{"id":1014573,"date":"2021-11-15T10:45:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1014573"},"modified":"2021-11-15T10:45:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:45:29","slug":"dune-and-the-art-of-big-screen-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dune-and-the-art-of-big-screen-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dune\u2019 And The Art of Big Screen Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdune-and-the-art-of-big-screen-beauty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1014573&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A funny thing happened on the way to the cineplex\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n<p>For months, already declining theater revenues were struck a near-fatal blow by the Delta variant resurgence. As studios and theaters wrestled over what movie-viewing would look like in a post-pandemic world, it seemed inevitable that streamers would triumph. To the degree that films would still have theatrical runs, it would be largely out of a sense of obligatory nostalgia \u2014 bonus bucks on top of the real money, which is using premium content to draw audiences to platforms where the piece of entertainment they\u2019re watching is never just about itself, but also about its interconnectedness to a cornucopia of cinematic worlds.<\/p>\n<p>This Easter egg ties into that bit of dialogue from an earlier movie that references a cameo in a prequel which leads to an after-credits scene that sparks more excitement in viewers than the thing they actually plunked down money to watch. You can click the stop button any time you like, but you can never leave.<\/p>\n<p>Then came \u201cDune.\u201d Suddenly, even though the film was immediately available to stream at home on HBO Max, the most niche and impractical big screen experience, Imax, experienced a resurgence. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/investing\/imax-record-october-box-office-sales\">quarterly earnings report<\/a>, \u201cDune\u201d scored Imax\u2019s biggest October opening weekend ever, bringing in $17.8 million, or 20% of the film\u2019s total weekend haul. Based on the movie\u2019s success, the company had the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imax.com\/content\/imax-scores-best-october-ever-global-box-office-100-million-and-counting\">best October<\/a> in it\u2019s history. \u201cDune\u201d was <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/dune-2021-box-office-hbo-max-streaming-success-sequel\/\">no slouch<\/a> in standard theaters either.<\/p>\n<p>What that tells us is that people didn\u2019t just want to see \u201cDune\u201d; they understood they should watch it in as immersive an environment as possible. To further bolster this point, unlike the recent big Marvel releases \u2014 which cratered in their second and third weekends in theaters \u2014 and despite facing stiff competition in the midst of pandemic fear, \u201cDune\u201d had moderate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/dune-tops-us-box-office-for-a-second-week-in-a-row\/1100-6497605\/\">legs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Given how few audience members are familiar with the 1965 novel and how meditative director Denis Villeneuve\u2019s work is known to be, what \u201cDune\u201d offered was the opposite of Marvel\u2019s wink-wink-nod-nod fan service. Ticket buyers understood they were going to see something intellectually demanding, yes, but also beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>As Hannah Long writes in conservative journal <a href=\"https:\/\/thedispatch.com\/p\/dune-is-beautifulwe-need-more-of\">The Dispatch<\/a>, \u201cAudiences will put up with a lot of weirdness for a friendly, earnest epic that doesn\u2019t equate art with ugliness. \u2018Dune\u2019 is strange but beautiful (i.e. not ugly), and it\u2019s spectacular\u2026It\u2019s a film designed for a big, big screen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A funny thing happened on the way to the cineplex\u2019s demise.For months, already declining theater revenues were struck a near-fatal blow by the Delta variant resurgence. As studios and theaters wrestled over what movie-viewing would look like in a post-pandemic world, it seemed inevitable that streamers would triumph. To the degree that films would still have theatrical runs, it would be largely out of a sense of obligatory nostalgia \u2014 bonus bucks on top of the real money, which is using premium content to draw audiences to platforms where the piece of entertainment they\u2019re watching is never just about itself, but also about its interconnectedness to a cornucopia of cinematic worlds.This Easter egg ties into that bit of dialogue from an earlier movie that references a cameo in a prequel which leads to an after-credits scene that sparks more excitement in viewers than the thing they actually plunked down money to watch. You can click the stop button any time you like, but you can never leave.Then came \u201cDune.