I have been to the summit of the Holy Mountain of world cinema. Today, for the first time, I saw Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain.
Gimme a moment while I grab some LSD.
I like some of it a whole lot. Three stunning episodes: the Spanish rape and crucifixion of Mexico, as performed by ornately dressed frogs in a circus; people in the street, shot down by the police, bleed luscious fruit instead of blood; the toy factory whose client is the government, for which the factory designs and manufactures war toys in order to prepare boys for their future work as actual warriors.
But a lot of this movie, with its lopping off of testicles and digits, is not to my taste.
Oh, the famous passage in which The Alchemist (played by Jodorowsky) turns a man’s poop into gold? I tried it. It’s a no-gold.
Dennis Grunes 