The Holy Mountain

Release Date: November 29, 1973
Runtime: 114 minutes
Rating: R
Studio: ABKCO Films
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Cast: Alejandro Jodorowsky; Horacio Salinas; Juan Ferrara; Adriana Page; Burt Kleiner; Valerie Jodorowsky; Nicky Nichols

Hoo boy…where to begin with this one. This is my first venture into the oeuvre of Alejandro Jodorowsky and if The Holy Mountain is any indication of the typicality of his films, I should probably make it a point not to be sober the next time I experience one of his works of art. And that’s what The Holy Mountain really is: the cinematic equivalent of performance art. If you are an admirer of the films of Ken Russell, Dario Argento, and (early) David Lynch, The Holy Mountain will be right in your wheelhouse.

The first half of the film is more outlandish than the back half. Nearly dialogue-less, Jodorowsky pummels the viewer with images of mass execution, multiple representations of the biblical Passion, lizards-in-drag like they just wandered over from Mardi Gras, an elderly man gifting his fake eye to an adolescent prostitute, the list of oddities goes on. I suppose Jodorowsky is commenting on, among a host of other formal constructs, the hypocrisy of religion, social conformity, authoritarianism, and fascism.

The main characters, such as they are, are a Christ stand-in who comes under the tutelage of a messianic figure (played by Jodorowsky himself) and his perennially naked band of disciples. All embark on a quest of enlightenment as they seek to uncover the secrets of the Holy Mountain.

In all honesty, some of the images and set pieces are mind-blowing, reminiscent of the audacity of Ken Russell. But with dialogue like “The delicate scent of flowers is the fragrance of the universe. I eat the flower and its perfume is my blood,” there’s really no way to take this stuff too seriously. The part I connected with most in the film was a moment in the last half-hour when a character swallowed a handful of LSD. I feel you, brother!

Man oh man, they could only make shit like this in the ‘70s!