For lovers of film history, science fiction, cult movies or just the madness of the entertainment industry, JODOROWSKY'S DUNE is a real treat.
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a bit of a mad man, known for his incredibly bizarre film EL TOPO.
A huge hit overseas and viewed in the states as a strange, cult film, El Topo and it's follow up earned Jodorowsky the right to choose his next project. He chose to adapt Frank Herbert's classic Sci-fi novel DUNE.
The film chronicles the director assembling a massive, first rate crew for the film, including Dan O'Bannon, HR Giger, Chris Foss, who would go on to create Alien together.
For over a year, the team moved to Paris and developed the film down to every shot in the movie, which they carried around in a massive coffee table size book.
The documentary animates some of these drawings into the scenes that "might have been" had the film ever actually been made.
After massive amounts of work by the director's design team, every studio passed on the work.
David Lynch went on to make his film version of the novel in the early 80's and Jodorowsky's sheer delight in seeing it and realizing it was "crap" is hilarious.
The documentary does a great job of mixing interviews (many in French and Spanish), storyboards, photos of the production, spinning a view of the "greatest movie never made".
As a fan of the book and Lynch's weird, unpenetrable film, I think Jodorowsky's vision was amazing, twisted and could have been either genius or a complete turd. Half the fun is not knowing. There is NO denying Jodorowsky's passion as a director and visionary.
If you are a true film or science fiction buff, you will love this smart and interesting look behind-the-scenes. It gets a very bizarre and fascinating A from me!
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