Dune: controcultura ed ecologia profonda

The article analyzes the film adaptation of the novel Dune (F. Herbert) by Lynch (1984) and Villeneuve (2021) and the centrality of the theme of ecology. The struggle for monopoly of ‘spice’, natural substance that prolongs life and allows travel at the speed of light, is at the center of the clash between two houses Harkonnen and Atreides. The real protagonist of the story is the planet Arrakis, Dune, with its native inhabitants, the Fremen. Inventions, rites, and values of the Fremen are representative of the counterculture that Herbert opposed to the triumph of the empire of capital and the consumption of resources. The future represented by Lynch and Villeneuve, brings out the roots of the ecological question and leads us to a reflection on the meaning of deep ecology, based on the works of Naess and Panikkar. Through the messianic theme and the prophecy of a new world, the article analyzes the theme of conversion to an ecological self.