Film Name:沙丘2 / Part Two,Dune 2
01
The first thing that struck me about 《Dune 2》 is that it’s an “all-tools” film. The most “instrumental” of them all are the Fremen who take in Paul and his son.
In the first half of the film, Paul has not yet bowed to the “prophecy of fate” in the effort to make himself a Fremen, for him at this time, the revenge for the family is a very distant goal, his primary goal is to survive, and in order to survive in this evil land of Erakos, it is necessary to integrate into the Fremen community. That’s why he’s all kinds of desperate, trying to make himself a brave Fremen warrior, and the Fremen gradually accept him after one of his desperate performances and promote him to a high position thanks to the rumours of the Sisterhood.
And after gradually entering the core of the Fremen’s leadership, Paul’s mentality changed. Just as many businessmen and officials do not see it as luck but as their own destiny after acquiring great wealth and social status, Paul, after a series of coincidences, began to believe that he was really the “Chosen One”. After the change of mindset, the Fremen changed in his mind from “an object to be united and relied upon” to “an object that can be utilised”. Thus, under the support of his supernatural power, Paul could easily make use of the religious and national sentiments of the Fremen to turn them into a team of people who would willingly serve him. Paul could easily use the religious and national sentiments of the Fremen to turn them into an armed force willing to die for himself.
The problem is that while the Fremen were being stirred up by Paul, not many noticed that Paul was not talking about driving out all the outsiders and defending his home with the brothers who had saved him, but rather about fighting for Paul himself and for the Eurydice that he represented, and not only to defeat the outsiders of the planet, but also to subjugate all the clans that did not submit to Paul’s rule.
The English word for “Fremen” is Fremen, which is obviously adapted from the word Freemen, who were free until Paul came along, but after Paul’s arrival, not only did they stop being “free”, but also began to become Paul’s “free people”. But after Paul’s arrival, the Freemen not only cease to be “free”, but also begin to become Paul’s tools, and begin to invade the freedom of other planets, which is a great irony.
02
In addition to the largest group of Fremen, almost every character in the film is a tool of someone else.
Paul, who appears to be the Dragon Pride, is initially a tool of the Sisterhood, and the prophecy of Lissan Al Ghayeb is actually just a rumour spread by the Sisterhood about whether or not the Saviour is a tool of the Sisterhood. For the “saviour”, the Sisterhood has no confidence in Paul, but only regards him as a highly probable experiment.
From the middle of the film onwards, Paul becomes the tool of his mother, Madame Jessica. Coincidences are constantly fulfilled, so that Mrs Jessica becomes the “Madonna”, and after becoming the “Madonna”, she constantly forces Paul to fulfil more so-called “prophecies”, Paul is no longer her beloved son, but a tool to make her own beliefs come true. Paul was no longer her beloved son, but a tool to make what she believed in come true, a tool that not only allowed her to gain the great satisfaction of “I was right in what I believed in”, but also served as a powerful stepping stone for her to become a high-ranking person in the Sisterhood.
And Lady Jessica herself, who was only a tool of the Sisterhood in the first film, by the time the second half of this film rolls around, seems to have become, consciously or unconsciously, a tool of the unborn baby girl in her own womb. In addition, Phaedrosa and Laban are the instrumental men of Baron Harkonnen, Baron Harkonnen is the instrumental man of the Emperor, the Emperor’s father and daughter are the instrumental men of the Sisterhood, and the Sisterhood, in turn, are the instrumental men of Paul’s mother and son ……
In this story, everyone is a chess player, and everyone is a pawn of someone else. All the “destiny” is actually a coincidence under the calculation of many parties, I have not read the original, I can only assume that this is the director Villeneuve for a certain kind of system and some people believe that they are destined to be the greatest irony.
03
The reason why I think this is so is because there are two things that are particularly obvious in the film.
One is in the portrayal of both sides, especially the Harkonnen family. Dune is a very colourful film, but it favours pure black and white for the two important scenes of the Harkonnen family: the arena and the departure ceremony. Colour is very much a symbol of human character and emotion, and the fact that the despotic and brutal Harkonnen family is shown in black and white on a large scale suggests to me that under despotic rule, people are suppressed into “objects” with only images and no colour. Moreover, the black and white colours of the arena crowds and parades are reminiscent of the documentary 《Triumph of the Will》, which captured meetings, rallies and parades at the height of the Nazi regime.
As for the other side of the family, the Eurydice, there are actually a lot of scenes showing two sides of the same coin as the Harkonnen family, and it’s hard not to think of the history of a certain regime in the last century that gradually rose to power, fought back against aggression, and eventually became the hegemony of the world itself. The story of Dune is really just another echo of human history in the distant future, and we’ve seen how they end up.
There is also a place for the relationship between Paul and Cheyney. Initially, after watching the film, I think this is the director in the relationship line of the big failure, as the heroine of Cheyenne from the beginning to the end of the Paul’s tool people, the dialogue between the two lines are also pale, more ridiculous is the scum of the Paul just finished saying “I will always love you” turn around to announce that he wants to marry the princess as his wife, but in the end but then staged a “win the world, the world’s”, and “win the world, the world is”. But at the end of the show is a “won the world lost you” bitter drama, see my face full of black question marks.
But now that I think about it, this may be a kind of irony to dictators like Hitler, in their view, they are killing and decisive, they are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the country and the nation (of course, the sacrifices are others), while in the view of the onlookers, it’s all just a laughable and comical show. You do not even love a specific person, how can you talk about loving a nation or a planet?
04
Finally I would like to talk about actors.
I have to say that Timothy “Sweet Tea” Chalamet was right for the role of Paul in the first film, with his brooding temperament and skinny frame and face suitable for the portrayal of a boy, but in this film, when Paul becomes a super-soldier, a rockstar, and a terror king, ” Sweet Tea” is not good enough for the role, although I can see that he tries very hard, but the actor is not good enough for the role, the role has grown, but “Sweet Tea” is still “sweet”, especially when I was watching his fight scenes, I was totally out of my mind. I was totally out of my mind when I watched his fight scenes, there was no sense of impact or power at all.
Moreover, after a series of changes in the character of Paul, the gradual vicissitudes and darkening of the changes in his performance also did not reflect his performance, after all, he was all poker face, even the expression did not change, the only change is the colour of the eyes and talk shouting, but this is not enough to reflect the great transformation of the character.
In contrast, Austin Butler, who plays Fidelosa, was a complete stunner for me. The actor has always struck me as a “greasy” character, similar to Sweet Tea, but in 《Dune 2》, his portrayal of Phaedrusa, although he doesn’t have much to do and most of the time he doesn’t even have colour and is made bald, doesn’t stop him from shining, whether it’s in his eyes or his micro-expressions, he portrays the psychopathic ferocity and madness in the best possible way. The psychotic ferocity and insanity of Fidelosa’s portrayal of the character is well portrayed, and although he’s not very big, his action sequences are powerful enough to make you believe that he’s Fidelosa at this point in the film and not Elvis Presley who has wandered into the Dune universe by mistake.
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