The Holy Mountain

1973

The Holy Mountain (1973) is an experimental film from El Tropo visionary Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Quick Facts

[lwp_divi_flipbox front_title=”Parental Content Warning” front_body=”

  • Full frontal nudity (male and female, male children)
  • Some moments of violence against humans.
    • Fascist shootings
    • Castration
  • Some moments of animal violence.
    • Toads/Horned toads
    • Sheep
    • Horses
  • Defecation
    • It does turn into gold, so that’s a plus…

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Animal Violence

  • A diorama with toads and horned toads is blown up during a circus act.
  • Dog fighting
  • A woman cuts the skin from a horse and eats its flesh.

Nudity

  • Most of the nudity is non-sexual in nature.
  • Two scenes of sexual nudity are included: one with a man and his mistress in a limosine, and another with him stripping his mistress naked to have her probe a %22love machine%22 with a large object.
  • The Thief is followed by a group of prostitutes in sheer clothing.
  • The Thief is followed by a group of naked children near the beginning of the film.

Violence

  • A throng of children attempt to stone The Thief.
  • The Thief and Alchemist have a short, stunted fight where the Alchemist uses karate to disable The Thief.
  • A man is attacked and has bones broken before being reborn.
  • A man is castrated, and then later, the castrator is also castrated.

Questionable Content

  • The Thief urinates on himself as he is laying drunk in the street.
  • The Thief defecates into a container, which is then heated by the Alchemist and turned to gold.

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[lwp_divi_flipbox front_title=”Holy Mountain Trivia Time!” front_body=”

Answer these five questions and then flip the card to see if you got the answers correct!

Note: I have no idea what most of the symbolism in this movie means, so good luck!

  1. How is reality presented at the end of the film?
  2. Though alchemical means, poop becomes what?
  3. What is the most surprising quality about the chaffeur?
  4. The sailing adventurers draw out a monster from the Thief. What is this monster?
  5. The Thief destroys a number of statues. What were they representations of?

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Yeah, I think these are right…

  1. The movie is a movie, and the Alchemist pushes back the camera zoom to show the crew filming the events of the film. The adventurers then leave to continue their quest.
  2. Gold. Yeah, greed and anti-capitalist leanings. Wealth is literally shit.
  3. He’s bad at sex. Mindnumbingly bad at it. And violent when he’s bad at it.
  4. The crippled dwarf that found him with the children at the beginning of the film and has followed him since.
  5. Him…and Jesus as represented by the corrupt hawkers of religion on the street.

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Cast

Alejandro Jodorowsky

The Alchemist

Horacio Salinas

The Thief

Zamira Saunders

The Written Woman

Juan Ferrara

Fon

Adriana Page

Isla

Burt Kleiner

Klen

Valerie Jodorowsky

Sel

Nicky Nichols

Berg