A Strange Visual Masterpiece: The Holy Mountain (1973)

Alejandro Jodorowsky's classic cult film The Holy Mountain is an impossibly ornate film of dubious substance, but three things are clear: something is there, the movie involved an incredible amount of labor, and it is one of the most incredible visual experiences you will ever have in your life. In lieu of trying to explain the movie I'll just post my mux (perhaps the first in a series of muxes using this film as the video source), give you a general overview of what is going on with it, and heartily suggest that you find a way to see this movie. Multiple times if possible.



As you can see, the film is incredibly colorful and contains much surrealism and lots of shocking/weird stuff. It could easily be argued that the film can be taken in without the original soundtrack and still remain a rich experience...and with the right audio track, perhaps even richer than the original, to the right person. The audio track playing with the video embedded above is the titular track from doom metal/stoner rock band Sleep's 1993 album, also titled Holy Mountain. One wonders if they recognized the incredible visual quality of the film and decided to compose a soundtrack to play while the film rolled. The film is incredibly ambitious, and was probably budgeted with this ambition in mind: The Beatles were fans of Jodorowsky's earlier film El Topo and, supposedly, Yoko Ono and John Lennon helped to fund the movie.

The movie has a core set of archetypal characters/personality types that represent each of the planets in the solar system. They go on a spiritual journey to find The Holy Mountain.

This isn't the last you've seen of Jodorowsky here at RoosterFlix; nor, apparently, is it the last the world has seen of him. Born in 1929, he has a new film due out in 2009. It is called King Shot.

Original Theatrical Trailer for The Holy Mountain:

RUB YOUR CLITORIS
AGAINST THE MOUNTAIN!!!