Summary:
An exploration of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt to bring Frank Herbert’s Dune to screen.
My Thoughts:
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s career is filled with brilliant works. “The Holy Mountain” (1973) is nothing less than a spiritual experience, and '“Santa Sangre” (1989) is a bizarre but powerful story that seems to touch something profoundly mystical. It is no wonder to me that Jodorowsky was drawn to Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune,’ a science fiction novel whose scope and insight is comparable to nothing else in the genre. Dune was published in 1965 and since then it has garnered a reputation for being one of the best (if not the best) science fiction series of all time. The book features bizarre characters and metaphysical themes, something that Jodorowsky had already shown great prowess in bringing to the screen. As Jodorowsky assembled a team of great artists to make this film, his vision for the story took on a life of its own. Unfortunately this film was doomed to fail, but this documentary takes an examination at the film that never was.
“The mind is like a universe. It’s constantly expanding.”
I won’t go into much detail as to what actually happens in the documentary itself, because that would defeat the purpose of watching the film; I will instead offer a few insights into why I think this film is worth watching.
As with many documentaries, I feel like the target audience for this film is rather small. For those that like it, they’ll probably really enjoy it; but I know plenty of people who wouldn’t have the slightest interest in seeing a documentary about a movie that never got made. You could probably convince a lot of people to watch penguins waddle about for an hour and a half (“March of the Penguins”), but it would be a lot harder to convince someone who has no prior knowledge of Jodorowsky or Dune to watch this. I like Jodorowsky. I like Dune. I’m this documentary’s target audience. You might not be.
Really, I think for me the coolest thing was just seeing Jodorowsky talk with such passion about this project that never got made. You can tell that he puts everything he has into his work, and this film would’ve truly been something special. Jodorowsky does seem to have a bit of a messiah complex about how influential his work is/was, and the way that he talks about his version of Dune makes it sound like he wanted it to usher in a new age of filmmaking, but aside from his delusions about this movie being world changing, his thoughts are very interesting.
Another cool part of this movie was seeing how, even though the film never made it to screen, the preproduction sketches ended up influencing all sorts of other science fiction movies (specifically the design of the xenomorph from “Alien” (1979)). Just hearing about the ridiculous amount of talent he brought on board was also crazy; this film truly could’ve been something. Another great moment was when Jodorowsky talked about his reaction to David Lynch’s abysmal adaption of “Dune” (1984).
Verdict:
Dune has a reputation for being a notoriously difficult story to tell, so I wish Denis Villeneuve the best of luck with his upcoming adaption of “Dune” (2020), starring Timothy Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name” (2017)) as the protagonist Paul Atreides. The versions we do have (both David Lynch’s “Dune” (1984) and the Sci Fi Channel Miniseries), left me wanting. Jodorowsky’s Dune could have (potentially) been one of the best films ever brought to screen, and this documentary’s look at the pale shadow of what remains in its stead is a fascinating requiem for what never was.
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