Jodorowsky's Dune (2014)
Currently streaming on Max.
Documentary Details Director’s Delirious Draft of Dune
“What is the goal of the life? It's to create yourself a soul. For me, movies are an art... more than an industry. And its the search of the human soul... as painting, as literature, as poetry. Movies are that for me.”
“I was searching for... For the light of genius in every person, with an enormous respect, an enormous respect. And then, every day I was feeding them in order to... to be free, to do what, to do the best of them.”
-Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune, translated from Spanish.
As Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two continues to dominate box offices, my mind continues to wander the desert planet of Arrakis. Before Villeneuve’s Dune's soaring success, there was David Lynch’s Dune (1984)—a woefully truncated adaptation that relied on clunky exposition to make Herbert’s sprawling narrative function within its limited runtime.
Upon initial release, Lynch’s Dune failed to recoup its production budget. It was regarded as a failure, but the mere fact that David Lynch made a cinematic adaptation of Dune is a hallmark of success—or maybe not.
Perhaps Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1970s cinematic adaptation of Dune shines where Lynch stumbles. Alas, Jodorowsky’s Dune died in pre-production. His film was never made, and his vision remains unrealized. The work of Jodorowsky and his crack team of creative powerhouses would be relegated to the dustbin of history if it were not for Frank Pavich’s 2014 documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune, currently streaming on Max.
Pavich’s documentary finds Jodorowsky in his eighties. Even in his golden years, Jodorowsky exudes passion for his work and the intoxicating charisma of an artistic zealot. Jodorowsky’s triumphs and tribulations are both propelled by his madness. Brilliance and lunacy are two edges of a blade that cuts both ways.
In his battle to make Dune, Jodorowsky wields that proverbial blade with reckless abandon. Sometimes, his aim strikes true amid wild swings for the fences. However, as evidenced by the film’s non-existence, Jodorowsky would ultimately fall on his own sword rather than capitulate to the industry forces that stood in his way.
Nevertheless, Jodorowsky’s Dune is a lively recounting of the film that might have been. The documentary captures the artistic vigor of an uncompromising visionary whose work crackles with grandiose ambition.
“My ambition with Dune was tremendous. So, what I wanted was to create a prophet. I want to create a prophet... to change the young minds of all the world. For me, Dune will be the coming of a god. Artistical, cinematographical god. For me, it was not to make a picture. It was something deeper. I wanted to make something sacred, free, with new perspective. Open the mind! Because I feel, in that time, myself, inside a prison. My ego, my intellect, I want to open! And I start the fight to make Dune.”
-Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune, translated from Spanish.
Jodorowsky’s cinematic interpretation of Dune would probably have been a disaster, but a disaster I wish I could’ve seen in its entirety. Jodorowsky assembled a group of concept artists and special effect experts. His sprawling epic exists as a meticulously rendered storyboard. Every shot of Jodorowsky’s gargantuan project was printed and bound into a “bible” designed to appease the concerns of studios and potential investors.
There is no doubt that Jodorowsky and his team (including H.R. Giger, Jean “Mœbius” Giraud, Dan O’Bannon, and so many more masters of their craft) put an enormous amount of time and effort into a movie that never came to fruition. Thankfully, thanks to Pavich, the brilliant potential of Jodorowsky’s Dune has been reconstructed and documented for posterity.
Jodorowsky’s stated ambitions, uncompromising vision, and interpretation of Herbert’s source material would result in a dubious “adaptation,” seeing as he has never read the book – one of the many quizzical facets of Jodorowsky.
“He said, ‘I want to produce you anything. What do you want to do?’ I say, ‘Dune!’ And he say, ‘Yes.’ […] I didn't read Dune. But, I have a friend who say to me it was fantastic. I don't know why I say Dune. I can say Don Quixote or I can said Hamlet. I don't know any way, anything. I say Dune.”
-Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune
“I still haven't read the book, no. I have no idea what the actual story is. None whatsoever. It all came through Alejandro and the script. Yeah. So, as far as I'm concerned, the story of Dune is what Alejandro told me it was.”
-Chris Foss, concept artist, in Jodorowsky’s Dune
When adapting novels, the narrative often needs to be tweaked to effectively translate to a different medium. Artistic liberty in adaptation is a practical and creative necessity. However, Jodorowsky’s take on Dune is something else entirely.
Jodorowsky throws Frank Herbert’s Dune to the sandworms. On the one hand, Jodorowsky’s utter lack of reverence for his source material is a bold display of artistic originality. When the right filmmaker unchains themselves from their literary source material, their rendering of the story may surpass or even supplant their inspiration. Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining comes to mind as the paradigmatic example.
Jodorowsky's rendering of Arrakis and the ongoing conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen is almost unrecognizable. In Jodorowsky’s version, Duke Leto Atreides has been castrated. His son Paul, Dune’s protagonist, is conceived when a drop of Duke Leto’s blood finds its way into Lady Jessica’s vagina. Paul’s immaculate conception is the first obvious similarity with Christ. Jodorowsky’s telling of Dune seems to reproduce the messianic archetype without criticism. It is also, as Paul’s conception suggests, really fucking weird.
This is, in my opinion, in direct opposition to the sensibilities of Herbert’s novel which deconstructs and challenges the concept of the messiah before narratively indulging the archetype. That Jodorowsky misses Herbert’s point entirely is unsurprising. He is candid about never having read Dune and upfront about his disinterest. It is a vexing cinematic endeavor from a vexatious artist.
Nevertheless, insane geniuses of Jodorowsky’s ilk are worthy of attention. Their work, strange and non-commercial as it may be, is worthy of respect and consideration. Here is a true artist unwilling to compromise his vision for the industry. He fervently protects the soul of his work because he is an artist in the truest sense: committed to his craft, unappreciated in his time, and contemptuous of the financial incentives that drive the powerful institutions in his creative sphere.
“This system make of us slaves. Without dignity. Without depth. With a devil in our pocket. This, this incredible money are in the pocket. This money. This shit. This nothing. This paper who have nothing inside. Movies have heart. Boom-boom-boom. Have mind. Have power. Have ambition. I wanted to do something like that. Why not?”
-Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune
The things that make Alejandro Jodorowsky so artistically captivating (i.e. his passion, stubbornness, arrogance, confidence, ambition, and exuberant charisma) are also why his Dune was never viable within Hollywood’s studio system. Despite never having the chance to make his version of Dune, filmmakers like Jodorowsky are worthy of respect. Hollywood hacks make movies that make money. Is that the marker of successful art? To the industry, yes. For the artist? The answer isn’t so clear.
In a successful sci-fi film from 1980, a little green alien tells his pupil, “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Jodorowsky would call that bullshit.
“You want to make the most fantastic art of movie? Try. If you fail, is not important. We need to try.”
-Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune
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Until next week, film freaks.
Thanks for this fascinating overview of the documentary about his crazy efforts to make "Dune"--what can you say about someone who didn't even bother to read the source novel?? I'll have to check this doc out.