n the aftermath of the Harkonnen takeover of Arrakis, the baron's second, stupider
nephew--Rabban, brother to Feyd--is given governorship of the planet. Dr. Kynes, the
planetologist and secret leader of the Fremen, is sent out helpless into the desert,
where he perishes in a spice blow, depriving the Fremen of a dynamic focus. Rabban
insitutes a reign of terror among his subjects, thus fulfilling the baron's secret
wishes to destabilize the status quo further.
New alignments are falling painfully into place everywhere. The Princess Irulan,
resentful of having been used as a pawn, confronts her father the emperor and resolves
to take a stronger hand in affairs. But most importantly, Paul and his mother, their
aircraft smashed in the sandstorm that allowed them to elude their pursuers, struggle
on foot across the desert wastes in search of refuge.
Clad in his protective Fremen stillsuit, Paul exhibits much competence and confidence
in the new environment, but still falters from time to time, such as when he loses their
compass. His growing preternatural talents do not yet exclude human uncertainty.
Jessica is also a mix of practicality and doubt, the latter most evident in her
revelation that she is carrying a child, a female embryo who will become Paul's
sister.
Eventually the exhausted refugees stumble upon a Fremen stronghold, or sietch,
where they confront a dubious Stilgar, who recalls them from an earlier meeting.
Paul and Jessica convince the Fremen leader to shelter them. But not all tribe
members are so happy with the decision, and Paul is challenged to mortal combat
by a Fremen named Jamis. Paul is forced to kill Jamis, and during the funeral
ceremony he chooses his native name, Muad'Dib, after a small desert mouse he has
observed. This is an inadvertent additional fulfillment of the prophecies
concerning a Fremen messiah.
Paul now becomes intimately acquainted with the life of his adopted people,
including their mastery of the titanic sandworms. This process includes falling in love
with the young and beautiful Chani, the daughter of Dr. Kynes, a woman who has
previously figured in his visions. When the tribe temporarily ends its migrations
at a huge redstone city resembling Earth's Petra, Chani takes Paul to a secret
underground reservoir and tells of her father's hope for a green Arrakis. Paul
experiences a powerful vision that shows him spearheading a revolt.
Offworld, the Bene Gesserit and the Navigators are growing uneasy over the trouble
on Arrakis. Princess Irulan tries her hand at spying, seducing Feyd Harkonnen for
information. Back on Arrakis, Jessica meets with the Reverend Mother of the Fremen
and agrees to take over that important post from the old and ailing woman in a ceremony
involving "the water of life," a deadly poison distilled from small captive sandworms.
In a mystical ceremony, Jessica assumes all the past lives of her predecessor, but
also learns that she has wrongfully imposed the same burden on the daughter in her
womb.
A modern masterpiece is made real
This second installment does not precisely suffer from the longueurs typical of most
middle portions of any trilogy, but the pacing is decidedly different from the first
half, more suited to the "uncivilized" desert ambiance and helpful in conveying a
sense that Paul's education in the ways of the Fremen is not instantaneous. Still,
plenty of intellectual, visceral and visual material is presented to hold the
interest of the viewer, who after all is being educated in the ways of Arrakis
along with Paul
The organic technology of the Fremen--including light globes that activate when
shaken--and their precariously balanced existence are subtly depicted. Most
importantly, the critical first worm-riding scene is brought triumphantly to
life. This could have been the silliest scene in the film, destroying the suspension
of disbelief, but instead works quite well, as the Fremen hurl themselves with
hook-tipped rods at the express-train bulk of the summoned worm.
Both the costuming and the special effects continue to enthrall. The outfits of
the Navigator representatives and various courtiers are worthy of the extravagant
French cartoonist Moebius. The Japanese-influenced armor of the Harkonnen troops
adds an anime touch. The Aladdin garb favored by Feyd seems suitably
Middle-Eastern. Highlights of the special effects include the insectoid
ornithopters, the exterior cityscapes on the Harkonnen world, and the trippy
scenes of Jessica's illumination. (However, the little desert mouse served
only to remind me of Ed Sullivan's favorite performer, Topo Gigio.)
Ian McNeice deserves credit for his portrayal of the effete baron, especially since
for most of his performance he's delivering his lines from a potentially ridiculous
elevated vantage, suspended from his obesity-alleviating antigravity harness. And
surely Alec Newman's performance as Paul merits high praise. In Herbert's book,
Paul was only 15 when the story began. Newman is considerably older than that,
but manages to convey the proper mixture of inexperience and unnatural wisdom. His
fey good looks are a cross between the 18-year-old Truman Capote and Brad Pitt.
Newman handles the tough role of mortal-turning-into-messiah with aplomb. And
Barbora Kodetova as Chani offers the perfect blend of shyness, toughness, idealism
and utilitarianism. Her appearance seems the quintessence of what the Fremen should
look like, but also points up the incongruous phenotypes of some of the background
figures.
Scenes between Jessica and Chani, Paul and the Fremen, help explicate the various
deeper issues and philosophies at work, and the machinations of the Bene Gesserit and
Navigators come into sharper relief as well. All in all, this segment forms a crucial
bridge between Part One
and Part Three, a link that's also highly enjoyable on its
own
merits.
