In 2021, I found myself wondering if “Dune: Part Two” would make this saga a Laurence of Arabia White Savior in space saga.  For those familiar with West Asian and North African cultures, Part Two in an uncomfortable tale: Beautiful, brutal, but also a Western vision that could be translated as an interpretation and an indictment of Islamic history and traditions.

I attended the press screening coming out of a deluge and was plunged into a fantasy desert without having reviewed my review of “Part One” or the other associated articles I wrote. I also did not look up how Muslims and people with clear ties to North Africa and West Asia felt.

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• ‘Dune’ and Diversity and Dave Bautista

There was a point, however, when I felt uncomfortable with the anti-Islamic message being portrayed on the screen and yet at that exact moment other members at the press screening laughed. The moment was about faith, the kind that is not to be admired, but admonished and seems to be ridiculous. I don’t come from a Muslim or North African/West Asian background, but I also don’t come from one steeped in the traditions and prejudices of the Judeo-Christian background that the original author Frank Herbert comes from.  I’m guessing that Herbert was White Anglo-Saxon Protestant even if he wasn’t particularly religious.

“Dune” was directed by French Canadian Denis Villeneuve who also co-wrote the script with Jon Spalhts (“Doctor Strange,” 2016,  and “Prometheus,” 2012)  and Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” 1994 and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” 2023).  None of these people are people of color, although Roth is part of a religious minority, having been born into a Jewish family. None of these people are Muslim.

Dune: Part One

For a review, in the first film takes place in the distant future. The Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), rules the planet Caladan, but he is sent by the Emperor to the desert planet of Arrakis to replace the Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgård). The planet is the only source of a psychotropic substance called the “spice” which is required for interstellar travel.

Yet the Emperor has set the Duke up. He really means to help the Baron and his House of Harkonnen retake the planet while obliterating the House of Atreides. Although the Duke isn’t married, he has a consort, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who is part of a sisterhood, the Bene Gesserit,  that have for centuries conducted a breeding program. Jessica was supposed to bear a daughter, but out of love, bore the Duke a son, Paul (Timothée Chalamet).

As a result of his breeding, Paul has clairvoyance which Jessica helps develop along with other skills form the sisterhood. The Reverend Mother Charlotte Rampling) visits Caladan to assess him. The sisterhood has been feeding the indigenous Arrakis peoples, the Fremen, with beliefs to  prepare them to believe in a messiah.

Once on Arrakis, the House of Atreides is betrayed within, but Paul and his mother are left to die in the desert, Instead, Paul joined the Fremen, led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem). Stilgar believes that Paul is the Messiah. Yet there is opposition to allowing Paul and his mother live. The solution is a ritual duel in which Paul kills the warrior Jamis  (Babs Olusanmokun). Paul believes that by joining the Fremen he can fulfill his father’s wish for peace on Arrakis.

Arrakis is now under the command of the Baron’s nephew, Rabban (Dave Bautista).

The first film gave me pause, but others more informed about Islamic and Middle Eastern traditions were vocally critical.

• ‘Dune’ appropriates Islamic, Middle Eastern tropes without real inclusion, critics say “It’s like … our homes and foods and songs and languages are just right for Western stories, but we humans are never enough to be in them,” one critic said. (29 October 2021) 
• The novel ‘Dune’ had deep Islamic influences. The movie erases them. The resulting film is both more orientalist and less daring than its source material. (28 October 2021)
• Frank Herbert’s Dune novels were heavily influenced by Middle Eastern, Islamic cultures, says scholar. While set thousands of years in the future, Islam is ‘part and parcel’ to Dune, says Ali Karjoo-Ravary (22 October 2021)

 

Dune: Part Two

The second film introduces a new voice, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), the daughter of the Padishah Emperor Saddam IV (Christopher Walken), who is recording history into the Imperial Diary. They believe that the House Atreides is “no more.” We know that “in the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets.” One of those secrets is the survival of a young man and his mother. in a world that is “beyond cruelty.”

Yet we are also concerned with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the exiled Duke of House Atreides. Having defeated Jamish, he is part of the Fremen tribe led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and he must not only protect his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), but also look out for her unborn child, his sister, who proves to be particularly precocious, having clairvoyant conversations with Jessica.

