Warning: This article contains Dune: Part 2.
Even with two films over two hours each, director Denis Villeneuve was still unable to capture all the elements of Frank Herbert. dunes on the screen. When he spoke with EW for a recent cover story, Dune: Part 2the filmmaker revealed the most difficult cut from the original.
“When you adapt, there's always a kind of violence against the source material,” says Villeneuve. entertainment weekly. “Things have to change, things have to bend, hard choices have to be made.”
Dune: Part 2 We're not afraid to make changes to Herbert's original story. For example, Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) is much more independent in the new film than in the original. Rather than faithfully standing by her husband, she openly expresses her opposition to the elevation of her lover Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) to the status of Fremen savior. ing. Paul's sister Aria appears briefly as a fetus (although she has awakened to cosmic consciousness) and as her older self in her dreams, played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
However, some characters who play important roles later in Herbert's story dunes will not be displayed on the screen of Dune: Part 2 not at all. Léa Seydoux appears as Lady Margot Fenring, a Bene Gesserit agent, but in the book she never meets her husband Count Fenring, a powerful friend of the Emperor (Christopher Walken). I won't meet you. Additionally, viewers do not see Paul's mentor Tufir Howat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) in Villeneuve's second film, despite him surviving the Harkonnen massacre of the Atreides family in the original story. Unfortunately, Henderson was listed as one of the film's cast members on Wikipedia before its release, as many expected him to play as important a role in the film as he did in the original.
“One of the most painful choices for me in this match was Toufir Awat,” Villeneuve admitted. “He's a character that I really love, but we decided from the beginning that we were going to do a Bene Gesserit adaptation. I mean, the Mentat aren't as present as they should be, but that's the nature of adaptations. is.”
Mentat is essentially a human computer.in the world of dunes, Artificial Intelligence has long been subverted and outlawed in a campaign known as the Butler Crusade. There are two alternatives to the function of the thinking machine. One is a spice melange. It psychedelically expands the mind, allowing the Spacing Guild's navigators to chart long-distance spaceship routes without collision. The other is the Mentats, humans trained from an early age to perform advanced mathematical and strategic calculations. All the noble families of dunes The universe has its own Mentat, like the Maesters of the world. game of thrones.
Howat was a Mentat of House Atreides. in 2021 dunes, when Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) wonders out loud how much money was spent on the Imperial delegation announcing the new stewardship of Arrakis, we learn that his power is I saw it in action. Howat's eyes rolled back into his head as he counted. Viewers also met Peter de Vries (David Dastmalchian), the Harkonnen family's creepier mentat. Peter is killed during a suicide attack on the Baron by Duke Leto.
In the book, this causes the Baron to take Howat prisoner and force him to become the Harkonnen family's new Mentat. This is a tragic storyline in which a noble character is forced to serve the enemy who killed his friends and family, and tries to find some kind of redemption by the end. But even with a 150-minute runtime, there's room for so many characters.
As Villeneuve says, the film focuses more on the Bene Gesserit conspiracy. Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) and Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Lampe) continue to move forward as the film moves towards a climactic macho showdown between Paul and Fayed-Rausa Harkonnen (Austin Butler). Ring) can be seen making plans for emergencies in the wings of the stage. In the midst of Paul's victory, Pastor Mather remained undaunted, saying, “There are no allies on either side.''
If Villeneuve fulfills his ambition of making a third film based on Herbert's film. dune messiah, we can expect to see the Bene Gesserit play an active role in trying to manipulate Paul's new imperial system from both inside and outside. Irulan and Mohiam both play important roles in that story. In the meantime, my apologies to all the Mentats.
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