1973 surrealist sci-fi religious horror romantic comedy fantasy adventure murder mysteryRating: 18/20 (Jen: 2/20)
Plot: A thief wanders through a religious wasteland with a midget amputee. They enjoy a frog/chameleon circus and run into some Roman soldiers selling Jesuses. They force him to drink something, and while he's unconscious, they make hundreds of paper mache models of his crucified form. Oh, snap! He wakes up, destroys most of those, and then carries one with him to a high tower. After entering the tower via a giant golden hook, he meets an alchemist (Jodorowsky himself) who tells him everything he could possibly want to know about the holy mountain, a place where the immortals live. He also introduces him to the world's most powerful individuals, each a representation of one of the planets, and trains them to overthrow the gods and possibly achieve everlasting life.
Jodorowsky once said, "Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles." I believe him! Any movie with the line "Rub your clitoris against the mountain" has to be in any discussion about the greatest films ever made. The Holy Mountain, which I might like even more than El Topo, is a two hour hallucination, a bombardment of the grotesque, a scrambling of the senses. Jodorowsky--actor, writer, director, artist, composer--uses unsettling imagery to satirize mostly religious ideas but also other aspects of society (war, money, art). This thing is just an audacious explosion of creative ideas, almost too much for one audience to handle; I don't think I've ever seen a movie with so many flashes of visual brilliance. I wonder about the budget for this. Lots of extras, lots of props, lots of impressively and artistically designed sets. It's surely not for everybody (see Jen's rating), but it is more than likely unlike anything else you've seen before or will ever see again. After all, it's got this in it:
Just one of the many scenes that made me say, "This is the best scene in the history of cinema!" I didn't take my eyes off the screen, but I think Jen probably rolled her eyes every time I said it. Almost overwhelmingly brilliant stuff!
Me:
did you read that george harrison almost took the lead part but turned it down cause AJ wouldn't remove the ass washing scene. i'm glad AJ stuck with his guns but it is too bad in once sense, so many millions more would have seen this flick were the dark horse in it...
ReplyDeleteLike how people rushed to see '200 Motels' after finding out Ringo was in it? Or how everybody bought up those Yoko Ono albums after seeing that John played a little on them?
ReplyDeleteJohn and Yoko did help finance Holy Mountain, so there was a Beatle connection.
um yeah.
ReplyDeleteUmm yeah?
ReplyDeleteUmm bop?
Hey, how gay would it be if I suggested a simul-viewing of 'Fando and Lis'? If it's anywhere in the "pretty dang gay" to "uproariously gay," I'll forget all about the idea.