Popular movies and TV shows are not merely forms of entertainment, they come into being at a particular time in the history of a civilization, and often mirror its preoccupations. Be it technological advances, visions of the future, or power politics, they need to trigger some familiar sentiment in the popular awareness, to become hallmarks of popular culture. For example, the original Star Trek TV show shared the sense of exhiliration regarding the technological advances of the time, and what they could bring about, as well as mirrored the bipolar international order of the time. Humans represented the West, while their mortal enemies the Klingons represented the rivalry with the Soviet Union. In the early 2000s, the most popular movie franchise was undoubtedly The Lord of the Rings and the franchise’s success in many ways mirrored the prevailing sentiment in the West. The Lord of the Rings presented a black-and-white picture of good fighting against evil, and the good ultimately triumphing, and this could resonate very well with the audience accustomed to the media discourse in which War on Terror was the order of the day.
Iraq was seen as a rogue regime which posits danger to the international order, and was subsequently invaded. The Lord of the Rings franchise, with its message of good triumphing over unspeakable evil, could resonate very well with the War on Terror discourse, but its message has a lasting influence in framing conflicts in today’s world as well. The attacked nation whose sovereignty is violated may very well see itself as fighting against evil, not dissimilar to the one of Mordor, see itself as a bastion under siege, much like Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith were in the movies. The early 2000s were an era when the United States was a supreme global power, the international order was unipolar, and such a power does not only have the supreme military and the highest power, but can also frame conflicts in a way it desires, as a liberal democracy opposing authoritharian regimes, framed as “evil regimes”, as Reagan portrayed the Soviet Union before its collapse.
Although the first novels were written in the late 90s, the Game of Thrones TV show started airing in 2011 and quickly became a global phenomenon on an unprecedented scale. The world of Westeros, although unified at the start under Baratheon rule, quickly becomes a deadly arena in which the Seven Kingdoms, and self-proclaimed kings, battle for supremacy and the Iron Throne. No one is safe in such an environment, even the King’s Landing, where the king resides, which is under siege as early as in Season 2. The advancing armies of Stannis Baratheon are barely defeated, mostly due to the ingenious tactics of Tyrion Lannister. Game of Thrones shows us a multipolar world in which supreme authority does exist, but is constantly under threat from its enemies; the fiercest one is Daenerys Targaryen, who commands the deadly Dothraki hordes, but most importantly three full-grown dragons, which are equivalents to nuclear weapons in our world.
In the 2010s our own world was becoming increasingly multipolar due to the economic, technological and military rise of China, but also its creation of new trade routes across the continents. Also, Russia was competing for influence in the Middle-East (Syria), but other regions as well. Regional powers like Turkey, Iran, North Korea (due to its possession of the atomics) were either consolidating or expanding their interests, while the European Union remains the largest global single market. In the 2010s it was mostly a soft power, much like Japan, tied to the United States when it comes to military support. All of them, taking into account other developing powers like India, play an important part in an increasingly multipolar world, an international order in which power and influence are shifting and the new order is yet to emerge. Game of Thrones ended in 2019, with not so glamurous an end, signalizing the end of a decade which in many ways reflected the competiton of powers in the show. The show presented us with a world in which there is a supreme power which is constantly under threat of other actors who compete with it.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Dune: Part Two, released in 2021 and 2024, are in the domain of power politics (realpolitik) much like Game of Thrones. The world of Dune shows us an inter-galactic neo-feudalist system, in which two families, the Atreides and Harkonnens, fight for survival, but there is a supreme arbiter who holds most power in the figure of the Padishah Emperor. The amount of power held by a particular family is reflected in the CHOAM, the mercatile institution which divides profits among Great Families and the Emperor, spice is the main currency and the motor of everything, much like oil and natural gas in our world. The first years of the 2020s signalled a return to the Cold War politics and the rivalry of the West with Russia, but the international stage is much more complex now, with the rise of China, and the role of North Korea and Iran in today’s conflicts.
Dune encapsulates the first two decades of the twenty-first century and the early years of the third, the wars in the Middle-East, the struggle for natural resources, the ecological concerns and the idea of envisioning a future in which a small group of people is holding both military and economic power. While Star Trek: The Next Generation saw a future in which enlightened humanity explored space and embodied the humanist ideals, Dune‘s vision of future is much darker, since it shows how nothing has essentially changed, putting aside the technological leaps, taboos on artificial intelligence, and inter-galactic travel. The main themes of Dune resonate with today’s audiences very well, especially when it comes to the energy crisis’ of the decade. Although Frank Herbert’s Dune was written in a bipolar world, much like the original Star Trek, Harkonnen Baron is named Vladimir, with a nod to the Russians, it presents a complex world in which natural resources are the basis of most conflicts and the fight for power. The main international actors are primarily concerned with survival and are fearful of each other, but ecological problems loom in the not so distant background; Frank Herbert’s Dune is after all dedicated to ecologists.
Vigour of Film Lines 