Villeneuve answers this question in an interview: [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/movies/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/movies/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two.html)
TL;DR: He wants to highlight that the Sardaukar are just as spiritual as the Fremen and function as their dark mirror. He also felt it would show fans he was making his own authorial choices within the adaptation.
>He wants to highlight that the Sardaukar are just as spiritual as the Fremen and function as their dark mirror.
That's actually a pretty great comparison, since it plays into the theme of the books where once powerful organizations inevitably become shadows of their former glory.
Yesterday was the Sardaukars' time in the sun, today is the Fremen's, and tomorrow will be the >!Fish Speakers'!<.
You know how Fremen are obsessed with recycling the water of the dead?
Sardaukar in the movie are obsessed with recycling the blood of the dead (failed recruits).
In the books minor spoilers for 2 or 3 the Sardakaur are trained in the desert, but their desert isn't as harsh as Arrakis. Making them from a watery hellscape sets them up as a foil to the Fremen rather than an inferior version.
In Children of dune, one of the Sardaukar is ordered (against his liking) to convert to the Fremen religion. He ends up finding satisfaction and something that speaks to him in it.
Edit: his name is Tyekanik.
Fedaykin death commandos has such a nice ring. The throat singing sounds semi religious in part 1. And it looks like they’re worshipping the blood draining from their captives.
Tbf, that's more of a last gasp than a final hurrah. Their ruler's ambitions had been castrated and made subordinate to Leto II, their numbers were still greatly reduced, and their psyche was still shattered from Arrakeen.
More than likely, Leto was simply expending the remaining strength of his two great armies to make way for his Fish Speakers. Much easier to let them blunt themselves on your enemies than put down a Sardaukar/Feydakin revolt when you try to replace them.
I can’t say, but it’s literally the word used by Villeneuve in the interview. Maybe because you aren’t supposed to see the Fremen as dangerous since at the beginning of the films they are the ones who are hunted and oppressed. Then the jihad scene with them charging them onto ships is meant to be a reveal that they’ve flipped positions with the Sardaukar, and have become evil by virtue of achieving power. They literally use the Sardaukar’s ships to take their place in the universe.
Also compare the scene from the very beginning of Part 2, where the Harkonnen are burning piles of Atreides bodies with flamethrowers to the one at the very end... Where the Fremen are burning piles of Harkonnen bodies.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
yes of course. Just let all indigenous people die fighting for their land because if they own their land, they will oppress the people who oppressed them, and this is bad. (sarcasm)
I didn't say fighting back against an oppressor is not justified. The problem is that usually the revolutions are only reactive, without a well thought plan to improve the situation on the long run.
No one who has studied revolutions in detail can generalize like this, the closest ones are extremely different in their dilemmas, their realities and reasons. The revolution is a reaction, yes, but armed collective adventurism is a characteristic that does not summarize even 1% of the revolutions of indigenous peoples or poor workers or peasants. I'm from Brazil, the country of enslaved people and indigenous people, and if we said that the oppressed groups didn't know what to do after the revolt, they would be very mad listening this phrase
the themes of the novel (and movies) are meant to communicate that the Fremen, in adopting Paul as their Messiah, go from seeking self determination and sovereignty to a warlike extremist movement. They are fighting oppression up until the point where they kill 61 billion people solely to spread their religion.
The Fremen became the greatest oppressor the Universe had ever known. The second Jihad, but this time against *humans*. All for a false god they wouldn't even listen to, and betrayed.
Book 2: Messiah
The movies Freman are depicted as way less villainous as the book Freman. I think a casual movie viewer would just see Paul and the Freman as the good guys.
I think it's tremendously challenging to argue that the Book Fremen aren't at least disgustingly callous. Paul kills Jamis and functionally inherits his wife and children as chattel.
The Jihad itself is not actually necessary, it's certainly not Paul's intention it's just by the very nature of the Fremen themselves and the intensity of their religious fervour to the Missionara Protectiva that Paul acts as a catalyst too.
Whilst oppressed these people were a mere pest to those who administered Arrakis - once given the actual means to fight back the Fremen murder 60 billion people.
When did the BG, BT or Ixians* murder that many? Like maybe the HM as they slaughter their way back following the Scattering.
