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80 out of 93 people found the following review useful: Not just a Film, an Experience!!!, 24 April 2005 Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PA
How can the average person describe the Holy Mountain? They can't, It's one of those films that is so bizarre that one has to witness it at least 5 times to fully appreciate it. Alejandro Jodorowsky takes every form of religion and mysticism and puts it into symbolic imagery, that turns into a two hour mind trip. The film is not thrown together, each scene is so chock full of strange imagery, yet each image has a particular meaning. The plot concerns, the thief, who seems to be representational of Christ in modern times. The thief awakens in the desert, almost crucified by children, he is then rescued by an amputee dwarf. After him and the dwarf share a joint, they travel through different scene after scene of surreal images. In one scenario a police state has taken over downtown Mexico. Innocent people are massacred, and birds fly out of their bullet wounds. The conquest of Mexico is reenacted by frogs and iguanas. The Christ character gets drunk with Roman soldiers, and they make a mold of him to produce statues for profit. And this is all in the first twenty minutes. The occult science of alchemy is another factor of the film. The thief finally meets the alchemist, played by Jodorowsky himself, and the alchemist turns his excrement into gold. The black magic of alchemy involves turning raw materials into gold, but it also is a science that the nine planets of the solar system revolve around. We are then introduced to 7 of the most powerful people in the world named after the planets of the solar system. Each person is corrupt and greedy involved in politics, war or mass marketing. Each person who has their own planet, and a weakness is willing to give up their money and be reborn as a Buddhist monk. In a way these people are alchemists also since they have the ability to turn worthless items such as weapons and cosmetics into riches. Since money is just paper, in a way the magic of alchemy in everyday life convinces us that the dollar bill is of value. Many aspects of life are just an illusion, just as in cinema. In the Holy Mountain Jodorowsky proves to be the master of illusion like a magician. Also his character, the Alchemist has the job of spiritual leader to lead all of the 9 people to the Holy Mountain including the Christ character and the women with the Kaballah tattoos. Also the film is indulgent at times in it's Frued like sexuality and nudity. It is both strange and intriguing, both hilarious and horrifying, and one of the weirdest films your most likely to see. Their is so much that happens in this film, that it's almost impossible to describe. People who are looking for deep meaning in films like Donnie Darko need to keep searching, the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky would be a good start. The Holy Mountain is not only a masterpiece, it's a spiritual journey, and it just might very well change the way you look at the world. Not everyone will like it, so sit back and watch with an open mind. The Holy Mountain is one of the most underrated and important films ever made. 10/10
54 out of 77 people found the following review useful: Dated, pretentious, astonishing, 28 June 2004 Author: jhb4731
I don't think this film can be "reviewed" in the normal sense of the word, only experienced as one would a painting or a piece of music. Having only seen it two nights ago, I'm not even sure I've fully processed it. In any case...To begin, the images, the images. The first 20 minutes contain some of the most astonishing images I've seen, combining Christian iconography, Latin American history, futurism, mysticism, and political commentary. As if Fellini had a sinister twin working with his leftover film and props. As the film progresses I thought the set pieces became a little dated and, frankly, I experienced sensory overload. I'm sure a lot of viewers would reject this film as pointless or indulgent. Yeah...so? I can't say I understood exactly what Jodoworsky was getting at (if anything), or if it would even make an impact on my view of the world. But if film is to be defined as image over everything else, then Jodoworsky is certainly some sort of master filmmaker. I'd rather watch something like this, filled with ideas (however pretentious), than a plot-driven movie with nothing more on its mind than wrapping up loose ends for the audience. Now, off to rent Santa Sangre.
