November
2015
Newsletter
The
Greatest Movie That Was Never Made
Greetings,
A few weeks ago I happened to watch “Jodorowsky’s Dune”
a fascinating documentary film about the the “greatest movie that was
never made”. The
book is about the Chilean film director Alejandro
Jodorowsky’s glorious failure to create his cinematic version
of one of the greatest Sci Fi novels of all time, Dune by Frank
Herbert. Jodorowsky purchased the rights in 1975 and for the next few
years dedicated himself to this project. Jodorowsky’s
adaptation was actually liberated from the original theme and text in
this book as he dived into spirituality and religious concepts, while
getting the approval of Herbert.
For those of you who are not familiar with the book: The award winning
novel Dune,
which became the bestseller Sci Fi novel of all time was written in 1965 by Frank
Herbert. It it set in the
distant future, where humanity lives among the stars as a feudal
society, with noble houses controlling different planets, under the
rulership of an emperor. The protagonist of the story is Paul Atreides,
whose family house becomes in charge of the planet Arrakis
(derived from the Arabic word Al Rakisa - The Dancer due to its
celestial pattern). This is one example of how Herbert was able to
weave endless details that make this fictional world a real one in the
mind of the reader.
Dune
Ring
In this novel (and the next ones in the Dune series), Herbert tried to
figure out what is the true purpose
of the Cosmos,
and though many readers read the story as a sort of a thrilling sci fi
novel it is much more than that. Herbert created a multi-layered plot with
sub contexts tying together politics, religion, ecology, technology,
human psyche and philosophy.
In order to emphasize his drive to understand the purpose of the
cosmos, he used the metaphor of the “Spice
Melange”, the most precious substance in the universe, that
exist only on the desert planet Arrakis and enable the one who consumes
it to expand his consciousness and literally see the future. That is
the reason that the control of Arrakis is a coveted and dangerous as
the forces of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the
control of Arrakis and its "spice".
Frank Herbert saw the universe as a living thing, as can be seen in the
metaphor of Planet arrakis as a living entity. The cosmos gains
consciousness and awareness through evolution, in such a way, that
throughout the ages the human being will gain such an awareness that he
and the cosmic will become one. Herbert uses the term
“Kwisatz Haderach” taken from the kabbalistic term
“Kefitzat Haderech”, the ability to be at different
places at the same time. It also literally means “to shorten
the way” or simply a “breakthrough” since
the plot’s hero Paul Atreides becomes the next step in human
evolution.
Jodorowsky actually used this perspective and found common ground with
Herbert who approved Jodorowsky’s vision and storyboard which
was a mix of religious concepts and philosophy. Since I believe that
thoughts live forever, it was fascinating to discover how through the
years after his glorious failure; many ideas and artistic themes found
their way to many films in the years after, which made this film that
wasn’t even made one of the most influential films of all
time...
I’d like to share with you another interesting perspective
about the connection between Frank Herbert’s Dune and gold
and silver jewelry:
The fictional native people of the desert planet Arrakis are wearing
“water jewelry” since water are scarce in their
harsh environment. When I wanted to find out why we, humans, covet the
bright luster of gold and silver, I’ve discovered that many
researchers claim that since the early humans wandered through the
vasts of the savannas, they always tried to find the
sparkling gold or silver hue of distant water reservoirs on the
horizon. According to these recent studies, that is the reason we find
the shimmering sparkle of gold and silver so appealing… It
is embedded in us...
Other
Related Cosmic Pieces
Thank you for reading
Enjoy
David and Ka-Gold Team
|