The Biggest Difference Between David Lynch’s and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune? Female Agency

(Oh, and a plot) *SPOILERS AHEAD*

Image by Patou Ricard from Pixabay

As many people who grew up on 1984’s Dune can attest, it’s a visually stunning work that tells the story of Christlike figure Paul Atreides. Like Christ (and Harry Potter and Neo and Katniss Everdean) Paul is meant to bring order to a chaotic universe where good might forever be snuffed out by the forces of evil, and he is the only person who can do so. In both versions of the film — 1984’s version directed by David Lynch and 2021’s version directed by Dennis Villenueve — this concept is crystal clear. What the new Dune does so much better, in my opinion, is twofold. First, it expressly lays out the plot instead of assuming the audience has read the book. Lynch’s version of the story is almost impossible to understand unless one has read the book, but it excels at revealing the story in an ethereal manner that makes for a heady experience that really is like a trip, in every sense of the word. Villeneuve is tells the story in a more straightforward way so the audience isn’t left guessing about much.

But the other difference — and it’s huge — is Villeneuve gives the women back their power in this film. In Lynch’s version, Paul’s mother Jessica Atreides is a gorgeous woman who’s by no means soft, but she’s presented as the elegant Lady of the House of Atreides, loyal wife and mother, and a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, which means she can yield the power of “the voice,” which allows her to physically control the listener. But she only uses this power once and she never fights. Lynch presents the Bene Gesserits as witchy women with impressive, but limited, powers. Villeneuve makes it clear that the Bene Gesserits have been actively working behind the scenes to ensure certain marriages and parings for their cunning breeding program, in order to further increase their magical, and thus political, powers.

In Lynch’s film Jessica seems wholly surprised that her son might actually be the Kwisatz Hadarach (Christ), and the only reason she gave birth to a boy — against the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood’s orders — was to please her husband. Villeneuve makes it clear that though Jessica may have given birth to a boy for love’s sake, she purposely trains Paul in the ways…