Review of The Holy Mountain (1973) by Frank J — 13 Jul 2010

And I thought El Topo was tripped out.

Imagine, if you will, a film that takes the stargate sequence from 2001, and stretches it out to nearly two hours.

Obviously, there's more to this movie than that, but that's the general feeling I had. This has simply some of the most beautifully trippy images I've ever seen in a movie. There are so many that I can't even begin to list them, but the cinematography is some of the best I've ever seen, and I think this would be beautiful even if the 35mm print I saw wasn't restored.

There's more to this than the visuals. I didn't really pick up on a lot of the metaphors the story was made out of, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. The plot is very non-linear, so if you like your story spoon-fed to you, you'll hate this (fuck you).

Um, I saw this like a week ago, so I already forget about most of it. But, I can say that it's a drug trip committed to celluloid, and it packs a powerful spiritual message.

I loved it, even more than El Topo. Jordorowsky rules.