I just saw the first movie with a friend and the thought went through my mind. I’m not really sure what something being derivative means, so I looked it up and apparently it’s more subjective than I realized.
What are your thoughts?
I feel like this is possibly one of those things where Dune was responsible for a lot of the things you’re seeing in it that you might call derivative. Dune was written in 1965 and while I don’t mean to imply that Frank Herbert’s work was wholly original and that he didn’t take great influence from a number of things himself, it was also highly influential at the time and provided a lot of themes and tropes that would be taken up by sci-fi in the coming decades as well.
Hasn’t it been said that Star Wars was admittedly pretty influenced by Dune? Lemme see if I can source that …
EDIT: Yes, apparently Herbert himself even noticed and directly complained about it, https://nerdist.com/article/everything-star-wars-borrowed-from-dune/
To be clear, I don’t think this is a bad thing. I don’t think Lucas was wrong to wear his influence on his sleeve and I don’t think Herbert was wrong to take some offense at it. This is just art, this is how things work. Was it too much? I think it’s debatable. Whatever. I’m too old to be arguing about Star Wars on internet forums at this point.
That makes sense. Dune itself had derivative elements, and since it was written many other works have lifted ideas from Dune.
Similar to music from the 60s and other eras.
I know I have my favorite versions of different works, and most often it’s difficult to keep in mind that no art is definitely right or wrong. It’s very hard to create something truly original.
Pretty sure I read some other book with a people wandering a desert for generations and a prophesied Messiah, but I can’t quite put my ginger on it… /s
Now when you say “the first movie”, do you mean the David Lynch one from the 80’s or something different?
Everything has always been derivative of smth. We all stand on the shoulders of those before us.
Having said that, the Dennis Villeneuve dune does not overrely on previous adaptations like the lynch dune.
But guess what, plot comes from the book, themes come from the book. That is just being loyal to the source material since the medium in which the story is now being told is different.
As a whole the film has enough soul and individuality to stand out. You wouldn’t watch it and think, ah a vague action movie with Arab inspired music.
Film is also a collaborative medium, one man doesn’t decide what it is, many have influenced it and hence influences have come in from all over the place.
But Dennis Villeneuve as a director has left his imprint on this movie. If you’ve seen 2 or 3 of his movies you can watch dune without knowing he made it, you can guess it was him.
The way he works with light and dialogue specifically is individual enough for dune to be a unique movie.
(The general idea of an auteur in cinema is what I’m talking about)
The new movies are definitely derivative of the books and older movies.
It is based on a book. Does it have elements of the other Dune Adaptations that came before it, I am sure it does.
It is unique enough to me to not label it derivative.
They definitely ripped the desert planet, galactic empire and young man who may be the chosen one from Star Wars, the cheeky buggers.