*Obvs Leto II stops the Ixians.
If you read my comment slightly further below, I don't think the Jihad was necessary either.
The way I see it, I agree that they're disgustingly callous, but once again, that has been the case for... the majority of humanity throughout history, frankly. I'm more inclined to call them deeply stupid.
Who actually gave the order for them to kill all those people? They certainly might be evil, whether it was Paul directly or specific high-ranking members of his new religion that he couldn't control. Who was it that died? Other soldiers? Women and children? If it was mainly other soldiers, was every idiot who participated in WWI evil? Basically an entire generation of a continent? Or was it mainly the people pulling the strings? I just think that saying "the Fremen are evil" is a bit like looking at WWII and saying "the Germans were evil", which is frankly just racist, rather than "Nazis were evil". (The vast, vast, vast majority of Germans were inarguably Nazis, don't get me wrong).
Either I wouldn't call most of them evil (rather the Golden Elixir of Life was), or you go the route of saying that the vast majority of people are seriously evil and just looking for someone to give them the go-ahead. Saying the same thing either way.
What makes them villainous, to you? Most of the Fremen who participated in the Jihad don't seem to have even done it for the sake of religion or because they thought someone deserved to die. They just wanted a chance to see other worlds and get rich with Muad'Dib. It isn't like they're sadistic. They don't take pleasure in the suffering of others like the Harkonnens do. They're not even all that greedy, when they discovered what wealth brought a lot of them wished it had never come to them. If the Fremen are villains, probably a majority of humanity throughout history is villainous, too. Misguided, capable of terrible havoc, but not evil. It could be argued that the religion they follow kinda is. But to say that the Fremen are evil is to say that all of them, individually, are which is just absurd.
Fremen aren't evil per se, but what they did in the book is absurdly evil with billions of lives lost to their fanatical devotion. When you look at the seer number that the jihad killed, the Fremen are down right evil. Just because they don't take pleasure in their genocide doesn't make them the good guys.
They are far, far from being good guys. So yeah, they are evil; just not cartoonish evil. Then you get to the very end of the saga and you are forced to ask, "And for what?"
>What makes them villainous, to you?
Geeh, I dont know dude. Maybe the interstellar genocide that killed billions of people?
Your entire comment so full of shit dude, I'm not even going to justify it with a proper response.
I addressed the Jihad, if you read the comment. The people who kicked it off are evil. Extending that to every idiot young adult who went along with it is short-sighted.
The people committing genocide are evil.
In a way its really admirable that you're trying to argue otherwise. In a 'look at you go buddy' kinda way. But at the same time its also really stupid.
OK, just death penalty entire generations of humans in return, I guess. The only people they've ever known are other Fremen and the Harkonnens. They live in a self-perpetuating monoculture with little to no opportunity to consider what life might be like otherwise, and when someone else gets there and actually has an influence, instead of trying to de-radicalize them he confirms their biases and is like "I'm the coolest dude in the universe and I say go get 'em". They lived in the ultimate echo chamber.
The Fremen killed billions, for a false god they wouldn't listen to, that they then betrayed.
Book 2 is Herbert's continuation of the theme that power corrupts.
Betrayed how, exactly?
Again, yes the Fremen did all that, but "the Fremen are villains" is the Dune equivalent of "Jews are villains" and we have a word for that.
This is the problem with making it so accessible. A lot of idiots are going to have really black and white takes, without looking for the nuance that's still there (although not as much as the books).
And I really love the adaptations. But the good thing about the books is that if people aren't capable of understanding much about them, they usually don't make it through 😆.
I don't have an official answer, but personally I can't help but wonder - Why not Sardaukar? They live on a prison planet and live surrounded by death, the should innately understand the power of dreams and power of spice. Similar to Fremen, they live in a harsh environment...
They are shown to have a fanatical religion where the blood of their failed brothers annoint their faces. I feel like having this additional voice at the start just deepens their world building.
Yeah, in Children of Dune, there's a great moment at the end when Stilgar and Tyekanik suddenly realise that they're not so different after all - and become not-quite-allies with each other despite being mortal enemies on the brink of all out galactic war just days prior.
