Dune 2's Cuts Matter
Dune 2's Cuts Matter
An Argument with Koji Chavez
Last week, I wrote about how much I loved Dune 2. For regular viewers, Dune 2 is simply an excellent film, but I also argued that purists are justified in docking a few points from Dune 2. Koji Chavez, a workplace inequality researcher at Indiana University, took offense at my comments and insisted that I was entering incel territory. I appreciate Koji’s affirmation of my academic freedom, but his comments merit a response.
Let me elaborate here. All film makers who deal with imaginative fiction are going to have to make some huge compromises. I have no beef with that. Many books are simply unfilmable unless you make some deep cuts. At the same time, some cuts matter more than others. Koji referenced the cutting of Tom Boabdil from The Lord of the Rings films as being comparable to the cuts made in Dune 2.
The Boabdil cut makes a lot of sense. While Boabdil does enrich the lore of the LOTR books, his presence doesn’t do a lot in terms of plotting, characterization, or world building. You can sense this in two ways. One is that most people don’t really dwell a lot on Bombabdil after they read the books. Some readers are even puzzled as to why Tolkien took the time to delve into this character. Personally, I haven’t even thought of Bombabdil in years, even though I’ve seen the movies and read the books multiple times.
In contrast, Dune 2 cuts things in ways that really do have an impact, and not always in a great way. Here are a few examples, with comments:
Guild Navigators: Zip, zero, nada. But that’s ok because they mainly work behind the scenes in the original novel. They only become key characters in the sequels.
Count Fenrig: Cut completely and also for similar reasons. Fascinating, but totally ok to cut because he’s not a key player. I might also put the Mentats in this category.
Chani: This is probably the first big cut that makes a difference. She’s made into quite a different character in the film. She is more independent in film and doesn’t bow to Paul at the end in the way the book portrays her. The film’s final scene is still brutal, but it’s softened and it misses one of the most important dialogues in modern science fiction.
The pace of the Fremen revolt: In the film, it seems to take place over about 6 months. Jessica is pregnant at the beginning and end of the film. The book has the guerilla war occur over a few years. This results in other major cuts that really change things, and not in the best of ways.
Alia: By keeping Lady Jessica pregnant during the film, Paul’s sister is almost entirely cut. She’s an amazing character in the book and her mere existence really amplifies the bizarre nature of the Dune universe. I understand the need to streamline the film, and I accept it, but it does hurt.
Baby Leto: By speeding things up, one of the most pivotal events in the book, and maybe the entire series, is cut and it robs Paul of emotional depth. In the book, Chani and Paul start a family and name their baby son after his father Leto. This baby is murdered later and that really propels Paul and the Fremen into a direct confrontation with the Emperor and the Harkonnens. A lot of Paul’s motivations and grappling with his fate are way more impactful if you know his son was killed. This also makes Paul’s marriage to Irulan even a more epic betrayal.
Some cuts are much needed, but others really rob the film of emotional heft and shift the film in a more action direction. I remain confident that this is a great film, but I do think some of the criticisms are valid.
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