Dune: Part Two (2024) and Religion as a tool

 

As is written.

Dune 2 is a monumental piece of cinema; it is all at once a definitive deconstruction of white saviourism, an indictment of man's desire to exploit the natural, and an exploration into religion as a means of manipulation. Yet despite the great density of its subject matter, Villeneuve's direction never seems to bog down the magnetism of the film's overall narrative.

We watch as a mythos is created, wherein all players are mere instruments of a grand design. The Bene Gesserit carefully craft and engineer a faith and we see its effects trickle down firsthand onto a people, converting them into blind fanaticism. Every action in Dune feels like an entry into a great canon. Paul's rebirth and acceptance of his messianic status brings forth his change from an individual who operates within a humanistic lens to an instrument of a greater agenda, shedding his human qualities and choosing to wear them as a mask instead. In doing so, he becomes aware of the mythology he is actively writing, and tailors his speech and behaviour to fit into the words of scripture. Blinded by the "miracles" he enacts, the Fremen's greater judgement is overtaken by their faith and become nothing more than manpower for an army.

Just like how the Fremen are largely led by their blind faith, Paul's actions are informed by his prescient visions, which mould his every decision and act, tainting his experience of the present with the sinister promise of what lies in his future.

Is to follow prophecy to doom ourselves to follow a set path, helpless in its eventual execution?

Is mankind cursed to continually exhaust and enact the same cycles of oppression no matter what context we exist in?

Do humane values die in the presence of great power?

pinnacle of scifi and fiction, it reflects back to us all the horrors of human greed and makes us question the very structure of the world we inhabit

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 12th March 2024