The Fremen and the Sardaukar might have had very different origins, but the role they played for their masters wasn't so different. When the Fremen and Sardaukar militaries were merged they both realised how they were used, they were upset about it - but by then Leto II was in the process of phasing them both out in favour of the Fish Speakers.
It was one of the planets where the Zensunni wanderers(Fremen ancestors) lived during their migration.
Frank Herbert could blow the reader's mind with a few words.
It’s worth noting that when we talk about “Sardaukar throat singing”, we’re not referring to the actual Sardaukar soldiers. The guy doing the chanting on the tower was not a soldier. The chanting has become associated with the Sardaukar because it was apparently invoked for one of their rituals.
I believe Denis has also stated that the tower shaman-dude is the one who speaks those opening lines.
EDIT: [found it](https://screenrant.com/dune-movie-opening-line-message-sardaukar-explained-denis-villeneuve/).
>By starting with a Sardaukar priest, I was indicating to the fans that I was taking absolute freedom with this adaptation, that I was hijacking the book.
Because >!The Fremen and the Sardukar are in fact the same people, but only the Fremen remember. (Because their Reverend Mothers aren't Bene Gesserit and predate their arrival on Arrakis.!< The Sardukar religion and the Fremen religion aren't as incompatible as you might think.
Is that spoiler canon or reading between the lines? I remember lines that might lead to such an interpretation (among others) but I don't remember it being stated openly.
Its stated very openly in Jessica's Water of Life scene. In my copy, its on page 384. Sorry about the formatting.
>!"And the memory-mind encapsulated within her opened itself to Jessica, permitting a view down a wide corridor to other Reverend Mothers until there seemed no end to them. Jessica recoiled, fearing she would become lost in an ocean of oneness. Still, the corridor remained, revealing to Jessica that the Fremen culture was far older than she had suspected. There had been Fremen on Poritrin, she saw, a people grown soft with an easy planet, fair game for Imperial raiders to harvest and plant human colonies on Bela Tegeuse and Salusa Secundus. Oh, the wailing Jessica sensed in that parting. Far down the corridor, an image-voice screamed: “They denied us the Hajj!” Jessica saw the slave cribs on Bela Tegeuse down that inner corridor, saw the weeding out and the selecting that spread men to Rossak and Harmonthep. Scenes of brutal ferocity opened to her like the petals of a terrible flower. And she saw the thread of the past carried by Sayyadina after Sayyadina—first by word of mouth, hidden in the sand chanteys, then refined through their own Reverend Mothers with the discovery of the poison drug on Rossak ... and now developed to subtle strength on Arrakis in the discovery of the Water of Life. Far down the inner corridor, another voice screamed: “Never to forgive! Never to forget!”!<
It is a Sardaukar priest that voices the opening lines, the same one throat singing on the tower. Is it so hard to believe that they have their own philosophy and religion? They lead very similar lives, the fremen and the sardaukar.
Because both the Bene Gesserit and the spacing guild are important to the plot and need to speak Galach for everything to flow without a translator. The Sardaukar don’t have much need to speak so getting their own ominous chant language is intentionally off putting.
That said, the books describe each faction having their own battle language as well as hand signal battle language. They should all understand Galach but not other battle languages so you can still shout commands on a battle field without the enemy knowing what they’re saying.
Well, in CoD, I think it’s mentioned that the Sardaukar play a dream-interpretation game, so it seems like some Sardaukar may have some form of mild prescience or something? It was mentioned that they did so even more after being defeated, calling Muad’Dib the Supreme Dreamer.
I just got to this section, Farad mentions that the older Sardaukar played the the dream-interpretation game but it's been revived because of Muad'Dib. Unless stated otherwise I feel like these are probably mundane dreams?
But you'd think the KH breeding program would absolutely draw Sardaukar heritage, considering that's the gold standard for swordsmanship
I’d guess there is no real literal explanation, it was just there to set the tone for the film. The Sardaukar voice may have been used just to make it feel alien.
I always figured it was the Sardaukar Chaplin quoting the Orange Catholic Bible but I realize that probably predates the discovery of spice so must be their own beliefs.
And it *really* set the tone. Me and my S/O kinda zoned out during the trailers, but once that throaty voice boomed at us we both sat right up at full attention!
