The Holy MountainIf reality is a matter of perception, then what does that say about the visions of madmen? Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain is a psychedelic trip that deals in bold and drastic imagery, ranging from the graphically violent and sexual to the beautiful and transcendent. The Holy Mountain is the story of a Christ-like figure--called "The Thief" (Horacio Salinas)--who is drawn into a secret society of interplanetary power brokers led by an enigmatic guru called "The Alchemist" (Alejandro Jodorowsky). The Alchemist leads his disciples on a crusade to uncover the secrets of the "holy mountain" under the auspices of obtaining immortality. But the plot is ancillary in this hallucinogenic experience that assaults the conventions of traditional society.
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The Holy Mountain uses extreme metaphors to drive home a vivid message, like the other works by surreal auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky. It roasts sacred cows in a brutal satire of religion, materialism, achievement, social order, and other aspects of civilization by depicting them as the causes of all suffering. In the opening to The Holy Mountain, two nearly identical models--resembling the quintessential Hollywood sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe--have their glamour literally stripped away from them. They are transformed into neutral ciphers by the Alchemist in a pantomime of the reshaping of the Thief and the disciples later. The Alchemist does not appear until thirty minutes into the film, after he has lured the Thief into his tower--with a giant, golden fishhook. He does this to purge him of a squid-like demon that has infested him with the "sin" of materialism and other similar desires. The Alchemist utters the first intelligible words in The Holy Mountain, and everything before this is more like a nightmare--a hyper-sensory overload of grotesque and symbolic imagery. The world that the Thief is a part of is somehow more insane than the one introduced to him by the Alchemist. He wakes up covered in flies and his own excrement; an amputee dwarf accompanies him through the streets of a Mexican city that is so overwhelmed by madness that people are being executed and copulating--almost in tandem--and birds emerge from bullet holes instead of blood. A reenactment of Spain conquering Mexico is performed by elaborately decorated lizards and frogs. It is a perverse staged combat which ends in a bloody explosion, speaking to mankind's tendency for cruelty and self-destruction. The Alchemist--played by Jodorowsky--is determined to reveal the "truth" to his audience about these dangers to their souls. The Alchemist recruits an Illuminati-esque conclave of other "thieves" to follow him to the holy mountain; they are presented as corrupt and depraved people, who exploit others by controlling key aspects of society--through propaganda-infused comic books, meaningless artwork that is provocative yet soulless, and other ways. Even the despot from Pluto is surrounded by a flock of Mouseketeers. (Get it?) The Alchemist has tempted these vile people with the lure of immortality, subverting their greed in order to topple their proverbial mountains of avarice and pride while guiding them to enlightenment.
The Holy Mountain was produced by Allen Klein--who was also the manager of The Beatles--following praise for Jodoworsky's work by John Lennon and George Harrison. The Holy Mountain shares the mysticism and psychedelic imagery that accompanied the later works by The Beatles, and the music by Jodorowsky has an Eastern vibe that recalls some tracks from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The Holy Mountain presents itself as a transgressive and abstract piece of art, asking the audience to evaluate how they identify with it, as opposed to experiencing a traditional "story". Nonsensical imagery has historically been associated with a pointed indictment of social constructs in art. The metaphor-laden set pieces are often subversive and blasphemous, but are also comically absurd. For example, the Christ-looking Thief encounters a street vendor advertising "Christs for Sale", and has a large, wooden cross; the Thief enthusiastically takes it upon himself to drag the cross through the streets as if by habit. After the Thief is abducted, a full body mold made of him so that mass-produced, life-sized idols of himself can be made and sold. He is subsequently cradled in the arms of a mustachioed Virgin Mary in a pose resembling the classic "Pieta" work of art, while nursing the Thief with a bottle of tequila. The Holy Mountain is hardly subtle; but with such outlandish scenes of satire, it shares more in common with the ridiculous and over-the-top animated TV show, "South Park". The best way to interpret The Holy Mountain is not as a means to obtain insight about faith (or lack of it), but as a black comedy and critique of those who would exploit these conventions and subjugate others for their own aggrandizement. The Holy Mountain is like its central character, the Alchemist--trying to strip away qualities we hold as sacred to reveal these rituals as mere fantasy. Pulling back the proverbial curtain on these phantasms--which we regard as more true than truth itself--must still leave behind some unknown "truth"; The Holy Mountain posits that it is this truth that we must define on our own terms, free from the dominion of external forces.
Recommended for: Fans of a beguiling and shocking barrage of grotesque and symbolic imagery paired with a darkly comic "story" of enlightenment and the search for that always loaded word: truth. The Holy Mountain is often graphic and even determined to offend most audience's sensibilities...but that's also the point.
The Holy Mountain was produced by Allen Klein--who was also the manager of The Beatles--following praise for Jodoworsky's work by John Lennon and George Harrison. The Holy Mountain shares the mysticism and psychedelic imagery that accompanied the later works by The Beatles, and the music by Jodorowsky has an Eastern vibe that recalls some tracks from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The Holy Mountain presents itself as a transgressive and abstract piece of art, asking the audience to evaluate how they identify with it, as opposed to experiencing a traditional "story". Nonsensical imagery has historically been associated with a pointed indictment of social constructs in art. The metaphor-laden set pieces are often subversive and blasphemous, but are also comically absurd. For example, the Christ-looking Thief encounters a street vendor advertising "Christs for Sale", and has a large, wooden cross; the Thief enthusiastically takes it upon himself to drag the cross through the streets as if by habit. After the Thief is abducted, a full body mold made of him so that mass-produced, life-sized idols of himself can be made and sold. He is subsequently cradled in the arms of a mustachioed Virgin Mary in a pose resembling the classic "Pieta" work of art, while nursing the Thief with a bottle of tequila. The Holy Mountain is hardly subtle; but with such outlandish scenes of satire, it shares more in common with the ridiculous and over-the-top animated TV show, "South Park". The best way to interpret The Holy Mountain is not as a means to obtain insight about faith (or lack of it), but as a black comedy and critique of those who would exploit these conventions and subjugate others for their own aggrandizement. The Holy Mountain is like its central character, the Alchemist--trying to strip away qualities we hold as sacred to reveal these rituals as mere fantasy. Pulling back the proverbial curtain on these phantasms--which we regard as more true than truth itself--must still leave behind some unknown "truth"; The Holy Mountain posits that it is this truth that we must define on our own terms, free from the dominion of external forces.
Recommended for: Fans of a beguiling and shocking barrage of grotesque and symbolic imagery paired with a darkly comic "story" of enlightenment and the search for that always loaded word: truth. The Holy Mountain is often graphic and even determined to offend most audience's sensibilities...but that's also the point.