Ahira's Hangar

Well, as you might have noticed at the Watch, I was just given a copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo, one weird and crazy movie.

Doing a little research on him, I see that he tried to make a re-interpretation of Dune.

Here is the story:



And this link is to the pic of the pre-release flyer for the movie that was never made.

http://www.hotweird.com/jodorowsky/duneimage.html

--A

You don't have to take it seriously. At least you'd heard of it, which was more than I ever did. And yeah...the guy is hard to understand...when we watched the interview on the El Topo disc, the GF said they should have subtitled him too.

He's just all-out crazy really, as a watch of any of his films demonstrates. *shrug* Everybody is the centre of their own universe. And I'm pretty sure that plenty of mind-altering substances were involved.

--A

Not to mention that Star Wars' visual style kind of resembled (ripped off) Kurosawa, so unless this Dune Movie is time-travelling, I think someone else was ripping off Kurosawa.

Haha, in those days, it was a tribute to Kurusawa. (Definitely elemts of his in that El Topo...but then, he influenced plenty of the filmakers of that era.

--A

Yes, it's all a matter of perspective. Those who aren't into Star Wars are more likely to take the uncharitable view that Lucas ripped off Kurosawa, whereas SW fans (like me) are more inclined to say Lucas paid homage to Kurosawa.

But, getting back to Mr. Jedorowsky: in his case, he has nothing to put before our eyes (aside from that poster sketch) so that we can properly judge for ourselves whether or not his proverbial Dune movie influenced Star Wars and whatever else he wants to claim. It's all talk.

Hey, I'm sure I could convince myself that in my own mind exists the greatest Dune movie never made, too. Anyone wanna give me $200 million to film it?

Man, if I had it, I would.

Yeah, and it probably is the greatest in his mind...people are weird huh? Never fails to amuse me.

I wonder if any other artwork exists for it...story-boards or something.

(Quiet on the board today huh?)

--A

I'm a Kurosawa fan. I used to be a Star Wars fan, until the prequillogy came out.

The Original Star Wars trilogy borrowed so much from so many Kurosawa films that it, in my mind, crosses the line between 'tribute' and 'rip-off.' However, I still liked (and do like) the Original Trilogy, because it had enough 'unique' ideas mixed in to create a perfectly good 'fusion' of the works.

However, since then, it seems to me that Lucas has lost his mind and is just determined to beat a dead horse over and over and over again. Also, the man should not be allowed to write dialogue.

Here is my proof:

Ah, I don't hate the prequels like some do. There were some (OK, quite a few) bad spots, but in general I still enjoyed them.

--A

I have to agree with Moonwatcher---what is up with Mr Jodorowsky??!! That essay is definitely all over the place.
However...the idea of a Dune movie by this guy scares me so much that I'm sort of curious. If he is as out there as others suggest, his interpretation might be intriguing to say the least. I'm sure it would be garbage, but I'd watch it anyway.

About Star Wars and Kurosawa...I'm really only familar with Seven Samurai, so I don't know if Lucas ripped K off or payed homage to him. I do know that I enjoyed the first three SW movies, but lost interest after watching the major toy marketing scam, aka the Phantom Menace. I understand the last two movies are better, but I just didn't care enough to bother with them.

And yes Emotional Leper, Lucas should have nothing to do with dialogue. He proved that back in 1977!

I have always heard that it was Hidden Fortress. When I manage to work my way down to that film in my Netflix queue, I will let you guys know. (It is something like #150 out of nearly 400, so it might take awhile. )