The Holy Mountain, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a film concerned more with enlightenment and the evocation of thought than the common linear narrative of mainstream films. Though there is a definite storyline, which can roughly be described as having a "meaning," Jodorowsky compiled scenes of varying iconography, themes of mysticism, and comments on religious or political ideals to create The Holy Mountain. To approach this film from a strictly narrative standpoint would, I feel, overlook many of Jodorowsky's goals for the film. He himself states that "I think of movies as a way to enlightenment, as much as anything else. I must use it. The first thing a film must change are the actors who are in it; and then the audiences" (miqel.com).This points to his focus on sending messages meant for enlightenment rather than simply telling a story, as well as his insistence that film can indeed have a great effect on the audiences.
As with many cult films, it seems as though many fans of The Holy Mountain are almost as enthralled with the circumstances of the film's creation as they are with the actual substance of the film; this makes finding serious discourse on the topic more difficult when much of what is said is "'The Holy Mountain' was funded by the BEATLES manager!" (miqel.com). This film's funding, however, does seem somewhat ironic considering some of the scenes and messages of the film. One prominent scene, which comes at a turning point in the film narratively, is when the Thief's character defecates into a pot and the Alchemist transforms it into gold. This represents not only a drastic change in the Thief from waste to purity (as we see him sweating and writhing throughout the process), but on a more basic level it seems to equate waste and wealth. When the estimated budget of this independent 1973 film was approximately $750,000, I wonder if some of that money was simply waste (wikipedia.org). Yes, on one level, this scene can give rise to a multitude of various thoughts just as Jodorowsky intended, but the circumstances of the film, which are so doggedly stressed by many of the film's fans, sometimes undercut the general message and prohibit any enlightened thought from occurring. Most of the middle of the film, on the other hand, deals with a series of short variances from the narrative explaining a bit about some of the characters. Each of these comedic sketches has a fundamental paradox aimed to inspire thought on different subjects, and it does just that: the weapons manufacturer who produces guns for religious people and hippies, a business to animate corpses for final farewells, a factory to produce "unique" works of art, and a huge metal machine designed to emulate the incredibly natural act of sex. All of these glaring paradoxes, while amusing at face value, serve to comment on the true beliefs behind many concepts like art or movements like the American counter-culture (moria.co.nz).
The ending of the film can, in one respect, give meaning to the overall narrative of The Holy Mountain. Upon completion of their quest for enlightenment, the characters discover that the supposed holders of that knowledge, who are perched on the Holy Mountain, are simply dummies situated around a table. Considering this, the bumper sticker philosophy of "(fill in the blank) is not a destination, it's a journey." In this case, the enlightenment searched for by the characters wasn't revealed by these alleged keepers of knowledge, but by their hike up the mountain and various confrontations with their own vices (fear, greed, etc.). In the very last sequence, Jodorowsky breaks the fourth wall, telling the camera to zoom out and instructs everyone, including the audience, to leave the Holy Mountain because "real life awaits us." Some view this as the moment when "Jodorowsky lifts the veil and shows that it was all meaningless. Even the movie is an illusion, the film admits to being a meaningless illusion..." (abckofilms). However, if one takes into account Jodorowsky's overall view of cinema, it seems that his message is more that once the film has finished, it is time to extend the ideas gained from it to the real world, to go out and do something. Instructing everyone to leave has that effect and as the actors get up to leave, they do indeed appear to be going off in different directions, in their own directions, to do something with their newly enlightened minds.
Works Cited
http://www.moria.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1848Itemid=1
http://www.miqel.com/holy_mountain_joro/holy_mountain.html
http://www.abkcofilms.com/holym.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Mountain_%281973_film%29
Comments (1)
Sean Desilets said
at 12:24 am on Nov 12, 2009
* Love how interpretively-oriented this page is. It never settles for simple description
* That remark of Jodorowsky's that the film's main goal is to change the *actors* seems really interesting to me. Maybe this film is not really the same kind of object of the other films we have studied. Maybe what we're watching is a kind of transformative experience for the actors.
* The discussion about the money stuff could be clearer.
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