MOVIE NEWS – Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two may correct a silly scene from the 1984 film where the characterisation of one of the villains was horribly miscast.

Dune has its own questionable and downright outrageous moments in the canon. However, Dune: Part Two promises to correct a silly scene from the 1984 film.

With the passage of time and advances in production technology, Denis Villeneuve’s recent interpretation of Frank Herbert’s novel series Dune, and its upcoming sequel, Dune: Part Two, not only learn from Dune’s earlier cinematic mistakes but also improve on the strangest moments with more believable and clever revisions.

The 1984 Dune film had its share of successfully eye-catching moments, despite proving to be a cinematic failure. However, Villeneuve’s films have and will continue to absorb its triumphs and failures to correct what the 1984 filmmaking has failed to do, including the film’s silliest scene.

Lynch’s Dune particularly botched the portrayal of the younger nephew of the House of Harkonnen, the militaristic empire seeking to take over the desert world of Arrakis. The sadistic and fearsome villain of Dune (1984) was played by the English musician Sting in winged underwear. In the infamous film scene, Harkonnen’s nephew Feyd Rautha steps out of a steam bath. This was intended as a show of antagonistic power. But the villain, dressed in futuristic underwear, looks ridiculous, completely undermining the seriousness of the scene.

Villeneuve has already voiced his fear that the Harkonnen portrayal will be made into a joke in his Dűne productions. In approaching the novel’s particularly intense character sketches, and bearing in mind Lynch’s failure to credibly realise their portrayal, Villeneuve faced the challenge of illustrating the Harkonnens as horrific villains without slipping into silly, implausible depictions. Villeneuve’s Baron Harkonnen (played by the great Stellan Skarsgård, with his sickly complexion, the bald heads of all his followers and his stunningly overpowering nature) successfully lived up to the role of the evil overlord in the Herbert novel. Feyd Rautha’s appearance also seems to follow the successful look of his uncle.

In the official trailer for Dune: Part Two, Feyd Rautha (Austin Butler) completely lacks the design elements that characterised the villain of Lynch’s Dune.

Feyd Rautha is shown with the baron’s bald head and a warrior’s outfit, a far cry from Sting’s rather comical appearance. Please make no mistake: Sting’s talent or acting was not the problem at the time. What made the character ridiculous was more the design, or rather, the director-screenwriter decision to make Feyd Rautha a comic book villain. Austin Butler’s character, on the other hand, is brutal, fierce and sufficiently terrifying, which is more in keeping with the character Herbert describes (if not necessarily his looks, then indeed his personality.)

Source: dune.fandom.com