In the recent film adaptation of Dune by Frank Herbert, directed by Denis Villenueve, the young son of a powerful family lands on a foreign desert planet and faces many challenges. The plot follows him becoming one of the Fremen local population on the planet and changing his entire worldview. Dune is a story of environmentalism, prophecy, coming of age, adventure, and fate, but Dune also perpetuates harmful stereotypes. Within the desert planet setting, there is rampant orientalism and harmful othering stereotypes that draw from thinly veiled Islamic stereotypes. At the same time, the protagonist himself is a techno-colonist, just a future version of the White Male Savior trope that audiences have seen time and time again. Dune also fails to represent female characters in empowering ways, leaving little dialogue or agency for the women of the story.
Image 1: White Male Savior Paul Atriedes
Paul Atriedes Proves His Worth By Winning a Fight with a Fremen
In sci fi & fantasy, the genre conventions include a classic white male savior who saves or leads a foreign population vaguely reminiscent of a non-white group of our world in some way. Outside of sci-fi and fantasy, the white male savior trope is when a “white messianic character saves a lower- or working-class non white character from a sad fate” (Denzin, 1, 2008). Typically, the white male savior is smarter, stronger, braver, or more masculine than natives, which leads to his credibility in being the “special one” of this universe. The white male savior tends to become a leader of a foreign people, either being chosen or by force, which validates the white male conquest of other lands. In Dune (2021), the protagonist, Paul Atriedes, is the typical white male crusader, saving the world and leading foreign (xenophobically based) armies.
Paul Atriedes enters the planet as a part of an outsider government body, knowing little to nothing about his environment and the people who live there. However, due to a divine given right and visions, he feels that he must rule this planet and that he knows better than the locals. In another context, this is simply colonization. In this image, Paul Atriedes proves his worth and skill in a hand-to-hand combat challenge against a man of the local population, the Fremen. This fight scene is the climax and end of the movie, showing Atriedes becoming accepted as a powerful leader among the Fremen, even though he is an ignorant young man from another planet.
Jamis Appears in Paul’s Vision as a Guide
Prior to their fight, Paul has a vision of the Fremen he killed who guides him in his assimilation into the Fremen people. This is a common trope and repeat of history having the Native people of a land aid and care for their oppressors by showing them the ways of their land. Dune repeats this trope by having Jamis, who we now know is physically weaker than Paul, be the one to show Paul the ways of the desert. This vision does not come true, so it proves unnecessary to the plot of the film. Of course, someone needs to help him assimilate, but curious that it is the one he bests and kills.
The character of Jamis also presents the comparatively primitive actions of the Fremen. He proposes the fight and taunts Paul before their fight to the death. In their fight, Jamis yells after being bested repeatedly by Paul, who resists killing him because he has never killed a man. His taunts and yells only during their fight, and despite being a great fighter, is bested by the young boy who is new to their lands. Through the power Paul receives after their fight, and the stereotypes that Jamis’ character represents and perpetuates, Dune repeats history in film and colonization. This is not new to American history with colonists and Native Americans in the 16th century.
Image 2: Orientalism in the Environment of planet Dune
Lady Jessica Attends a Formal Event on Dune
Orientalist tropes, which refer to colonizers making exaggerated amalgamations of Arab and Asian cultures, often show “Eastern mystery…backwardness… and exoticness” (Kelly, 2014, pp. 412). The concept of Orientalism was defined in the 1970s by Edward Saïd, who pointed out the abundance of racist, inaccurate, and harmful images of “the East” that colonizer cultures were obsessed with producing (Demerdash, 2022). In many movies and films, orientalism is still very obvious with depictions of “foreign worlds,” especially as can be seen in Dune (2021).
In this image, Paul Atriedes’s mother and the effective Queen of the land on Dune is shown wearing formal attire for a government event on Dune. Lady Jessica is clearly wearing a stylized version of a hijab, the traditional clothing for Muslim women. The planet Dune is characterized as a desert planet, similar to the Arabian desert, and all people dwelling on Dune wear loose, long clothing similar to garments worn by people in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Fremen people on Dune speak a language with words that draw directly Arabic, such as Shai-hulud, which refers to the sandworms in the movie. By using elements from an existing culture to portray a foreign, uninhabitable, planet with native people who are characterized in the movie as dangerous, unreliable, and brutal, Dune contributes to the othering and dehumanization of that culture.
Gurney Halleck Spars with Paul Atreides
In his preparation for their arrival to Arrakis, Paul begins to study the Fremen through recordings and books, and all of them speak of the Fremen as what I would describe as animals and spiritual beings who respect the spice of their land. They are not spoken of as a reasonable people like the family of Atreides. The House Atreides are expected to bring peace to Arrakis, similarly spoken by colonists that would domesticate “primitive” people, as seen in the 16th century and 19th century in the Americas and Africa. They are described as “dangerous and unreliable”, and throughout the first act of the film, this is the common rhetoric of the native throughout the court.
