Dune: Part Two is an examination of the most controversial ideas in the books
Paul Atreides, the Fremen to paradise, and Herbert’s novel Dune: Part Two: The Bene Gesserit
But after only being able to see glimpses of Chani (Zendaya) in his increasingly prophetic dreams, finally meeting her in person fills Paul with an overwhelming sense of wonder — both at her individual strength and the strength she embodies as a member of the Fremen, the only people who know how to survive in Arrakis’ desert landscape. Dune: Part two continues to build on the mystery of how Paul is the chosen one fated to be the leader of the Fremen to paradise, but this time it uses Chani and her fellow northerners.
The white-savior sheen on that telling of the story has been buffs out in Dune: Part Two. Instead it presents Paul (Timothée Chalamet) as a guy aware that his hero status is just the result of decades of myth-building by his mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and the Bene Gesserit (basically, space witches). When Paul arrives and starts talking, Lisan al Gaib wonders how the Bene Gesserit propaganda has taken root.
One line in the second part of Dune, called Dune: Part Two, is just as much about fans of Frank Herbert’s novel as it is about its main character, Paul Atreides. It’s delivered by Chani, Paul’s concubine in Herbert’s novel and equal/skeptic in Villeneuve’s meticulously crafted reimagining. You want to control people? Chani says, rhetorically. “Tell them a messiah will come. They’ll wait. For a long time.
The anticipation for a faithful adaptation of Herbert’s 1965 book is the stuff of legend, but Dune devotees didn’t have to wait for centuries. Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky tried and failed to make the film in the 1970s. David Lynch made one in the ’80s that’s a camp classic but struggles to stay coherent. Sprawling and intricate, Dune’s pages carry an all-but-unfilmable weight. Unfilmable to anyone but Villeneuve.
Paul and Irulan: a desperate battle for survival and scheming in the Freman’s tale of a petty prince
Fremen like Chani and Shishakli see their fight against their oppressors as a battle they have to win for themselves, and they find it absurd how much faith southerners like tribe head Stilgar (Javier Bardem) put in ancient myths about a messiah. But in Paul, Stilgar cannot help but see an answer to his people’s prayers for deliverance. Chani has to consider whether there is something special about the prince when he insists on serving the people rather than controlling them the way his family once did.
This is the case with Irulan, as she covertly chronicles history by her father’s side, and it is also the case with Madame Meg (Charlotte Rampling), who sends her on an important mission to the Harkonnen homeworld. But the Bene Gesserit’s knack for survival and scheming are most brilliantly personified in Lady Jessica as she, like her son, is swiftly accepted by the Fremen, who see her abilities as yet another sign of Paul’s godhead.
