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The Empty Impact of Dune: Part Two’s Villain Turn
The sci-fi sequel’s condemnation of colonialism rings false when it won’t acknowledge its own Middle Eastern and Muslim influences.
In the opening lines of Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel, Zendaya’s Fremen warrior Chani tells us her home planet, Arrakis, “is so beautiful when the sun is low.” The desert world has been ravaged by outsiders who arrived long before she was born, she says in voiceover. He promises he wants to be “equal” to her — not a duke or a member of a Great House, as was his birthright on his home planet, Caladan, and not Lisan al Gaib, the messianic figure whom prophecies state will bring the Fremen to “paradise,” a role many on Arrakis believe is his destiny. Arrakis is a planet full of wailing women hidden behind niqabs and chadors, leaned over in dua-like worship; of foreboding, robed men described as “fundamentalists”; of inhabitants who speak a vaguely Arabic-sounding language — all while the filmmakers demur from giving these motifs the distinct context Herbert’s novel did to make them more than simple stereotypes.
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