\u201d Suddenly, even though the film was immediately available to stream at home on HBO Max, the most niche and impractical big screen experience, Imax, experienced a resurgence. According to a quarterly earnings report, \u201cDune\u201d scored Imax\u2019s biggest October opening weekend ever, bringing in $17.8 million, or 20% of the film\u2019s total weekend haul. Based on the movie\u2019s success, the company had the best October in it\u2019s history. \u201cDune\u201d was no slouch in standard theaters either.What that tells us is that people didn\u2019t just want to see \u201cDune\u201d; they understood they should watch it in as immersive an environment as possible. To further bolster this point, unlike the recent big Marvel releases \u2014 which cratered in their second and third weekends in theaters \u2014 and despite facing stiff competition in the midst of pandemic fear, \u201cDune\u201d had moderate\u00a0legs.Given how few audience members are familiar with the 1965 novel and how meditative director Denis Villeneuve\u2019s work is known to be, what \u201cDune\u201d offered was the opposite of Marvel\u2019s wink-wink-nod-nod fan service. Ticket buyers understood they were going to see something intellectually demanding, yes, but also beautiful.As Hannah Long writes in conservative journal The Dispatch, \u201cAudiences will put up with a lot of weirdness for a friendly, earnest epic that doesn\u2019t equate art with ugliness. \u2018Dune\u2019 is strange but beautiful (i.e. not ugly), and it\u2019s spectacular\u2026It\u2019s a film designed for a big, big screen and audiences have recognized this in their consumption choices.\u201dBut \u201cDune\u2019s\u201d beauty goes deeper that the visual. It\u2019s a movie that has something to say that is bigger and more complex than simply \u201cpatriarchy is bad\u201d or \u201csystemic racism is a problem.\u201d Though author (and, incidentally, former journalist) Frank Herbert based his world on a Muslim paradigm, he asks questions and probes for answers that transcend time, geography, and culture.What is it in us that searches for a Messiah? What are the wages of placing faith in the wrong one, both for the worshippers and the object of worship? There is no crude allegory to current events here, yet in its openness, \u201cDune\u2019s\u201d explorations can apply to any society or subgroup, as great cinematic art used to do before it was required to serve the god of \u201crepresentation.\u201dOscar Wilde famously chided in \u201cThe Decay of Lying,\u201d \u201cIf something cannot be done to check, or at least to modify, our monstrous worship of facts, Art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land.\u201dToday, \u201cnarrative\u201d has become a stand-in for \u201cfacts\u201d \u2014 some activist culture commentator\u2019s tedious tallying to make sure every leftist political interest receives its little checkmark. How tedious is it? Consider Slate\u2019s review of \u201cDune\u201d:[Director Denis] Villeneuve may have been aware of some of these [Islam-inspired] themes when he chose to cast African and Black American actors for his movie adaptation, at the time the casting was first announced, this felt like something to be celebrated. Yet when it became clear that the casting of these African and Black American actors was to the exclusion of North African and Middle Eastern actors, many were disappointed. Add to it that the strongest Black performances were for characters who died or who lacked the depth afforded to Paul and his mother, and the choice ultimately felt empty\u2026Part of this is also Herbert\u2019s fault. By writing a story in which he intended to critique \u201cWestern man,\u201d Herbert also centered Western man. Often when critiquing something, one falls into a binary that prevents the very third option that so many have been looking for since decolonization.Could there be a more soulless example of how to encounter art and evaluate creative work than this excruciating ethnic bean-counting? And yet this is the thumb most of Hollywood is under these days. Is it any wonder then that even the products that are the least imaginatively and intellectually taxing are failing to draw crowds?\u201cDune\u201d has shown us a better way forward that honors art. If only the entertainment industry will listen.The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":1893903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1014573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}