Most people would agree with that. Denis Villeneuve’s DuneThis movie is a great one. They would also agree that it’s quite a long movie. And it’s actually even longer since the movie we have is only half the story, and will You may need a second filmTo complete. Part one of Dune is over two and a half hours long, but the film’s editor says that, while a shorter version is technically possible, it’ would be a much lesser final product.
Joe Walker is Nominated for an Academy AwardHis work as editor of Dune, (though his category is one that’s being treated like it’s unimportantBy the Oscars), so it is clear that his peers believe the movie was well edited. But Walker says otherwise. Screen DailyThe movie could have been cut shorter to avoid too much detail about the politics of the universe and important information about the characters. Walker explains…
If you want to reduce the cost of Dune, there is an easier version. The biggest challenge was to create all the factions and main characters, and be able get insight into their hearts before they are thrown in the oven. The film got longer and better.
There are many important characters in Dune and there’s a lot of world building that needs to be done to explain how the politics of the universe operate. There’s so much to deal with that it has proven to be a problem the other times that attempts to adapt DuneThe screen has been created.
And of course, there’s always a balance that movies need to find when it comes to developing its characters. You want to spend enough time with them and explain them well enough that an audience can begin to empathize and understand them, but you can’t spend the entire movie doing that. You can tell far more complex stories than DuneI have struggled to figure out how to do that.
This is ultimately the reason why Part one of Dune isn’t just a long movie on its own but It is possible to “part one”In the first place. To cover everything, it would have to be either two movies or one long movie. Splitting the story into two is almost always better.
Of course, if we never got a Part two of DuneThis might not be the case. Luckily, while the follow up film that will complete the story wasn’t confirmed to be happening when the first movie was released, it has since Accepted to the green light. It’s even possible that, due to the worldbuilding that was done in the first movie, part two might not need to be so long. Although, I wouldn’t bet on that.