Holy Mountain

This film by Alexandro Jodorowsky could be considered artistic and highly symbolic. As such it can be kind of hard to completely enjoy for the average viewer and is slow paced and often feels pretty aimless. What gives it an appeal outside the art house crowd and more to the cult and exploitation crowd as well is that it contains some blasphemous, grotesque, and just plain odd imagery and characters. I'm sure most would call this a "love it or hate it" kind of movie but I just ended up kinda liked it.

Its not even until watching the movie for a while that its even apparent that there is a plot. The plot starts with a focus on the character of a thief and shows plenty of absurd imagery until we get to the alchemist. From there he shows himself as a sort of spiritual leader. During his ceremonies we get to see among other things feces getting turned into gold. After "cleansing" the thief we meet his companions in a journey to become immortal. Don't expect much of the actual journey though its more about getting there and more philosophical themes. The introductions to the various characters is my favorite part and is where things start picking up. The actual stories behind the characters that are to go on the journey seem to have nothing to do with the overall plot. They actually make you start to forget everything before it as you go one by one though the backgrounds of each of the eight or so extra characters. So while it further disconnects any narrative it is an interesting aside. From there the actual journey is shown which is mainly characters confronting internal demons or being faced with choices. Then you get a twist ending which either add meaning or makes the whole thing pointless depending on your point of view.

Among the problems I had with the movie is lack of a cohesive plot and any real character development. To be asking for or expecting those things in a movie like this may be missing the point somewhat as its a heavily symbolic movie. Still the most interesting part of the movie is where you get a peek into the various characters lives and its pretty disappointing that they don't really go anywhere with it. The movie is definitely trying to convey a message or at least provoke thought but is a bit too confusingly told to seriously take much from it. Some real character development would have been nice but it seems the "character" most important to the movie is you. Once you get to the end you'll see what I mean. If you like absurd "out there" movies this is worth a watch at least for some of the absurd imagery. Just take everything in and be patient in the beginning to enjoy this film the most. Otherwise, if a movie heavy on symbolism and light on plot doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy its probably best to just avoid this movie.