Fifty years ago, it wasn’t just the world that was unrecognisable, but the way that the future was envisaged. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s crew were forced to come up with ways to capture a cosmic leap forward for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Through various in-camera innovations, the most radical science fiction cinema advancement was brought to life. It’s strange, then, that the intervening years have drained our view of the future. The release of the first trailers for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune appears to confirm that it is the latest example of a trend that has taken hold over the last decade or two—the ‘grey blockbuster.’
Of course, it isn’t just about the colour. A solemn sincerity and a strive for intelligence typically marks this kind of film, as if an independent drive has been smuggled onto a multiplex screen. In the tense climate of the 1970s, when the cynicism of the anti-mainstream ‘New Hollywood’ captured the imagination, the sorts of sci-fi visions that wouldn’t be allowed a studio backing were typically bleakly dystopian. In films like Soylent Green, the blankness and oppression of the architecture mirror the character’s grim quests. This imagery took root as the shorthand for a ruined future, finding descendants in Brazil and even The Matrix.
The barriers of budget and technological possibility became less restrictive in years following, but grey remained the easiest way to evoke these themes. The hopelessness of speculative science fiction expressed in the saturation could be expressed in just one colour. In the era of expansion, when cinema was exploring how big and spectacular it could become, independent offerings used limitations to their advantage, creating evocative dystopian filmscapes that pushed against the scale deemed to be the only profitable option.
Naturally, these have found adjuncts in the modern-day spectacle that multiplexes like to promote. Using the example of the Mad Max series, the original films were full of action, but with a gruff and grungy sensibility that certainly didn’t come across as polished. In the recent Fury Road incarnation, while Tom Hardy replaced Mel Gibson as a similarly rough-and-ready lead figure, the profligate vision was taken to an extreme, with frazzling orange desert landscapes and a feast for the senses in the action scenes.
Having said that, it is only one example, and the ‘grey blockbuster’ appears to be the more common incarnation found throughout contemporary science fiction. Directors working in this tradition like Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan make distinctly different films, even if there is a tendency towards the drab. There is an element of perceived intelligence here—narratives that foreground cerebral themes, like language in Arrival, or require a coherent visual style. Just look at Inception. if the screen was splattered with full Technicolor richness, there could be too much to focus on.
The downside of this is that critics can accuse the films of being too serious. Forget rote quips and a comforting familiarity; with what Roger Ebert found to be Inception‘s disregard for the standard “map,” there must be a purposeful step towards an alternative formula, where a concept is handled with po-faced reverence. Somehow, over the past few years, these have been conflated with Nolan’s typical colour palette and created a strange equation; the darker and more saturated the poster, the more intelligently made an action blockbuster must be.
In recent years, we have seen the serial adventure thrill become the most bankable form of cinema release of all, irrespective of the science fiction genre. Studios like Marvel have carefully developed their own tone and connected universe, rising above the now slightly outdated idea of a tentpole summer release that really took shape in the 1970s with Jaws. However, what this did is leave a gap that grey blockbusters have rushed in to fill. After the Wachowskis proved that grey could still be stylish and exciting on the cusp of the 21st century, the post-Matrix blend of heady debates alongside full-blooded genre set-pieces has been giving singular directors a platform ever since.
While it’s easy to be cynical, living in a time when such creative lines of thought have become mainstream is exciting. Being able to visit a cinema and see these stories (that would have been relegated to the most cultish arenas 40 years ago) blown up onto a screen stretching past your field of vision is still thrilling, and it’s easy to see how they have become so popular. Between the pop-art bombast of ever-expanding franchises, one could feel refreshed by the discrete worlds of Duncan Jones’ Source Code or Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer, both of which found growing artists etching out their stories in many shades of grey.
Returning to Dune, the recent trailer absolutely fulfills these tropes. We see towering structures shrouded in shadow, ominous dark-clad figures and some weapons-grade pathetic fallacy. Frank Herbert’s book has previously been adapted into a feature by David Lynch, but that, with all its studio interference, leaned much more into the campy space-opera traditions of Star Wars that the new version looks set to abandon. It’s a trailer that demands not just attention but absolute belief in its heft, with a roster of stars that only just manages to outweigh the huge emphasis put on the name of Denis Villeneuve.
As an exponent of this perfectly-pitched, popular and smart entertainment that the grey blockbuster embodies, it is no surprise to find Villeneuve attached to this project. His last film was Blade Runner 2049, a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s original classic as well as a surprisingly ‘grey’ film in every sense of the word (even if some moments have electric splashes of colour). The trailer made great use of the neon expanses and searing deserts, readying the audience for some astonishing images. When the film came around, it opened with an almost sarcastically bleak opening, with all the portent of the original remaining intact. It remains to be seen how this will compare to Dune, but the greyness of the promotional material doesn’t look set to upset the applecart.
And as for the future, even though the ‘grey blockbuster’ is riding a wave of popularity, an assured future is not necessarily on the cards. As explored through various shifting precursors, Hollywood’s history has always remained on reliably unreliable trends that fluctuate as soon as they become visible. Even Christopher Nolan, whose part in making popular this particular style cannot be undersold, splashed electric blue and bubblegum pink across the most extraordinary sequence of his recent offering Tenet. Whether it remains as mainstream a strategy as it currently is, who knows. But if there is a new zeitgeist waiting around the corner after Dune has rumbled out of our cinemas, it will surely be met with open arms.
Words by Max King
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