I am concerned that most people and social justice warrior watching Dune this fall will completely miss the point
So far some of the complaints that I’ve seen is that Dune:
- is promoting the white saviour complex (and if you’ve read the book or have any knowledge about Paul or the BG, you know that’s not true)
- is homophobic (well, it was published in the 60s, what do you expect? watching something on screen or reading about it doesn’t mean that it’s automatically good or moral; you can process things through your own thought filter and understand this isn’t a good thing; we have to understand this is an adaption so it doesn’t reflect the views of the crew, cast, director etc)
- doesn’t try to make new stars by hiring unknown actors (i feel like that would be a terrible decision especially if you can have household recognizable names that bring value, experience and attention to your piece; would you watch a movie if you didn’t know any of the actors? maybe, but that’s not everyone. it’s as if these actors didn’t earn their roles; i feel like with this one people are running out of things to complain about)
- apparently people shame DV because he wanted his movie on the big screen and not on a atreaming service? Which director wouldn’t want his work to be fully appreciated in the cinema (and yes, i assume he understands we live in a pandemic and the tickets and the whole experience is more costly)
- that Paul is played by a white actor? Personally I always saw Paul as a white-coded character especially since Jessica is pale and the Atreides come from the Greeks
- that characters played by POC actors will die? I don’t understand this complaint: it’s literally what happens in the book. Yes, I understand the implication that POC characters always die on screen, but if they weren’t POC at all, then that would be cause for another discourse so people just can’t be pleased (I must sound very ignorant whilst saying this and I’m sorry but it’s a bit far-fetched)
- that a lot of characters seem to be missing from the adaption based on the trailer; this I can understand, but we also need to understand that this movie represents only half of the first book in a six book series and that it will cater to non-fans as well who will most likely be a little overwhelmed; on this topic, since we’ll be seeing very little from the book, then it’s possible people won’t pick up on Paul’s villanous arc or the BG’s eugenics hence reinforcing the view that Dune promotes the chosen one trope and the white saviour complex
- that despite being inspired from Arabic/ Oriental/ Middle Eastern culture, it doesn’t have a lot (if any) people of this descend play any characters on screen; i’m sure there are reasons for that (honestly I’m afraid they were looking for POC but not middle eastern necessarily eg: Zendaya, the actor who plays Stilgar) but I digress since I agree a little but I definitely won’t boycott or hate the movie without ever having seen it based solely on this
Sorry for the rant of I offended anyone. It just angers me when I see people hating on Dune for the most outlandish and ignorant reasons without ever giving it the benefit of the doubt
