...say you have a standard; a set standard, once innovative and unique. A standard, which initially might have instilled a sense of 'wow', amongst the masses, and now, is wholly accepted as 'the norm'...maybe even to the point of yawn-inducing. Then, as the cliched phrase goes, "...just when you've thought that you've seen everything under the sun, along comes..."; an artist, known and reputed for outrageousness...an embraceable outrageousness, with a respectable following, mind you, but clearly, a level of imaginative 'over-the-top' craziness, with an underlining hint of wisdom...'thinking outside the box', as yet another cliched saying goes. And so, that artist takes that now.monotone standard, filters it through a different set of eyes, and suggests quite literally turning that standard on it's head...breathing new life into it, and yet, retaining the crust of what the standard stood for and meant...
...for this viewer, I love 'what if' scenarios. I became amoured with the 'what if' concept, at an early age, when the artistic and creative 'power-that-be', scribbling away at Marvel Comics, ingeniously came up with a unique and absolutely 'off-the-wall' comic book series, which took many of the super-powered hero standards...at a minimum, tweaked their histories...their mythos, here and there, and at most, quite literally shook the contents of the standard into a frenzied mish-mash...stood back, and gandered at what the outcome would be, storywise and direction, given the changes. As the result, some unique, creative...even bizarre and surreal ideas came to pass, and Marvel's "What If...??" series proved a phenomenal favorite, back in it's day...
...ah, yes...'what if...?', indeed. Can't help but imagine the possibilities. Film-wise, those privy to the breaking news announcements, often posed in the 'Hollywood Reporter' and 'Variety' publications...oh heck, you've seen those provocative, awe-striking and excitement-instilling full-page banners...a foretelling of some rather striking things to come. For instance, before mind-bending director Christopher Nolan came into play, there was the 'whoa' intrigue of "Director Darren Aronofsky (..."Requiem for a Dream" & "
π", etc.), to collaborate with artist & writer Frank Miller, on 'Batman: Year One'!!" And how about "Dracula", as conceived and re-imagined, under the wildly surreal direction of controversial cult film fan fav, Ken Russell? (...OK, in all fairness, this 'Dracula' project went by the wayside, in favor of Russell settling for and picking up another Bram Stoker staple, the now-classic "Lair of the White Worm"). Preceding the eventually dismal inception of "Superman Returns"...who, out there, was blown away at the announcement of "Superman Lives"...a total re-imagining (...we're talking dramatically different, and dark, dark, dark...origin, costume, and everything), as daringly re-conceived by Tim Burton?? "David Cronenberg's Frankenstein", anyone?? Director Paul Verhoven and superstar Arnold Schwartzenegger, taking on "The Crusades"?? And leave us not forget about director Terry Gillium's repeatedly disaster plagued, heroic vanity piece...his obsessed and endeared "Don Quixote" project, which has been dropped and picked up...and dropped and picked up so many times...that by now, it quite literally defies gravity, and to this day, may never come down...
...and then, there was the ill-fated Alejandro Jodorowsky's "Dune"...
...setting the 'wayback machine' to 1973, this tale begins with 'Planet of the Apes' film producer Arthur P. Jacobs, having latched onto the film rights to acclaimed author Frank Herbert's best-selling sci-fi staple classic, "Dune". Unfortunately, before anything could be developed on the project, Jacobs fatally succumbed to a heart attack, that very same year. Two years later, having forged an amiable and close relationship with the 'Dune' author, renowned and controversial filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (..."The Holy Mountain", "El Topo", etc.) assumed the film option reins, and with great enthusiasm, sallied forth on the ambitious project...conceiving of all manner of conceptual ideas, drawing, costumes...some of which made it past the conceptual stage, and well into construction...as well as massing together, the eclectic and varied, albeit creative talent behind what might have well been a landmark in science fiction films...
