Jodorowsky’s Dune

Frank Pavich – 2013 – USA/France

 

I was somewhat familiar with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s involvement in an early Dune project before I saw this film, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the preproduction was so thorough and camera-ready before being abandoned.  Nor did I know about the extensive team he put together on a purely intuitive basis; including illustrator Paul Giraud, artist H.R. Giger, special effects supervisor Dan O’Bannon, rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma as composers, and non-actors like Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and even his own 12-year-old son in key roles.  Jodorowsky’s Dune isn’t on my personal list of ‘greatest movies never made,’ though it certainly would have been interesting to see; (that’s a status I would reserve for Orson Welles’ Heart of Darkness, Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon or David Lean’s Nostromo).  The emotional hyperbole of this documentary’s interviewees notwithstanding, there is no real reason to believe that the project would have been any less ugly, bloated and pretentious than Jodorowsky’s previous features El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973).  When it comes to surreal and transgressive filmmaking, I’ve never found Jodorowsky anywhere near the level of artistry of Luis Buñuel, Werner Herzog or Ken Russell.  His outlandish belief in his own genius is apparent in his work and it is on prominent display here too.  Though in his 80s, he has a meager resume behind him, and blames everyone except himself for his many failures.  Pavich’s film is fascinating, no doubt, and well-made, and it presents a compelling theory that the preparatory artwork for this Dune project, after making the rounds in Hollywood in the mid-70s, likely had a pronounced influence on some important films made soon thereafter, including Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979) and The Terminator (1984).  What is missing, in my opinion, is any challenge to Jodorowsky himself and his belief that the bad guys in this story are the Hollywood studios he pitched the film to, pure and simple.  My questions are: 1) why was that the end of it all instead of a preamble to seeking funding elsewhere, such as in Europe? and 2) why was going the Hollywood route the one and only plan in the first place?  Surely any clear-headed advisor could have alerted Jodorowsky to the fact that visionless studio executives were not likely to be impressed with the idea of a massively expensive science fiction epic being directed by an arrogant, excitable, anti-American art-house filmmaker who had no ability to function as part of a team.  What is further striking to me about the film, (which also goes unmentioned), is that Jodorowsky appears to have completely misread or ignored the themes of the original Frank Herbert novel.  Herbert’s work critiqued the notion of a superman who could wield magical control over the laws of nature.  That doesn’t happen in Herbert’s Dune; and I find it interesting that it happens in both Jodorowsky’s and David Lynch’s Dune (1984).  It’s hard not to sympathize with Jodorowsky’s passion as a frustrated and visionary artist, but his narcissism is a major turnoff, especially since he has few works to back up his high opinion of himself.