42 out of 60 people found the following review useful: Come prepared to chuckle, 18 June 2003 Author: abronaim
If you liked "The Wall" (you know, the Pink Floyd movie), but thought it was a bit of a downer and suffered from the lack of a fat woman humping an excitable, legless, animatronic horse, this movie could be for you.Despite what you may have heard, "The Holy Mountain" is more absurd than surreal, more funny than disturbing. Don't worry if your tarot cards are gathering dust and you can't remember the difference between wands and swords--such occult knowledge might help you achieve a few "Oh I get that!" moments during the middle of the film, but the heaps of blatant symbolism aren't really the point. In fact, it may just be that the point is: there is no point. When you see a fat man dressed as the Virgin Mary handing out crucifixes under a sign that says "Christs For Sale", you can rack your brain trying to figure out what kind of statement that makes about society--or you can laugh. When you witness "The Government" indoctrinating children with a hatred for the nation of Peru by printing up comic books called "Captain Captain Against The Peruvian Monster", you can lament the plight of innocents being manipulated for selfish ends--or you can laugh! This film bombards the viewer with outlandish images and juxtapositions like these in rapid fire throughout, so it's easy to get bogged down or confused or numb. The secret to appreciating it all is to come prepared to chuckle--some things you'll "get", some things you won't, but most everything is twisted and absurd and, in some way, funny. Now when you get to the end and Jodorowsky winks at you, you can wink right back.Basically, if you can appreciate absurdity and profundity and the absurdity of profundity (not to mention enormous, colorful sets), you'll find a lot to like here.PS: If you do like "The Holy Mountain", head down to your local comics shop (or browse over to your favorite book/graphic novel e-tailer) and pick up a couple of volumes of "The Incal" or "The Metabarons", both of which were also written by Jodorowsky. They're like this movie--every bit as garish and violent and thought-provoking and funny--but they have actual plots (epic space-opera plots, no less).
24 out of 30 people found the following review useful: jodorowoski's best work, 13 December 1999 Author: dmuel from downtown, Michigan
This is one of a kind, only his other films come close to it. The drunks at the drive-in used to honk in protest over Holy Mountain, one of its few general release venues, because they couldn't make heads or tails of it. Jodorowoski describes himself as a game player or "trickster" not a film maker. Much of Holy Mountain does, indeed, play tricks on the viewer. While the movie seems to be telling a story of some sort of quest to find cosmic enlightenment, this is only a thread which ties together Jodorowoski's many strange and hallucinogenic images. Jodorowoski frequently makes use of grotesque and revolting scenes, as well as bizarre music, to startle and unnerve the viewer. At some level he challenges the audience to make sense of his movie, if that is what it you'd call it, though not many have succeeded. With much nudity, violence and sexual content this is not a family movie and certainly will not please every taste.
21 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Revolutionary, 25 August 2006 Author: sweetcitychild2002 from Greece
Deep, trippy, schizophrenic, symbolic, mystical, with great blasts of violence and astonishing sequence of Pictures, The Holy Mountain is simply what i call revolutionary art. If you want a comparison i'd say that it's more symbolic and meaningful than a Lynch film but with a simpler and clearer script. The dialogs are few to nonexistent, but the Images alone are enough to keep your mind busy for hours. For almost 110 minutes you're watching -experiencing is a more suitable word- an insane delusion but the finale comes to overthrow your previous state of mind- truly unique, one of the most subversive in the history of cinema. Watch this movie with an open mind and you'll surely witness one of the most provoking and mind-challenging pieces of art ever made. Brilliant! 10/10
20 out of 25 people found the following review useful: A Great Mockery of Religious and Mystical Symbolism, 29 November 2004 Author: (chuckmaster83@yahoo.com) from New York City
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
***WARNING: SPOILERS!***Most of the people who complain about this film say they don't get it and also claim that Jodorowsky went overboard with the use of symbolism and shocking imagery. One reviewer said this:"It's an episodic documentary that re-enacts much of the suffering and cruelty of past history and man's unceasing struggle to gain enlightenment and immortality which is said to be found on the top of the holy mountain."Later, in the same review, he states:"To appreciate this film one needs to be widely read to appreciate the symbolism which permeates the whole movie."While this movie is up to interpretation, I think this reviewer, like many people who have seen "The Holy Mountain," are reading WAY too much into the symbolism. In the movie, the characters go to seek absolute truth which they believe is on top of the Holy Mountain. They go through many confusing and mystical treks until they finally reach the mountain. When they get there, the wise men are fake and Jodorowsky & Co. laugh at how their trip was pointless. Then Jodorowsky says "Zoom out camera" and the camera zooms out to show the sound crew and cameramen. The whole point of the film is pointlessness. It reveals the absurdity of religion and mysticism. Jodorowsky shows an overwhelming slew of religious and mystical symbolism and many are led to believe that they are significant. However, at the end Jodorowsky lifts the veil and shows that it was all meaningless. Even the movie is an illusionIn the film Jodorowsky says that "There have been hundreds of holy mountains," and he goes on to list several. I feel that Jodorowsky showed so much symbolism and shocking imagery together in order to emphasize the fact that all religious and mystical symbols are equally absurd. Those who think all of this symbolism actually all means something either fell for Jodorowsky's joke, or didn't watch the film to its conclusion (or both). I truly believe that the end of this film reveals the true nature of the message Jodorowsky was trying to get across. The film is meaningless and an illusion, just like religion and the idea of higher powers.[However I could be wrong ;) feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this film or anything Jodorowsky]
17 out of 22 people found the following review useful: An absolutely brilliant film both in concept and execution., 30 October 2001 Author: Benwar
The Holy Mountain is an epic exploration of religious experience and global socio-political trends. A scathing indictment of the abuse of power by both first and third-world nations, while simultaneously a wonderfully clever fantasy that exposes art and religion as hilarious tools of mass-mind-control. It is a truly sweeping masterpiece full of amazing imagery and even more impressive thought. And it also has one of the best endings you are likely to see -ever. Too bad it is almost impossible to find.