...with expectations of an initially modest and conservative $9 million budget (...with a good portion of that budget, having already been spent on pre-production), ballooning well above that amount, especially in noting Jodorowsky's massive script, which suggested that the film's running time might well result in a staggering and exhausting 12+ hours, the project was invariably and indefinitely stalled...during which time, the rights for "Dune" fell out of Jodorowsky's hands, and later, was picked up by prolific film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who assigned the directorial chores of the project to yet another provocative and controversial filmmaker, David Lynch...and the rest, as they say, is cinematic history...
...those merely privy to this background summation of Jodorowsky's ambitious journey, in the attempt to conceive of his vision of "Dune", as well as having engaged his eclectic, surreal and oh-so bizarre film repertoire, up to this point, still have great justification in wondering just what might have come to pass, had Alejandro's extraordinary...and let's face it, overwhelming version of "Dune"...come to realization. However, in this whimsically mind-blowing documentary, "Jodorowsky's Dune", such revelation cannot help but be multiplied ten-fold, in listening to Alejandro enthusiastically speak of the project; as a viewer, one may well find it difficult not to get caught up in his eccentric passion and enthusiasm for his proposed "Dune"...his vivid descriptions of what he proposed...ideas bizarre, surreal and even measurably erotic enough to make one wonder if ol' Alejandro himself, has been dipping into the Spice Melange (...though, those who have seen the likes of Jodorowsky films, such as "Holy Mountain" and "El Topo"...which are also examined in this documentary, might not be too surprised as what Alejandro was proposing)...inner-spliced with thousands upon thousands of amazing & breath-taking pictures and conceptual art drawings, many of which might well seem...well, familiar (...but we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves, here)...interviews with some genre-savvy and behind-the-scenes greats, as far as filmmaking, writing and special effects, including Richard Stanley, H.R. Giger, Gary Kurtz, Chris Foss and Amanda Lear, amongst others...distinctively sought out by Jodorowsky, the planned participation of musicians Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, actors David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, and the creative talents of H.R. Giger, Douglas Trumbull, & the late Dan O'Bannon. Let's face it: in watching this examination of something that could have been, but ultimately was not meant to be, one cannot help but get swept up in the overall excitement and enthusiasm of all who were involved, including Jodorowsky himself, who's own expressed obsession, excitement and enthusiasm about the project, is clearly contagious, here...
...but then, an amazing thing...or perhaps the more applicable word, would be 'things'...happened, as the result of the initially conceived, though again, ill-fated Jodorowsky/Dune project. In scrutinizing the pre-production construction, and the seemingly infinite number of conceptual art drawing associates with the proposed "Dune"...Wait!! That looks like something similar to...Wait!! That one, too...Didn't I see something like that in...Wait!! Another one...that looks like something right out of...And that's the final revelation, which "Jodorowsky's Dune" clearly seems to want to point out...that so many science fiction and other-worldly-themed films produced in the aftermath of the doomed 'Dune' project, appeared to have been inspired by the outrageously glorious artistic meanderings of the unrealized project...from "Blade Runner" to "Star Wars"...from "Alien" to "The Fifth Element"...and so many countless others mentioned, it most assuredly seems far from coincidence, as far as concept familiarity. As the old saying goes, 'imitation is the finest form of flattery', and as such, that is this profound and historically marked influential effect, despite the film's aborted conception, which Alejandro Jodorowsky's forsaken and unsung version of 'Dune' has to offer to the genre...
...in the final analysis, one cannot help but walk away from "Jodorowsky's Dune" with an overwhelming wonder of what might have been...perhaps even a measure of supportive frustration, in the idea that this just didn't happen. Was this not meant to be?? Did juxstapositioned forces see to it that this didn't happen?? Was such an endeavor, doomed to failure, or was there concern of such a thing happening?? Did vanity and self-indulgence play a part?? Might a 12+ hour version of "Dune" work today, given today's segmented fashion of dividing great genre novels, such as this, into multiple-part movies?? Eh, your guess is as good as anyone's, right?? Nonetheless, the 'journey' still makes for a fascinating story, herein...
ANYTHING would have been better than what David Lynch would later come up with --
ReplyDelete