The Holy Mountain

[Sunya]

WOW

 

 

I a bit speechless after watching this movie. I was browsing through IMDB and this strange gem came up. I saw surrealist and mystical religious symbolism and was hooked.

 

It's about a man who sort of is like Christ, walking around a world that is a bit nutty. With his rebellious nature, and a bit of a dark side, he's drawn to some abstract goal that isn't really apparent yet. Climbing a tower, he meets his Guide, his Master, his Guru. who , through alchemy, transforms this man into a more purified being. then he introduces him to 8 powerful people and their mission is to go to a mountain to become immortal by killing the 9 immortals living there. but it doesn't end there. that is only the beginning

 

 

 

very influenced by Mysticism,..western and eastern.

its very surrealism and makes you think about things. for a mystical geek like me it was just very fascinating

 

for those who know how to use bitorrent its findable. or just buy it,

 

for those who have seen it....whatd you think?

Edited April 4, 2009 by mikaelz

[trailmaker]

WOW

 

 

I a bit speechless after watching this movie. I was browsing through IMDB and this strange gem came up. I saw surrealist and mystical religious symbolism and was hooked.

 

It's about a man who sort of is like Christ, walking around a world that is a bit nutty. With his rebellious nature, and a bit of a dark side, he's drawn to some abstract goal that isn't really apparent yet. Climbing a tower, he meets his Guide, his Master, his Guru. who , through alchemy, transforms this man into a more purified being. then he introduces him to 8 powerful people and their mission is to go to a mountain to become immortal by killing the 9 immortals living there. but it doesn't end there. that is only the beginning

 

very influenced by Mysticism,..western and eastern.

its very surrealism and makes you think about things. for a mystical geek like me it was just very fascinating

 

for those who know how to use bitorrent its findable. or just buy it,

 

for those who have seen it....whatd you think?

 

 

hey 'mikaelz' - neat thing - filmed/released 1973 - synchronistic with this child's meeting a taoist teacher

who knew plenty.

 

dvd available, amazon, of course, got to be a golden oldie, must see.

[Sunya]

make sure to get the remastered version

[trailmaker]

make sure to get the remastered version

 

 

ok - thanks - looking forward to it.

[mantis]

i've seen it, good film.

[Dainin]

I agree, this is an amazing film! Also check out "El Topo" by the same director. It's the odyssey of a gunfighter who wanders through the desert to face a series of masters that reflect various eastern philosophical approaches. Then things really get weird! Supposedly it was the first "midnight movie" back in 1970.

[erdweir]

One of my favorite films, seen it many times, on the big screen in the castro theatre in SF. I actually met Jodrowsky at a screening in seattle, he gave a talk, it was great fun. Read El Topo, the book of the film, for his views in print.

 

Holy Mountain is based on Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing a surrealist novel writen by Rene Daumal, a member of the french para-surrealist art group the Grand Jeu

 

here is an excerpt:

Mountain Climbing

 

Daumal was a disciple of Gurdjieff, and Jodorowsky was influenced by him as well.

Edited May 9, 2009 by erdweir

[Sunya]

I agree, this is an amazing film! Also check out "El Topo" by the same director. It's the odyssey of a gunfighter who wanders through the desert to face a series of masters that reflect various eastern philosophical approaches. Then things really get weird! Supposedly it was the first "midnight movie" back in 1970.

 

 

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded El Topo and will watch it soon. i read somewhere that he made El Topo before he took LSD, and Holy Mountain afterwards. i'm curious to see if I can tell the difference, i'm guessing El Topo will be much more coherent. Holy Mountain was awesome, very symbolic, but I wish I had some LSD to chase it with because some parts were just

[Sunya]

One of my favorite films, seen it many times, on the big screen in the castro theatre in SF. I actually met Jodrowsky at a screening in seattle, he gave a talk, it was great fun. Read El Topo, the book of the film, for his views in print.

 

Holy Mountain is based on Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing a surrealist novel writen by Rene Daumal, a member of the french para-surrealist art group the Grand Jeu

 

here is an excerpt:

Mountain Climbing

 

Daumal was a disciple of Gurdjieff, and Jodorowsky was influenced by him as well.

 

very interesting

[erdweir]

very interesting

 

Yes, Unfortunately Daumal died fairly young from tuberculosis he got from doing dangerous drug experiments on himself with carbon tetrachloride. His alternative to surrealism was an interesting one, his group was more dedicated to the occult than Andre Breton's, and they supposedly developed some real psychic abilities. he was also self taught in Sanskrit and translated some texts into french.

 

I haven't read mount analogue, but I have read his other novel. It's a kind of dry satire on ordinary consciousness, which i didnt find very compelling personally, but it has it's insights.

 

I dont think El Topo holds up as well as Holy Mountain, but to counter the rumor above, Jodorowsky was well versed in LSD when he made it. And it ain't more coherent. The El Topo book is full of drug references. Holy Mountain was made with allot more money, John Lennon saw El Topo and Holy Mountain was better funded and produced by Alan Klein, the manager of the Beatles.

 

Another movie well worth watching by him is Santa Sangre. It's more about psychopathology than his earlier films, and more autobiographical. He made it in the mid 80's. I found it to be a total MindF@ck, over the top twisted and more emotionally intense than the earlier films.

 

 

There are some other movies he made that I haven't seen, like The Rainbow Thief and Trunk, which are not so well regarded. He supposedly made a movie called Son of El Topo In the 90's. He also wrote some comics that were published in Heavy Metal and other places. Before he did films he directed some surrealist theatre productions in Mexico City during the 60's. There is an autobiography as well.

Edited May 16, 2009 by erdweir