Review - Jodorowsky's Dune

There are some movies that have never been made, that still capture the imagination of the student of film. These can movies that were begun, but abandoned, like the 1937 adaptation of I, Claudius. It can be versions of a movie that were eventually produced, like Vincent Ward's proposed version of Alien 3, which would have taken place inside a wooden space station. It can even be something like alternate casting; for example, Harvey Keitel as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now instead of Martin Sheen (Keitel lasted through the first week of shooting before Coppola replaced him).

Of all these "what if" films, Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune is one of the most famous. Jodorowksy (El Topo, The Holy Mountain), who was to direct, orchestrated the pre-production effort, creating a massive book of paintings, storyboards and a script that would have translated to a 10 - 14 hour long movie. Copies of this book were sent off to every major studio...and turned down as commercially nonviable.

Jodorowsky is a challenging film-maker. Each of his films inspires discomfort in the viewer. However, while he does push the boundaries cinema, it is not in a purely exploitative or sensational way. No matter how anarchic they may seem at times, his films are carefully constructed so that the images convey the themes and thoughts of the story.

When I was a kid and learned that he had almost made Dune - one of my favorite books - I started looking for everything I could find about it. Even in those pre-Internet days, you could find enough to make your mouth water. Art by Chris Foss and H.R. Giger. Costume designs and storyboards by Moebius. Fragments of the script and character descriptions. A cast that might have included Orson Wells and Salvador Dali. Even the proposed length of the film was inspiring; what kind of amazing things could be shown in a 14 hour long movie? Of course, to my 10-year-old-self practicalities - like what kind of theater would show a movie of this length...and how many people would sit through it - didn't matter. The details that were available were enough to inspire an epic of the imagination.

The documentary is completely engaging. Although it is primarily a "talking head" film, the creators do liven things up a bit with some animation based on story boards, showing how a few scenes would have looked. The style of the animation - line drawings that look like the storyboards set in motion - is perfect for a film about a movie that only exists on paper. We are shown some of the art produced for the film, which is tantalizing, promising a baroque future unlike anything seen up until that time.

More impressive than the development and production details are the people involved. The passion (and disappointment) that is still in the voices of men like Chris Voss and Michel Serdoux (who provided initial funding and was the film's producer) is what really grabs you. These men seem to have believed what Jodorowsky told them; this film would be "a prophet" a transformational experience for the audience.

The centerpiece of the film is Jodorowsky. He is a natural story-teller. Hearing him describe his dealings with Dali, his meeting with Mick Jagger, his vision for the film, is captivating. The screen oozes with his enthusiasm, not just for this film but for art and for life. It would take a very dull person to walk away from this movie and not be inspired to try and create something. Maybe not a mutli-million dollar movie that was to shape the minds of its viewers; but something that comes from the soul.

Although Jodorowksy's Dune will never be made, it is still inspirational. A good case can be made - and is made by the documentarians - that Jodorowsky's Dune influenced many films in the decades that followed. While they point out specific scenes that they speculate may have been lifted - or inspired - by Jodorowsky's pre-production work, I would say that one should look more broadly. First, it brought together a number of talented individuals who would go on to work in later films, like Alien, that would set the visual tone for science fiction movies to the present day. Second, while Star Wars was instrumental in creating the "big budget sci-fi epic" trend, the idea that you could have a mainstream release of more thoughtful science fiction films still exists. Dune and some of it's contemporaries that made it to movie theaters (e.g., The Final Programme, Rollerball, Phase IV, A Clockwork Orange, Solaris) showed that you can do "message sci-fi" using the trappings of cinematic science fiction to look at serious themes. While the "event movies" - mindless sci-fi action films like the Transformer and Star Trek films - still dominate the ranks of big budget genre movies, there are plenty of other films that want to challenge the audience in ways that Jodorowsky would recognize. Films like Melancholia, Moon, and Her all have thought-provoking themes, using science fiction to reflect the concerns of the day. And, there are hybrid event/message movies like The Matrix series, that mix big budget action with complex stories and themes.

One thing to keep in mind: since Jodorwosky's Dune was not made, we are able to create the movie in our minds. There, it is a vast epic, one that would set the senses and the mind afire. Would it really have been like that? Would a ten hour long film made by a idealistic surrealist with the effects technology of the mid-Seventies have lived up to our dreams? Probably not; but the story of Jodorowsky's Dune shows that the attempt to realize the dream can be just as important actualizing it.

Jodorwosky's Dune is a great film about a fascinating chapter in film history. And, it is a tribute and inspiration to dreamers everywhere.

A good site with much of the public information about Dune, including Jodorowsky's version, can be found at Dune: Behind the Scenes.