Dune and the culture of war
Everyone's new favorite Sci-Fi epic is heavy on themes of culture and warfare, just like America's favorite game.
I saw Dune II, the pop culture sensation of 2024, early this week. Don’t worry, I don’t need to spoil it to discuss some of the themes from the movie which have crossover relevance to the topic of America’s favorite war game of football.
It’s definitely a good movie and probably the sort which benefits from a theater experience over waiting to watch it at home. Particularly if you don’t have surround sound. I don’t, but I did see the first one at a friend’s house who did and it was pretty helpful. Director Dennis Villeneuve is a visual artist who’s emerged as a worthy (and clearly friendly) competitor to fellow Sci-Fi director Christopher Nolan.
The politics in the world of Dune are pretty grim and interesting and will likely get a ton of discussion in relation to modern American politics in an election year. I saw the movie on Super Tuesday after which both the Republican and Democrat primary were essentially declared done and over as President Biden and former President Trump both racked up massive amounts of delegates.
There’s another, less remarked upon feature to the story of Dune though which gets less play in the movies than the book but is still an important component. The overlap between culture and a society’s ability to wage war effectively…
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