Been There, Dune That
The long, strange history of Arrakis on film: Part one of our series on Dune.
      by pisher

While Jodorowsky is not the first director to want the author of the book he's adapting to keep the hell away from his movie, his near total incomprehension of science fiction fans is noteworthy -- and fatal. No Dune movie that did not bear Frank Herbert's at least nominal seal of approval was ever going to attract the fans of the book -- and that's the target audience, dammit! If this film had been made, it would have made the furor surrounding Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ look like a love-in. If Jodorowsky wanted to make a movie like this so bad, why didn't he just write up his own story of psychedelic class struggle in strange places, like he did with El Topo?

Well, because most people never went to see El Topo, for one thing. Most people never even heard of it. Nobody had cable back then, or even VCRs or anything. Dune was a hot literary property that most mainstream studios weren't ready to touch yet, because it was science fiction, and they didn't think science fiction sold enough tickets to justify a big budget approach. Whatever his failings, Jodorowsky did have some sound instincts. Science fiction attracted young filmgoers, and he wanted that audience. Here's a much cannier and market savvy comment from that same interview the earlier quote came from:

" -- to produce your art, you need a buyer. Fortunately, the bourgeoisie is dying. The number of young people is increasing. So the only way to keep art from being bourgeois is to make art for the young... and open a market which will support you and in which you can survive" -- "And if you have to do it with bourgeois capital, you should do it with bourgeois capital. Right?"

Alexandro Jodorowsky

Right -- though I think by now Jodorowsky may be having second thoughts about the dying bourgeoisie thingy. That aside, it's about as nice a summary of the ethos behind most good genre movies and TV Shows as I have ever seen. He had the right idea. Too bad he had no idea what to do with it.

George Lucas' Star Wars, released while Jodorowsky's film was still in pre-production, created a wave of interest in genre films. Jodorowsky hoped to ride that wave into the ranks of A-budget directors. And maybe actually make some money directing a film, bourgeois and reactionary though that may sound. So really, Herbert's best-selling and much discussed book was a means to an end. Jodorowsky wanted Dune because people had heard of it, and he wanted people to hear of him. He'd just do his disjointed slapstick surrealist riffs all over Herbert's carefully plotted story and deftly nuanced characters and change whatever the hell he wanted, cast his son as Paul Atreides, and get paid royally for it. That was the plan.

But there was one small problem. Jodorowsky was nuts. Self-evidently, flamboyantly, unabashedly insane. I mean that in a nice way. And though I am making fun of him here, I do think he had his own strange form of artistic integrity. He cared about movies. He did not want to learn to understand the people who run the movie business, which is why he will never be rich -- never mind if he had talent, you don't need talent to make a lot of money at the movies, as is well known.

The French backers came to understand him perfectly -- he wanted their money to play with and he did not give a flying damn if all of them died without the proverbial pot to pee in. Genius must be catered to. But was Jodorowsky really a genius? Or was he just nuts? It can be hard to tell the difference at times, admittedly. The two conditions are not mutually exclusive. But my own gut feeling is that "nuts" hits closer to home than "genius". I could be wrong. I frequently am.

Several years, quite a bit of work, and a great deal of what might be politely referred to as thought had gone into this project before it died, and it may have left its mark in spite of itself. As the Maestro himself comments, some of the people he picked to work on the picture went on to very successful careers in genre filmmaking. Not Salvador Dali, sadly, but some. What Jodorowsky lacked, at least in this stage of his career, was the ability to edit himself. If he thought it, he'd shoot it, and never mind if it worked or not.

Another visualization of Herbert's imagined world.

But others could look at his ideas, and those of his collaborators, and see potential there. Dune is a strange book. It needs a strange director. But would there ever be a director who could be simultaneously strange and sane enough to film it? In those wacky far-out 70's, on the other side of the Atlantic, people were going to midnight showings of a low budget indie film called Eraserhead. Which was as bizarre and surrealistic as anything Jodorowsky ever made. But which somehow -- made sense.

(back at the rocky crags)

Dave: (nodding wisely) Ah. So Jodorowsky was a failed Kwisatz Haderach.

Sarah: (confused) Kwasitz What-erach?

pisher: I already told you, I'm not synopsizing the novel. But yes, you could say that, Davegar. Jodorowsky's talent was an inward looking navel gazing one, sterile, unproductive, self-indulgent. What was needed was someone whose gaze could see both inner and outer space, someone with vision of his own, but who could at least attempt to confront Frank Herbert's vision on its own terms -- and Herbert himself, for that matter. But who? Who could it be? Would the film ever be made? Would Frank Herbert live to see his novel adapted? Will success spoil Rock Hunter? Will --

Sarah: pisher, how many installments is this one going to run? We have deadlines to meet here.

Hey look, it's Sting. And some dude with really funky eyebrows.

pisher: Oh you non-profit online fan magazine publishers and your petit-bourgeois obsession with time! I am an artist! I paint with abandon on a broad canvas! I need space for my unique and visionary interpretation of the facts surrounding the film versions of Dune! You are like the desert, I am --

Sarah: (quietly drawing her crysknife) Yes? You are what?

pisher: Um -- I'm done. Until next month. How's the squirrelsign, Davegar?

Dave: Pretty bad.

pisher: It gets worse.

Sarah: Damn, it's hot out here. Does anybody have a bottle of Poland Spring?

Davegar: Um, Sarah -- if you want a drink, you can get it from your stillsuit.

Sarah: (perplexed) Really? Let me give it a try. (sucks on tube protruding from suit). Tastes a bit funny. Where does it come from?

(Dave whispers something in her ear).

Sarah: (gagging violently) EWWWWWW!!!!!!!

pish-ul: (solemnly) She has taken the Water of Life.

(Davegar nods wisely. The storm continues to approach. The USA Emperor sits in his palace of gold. No word on whether he has a robot double or not. Stay tuned.)

TO BE CONTINUED...

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