In stripping away the queerness of one of sci-fi's great villains, Denis Villeneveu's "Dune" removes what makes the Baron so fascinating, and so troubling.
Wow. I was just about to post a blog about Dune and decided to google this first. Your SubStack popped up. Yes it had struck me that while new politically correct reboots of old IPs often re-imagine straight characters as gay or White characters as Black, this was the first time I saw a gay character re-imagined as straight -- because, let's face it, they were afraid of a woke backlash. He is still depicted as a sexual sadist but he has slave girls instead of slave boys. As a culture we have come to a point with racism that we can have a Black villain in a Marvel film but we can still not have a gay villain in a blockbuster. The pedo association that is often used to smear gays makes this complicated. Also, some of the best scenes from the books where him discussing his political calculations with his nephew. These were missed from the movie.
I think the bigger point to question isnt why we ar no longer casting queerness as a hated villainous trait, but rather why are we still so resistant to casting queerness in the roll of a hero.
Wow. I was just about to post a blog about Dune and decided to google this first. Your SubStack popped up. Yes it had struck me that while new politically correct reboots of old IPs often re-imagine straight characters as gay or White characters as Black, this was the first time I saw a gay character re-imagined as straight -- because, let's face it, they were afraid of a woke backlash. He is still depicted as a sexual sadist but he has slave girls instead of slave boys. As a culture we have come to a point with racism that we can have a Black villain in a Marvel film but we can still not have a gay villain in a blockbuster. The pedo association that is often used to smear gays makes this complicated. Also, some of the best scenes from the books where him discussing his political calculations with his nephew. These were missed from the movie.
Great work 🙏
I think the bigger point to question isnt why we ar no longer casting queerness as a hated villainous trait, but rather why are we still so resistant to casting queerness in the roll of a hero.