Jodorowsky’s Dune | Frank Pavich | March 21, 2014
Imagine Dune as the trippiest ’70s science-fiction movie ever, not the ’80s David Lynch film: concept art from H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, and Moebius; special effects from Dan O’Bannon; a cast with the likes of David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, and Udo Kier; and a soundtrack from such groups as Pink Floyd and Magma. That would have been mindblowing … if it had come to fruition.
That failed adaptation is the focus of Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary from first-time director Frank Pavich. In the film, Pavich reconstructs what could have been through interviews with French-Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, his son Brontis, the surviving artists, and online film critics Drew McWeeny and Devin Faraci, among others. Pavich first welcomes the audience into Jodorowsky’s world by introducing them to the man through his home office displays, tchotchkes, and a brief biography. Jodorowsky’s first two works of film, El Topo and The Holy Mountain, were surrealistic avant-garde features, and they caught the attention of Michel Seydoux, a producer who immediately wanted to make a film with Alejandro. On a whim, Jodo, as he liked to be called, chose to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune, despite knowing nothing or next to nothing about it.
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky in his study with his ‘Dune’ storyboard tome.
From there, Jodo set out to make a mind-bending science-fiction film with the help of talented and spiritual “true believers”, starting with Jean Giraud/Moebius. Douglas Trumbull of 2001 fame didn’t fit the bill for special effects, but up-and-comer Dan O’Bannon did, thanks to his work on John Carpenter’s Dark Star. Concept artists H.R. Giger and Chris Foss signed on for the architecture and ship designs, respectively. The eclectic cast started to assemble around Brontis, Alejandro’s son, who Jodo cast as Paul, the young lead. Everything seemed just peachy two years into pre-production, but most of the budget was blown, and studios were turning Jodorowsky and his storyboard/proof-of-concept/tome down. It was just too much for them. The rest, once the rights were bought by Raffaella De Laurentiis, is history.
To this day, the influence of this unmade potential masterpiece can still be felt throughout pop culture, from the production design of Flash Gordon to the opening of the ark in Raiders to the alien structure in Prometheus to the ships in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. It helps that Giger’s work was relied upon for Prometheus and the Alien films, and Foss was brought on to the Guardians crew to design the ships.
Watching what amounted to a private screening of Jodorowsky’s Dune filled me with the sort of creative impetus that Jodorowsky was looking to inspire, all the while disappointing me that I would never be able to see such a film – despite the aforementioned ever-present fingerprints across the sci-fi pop culture lexicon.
Rating: 9.0/10
Jodorowsky’s Dune can be found on Amazon.
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