Science Fiction’s Very Special Boys
A desert planet. An empire spanning the galaxy. A young boy burdened to be its savior. The 1965 novel Dune’s influence on Star Wars is obvious, but Frank Herbert’s work has echoed throughout all of modern science-fiction storytelling.
With the director Denis Villenueve’s big-budget, star-studded epic now giving it a proper film adaptation, how does 2021’s Dune play more than a half century after the novel was first published? With so many hero’s-journey imitations since, does its “chosen one” narrative feel stale? Or does the novel’s own skepticism about messianic belief shine through?
Past attempts to adapt Dune have fallen short. David Lynch’s infamous 1984 flop was so poorly received that the director successfully asked to have his name removed from extended versions. Does Villeneueve succeed where others haven’t? Does his choice to adapt only the first half of the book help or hinder the final product?
Staff writers David Sims, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber discuss the movie on The Atlantic’s culture podcast, The Review. Listen here:
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. It contains spoilers for the Dune book series and movie.
David Sims: Dune is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary, best-selling 1965 science-fiction novel, though only an adaptation of the first half of that book, really, rather than David Lynch's famed 1984 flop—which is a movie I sort of defend and like but I can’t really say is a coherent piece of storytelling.
What’s everyone’s background? Who’s read the book? Who’s seen the Lynch movie? Maybe seen , the documentary into a movie?
