“Why did that old man’s breasts turn into mountain lion
heads?”
This is a question I never thought I would ask. But then I watched Alejandro Jodorowski’s surrealist
extravaganza, “The Holy Mountain” with my friend Frank.
“Spoilers” abound below, but the film is so full of madness
I don’t mention that I don’t think it matters.
There is no way to coherently explain this film. The first impulse is to liken it to an LSD
trip, but this does not go far enough, merely conjuring imaginings of trippy
color swirls and talking reptiles. No, “The
Holy Mountain” is much more than that. No
matter how bizzare a scene gets, one can sense a definite intent behind it all,
though what that intent may be is often anyone’s guess.
Maybe he's going for a James Bond intro feel here? |
Even before watching the film, I had a sense that Alejandro
Jodorowski was a prima donna. The elitist
narration in the trailer and its repeated use of a shot that zooms into the
director / actor’s face made this fairly clear.
And then there’s the fact that the film opens with chanting of the
lineage of Buddhist teachers. Jodorowsky's name appears on the screen exactly
as the chant says "Shakyamuni", which refers to Siddhartha Guatama,
commonly known as "the" Buddha.
It’s also worth noting that Jodorowski does not play the Theif (a Christ
figure character) in the film, but that character’s teacher and father figure. This degree of god complex made me
legitimately wonder if he found some homeless oompa-loompa and severed his
hands and feet because a little person wasn’t sufficiently surreal to be the
Theif’s companion.
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I mean, seriously - there can’t be that many appendage-less little people in the world, and this film has two. |
So what exactly is going on in this movie? A Christ figure wanders through fascist
Mexico, meets a spiritual teacher, that teacher then attracts powerful
industrialists and politicians with the promise of eternal life, but his true
goal is to make them reach enlightenment.
For the first third of the film, the only dialogue is unintelligible grunts
and babble, causing Frank to wonder if this film was the inspiration for the
language of “The Sims.”
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People you meet at church |
The next third of the film introduces seven powerful and
wicked characters and lays on the satire with a trowel, addressing themes of
vanity, wrath, greed, lust, propaganda, and oppression. Ironically at this point, the bizarreness of
the film’s first act has left one’s mind working so hard to dissect all the
symbolism that the 2nd act feels clumsy. Suddenly we're bombarded by dialogue as each character narrates his or her sequence,
frequently committing the narrative sin of telling rather than showing (or
telling when the imagery has achieved all the necessary showing for us). Meanwhile, the satire is often so extreme that it becomes more
amusing than thought provoking.
Fortunately, the imagery remains sufficiently vibrant and strange to keep one entertained. And who can argue with gems of dialogue such
as, “Your sacrifice completes my sanctuary of one thousand testicles”?
The film’s final act chronicles the spiritual journey of
these individuals, a journey both symbolic and literal. It was during the literal portion of this
journey that the film finally broke me.
As the cast clung to a rockface during their ascent of the titular Holy
Mountain, a woman cries out that she can go no farther. In exactly the tone as one might shout, “Hang
on, you can make it,” her savior commands, “Rub your
clitoris upon the mountain!” Apparently
she proceeds to hump the rockface and is thus rejuvenated. I don’t know because I was too busy falling
from the couch in uncontrollable laughter.
The film’s conclusion is rather anticlimactic, but then, it’s
the journey that matters, not the destination, and “The Holy Mountain” is
certainly one hell of a trip. It is by
far the most surreal piece of cinema I’ve seen.
While often confounding, its tone is significantly brighter than other surreal films
like "Eraserhead" or "The City of Lost Children", and for me, that makes it more
enjoyable. I’d only recommend viewing it
if you’re in the mood to see something truly bizarre, and also to do so with a
friend, as half the pleasure of watching the film is sharing in others’ reactions
to it.
You failed to mention that this film had the best anus bathing scene in all of cinematic history.
ReplyDeleteUntil Trey's home movies get released theatrically this movie will stand alone in that category.