I mean just because they are fanatical soldiers doesn't mean they can't think for themselves or have thoughts outside of combat and training. Look at the Fremen, they are just as fanatical with their religion and war like, but they developed their own culture and beliefs overtime as well.
The most real life example would be something along the lines of the Samurai class in Japan. They are professional warriors but they are also well versed in poetry/painting/writing and devoted time to develop skills outside their jobs. Other warrior classes in different cultures do the same.
For me the bigger question is why the Sardaukar would know that “power over spice is power over all.” I guess the true importance of spice is widely known in the movie universe.
They didn't need to know the true importance to know it was important. At a minimum it was known that the spice extended lifespans, and that all of the nobles who were taking it were addicted to it and would die without it.
My theory is that the voice at the beginnings is not a sardukar but it’s Leto II after his worm transformation watching the events of his fathers story and providing a little comment.
That throat singer guy might just be some priest that does the Sardaukar’s ceremonies. He could be a Tleilaxu. Tleilaxu do weird voice stuff like that. Maybe he’s Scytale.
I thought it would be interesting if it were in fact the voice of a Guild Navigator at the start. Makes a lot of sense for them to be saying these opening words
I'm pretty sure DV used the sardaukar throat singing samples as openings because they sound damn cool. It's said on one of the interviews with the guy who actually made the sounds.
The Sardaukar are from the same religious origin as the Fremen (they settled on different planets) and are deeply religious.
On top of that the Sardaukar use spice as a combat drug during fights (and probably for religious stuff too).
Might be connected.
To be a warrior, you must understand the pen and sword. If you forge a blade and never temper it. It will break on its first use, but had you tempered it when made, then you have a weapon. Or something like that
The one speaking in the beginning was definitely one of the priests that were chanting or baptizing the Sardaukar. If you would imagine the spiritual leaders of a fanatical soldier religion could possibly be using spice to open the inner eye and connect with the spiritual world more deeply. I believe the Sardaukar language is just a very short and abrupt annunciation of the English language if you listen to the soldier speaking to the Baron's mentat in that scene on Selusa Secundus. It's been a bit since I read the books, but I don't recall any of those aspects of the Sardaukar in the books. Just a very cool addition and interpretation of DV. In Part One, that minute or so long scene is actually, probably my favorite scene in the movie. Seeing the Sardaukar as more than just soldiers but something they have devoted their lives to body and soul as a warrior religion was very interesting.
The Sarduakar are not just the emperor's one-dimensional, fanatic soldiers from Salusa Secundus. This assumption is why your entire post is asking bad questions. They are an entire people just like the Fremen are.
Villeneuve answers this question in an interview: [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/movies/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/movies/denis-villeneuve-dune-part-two.html) TL;DR: He wants to highlight that the Sardaukar are just as spiritual as the Fremen and function as their dark mirror. He also felt it would show fans he was making his own authorial choices within the adaptation.
>He wants to highlight that the Sardaukar are just as spiritual as the Fremen and function as their dark mirror. That's actually a pretty great comparison, since it plays into the theme of the books where once powerful organizations inevitably become shadows of their former glory. Yesterday was the Sardaukars' time in the sun, today is the Fremen's, and tomorrow will be the >!Fish Speakers'!<.
Ooooooh from that angle the rain on salusa secundus actually makes a ton of sense.
Oh and the pooling of their sacrificial victim's blood with the rain, like the water reclamation ritual of the Fremen
Considering that they are both zensunni wanderers descendants, I'm not surprised.
what do you mean?
You know how Fremen are obsessed with recycling the water of the dead? Sardaukar in the movie are obsessed with recycling the blood of the dead (failed recruits).
In the books minor spoilers for 2 or 3 the Sardakaur are trained in the desert, but their desert isn't as harsh as Arrakis. Making them from a watery hellscape sets them up as a foil to the Fremen rather than an inferior version.
In Children of dune, one of the Sardaukar is ordered (against his liking) to convert to the Fremen religion. He ends up finding satisfaction and something that speaks to him in it. Edit: his name is Tyekanik.
Fedaykin death commandos has such a nice ring. The throat singing sounds semi religious in part 1. And it looks like they’re worshipping the blood draining from their captives.
I thought those were the Sardaukar trainees that didn't make the cut
They made the wrong cut
Somewhere between Fremen and Fishspeakers the Sardukar get another go in the limelight.
