In 2024, with a worldwide box office revenue of $714,444,358 (Box Office Mojo 2024) and an 8/10 IMDb rating (IMDd 2024). Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part two, an action film based on the 1965 Frank Hervert’s science fiction novels, hits the theatres as the sequel to Dune: Part one (Sirani and Sheppard 2024). Continuing to tell the story of the Paul Atreides and the fall of his house, this adventure, drama, and action sequel focuses on seeking to free the Freem (natives of the planet in which the movie takes place) and to obtain revenge on those responsible for the fall of house Atreides. This film is full of action scenes and sudden murders, and most of the scenes that involve the use violence share a common theme: murder and violence occur under the idea of getting revenge against the people who cause the falling of house Atreides and have taken control over the Freem’s planet (Villeneuve 2024).
The screen grab above shows Gurney Halleck, a soldier of house Atreides, as he is stabbing Best Rabban Harkonnen, one of the people in charge of the massacre of house Atreides shown in Dune: Part One. The scene is set on the battle ground of the Arrakis dessert, and the source of light comes from the fires caused by war and the enemy ship behind the characters, which creates dull lighting and makes the colors of the scene to be mostly orange and a saturated yellow. With the use of a third-person point of view and a middle close up, Harkonnen is portrait in the center of the image, looking with despaired at Halleck, who is in the right corner of the screen and facing backwards. In this portion of the scene, the background is blurred, which emphasised the dying figure of Harkonnen and the stabbing hand of Halleck.
The scene in which Harkonnen is kill happens quite rapidly and jumps between cuts are evident. Both soldiers attack each other, and even though both are high rank soldier, the fight is not long, and revenge from Halleck comes quite easily. In the minute leading up to the moment captured in the screen grab, the camera follows Halleck trough the battlefield using a long shot format with a horizontal crane motion. As Halleck approaches Harkonnen, and until the moment Harkonnen is seen for the first time, the sequence is film in a long shot that later changes to a medium close up shot. At this point both soldiers are fighting each other, and the scenes goes back and forth between both soldiers, and the shots change from a medium close up to a medium wide shot in an almost perfect ABBA pattern. During the sequence leading up to Harkonnen being stabbed, there are fourteen shots that happen very close to one another with little to no movement from the camera, and after his murder there are five more shots until the next minute. Through rapid changes in the different shot sizes and a verry small camera movement, the edits become visible and create an anxious feeling, as it seems that by blinking the scenes changes.
Dune is filled with violence. Scenes that imply cannibalism, characters being slashed, and stabbed for no apparent reason, denigration, and cruelty, are some of the examples that give Dune its rating as a violent movie (Classification Office 2024). Still, as mentioned before, some of the murders happen under the idea that killing will bring honor and revenge to the individual left standing at the end. This idea can be further explored with the case of Halleck, as he mentions that him stabbing Harkonnen was for “[his] duke, and [his] friends”. The idea that acting violent towards someone would bring something positive its mentions by J. Savage as “watching the perpetrator of violence receiving rewards for violent behavior might provide important information to the viewer about the consequences of behaving violently” (2004, 101), and according to Finley, popular movies play a big role in reinforcing stereotypes and ideas about those who commit crimes and how it’s response to it (2018, 17). In the case of this specific scene, the response towards the violence is positive, which could imply that the viewer would experience this act of violence as something positive or necessary, rather than a tragic death. Still, even when media and film can give the viewers and idea about the rewards of violent actions, The influence of media and film depends on the individual as it can influence “in different ways based on our… intentions, wishes and life conditions” (Von Feilitzen 2009, 20)
Bibliography
Box Office Mojo, “Dune: Part Two” (2024) https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt15239678/?ref_=bo_se_r_1
Classification Office, “Dune: Part Two: Age Rating and Content Warning” (2024) https://www.classificationoffice.govt.nz/find-a-rating/quick-takes/dune-part-two/
Finley, Laura L., ed. “Violence in popular culture: American and global perspectives.” Greenwood (2018). https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_EnEEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=iTyCSBtkPV&sig=KjP_Umi9CgiKn58HgeGCvTq5j-o&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
IMDb, “Dune: Part Two” (2024). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15239678/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Savage, Joanne, “Does viewing violent media really cause criminal violence? A methodological review.”, Aggression and Violent Behavior 10, no. 1 (2004) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178903000855?casa_token=m-LAKRAzVf8AAAAA:JUOauaB0DeJJlT0D2RHEe4c8poyvAi9m9zV3t-pUXIQ80HyCxSsw-fGwCs8vM6NWeGBMQ-XkZbBl
Sirani, Jordan., Sheppard, Connor., “How to Watch Dune: Part Two – Where to Stream Online in 2024”, IGN (2024) https://www.ign.com/articles/how-to-watch-dune-2
Villeneuve, Denis, dir. Dune: Part Two, 2024. Los Angeles: Warner Bros, 2024. DVD
Von Feilitzen, Cecilia. “Influences of Mediated Violence: a brief research summary.”, Nordicom, University of Gothenburg (2009). https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1534683/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Madison Pilbeam
By analyzing the film’s narrative and visual components, especially the confrontation between Gurney Halleck and Rabban Harkonnen, Emilia’s examination of violence in Dune: Part Two offers a solid foundation. The scene’s nerve-wracking tension is well conveyed by the way the camera work, shot transitions, and lighting interact. To expand the topic beyond simple description, the argument might benefit from a more thorough integration of the academic sources. Although Von Feilitzen (2009) and Savage (2004) are appropriately cited in relation to audience impact and media violence, their theories are not sufficiently examined in the context of the essay. Linking Halleck’s revenge to Savage’s notion of violence as a learned, reinforced behaviour, for example, calls for more explanation. Does the movie’s plot genuinely glorify vengeance or speak to more complex moral issues?
In addition, while the use of imagery supports the textual analysis, its scholarly depth is limited by the lack of a detailed examination of how the image connects with larger cultural or theoretical frameworks. The assessment would benefit from a greater emphasis on how such images engage with people culturally or psychologically, even though Emilia is successful in portraying the aesthetic and narrative violence of Dune: Part Two. Developing these links could transform the analysis into a deeper critical essay rather than a cinematic observation.