Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)
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Jodorowsky’s Dune Movie Review
Jodorowsky’s Dune is a 2013 documentary film directed by Frank Pavich and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. It’s a very interesting look into the movie that never came to be.
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“For me, movies are an art…
more than an industry“
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First and foremost, I have to preface by saying that I have yet to see a film from Jodorowsky. I plan to most definitely watch some after witnessing some of the footage and posters of his movies in this documentary as they look pleasantly weird and authentic. It’s interesting how the eventual Dune adaptation was also adapted by an eccentric director, David Lynch. I never really got that weirdness sense from the novel itself, but the Hollywood producers obviously did.
Yes, back in the seventies, Jodorowsky set out to adapt ‘Dune’, years before the Lynch version. This movie chronicles all of those years of making the film from the conception to the storyboard materials and all the way to the eventual unfortunate shut down of this production.
It’s an interesting movie that explores how movies are made in Hollywood, the seventies SF scene and how influential this director was to the other genre films afterwards such as ‘Alien’ and ‘Prometheus’ among others. It also offers us a great glimpse into this creator’s mind, his vast creativity and his quest for authenticity and imagination above mainstream populism.
Whereas Jodorowsky’s Dune personally lost me was in its somewhat one-sided approach and especially some scenes that basically glorified the man. Yes, he was making an interesting movie which seemed epic, but we don’t know if it was going to be better than freaking ‘2001’. Those kinds of statements got on my nerve a bit.
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And the entire movie is overly light and chirpy in a way which can get distracting as it made me think that the movie was going to be made, but that also in a certain way led to all the more powerful and heartbreaking ending. That’s where the movie soared, when it showcased the power the Hollywood studios and the machine hold and how money destroys creativity. That sense of tragic losing of his artistic output was truly felt and it’s the highlight of the film which is otherwise well paced, directed and edited, but only truly great in those final moments.
Jodorowsky’s Dune offers an overly cheerful and glorified, but still fascinating look into the mind of Alejandro Jodorowsky and his creativity. It makes you think about this intriguing lost cinematic adaptation and what it could have meant for the SF genre. The highlight was its truly heartbreaking and important third act which showcased how not finishing your film is probably the worst thing that could happen to a person in this business.