Paul’s preparation is interrupted by Gurney Halleck, his trainer who prompts an impromptu sparring session. Paul appears to not take it seriously until Halleck yells “They’re not human, they’re brutal”. There is a purpose to having this rhetoric surround the chosen one who is meant to be the change for House Atreides after his father’s death. This setup of having him be more than those who are not accepting of the native people, is to set him apart as The One. Paul is a character of reason, even in the face of his own people and the Fremen. As the one who will save the Fremen people, he is more reasonable than his own people and stronger than the natives.
Image 3: The Role of the Bene Gesserit
Paul Atriedes faces a test of the Bene Gesserit
In the Dune universe, the Bene Gesserit are an elite group of women, only women, that have been around for thousands of years, existing beyond any nationalities or laws. The women are warriors, trained from birth in fighting, history, and various mystical powers such as “the Voice,” similar to Jedi from Star Wars. However, the Bene Gesserit and all of their training have one goal: to produce a single male heir that will lead the world. The women of the Bene Gesserit have spent thousands of years selectively breeding and acting as the best mother and wives in the universe with the hopes of slowly creating this heir.
It seems comical, and even absurd, that this group of women, considered the most powerful in the universe, are written as to have the one purpose to be mothers and wives. This one true heir is supposed to be the one true heir because it will be a male who has all of the powers of a Bene Gesserit, for no other reason than because that is the prophecy. In this image, Paul Atriedes is undergoing a test that all Bene Gesserit have to go through in order to use their powers. He is undergoing this test because they think he may be the chosen one who has Bene Gesserit powers. It is so frustrating that these really cool female characters cannot simply be the ones to change the world, they instead must be perfect subservient wives and wait for a man to do it for them, with their own tools.
Paul Atreides and His Mother, Lady Jessica in the Desert
It is also strange that despite growing up learning the ways of the Bene Gesserit, Paul does not have respect or even the knowledge of the Reverind Mother. This is common throughout the film by many male characters. This powerful group of women are simply referred to as “witches” or are ignored and lied to. How and why is this group treated with such little respect, even after it was stated that they have held power in space for centuries. This would be a direct reflection of how these characters are viewed by the creators of the film.
Through the power they wield, the Bene Gesserit work in the shadows, an act that is looked down upon in the film, even by other groups such as the Harkonnens who do the exact same thing. Having this group of powerful women only work in the shadows, simply perpetuates gender stereotypes of women being manipulative and secretive.
Image 4: Chani & the lack of female agency in the 2021 movie adaptation
Zendaya as Chani in Dune
Zendaya, the young actress who plays the female love interest in Dune (2021), was featured heavily in every trailer, promo, poster, and advertising effort for the film. However, when the movie actually came out, her character had little to no lines and was only actually in the 155 minute movie for seven minutes. This is frustrating because yet again a movie drew viewers in for a female character, only to give that character nearly no screen time compared to male counterparts, just like Margot Robbie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
In the novel version of Dune, Chani is the powerful daughter of the Fremen leader on Dune, and a main character in the story. In the movie, Chani is more of a prop or symbol of power that Paul Atriedes needs to save. She has no agency, despite being the daughter of the Fremen leader, and visually is portrayed more like a model selling exotic perfume randomly throughout the movie than a powerful warrior woman. Chani’s depiction plays into tired tropes of women being weak prizes that men win, just in a sci-fi/fantasy dressing.
Opening Sequence of Chani’s Narration
It is especially frustrating when the lines Chani does have in the beginning of the film are to establish the oppression the Fremen have been under with the Harkonnens. Her speech of imperialism and overview of how their lives were ruined, is simply a narration that states her awareness of her situation. Through this, not only does Paul see her as someone to save in his visions, now so does the audience, especially when it is the very first sequence of the film. Even with that, the treatment of her character presents her as a damsel who needs to be saved, even with the resources and knowledge to do it herself. There is no agency in her character, even when faced with danger.
In the end of the sequence, she asks “Who will our next oppressors be?”, then it ends with the film title and a shot of Paul Atreides. This visual choice is interesting in that it creates the question of whether Paul Atreides is truly going to save or oppress the Fremen. Based on history and tropes in this genre, it is most likely going to be the latter.
Works Cited
Denzin, N. (2008). The Savior Trope and the Modern Meanings of Whiteness. Temple
University, Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://tupress.temple.edu/up
loads/book/excerpt/2263_ch1.pdf.
Demerdash, N. (2022). Orientalism (article). Khan Academy. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/introduction-becoming-mod
ern/issues-in-19th-century-art/a/orientalism.
Kelly, Casey Ryan. (2014). Feminine Purity and Masculine Revenge-Seeking In
Taken (2008), Feminist Media Studies, 14:3, 403-418, DOI: 10.108
0/14680777.2012.740062.