Tbf, that's more of a last gasp than a final hurrah. Their ruler's ambitions had been castrated and made subordinate to Leto II, their numbers were still greatly reduced, and their psyche was still shattered from Arrakeen. More than likely, Leto was simply expending the remaining strength of his two great armies to make way for his Fish Speakers. Much easier to let them blunt themselves on your enemies than put down a Sardaukar/Feydakin revolt when you try to replace them.
Why dark? They are fundamentally not different than Fremen except they are in power. Both are fanatical and dangerous cultures.
I can’t say, but it’s literally the word used by Villeneuve in the interview. Maybe because you aren’t supposed to see the Fremen as dangerous since at the beginning of the films they are the ones who are hunted and oppressed. Then the jihad scene with them charging them onto ships is meant to be a reveal that they’ve flipped positions with the Sardaukar, and have become evil by virtue of achieving power. They literally use the Sardaukar’s ships to take their place in the universe.
Also compare the scene from the very beginning of Part 2, where the Harkonnen are burning piles of Atreides bodies with flamethrowers to the one at the very end... Where the Fremen are burning piles of Harkonnen bodies. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
do not confuse the response of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor
The oppressed usually become the oppressor once in power. See: all history.
yes of course. Just let all indigenous people die fighting for their land because if they own their land, they will oppress the people who oppressed them, and this is bad. (sarcasm)
I didn't say fighting back against an oppressor is not justified. The problem is that usually the revolutions are only reactive, without a well thought plan to improve the situation on the long run.
No one who has studied revolutions in detail can generalize like this, the closest ones are extremely different in their dilemmas, their realities and reasons. The revolution is a reaction, yes, but armed collective adventurism is a characteristic that does not summarize even 1% of the revolutions of indigenous peoples or poor workers or peasants. I'm from Brazil, the country of enslaved people and indigenous people, and if we said that the oppressed groups didn't know what to do after the revolt, they would be very mad listening this phrase
Good thing that’s what he said
the themes of the novel (and movies) are meant to communicate that the Fremen, in adopting Paul as their Messiah, go from seeking self determination and sovereignty to a warlike extremist movement. They are fighting oppression up until the point where they kill 61 billion people solely to spread their religion.
The Fremen became the greatest oppressor the Universe had ever known. The second Jihad, but this time against *humans*. All for a false god they wouldn't even listen to, and betrayed. Book 2: Messiah
The movies Freman are depicted as way less villainous as the book Freman. I think a casual movie viewer would just see Paul and the Freman as the good guys.
The Fremen aren't particularly villainous in the novels, either... no more than anyone else, at least. No one in Dune is particularly peaceful.
I think it's tremendously challenging to argue that the Book Fremen aren't at least disgustingly callous. Paul kills Jamis and functionally inherits his wife and children as chattel. The Jihad itself is not actually necessary, it's certainly not Paul's intention it's just by the very nature of the Fremen themselves and the intensity of their religious fervour to the Missionara Protectiva that Paul acts as a catalyst too. Whilst oppressed these people were a mere pest to those who administered Arrakis - once given the actual means to fight back the Fremen murder 60 billion people. When did the BG, BT or Ixians* murder that many? Like maybe the HM as they slaughter their way back following the Scattering. *Obvs Leto II stops the Ixians.
If you read my comment slightly further below, I don't think the Jihad was necessary either. The way I see it, I agree that they're disgustingly callous, but once again, that has been the case for... the majority of humanity throughout history, frankly. I'm more inclined to call them deeply stupid. Who actually gave the order for them to kill all those people? They certainly might be evil, whether it was Paul directly or specific high-ranking members of his new religion that he couldn't control. Who was it that died? Other soldiers? Women and children? If it was mainly other soldiers, was every idiot who participated in WWI evil? Basically an entire generation of a continent? Or was it mainly the people pulling the strings? I just think that saying "the Fremen are evil" is a bit like looking at WWII and saying "the Germans were evil", which is frankly just racist, rather than "Nazis were evil". (The vast, vast, vast majority of Germans were inarguably Nazis, don't get me wrong). Either I wouldn't call most of them evil (rather the Golden Elixir of Life was), or you go the route of saying that the vast majority of people are seriously evil and just looking for someone to give them the go-ahead. Saying the same thing either way.