17 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Astonishingly beautiful, bloody and strange, 6 February 2000 Author: angelynx-2 (angelynx@spookhouse.net) from Washington DC
Astonishingly beautiful, bloody and strange surrealist film. Roughly, about a spiritual quest for enlightenment, truth and immortality; but that doesn't begin to describe Jodorowsky's Fellini-like flood of imagery and symbolism. Jodorowsky himself plays "The Master", an occult adept who assembles a group of people representing the planets of our solar system (a Christ figure for Earth) to ascend the Holy Mountain and gain the secret of eternal life. The qualities of the individual planetary cultures are both based on, and distorted from, their classic meanings in astrology and alchemy - you really need to have some basic reading in occultism to follow this movie - and the stunning ending shot takes the theme of illusion vs. truth to a completely different plane.
20 out of 28 people found the following review useful: "You are excrement, but you can change into gold...", 27 March 2001 Author: fando
This is not only, in my opinion, the best movie by maestro Alexandro Jodorowsky, not only the best movie ever made in Mexico or Latin America, or not only the best movie ever...I would say that this sort of work ranks along with the bible or the alcoran of the muslims. It is a proposal with not only an incalculable artistic achievement, but a movie that goes beyond that...A proposal about the human condition, and how to achieve perfection and reach holiness, just like the bible seems to do. As far as a movie, it synthesizes his Panic proposal of the artwork and the world like no other of this work, and can be interpreted in many ways. It's meaningful for everyone who sees it, and cannot be ignored, causing a deep conmotion in every spectator, and him/her to actively participate in the search. In a few words, it is a revelation. A revelation that some people doesn't want you to experience. I dont know how many of you know that the original copies of this movie and El Topo were destroyed by Allen Klein (at least that's how Jodorowsky put it). So, I guess that we the few people who have seen it are very lucky and must really asume that we are. I would synthesize the argument this way (this is what I roughly understood): All the icons that man has created reunite in his mortal form to achieve inmortality, and ultimately holiness. For that, they must become a group, and fuse with a "great self", loosing the concept that each one has of his own. The thief represents christianity, and the rest of the searchers represents a good of the greek pantheon each (Jodorowsky representing the sun, and Ramona Saunders the moon). All of them are thieves, 6 of them represent the most powerful people on the earth, and all of them know that they are mortal. This movie does not criticize any religion, and is not surrealistic either, nor an excersise in sadomasochism (we may be able to say that about "Fando & Lis", his first movie, because that one is an allegory of the couple relationship). Each symbol relates perfectly into a structure that leads you to the end, in which you must participate and assume your own humanity, forgetting about what you understand as "identity". Nevertheless, to come to this conclusion you have to had come across some reading before, and know Jodorowsky's work somehow. Its good that this movie is rated as that because it shows that it caused a reaction, which I believe was the main point, but misunderstood anyway, which has doomed its fate. I am sorry it has been discontinued, mainly because it was misunderstood. I started to become afraid that it would disappear from the face of the earth, but this is the kind of movie that does not become old with time. Its like wine, the more time it spends away, the better it will taste, hopefully. Younger generations seem to like it more than that when it was made. A true view ahead of its time, and perhaps our, because if not, we would be able to buy it at Wal Mart enjoy it without fearing that lawyers would come and get us. Perhaps it just wasnt meant for that.
