July 21: Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013 -- Frank Pavich)

★★★

Formally, Jodorowsky's Dune is a fairly conventional documentary.  It’s mostly a series of talking heads, though the animation from the detailed storyboards of the script certainly helps us get a modest feel for what the project might have looked like.  And though it’s hard to imagine another structure, the predictability of the film’s progress becomes somewhat boring.  We go from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s work before this project to a very long list of big-name people he got involved to a conclusion of the ripple effects of the project.  The form here isn’t what engages.

Instead, it’s the vision and audacity of Jodorowsky that keeps us in the film.  Jodorowsky was immersed in the cultural currents of the late 60s/early 70s.  From absurdist theater, we went on to make two wildly experimental films, and his Dune was to  be based on what he wanted to talk about – the expansion of consciousness – rather than the contents of Herbert’s work.  One of a couple of the self-referential aspects of this story shows how director Jodorowsky essentially became a prophet, like Paul of the novel, stimulating the disciples he recruited for the project to open their minds.  And we can note the ongoing effect of Jodorowsky's teaching in the subsequent careers of figures like HR Giger, Dan O’Bannon and Chris Foss.  Jodorowsky pulled these creative artists into film, and they all went on to make important contributions arising, in part, from the way Jodorowsky developed their talent.

There is a lot of Entertainment Tonight in the overlong middle section of the film as we hear funny stories about Jodorowsky’s encounter with Pink Floyd, Dalí, Jagger, David Carradine, and Welles.  But the range of Jodorowsky’s contacts, the countries he worked in, and the areas of 70s pop culture he mined are a fascinating look into that era and into some of the cultural trends at work.  Jodorowsky lived at the nexus of those trends at that time, and part of the pleasure of Jodorowsky's Dune is to participate in that moment.

This film also makes the worthwhile observation that Jodorowsky's version of Dune became seminal to an important part of future sci fi cinema.  Like Paul’s death in Dune leads to the fertilization of the entire planet of Dune, so did the failure of Jodorowsky’s Dune lead to a dispersion of talent that went on to fertilize many important sci fi projects.  We see the echoes of Jodorowsky’s Dune in Star Wars, Alien, Prometheus, and Blade Runner among many important sci fi movies.  And it’s not that Lucas or Scott stole ideas from Jodorowsky but that the talent that worked on those later projects developed its vision from Jodorowsky’s prophetic leadership. 

It’s in describing this relationship that the important value, and pleasure, of Jodorowsky’s Dune lies.