Holy Mountain (1973, Blu-ray Review) Anchor Bay
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Cast: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Zamira Saunders, Juan Ferrara, Adriana Page, Burt Kleiner, Valerie Jodorowsky, Nicky Nichols, Richard Rutowski, Luis Lomeli , Ana De Sade
Anchor Bay / Region A / Rated R / 2.35:1 Widescreen / English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo / Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese / 113 minutes / PURCHASE FROM TLACULT
Extras: Feature Commentary by Director Alejandro Jodorowsky / The Holy Mountain Original Trailer / The Holy Mountain Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Alejandro Jodorowsky / Restoration Process Bonus / The Tarot Bonus with Commentary by Alejandro Jodorowsky / Photo Gallery with Original Script Excerpts
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Dear Mr. Gawd and/or Jeezums,
Thank you for allowing Alejandro Jodorowsky to descend from film heaven into this toilet Earth. You have blessed the world of cinema by giving us his style, convictions and genius. No other filmmaker has presented existentialism and the pursuit of enlightenment quite like Saint Jodorowsky. His understanding of the human spiritual condition is deep and profound. That knowledge along with his eye for the beautifully grotesque makes his one of a kind. You have given him the ability to completely mind fuck while not allowing his point to get lost in the chaos. Thank you, o Lawd, for this gift.
Signed, Faithful in Orlando
P.S. Thanks for looking the other way on that whole masturbating thing.
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Shortly after an amputee saves him from a stoning at the hands of a gang of kids, a common street thief who seems to have some sort of God complex climbs a large tower when the townspeople are about to send up a sacrifice via a large hook. Once inside he meets The Alchemist and his beautiful, black and very bald servant who challenges him to a duel and kicks his ass. He then trains him in spirituality and tells the thief that he has trained 7 others, powerful people, to go to Lotus Mountain to overthrow the 9 Immortals and steal the secret to immortality. Each of the people represent the other planets and have special skills and jobs that would help with the task. The thief would be Earth’s representation. The others are:
- Venus; in charge of the beauty and comfort of all humankind
- Mars; manufactures weapons of all kinds
- Jupiter; mass produces art in a factory
- Saturn; makes toys used to condition children
- Uranus; financial adviser to the President
- Neptune; Chief of Police
- Pluto; master architect
These 7 along with the Earth man and the Alchemist’s assistant (who may represent the missing Mercury?) take the physical and spiritual journey to the island where the holy mountain is located. Once they are there, they are tempted by revelry and are faced with false prophets but they push on to their destination. What they find is unexpected things about themselves, real life and the secret that everyone seeks to unveil.
A couple of years after his mind-bending, freak show of a western El Topo, Jodorowsky took us further into the madness that is his spiritual vision with Holy Mountain. To say that this is a strange movie is like saying that felching is a weird sexual practice. The wonderfully insane visuals that littered El Topo are even more vibrant here. Apropos of that, Jodo seems to have an unhealthy fascination with animal carcasses… just an observation. But I think my favorite oddity was a good sized squid or octopus being pulled out of a giant boil on the back of the thief’s neck. Blech-o-rama. To say that Anchor Bay’s high definition treatment here makes the visuals that much more fun is not giving it enough credit. It was beautiful. The road taken by Jodo to speak to mankind’s earnest search for something more than this life is inspirational without being preachy.
If you are a fan of cinema… brilliant, artistic and thought provoking cinema, you really should pick up Holy Mountain and El Topo from Anchor Bay. And while you’re at it, toss Severin’s release of Santa Sangre in your shopping cart as well to round out Jodorowsky’s Holy Trinity.
