Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) – F. Pavich

Alejandro Jodorowsky was set to make a film of Frank Herbert’s Dune in 1974 or 1975 (after his success with El Topo, 1970, and The Holy Mountain, 1973 – two classic “midnight movies”) but it all fell through.  Frank Pavich’s documentary tells us how amazing the film could have been.  Plenty of the film is interview footage with Jodorowsky himself and this may sound dry but if you haven’t seen the man talk before, you’ll be blown away by how passionate and engaging he can be.  He was 84 at the time and he went on to make two new films (Dance of Reality, 2014, and Endless Poetry, 2016) after this; he is currently 90 and I hope he makes more.  Dune would have been his take on science fiction and, in the spirit of The Holy Mountain, he sought to find some “spiritual warriors” to collaborate with him on the production.  The list of names is astounding:  Dan O’Bannon (special effects), Moebius (story boards, production design), Chris Foss (art), H. R. Giger (art), Salvador Dali (actor), Mick Jagger (actor), David Carradine (actor), Pink Floyd (music), Magma (music), and Brontis Jodorowsky (actor).  The film buff will know that a number of these collaborators (principally O’Bannon and Giger) went on to contribute to Alien (1979) and the storyboards (put together in an amazingly fat hardcover book distributed to studios in 1974) suggest that some of Dune’s ideas were recycled for that film.  Moreover, a case is made that Star Wars (1977) also benefited from Jodorowsky’s take on science fiction.  Pavich and his team do a great job of animating some of Moebius’s drawings in this film.  Whether Jodorowsky could have brought the project home (and within budget), we’ll never know (and surely some of the ravings here must be pure fantasy) but it is incredible to hear what might have been.