The Holy Mountain

Sigeki Ogino

This video work is visualized, "psychotherapy". It is truly in the realm of the divine. The numerous famous scenes, eccentric, unusually colorful, erotic, gross-out, and fully materialized by the alchemy of Mr. Alexandre Jodorowsky, can sufficiently heal patients with "mental disorders" as "psychotherapy" even if there is no dialogue in them. And the film is an ensemble of images of the perverts of the earth, including sexuality, grotesqueness, sanctity, love (or abuse) of the disabled, and contempt for animals, all in one film. This is not only Alejandro Jodorowsky's masterpiece, but (at least for me) I was healed by this film. It is this visual work, more than drugs or masturbation, that is the source of salvation for me. So this film is a Copernican turn in psychiatry beyond art. Thank you for saving me. And if you watch it without subtitles, you will have a much more enjoyable experience.

This is crazy. Imagine if art, god and a fever dream made a movie together. That's this. Half time i was like: ''what is going on?... oh, i get it... i don't get it...'' and that's the point. Every frame is loaded with symbolism and characters who represent systems rather than people. It’s often uncomfortable, sometimes absurd, occasionally funny, and intentionally excessive. The film isn’t subtle and it doesn’t want to be. It’s designed to provoke, confuse, and strip the viewer of passive consumption. It's gooood.

The Fixate & Binge Podcast, w/ Joe Curdy

Whatever you are expecting -- nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can prepare you for the viewing experience of Alejandro Jodorowsky's **THE HOLY MOUNTAIN**. If Warhol, Salvador Dali, David Lynch and Roald Dahl made a film together, you might get something like Jodorowsky's surrealist **THE HOLY MOUNTAIN**. Either the work of a genius, madman, or both -- Jodorowsky's film is a taboo-breaking, avant-garde fever dream that meanders from one shocking tableau to another. Narratively, the film seems designed to provoke or enlighten its viewers with endless religious imagery, death and fertility tropes that even today, 53 years after its release, still elicits strong reactions for or against it. The film earns its blasphemous epithet -- and seemingly wears it like a badge of honor, with its 'thief' (Horacio Salinas) not-so-subtly depicted as Jesus Christ, who ascends a Tolkien-esque tower to meet the mysterious Alchemist (Jodorowsky). Once there, the Thief and the Alchemist join forces with seven other worldly, wealthy elites who plot together to ascend the fabled Holy Mountain and overthrow nine immortal gods in their own bid to achieve immortality. Any semblance to the Heaven’s Gate death cult of the 1990s is, of course, purely coincidence.  With graphic depictions of lechery, avarice, barbarism, animal sacrifices\* and -- yes -- even transmogrifying human excrement into literal gold -- Jodorowsky's **THE HOLY MOUNTAIN** is such a hallucinatory viewing experience, you might wonder if you accidentally licked a Sonoran Desert Toad (reportedly Jodorowsky administered psychedelics to his cast members during filming). With breathtaking visuals, and memorable artistic set pieces -- love it or hate it, Jodorowsky's film is both a sacrilegious metaphor for the degradations of the modern world, and a warning to live one's life with authenticity and meaning. \*Unfortunately, some animals are reported to have been actually harmed during the making of this film.