's barbaric, and there's "No yielding, boy," none at all. Paul must learn to kill and keep on killing. But by doing so, he gains the needed experience he had so far lacked under Gurney's guidance. Where before there was never anyone who out-and-out died (that we know of), there will now be mass slaughter. Killing begets more killing. But where does it end, and at what point?
Such is war - even a holy war.
"The saga of Dune is far from over...."
(To be continued...)
Copyright © 2022 by Josmar F. Lopes
