ghent1

This movie by a relatively unknown director gathers some terrific actors in their prime. Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, Ed Harris. It's great to see them all play together in this story about the failure to reach redemption from the hell of erratically grown personalities.

Though this movies is not perfectly acted, scored and edited, it contains the great message that sometimes people can be so traumatized and so wounded that even though the state of grace is right there in front of their nose, they still do not manage to see it, change course and reach out to it. Recommended despite it's obvious technical flaws.

This is a great final installment to a famous trilogy. It is true that is has some flaws here and there -some scenes are less strong than the rest, Sofia Coppola was young and did at times not act as good as the others (though it also didn't bother me much for on the other hand she was quite s*xy)- but overall this is still a good movie. I love the dilemma's in it, the drama, the Italian gangster Greek tragedy, the cinematography, the acting by just about everybody, especially Eli Wallach and Al Pacino, the views on Sicily, the involvement of the Vatican etc etc. Even if not entirely perfect, I say: well done. I had to cry during the last scenes and the movie stuck with me over night until the next day, the hallmark of a good drama.

Like the first part, the second part is visually stunning, though having read the book twice, I regret to say that unlike the David Lynch version from the eighties, De Villeneuve almost deliberately destresses the mystical/mythical core of the story. This makes for an impressive viewing that somehow left me unsatisfied. In De Villeneuve's hands the story becomes one of political grandstanding which is but part of what the book is about, both in relation to the hidden ways of the Fremen and the nature and mission of Paul and his mother. For example, in the second part those scenes where Paul Atreides becomes the Kwizatz Haderach are rather weak and not very convincing.

Having left this essence out of the movies, they become a bit of an emptied out visual experience. A kind of secular, profane Dune. Still nice, but also a bit disappointing.