The Big Picture
Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation of Dune successfully condenses the grandeur of the novel into a traditional film without sacrificing plot lines or characterization. However, the character of Dr. Wellington Yueh, a pivotal traitor in the story, is underdeveloped and lacks impact in the film compared to the novel. The absence of key scenes featuring Yueh in Villeneuve’s version undermines the emotional depth and tension that the character represents in the original source material.
For the longest time, Dune had a reputation as one of the great unfilmable novels, which might sound odd considering it already had an adaptation in 1984 followed by a couple of miniseries in the early 2000s, but the sheer depth of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece makes the task of translating it from one medium to another a task even some of cinema’s most acclaimed directors have failed at. David Lynch’s version made the critical mistake of trying to take 500 pages of plot and condense it into two digestible hours, whereas the miniseries went the opposite direction and followed the source material too closely, creating a slog of a series that just made you wish you were reading the book instead.
It is precisely because of this reputation that Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation is the triumph that it is. Villeneuve, alongside writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, has done the impossible and condensed a novel of such grandeur into the runtime of a traditional film without sacrificing the intrinsic plot lines or deep characterization that defines the book. With a talent previously known only to Lord of the Rings era Peter Jackson, the trio knew precisely what to remove, what to compress, and what to remain the same whilst still retaining everything that made Dune the classic that it is, and it is a success they have rightfully been praised for. The unfortunate exception to this, however, is Dr. Wellington Yueh (Chang Chen), the Atreides family physician who also serves as the harbinger of their downfall when he betrays them to their sworn enemy the Harkonnens.
Who Is Dr. Wellington Yueh in ‘Dune’?
Image via Warner Bros.
Dr. Wellington Yueh is the novel’s most tragic character, a man caught between two opposing families as he wrestles with his own selfish need to be reunited with his wife, and the needs of the entire universe should his actions become the spark that ignites an intergalactic war. Tragically much of Yueh’s content is removed from Villeneuve’s film, taking what was once a deep and nuanced character into someone who barely makes the footnote in the scope of everything else that happened, a decision that might not have proved so disastrous if his role as the Atreides betrayer hadn’t remained unchanged. In theory, this allows for more focus on Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his struggles against House Harkonnens as Villeneuve edits this story down into a more accessible form, but in practice, it just becomes the sole black mark on an otherwise perfect adaptation.
But first, some context. Dr. Wellington Yueh, a Suk doctor who has served the Atreides family for six years before the start of the narrative and whom Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) consider amongst their most loyal servants, is actually a Harkonnen agent being forced into betraying his masters under the threat that his kidnapped wife, Wanna Marcus, will suffer a fate worse than death. This threat instills a hatred in him for House Harkonnen far beyond anything the Atreides feel, a hatred that also grows against himself when he finds himself doing their bidding anyway in a despite attempt to save his wife. This internal conflict between serving a family he loves and becoming a puppet for a family he hates is explored in great detail in the novel, culminating in one of its standout chapters between him and Lady Jessica.
The scene in question, taking place shortly after an assassination attempt on Paul’s life, is remarkably simple. There’s no spectacle or action, or even any particular drama. It’s just two characters engaging in small talk for a few minutes before one of them leaves. But it’s the avalanche of conflicting thoughts happening behind the innocent chatter that makes the scene brilliant. How Yueh ‘forgets’ to call Lady Jessica by her formal titles only to quickly correct himself, believing that his fake embarrassment with distract her from realizing the true reason for his odd behavior, or how Jessica notices the scorn with which Yueh refers to the Harkonnens with, but decides not to press him further for fear of reopening old wounds regarding his wife. Both know the other is hiding something, and both know that the other knows that they’re hiding something, but formalities and respect for old friends prevent them from inquiring further. The whole encounter drips with tension, with innocent words and the smallest of body movements saying more than an entire monologue ever could. It’s impossible not to feel Yueh’s pain, and the moment when he almost reveals all to Jessica, only to stop himself at the last possible moment, stands as the novel’s most painful moment.
How Does Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Change Yueh’s Story?
