So my big question this week is why does Dune work? Because on the surface, it's breaking a lot of rules--barely developed characters, a central relationship that never materializes, action sequences that kind of aren't.
Here's one theory: All the audience really needs from supporting characters is a few seeds and clear desires.
As I mentioned yesterday, almost all the characters around Paul have a certain thumbnail sensibility. We're told right up front what they want and then as they show up again we see that simple desire play out.
So Rufus Wainwright Duncan Idaho wants to protect Paul. There's actually a lot more to him than that--he gets sent to Arrakis early to try and suss out the Fremen. But we're shown none of that, because it's not relevant to his One Desire.
Baron Harkonen wants "his" planet back. And though again, there's clearly a lot more to him, from how he treats his own people to the weirdness of the life he leads--dude can fly, y'all--his scenes are all about the reconquest.
Stilgar wants to protect his people. Reverend Mother wants to test Paul. And once they accomplish those things, they're out (or at least until the end).
Maybe in part the film works precisely because these characters are made so clearly directed. The film tells us what to expect of them and then fulfills that, and that's satisfying.
It also plants seeds at times as to things that are going to happen. Right from the start we know that Idina Menzel Duncan Idaho is going to die fighting off a whole crew of warriors. So we go forward in the film waiting for that moment.
We also know Paul is going to meet Chani, his lady friend, and Jamis, his mentor. And so even after he and his mom are tossed off into the desert and literally everyone else we've spent all this time with are dead, there's no sense of wait, so what is this film now? The film's already laid that path.
None of this is terribly flashy. Really the biggest twist of the whole film is the fact that when Paul meets Jamis he kills him. We did not see that in a vision.
But it works. It's clear in what it promises, and it's disciplined in its follow through. Maybe that's part of why this film works. Clear Desires, Fulfilled Promises, Can't Lose?