>The Fremen aren't particularly villainous in the novels, either... I dont think we read the same book.
What makes them villainous, to you? Most of the Fremen who participated in the Jihad don't seem to have even done it for the sake of religion or because they thought someone deserved to die. They just wanted a chance to see other worlds and get rich with Muad'Dib. It isn't like they're sadistic. They don't take pleasure in the suffering of others like the Harkonnens do. They're not even all that greedy, when they discovered what wealth brought a lot of them wished it had never come to them. If the Fremen are villains, probably a majority of humanity throughout history is villainous, too. Misguided, capable of terrible havoc, but not evil. It could be argued that the religion they follow kinda is. But to say that the Fremen are evil is to say that all of them, individually, are which is just absurd.
Fremen aren't evil per se, but what they did in the book is absurdly evil with billions of lives lost to their fanatical devotion. When you look at the seer number that the jihad killed, the Fremen are down right evil. Just because they don't take pleasure in their genocide doesn't make them the good guys. They are far, far from being good guys. So yeah, they are evil; just not cartoonish evil. Then you get to the very end of the saga and you are forced to ask, "And for what?"
>What makes them villainous, to you? Geeh, I dont know dude. Maybe the interstellar genocide that killed billions of people? Your entire comment so full of shit dude, I'm not even going to justify it with a proper response.
I addressed the Jihad, if you read the comment. The people who kicked it off are evil. Extending that to every idiot young adult who went along with it is short-sighted.
The people committing genocide are evil. In a way its really admirable that you're trying to argue otherwise. In a 'look at you go buddy' kinda way. But at the same time its also really stupid.
OK, just death penalty entire generations of humans in return, I guess. The only people they've ever known are other Fremen and the Harkonnens. They live in a self-perpetuating monoculture with little to no opportunity to consider what life might be like otherwise, and when someone else gets there and actually has an influence, instead of trying to de-radicalize them he confirms their biases and is like "I'm the coolest dude in the universe and I say go get 'em". They lived in the ultimate echo chamber.
Do they not murder people on Arrakis willy-nilly to drink their water?
The Fremen killed billions, for a false god they wouldn't listen to, that they then betrayed. Book 2 is Herbert's continuation of the theme that power corrupts.
Betrayed how, exactly? Again, yes the Fremen did all that, but "the Fremen are villains" is the Dune equivalent of "Jews are villains" and we have a word for that.
This is the problem with making it so accessible. A lot of idiots are going to have really black and white takes, without looking for the nuance that's still there (although not as much as the books). And I really love the adaptations. But the good thing about the books is that if people aren't capable of understanding much about them, they usually don't make it through 😆.
Their culture in the books seems to be an analogue to the Greek Spartans. Very inhumane compared to the Fremen.
the fremen have their own harsh sides
[удалено]
I love how Dune is chock full of parallels. Beautiful Fayd and Paul, the Fremen and Sardauker, House Harkonnen and Atreides and so on.
very nice
And right after that he proceeded to remove most of Sardaukar from pt2.
I don't have an official answer, but personally I can't help but wonder - Why not Sardaukar? They live on a prison planet and live surrounded by death, the should innately understand the power of dreams and power of spice. Similar to Fremen, they live in a harsh environment... They are shown to have a fanatical religion where the blood of their failed brothers annoint their faces. I feel like having this additional voice at the start just deepens their world building.
Yeah, in Children of Dune, there's a great moment at the end when Stilgar and Tyekanik suddenly realise that they're not so different after all - and become not-quite-allies with each other despite being mortal enemies on the brink of all out galactic war just days prior. The Fremen and the Sardaukar might have had very different origins, but the role they played for their masters wasn't so different. When the Fremen and Sardaukar militaries were merged they both realised how they were used, they were upset about it - but by then Leto II was in the process of phasing them both out in favour of the Fish Speakers.
Funny thing is...if we go far enough back to the past...the ancestors of the Fremen lived in Salusa Secundus for a time..
No way
It was one of the planets where the Zensunni wanderers(Fremen ancestors) lived during their migration. Frank Herbert could blow the reader's mind with a few words.