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It’s also a scene that is entirely absent from Villeneuve’s version, alongside a great many others featuring Wellington Yueh. The result is a character who blends so seamlessly into the background that an audience member could be forgiven for forgetting he was even there, which might not have mattered so much if the entire second half of the film didn’t stem from him being the instigator of the Atreides’ demise. The revelation that Yueh has shut off the shield generators, thus allowing the Harkonnen fleet to attack the planet of Arrakis, should be one of the film’s most impactful moments. Instead, it comes across as a contrived plot development that exists solely to get to the film’s major action scene that stems from a character we barely know, meaning the film has to rush through some awkwardly written dialogue to quickly explain his sudden change in character. It’s made even more confusing when, only seconds later, he’s implanting a poison capsule into the Duke’s mouth with which he can kill the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård), or how he arranges transport for Paul and Jessica to get them safely away from the city. Does he hate the Atreides or does he love them? In the novel, there is no doubt in his answer, but in the film, it’s just a jumbled mess that’s trying to do far too much in too little time.
The plot line about there being a traitor in the Atreides’ midst is a central one throughout the opening third of the novel, with Leto and Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson), the Atreides family Mentat (a select group of people trained to mimic the cognitive abilities of a computer), throwing suspicion at practically everyone. However, they never suspect Yueh, because the core element of his character is that he is a Suk Doctor. Without getting too much into Dune lore, it boils down to a school of doctors who are conditioned to be incapable of inflicting harm on others, and any attempts to do so would result in the doctor’s death. In theory, this should immediately remove Yueh as a possible traitor (which is exactly what Leto and Hawat do), so the revelation that he is the traitor comes as even more of a surprise. It also emphasizes the power of the Harkonnens as they effortlessly bypass the impossible, making them even more of a threat. In Villeneuve’s film this plot point is never addressed, undercutting the twist even more.
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What Else Is Different in Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ From the Original Book?
Image via Warner Bros.
When adapting a novel, especially one of such depth as Dune, it is impossible to include everything, and that’s fine. To attempt to include everything would only make for a film in dire need of an editor, and Villeneuve proves countless times throughout his recent adaptation that you can capture the same spirit of the source material without having to obsess over every minor detail. For example, one of the central traits of Atreides swordmaster Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) is his skills with the baliset, a nine-stringed musical instrument that serves as a recurring gimmick with his character. For Villeneuve’s film, this softer side of Halleck is removed in favor of focusing on his role as one of Duke Leto’s most distinguished fighters, and the film works perfectly fine with this change. His role as a fighter is crucial to the plot, whereas his talents as a musician are not, so the decision to remove this element makes perfect sense.
But the same cannot be said for Wellington Yueh, as the changes made to his character negatively impact Dune as a whole. Seemingly Villeneuve agreed, as the previously mentioned scene between him and Jessica was filmed before ending up on the cutting room floor. Most likely this scene was removed due to time constraints, with Villeneuve hoping audiences would be willing to overlook one underdeveloped plotline for the sake of getting the story moving in a film that’s already running a hefty runtime, and while that logic may have worked with other deleted scenes, it does not with this.
When developing his 1948 adaptation of Hamlet, Laurence Olivier removed the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, despite being two of the play’s central characters. Olivier justified this by saying he needed to make one large cut for the sake of time, but the result was that it robbed the title character of one of the most essential ingredients in understanding his arc from innocent Prince of Denmark to a crazed individual with the blood of several innocent people on his hands, and even with this change the film still clocked in at 155 minutes. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune runs just one minute longer, and when you consider how many elements were removed or condensed, not to mention how it doesn’t even touch the novel’s second half, it really puts into perspective just how grand Frank Herbert’s original is. While many of the decisions Villeneuve made work in the film’s favor, sometimes for a story of this scale there is a reason the source material runs as long as it does, and Wellington Yueh is a perfect example. He is too important of a character to have his screen time reduced to so little, and the result is the story’s standout moment being little more than a disappointing puff of smoke rather than the explosion it should be. Perhaps an extended cut could restore his character to the tragic but sympathetic figure he is, but with Villeneuve previously making comments that he does not like such things, it seems this will remain the single mistake that holds Dune back from true greatness. Only time will tell if this will remain the worst misstep within the entirety of Villeneuve’s adaptation, as Dune 2’s release has been delayed into 2024. Villeneuve has also said he intends to make a third installment, so we will stay tuned on that front as well.