The iconic TV show, Star Trek, flung wide open the door to science fiction literature for me. In fact some of the great early science fiction writers–like Asimov and Ellison–contributed to episodes for that show. I don’t remember when I first read Frank Herbert’s Dune, but it changed me. Three books from the 50s and 60s:  I Robot, Dune, and  A Canticle for Liebowitz stood out as a kind a Trinity in my Sci-Fi canon. It wasn’t long until film technology caught up with the imaginations of these writers: the refined special effects and later CGI in the ’70s and ’80s allowed access to countless tales of realms that could not practically exist outside of the mind.

With the somber hues, the art shots and close ups, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune evoked Ridley Scott’s BladeRunner. I confess I watched it on the “small” screen–this movie deserves viewing in a theater for the sublime cinematographic experience.

The theme of Dune evokes the later film Avatar with imperial forces extracting a key resource from a kind of First People–or at least a people who evolved to live not only within the constraints of the land, but as physically and spiritually part of it. But this Dune is haunting and magical without sensation or gratuity. The cast is stellar (no pun meant), though you have to see through the transformations to know who they are (Stellan Saarsgard, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Rebecca Ferguson to count four). Timothee’ Chalamet is (if he wasn’t already) officially launched as a young superstar with his role as Paul.

A very good supplement to the move would be to (after the film) read the NY Times piece of October 23rd. You learn that Herbert was deeply influenced by a strong connection to the First Peoples of the US Northwest.

The original story–as with the other two in my “Trinity,” is another example of a story begun sixty years ago whose message is more potent by a magnitude than it was two generations ago. But you have to see it and decide what that message is for you.

WRH