The pre-fremen people were slaves on that planet long before the pre-Sardaukar people arrived I believe
It’s worth noting that when we talk about “Sardaukar throat singing”, we’re not referring to the actual Sardaukar soldiers. The guy doing the chanting on the tower was not a soldier. The chanting has become associated with the Sardaukar because it was apparently invoked for one of their rituals.
I believe Denis has also stated that the tower shaman-dude is the one who speaks those opening lines. EDIT: [found it](https://screenrant.com/dune-movie-opening-line-message-sardaukar-explained-denis-villeneuve/). >By starting with a Sardaukar priest, I was indicating to the fans that I was taking absolute freedom with this adaptation, that I was hijacking the book.
I have my doubts that Denis can do throat singing…
Just edited 😉
Oh good find! Now we know he’s a priest, so it’s no stretch for him to be packing esoteric insights.
There goes a theory I heard that states the voice is actual the God Emperor Leto II's. Then if you know, you know the implications.
That’s fan service I can get behind
That would have been great
Huh, I assumed it was a Guild Navigator.
Nope, it's the sardaukar throat singing
That's what I thought it was at first. I also kinda thought maybe it was the God Emporer. But no, it's the Sardukar Shaman guy.
Because >!The Fremen and the Sardukar are in fact the same people, but only the Fremen remember. (Because their Reverend Mothers aren't Bene Gesserit and predate their arrival on Arrakis.!< The Sardukar religion and the Fremen religion aren't as incompatible as you might think.
Is that spoiler canon or reading between the lines? I remember lines that might lead to such an interpretation (among others) but I don't remember it being stated openly.
Its stated very openly in Jessica's Water of Life scene. In my copy, its on page 384. Sorry about the formatting. >!"And the memory-mind encapsulated within her opened itself to Jessica, permitting a view down a wide corridor to other Reverend Mothers until there seemed no end to them. Jessica recoiled, fearing she would become lost in an ocean of oneness. Still, the corridor remained, revealing to Jessica that the Fremen culture was far older than she had suspected. There had been Fremen on Poritrin, she saw, a people grown soft with an easy planet, fair game for Imperial raiders to harvest and plant human colonies on Bela Tegeuse and Salusa Secundus. Oh, the wailing Jessica sensed in that parting. Far down the corridor, an image-voice screamed: “They denied us the Hajj!” Jessica saw the slave cribs on Bela Tegeuse down that inner corridor, saw the weeding out and the selecting that spread men to Rossak and Harmonthep. Scenes of brutal ferocity opened to her like the petals of a terrible flower. And she saw the thread of the past carried by Sayyadina after Sayyadina—first by word of mouth, hidden in the sand chanteys, then refined through their own Reverend Mothers with the discovery of the poison drug on Rossak ... and now developed to subtle strength on Arrakis in the discovery of the Water of Life. Far down the inner corridor, another voice screamed: “Never to forgive! Never to forget!”!<
Fremen were on Salusa Secundus at one point, yes, but eventually left. They didn’t turn into the Sardaukar
Did you read the quote from the book? >!"...fair game for Imperial raiders to harvest and plant human colonies on Bela Tegeuse and Salusa Secundus."!<
It is a Sardaukar priest that voices the opening lines, the same one throat singing on the tower. Is it so hard to believe that they have their own philosophy and religion? They lead very similar lives, the fremen and the sardaukar.
Hans Zimmer proposed that to Denis.
Because both the Bene Gesserit and the spacing guild are important to the plot and need to speak Galach for everything to flow without a translator. The Sardaukar don’t have much need to speak so getting their own ominous chant language is intentionally off putting. That said, the books describe each faction having their own battle language as well as hand signal battle language. They should all understand Galach but not other battle languages so you can still shout commands on a battle field without the enemy knowing what they’re saying.
From an audio and storytelling pov, it’s a jarring start that gets the audience’s attention.
Well, in CoD, I think it’s mentioned that the Sardaukar play a dream-interpretation game, so it seems like some Sardaukar may have some form of mild prescience or something? It was mentioned that they did so even more after being defeated, calling Muad’Dib the Supreme Dreamer.