Paul embraces the Fremen life with the help of Chani (Zendaya) who becomes his lover without the benefit of marriage. Paul has disturbing visions of a holy war that will be triggered in his name.

The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen’s (Stellan Skargard)  nephew, Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), is now in charge of Arrakis, but he can’t control the Fremen desert “rats.” He’s eventually replaced by his younger brother, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), who is “psychotic.”

What are we told about this religion? That the one that surrounds Paul was formed by centuries of planning by the sisterhood Bene Gesserit. They are working both sides, if there is a side. The Bene Gesserit have already learned that Feyd-Rautha is “sexually vulnerable.” While this sisterhood is not entirely White, but their leader the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) is. The audience told  not to “underestimate the power of faith” and that “prophets get stronger when they die.”

Here, the diversity that helped  “Part One” works against “Part Two.” “Part One” had Oscar Isaac who is Guatemalan-born and Javier Bardem who is Spanish. Paul’s mentors included Josh Brolin as Gurney and Jason Momoa as Duncan. Taiwanese actor Chang Chen played the doctor of the House Atreides and Chinese American actor Roger Yuan played Gurney’s second in command. Part Guyanese British actress Gold Rosheuvel plays a Fremen housekeeper.

Yet in “Part Two,” the opposing side is Christopher Walken as the Emperor, Léa Seydoux as Lady Margot, a close friend of the Emperor, and Florence Pugh as the Emperor’s daughter. Except for Filipino hapa Dave Bautista, the House Harkonnen is Stellan Skarsgard as the Baron and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha. Bautista’s makeup is chalk-white making him appear whiter than Donny Osmond or vanilla ice cream during a blizzard.  The Fremen are represented by Zendaya as Chani, Paul’s love interest, Javier Bardem as Stilgar and part Tunisian Swiss actress Sheila Yacoub. The casting of the Fedaykin includes names that appear Arabic and possibly Muslim (e.g. Mohamed Mouraoui). This sets up the indigenous people as ethnic minorities and the ruling classes as White.

The racial divide wasn’t present in the 1984 David Lynch “Dune” which had Kyle MacLachlan as Paul, José Ferrer as the Emperor, Everett McGill as Stilgar, Jürgen Prochnow as Paul’s father, Sting as Feyd-Rautha and Sean Young as Chani.  Virginia Madsen plays Princess Irulan.

In 2021, Alaa Al-Barkawi who supported the freeing of Palestine, tweeted this:

Now with the current situation in Palestine, “Dune: Part Two” could not come out at a worse time. Or perhaps, it is the right time. Just as the award-winning fact-based “Oppenheimer” showed the erasure of Japanese and Japanese Americans in California, “Dune” has been criticized for its erasure of Muslim-dominated cultures by the above articles.

If the US and studios like Warner Bros. Pictures produced films by Muslim writers, including science fiction and these films had lead characters played by Muslims, and not just ones who are Black, but those who are from North Africa and West Asia, “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two” would be part of a conversation. Now the conversation is one-sided.

There is chemistry between Zendaya and Chamalet; they visually look good together as a couple. Yet [spoiler alert], in the casting of Zendaya for the ill-fated romance, and the clear representation of North African and West Asian traditions and influences, “Dune: Part Two” becomes an insidious representation of Orientalism. “Dune” isn’t presented as a comedic exaggeration like the “Indiana Jones” saga which also revived Orientalism.  Chani becomes like Kuchuk Hanem who is a key figure in Gustave Flaubert’s Orientalist accounts of the Egypt. Chani is to be loved but not married. The White savior must instead marry a White woman, who in “Dune” is Princess Irulan played by Florence Pugh.

“Dune: Part Two” is both beautiful and ugly. As a film, it is wonderfully crafted with the sets and costumes and CGI fulfilling a singular coherent vision, but the vision itself reveals a powerful world that has not come to terms with Islam and people outside the Judeo-Christian traditions. From the heated conversations online about Israel and Palestine, the world has changed since 1965 when “Dune” was originally published, but it hasn’t changed enough as it continues in its disrespect and erasure. “Dune: Part Two” had its world premiere at the Leicester Square in London on 15 February 2024 and will be released in the US on 1 March 2024.