I have seen Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain back in high school and remember really enjoying it, along with his other film, El Topo. I recently saw a the IFC center where it still plays as a midnight movie.

The story is full of surreal and absurd imagery that tells a loose story of a christ like figure wandering around a land that resembles a hellish landscape that resembles the American southwest and Mexico. The figure meets an alchemist who takes him on as an apprentice and introduces him to seven other students who represent the seven planets of the solar system. Vignettes provide the backgrounds of each student, with all of them being despicable in their own ways, consisting of: a politician, an arms dealer, a to manufacturer, an architect, an art dealer, a police chief, and a cosmetics maker. The group then burns their money and their own images and goes on  a journey to find enlightenment.

Almost every shot of the film is beautiful and has imagery that relates to many religions, spirituality, and esoteric beliefs, as well as just plain surreal and often comically absurd. The first part of the film, which follows the Christlike figure, has a lot of references to the history and politics of Mexico. The commodification of Christianity, poverty, and features a scene of a reenactment of the Spanish conquest using lizards dressed as the indigenous people and toads dressed as conquistadors. The later part of the movie also has scenes which bring about the ideas of the exploitation of workers in factories, the cult-like fraternity of the police force and its suppression of protestors, as well as the desire for beauty through cosmetic enhancements.

Something that struck out to me that I didn’t think about when I first saw it was the use of animals in this film, especially their carcasses. The scene with the reenactment of the Spanish conquest features exploding pyramids where you can see the toads flying in the air. There are also shots of dead chickens being strapped to trees, skinned and crucified sheep. I don’t think I agree with the death of animals for the sake of art, especially in the amounts that the film shows. The part that bothered me the most was a dog fight that, if it was faked, would be very convincing. I understand the concept behind it but I don’t think any work of art is worth the direct suffering of animals to make.