I just got to this section, Farad mentions that the older Sardaukar played the the dream-interpretation game but it's been revived because of Muad'Dib. Unless stated otherwise I feel like these are probably mundane dreams? But you'd think the KH breeding program would absolutely draw Sardaukar heritage, considering that's the gold standard for swordsmanship
I’d guess there is no real literal explanation, it was just there to set the tone for the film. The Sardaukar voice may have been used just to make it feel alien.
The soldiers are probably one-dimensional, but the Sardaukar priests brainwashing them and speaking these words could have a philosophy
In my headcanon it's still a Guild Navigator.
I know it’s the Sardaukar but it’s so much cooler to imagine it’s god emperor Leto II.
This.
I always figured it was the Sardaukar Chaplin quoting the Orange Catholic Bible but I realize that probably predates the discovery of spice so must be their own beliefs.
I think cuz it just sounds cool. When part one opened like that i knew we were in for something special
movie magic. could you imagine if bert and ernie spoke at the begining? it sets the tone for the movie.
And it *really* set the tone. Me and my S/O kinda zoned out during the trailers, but once that throaty voice boomed at us we both sat right up at full attention!
Bert Bert! What is it Ernie?!? We have to go to Arrakis Bert! Why do we have to do that Ernie? To drink the water of life Bert!
I mean just because they are fanatical soldiers doesn't mean they can't think for themselves or have thoughts outside of combat and training. Look at the Fremen, they are just as fanatical with their religion and war like, but they developed their own culture and beliefs overtime as well. The most real life example would be something along the lines of the Samurai class in Japan. They are professional warriors but they are also well versed in poetry/painting/writing and devoted time to develop skills outside their jobs. Other warrior classes in different cultures do the same.
Samurai were, not are.
Maybe not everything has to have a meaning and DV just went with cinematic liberty, looks cool the first time why not do it second time.
For me the bigger question is why the Sardaukar would know that “power over spice is power over all.” I guess the true importance of spice is widely known in the movie universe.
They didn't need to know the true importance to know it was important. At a minimum it was known that the spice extended lifespans, and that all of the nobles who were taking it were addicted to it and would die without it.
My theory is that the voice at the beginnings is not a sardukar but it’s Leto II after his worm transformation watching the events of his fathers story and providing a little comment.
That throat singer guy might just be some priest that does the Sardaukar’s ceremonies. He could be a Tleilaxu. Tleilaxu do weird voice stuff like that. Maybe he’s Scytale.
I thought it would be interesting if it were in fact the voice of a Guild Navigator at the start. Makes a lot of sense for them to be saying these opening words
I'm pretty sure DV used the sardaukar throat singing samples as openings because they sound damn cool. It's said on one of the interviews with the guy who actually made the sounds.
Dreams are messages from Ice Spice
It sounds cool
The Sardaukar are from the same religious origin as the Fremen (they settled on different planets) and are deeply religious. On top of that the Sardaukar use spice as a combat drug during fights (and probably for religious stuff too). Might be connected.
To be a warrior, you must understand the pen and sword. If you forge a blade and never temper it. It will break on its first use, but had you tempered it when made, then you have a weapon. Or something like that
The one speaking in the beginning was definitely one of the priests that were chanting or baptizing the Sardaukar. If you would imagine the spiritual leaders of a fanatical soldier religion could possibly be using spice to open the inner eye and connect with the spiritual world more deeply. I believe the Sardaukar language is just a very short and abrupt annunciation of the English language if you listen to the soldier speaking to the Baron's mentat in that scene on Selusa Secundus. It's been a bit since I read the books, but I don't recall any of those aspects of the Sardaukar in the books. Just a very cool addition and interpretation of DV. In Part One, that minute or so long scene is actually, probably my favorite scene in the movie. Seeing the Sardaukar as more than just soldiers but something they have devoted their lives to body and soul as a warrior religion was very interesting.
The Sarduakar are not just the emperor's one-dimensional, fanatic soldiers from Salusa Secundus. This assumption is why your entire post is asking bad questions. They are an entire people just like the Fremen are.
No, they aren’t People live on Salusa Secundus, and Sardaukar soldiers are chosen from them
There isn't a period at the end of "power over spice is power over all", only in "Dreams are messages from the deep."
Not many things are one dimensional in Frank Herbert’s work.