First of all, I want to show appreciation to actor Javier Bardem for doing an absolutely fantastic job playing Stilgar. He is one of my favorite characters, and I found his moments in trailers outstanding so I was excited to see Bardem's performance for this movie and he did not disappoint, he was amazing! He fits the Stilgar I imagined so well.

I was surprised by the movie's differentiation of Fremens from the North and South, skeptics, fanatics, but I actually like how it was incorporated. I have been seeing some people criticizing this addition to the movie, and Stilgar being portrayed too much like a religious zealot but I didn't see him that way. In the book, Stilgar does indeed go from being a friend of Paul to the follower of a prophet ("In that instant, Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.") so it's not like it doesn't fit the canon lore.

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And he brought comic relief, but was still done justice as a character imo. For example, movie Chani is very skeptical of the prophecy and openly confronts the fanatics, but she and the other Fremen skeptics still respect him as a leader. He was motivated by the prospect of better living conditions for his people and it is made clear.

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Also, his attitude about accepting Jessica and Paul to live amongst them shows that the Atreides didn't really have a choice besides playing along with the prophecy, or they would die. Although he is from the south where people are more fundamentalist, when Jessica asks if he believes in Paul, he says "There are signs.", he doesn't believe in him blindly from the get go. His faith gets stronger the more things he sees in Paul that fall in line with the prophecy.

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Overall, I found this movie's portrayal of Stilgar to be excellent. What do you think about him?