17 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Are you experienced? Jodorowsky's ambitious Rorschach motion picture tests human's connection to spirituality, and cinema, 22 April 2007 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
How does one start describing writer/director/star/master-of-ceremonies Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain? Sensational, outrageous, in-your-face, (the much overused phrase) one-of-a-kind, hilarious, self-indulgent, dangerous, and enlightening could be some words, and there could be more. But these are just symbolic of what one goes into seeing the movie. And what is it to see a movie, to experience it, Jodorowsky, I think anyway, is essentially asking? What about faith, or belief that there can be a way to surpass mortality and live forever? Is there truly any basis to become more than just flesh and bones and organs and love and hate and desire and greed? Perhaps, in the end, it might just be art itself. The Holy Mountain is one (bleeping) crazy art-house picture experience, where the filmmaker asks it's audience to either go on the journey and be open to whatever he's liable to let out of the floodgates of his consciousness, or if to be closed off then to might as well leave. So as it goes, really, with organized religion, which his own character Jodorowsky plays- the Alchemist- could be identifiable as.As I left the theater I kept on thinking about what it is to put total trust and confidence in a "master", someone who seems to have all the knowledge and experience to take people to higher planes. At the core, is what the Alchemist can do for the nine "planet" representatives any different than what a priest or a rabbi or a monk can promise? There is a level of intellectual stimulation, aside from the obvious emotional connection to the immense level of surrealism, that keeps one from thinking that this becomes all weird for its own sake. Unlike El Topo, however, Jodorowsky this time is much more in control of his own delirious dreamscapes and, in a sense, the genuine consciousness he creates in his Holy Mountain. He gives us, at the start, something a little much akin to El Topo with piling on Christian symbolism and imagery like its got to get into our heads right away. This part, actually, might be somewhat weaker in comparison with the rest of the film, if only because one wonders where the hell this is all going; a Jesus-figure, who comes into a village loaded with circus 'freaks' and gawkers at such 'freaks', and is put into plaster-casting to make more Jesus figures, which he demolishes except for one which he carries with him for a little while.There's more than just this, but for the first twenty minutes, which is practically silent and without dialog, we get immensely rich but sort of free-form symbolism, some that is great (the scene with the frogs in the representation of the Spanish conquistadors is absolutely uproarious), and some that isn't, like a strange scene in a church. But soon Jodorowsky moves it along to 'Jesus' entering the realm of the Alchemist, and going under his tutelage (and learning how, mayhap, gold can be the end result of literal excrement), learns about who the other members to go on the journey to the holy mountain will be. It's here that Jodorowsky digs deep into the nature of the period he was filming in and how fascinating and perverse human beings can be. These other members are all shown in vignettes to be "manufacturers", for the most part, of weapons, clothing, architecture, political espionage, and as a police force of a sort. More than ever Jodorowsky throws out the outrageousness to eat up, and really it actually never shows (and maybe it's just me as a jaded 21st century guy) to be as shocking as one might expect. Yes, it's extremely violent (watch out for your genitals, by the way, when around these folks), extraordinarily sexually charged (sex machines anyone?), and meant to be in poor taste and so over the top you don't know what is up or down. At first, I thought it couldn't get much better, as far as sheer surrealist entertainment value goes.Yet as the last section develops, as the Alchemist takes his pupils to the mountain to meet their promised fates, there's more depth than I would have expected, even from all that preceded it as already containing cast quantities of rich socio-political-sexual commentary and prodding knife stabs at correctness. Religion itself, as Bunuel did in the past, is questioned very strongly and seriously, however still in the context of Jodorowsky having his own subjective approach. Of course, the director- who happens to be at the top of his game here stylistically, second only to Santa Sangre as perhaps his most accomplished effort- did become a shaman himself to make this movie, so there is a level of legitimate connection to what religion says to provide us. At the same time, Jodorowsky is, all the same, questioning what it means to submit yourself to indoctrination, to "nothingness" as the Alchemist says to his pupils in their trances. It's not just Christianity that needs to be taken with a grain of salt, although that is very significant in the final section (the 'monster' over the boat, for example, has a lot that can be read into it, ala sin), but that it has to be in the person to understand what immortality REALLY means. The final revelation at the table on the mountain nails it on the head, and suddenly (or not so suddenly) things become clearer; the final lines by the Alchemist (or rather, Jodorowsky himself), make it a very poignant end to what has been a delirious, hilarious trip into consciousness expansion...In a word, or a few, what it means to 'experience' a film itself, and once it ends, you step back into some kind of reality. The Holy Mountain is a true love it or hate it movie. I loved it, even as I still wonder what the hell it is I just saw/felt/heard/experienced, and of course if it should be believed.
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