The Holy Mountain (1973)
La montaña sagrada
Film details
Drama · Alejandro Jodorowsky · 1h 54min
Synopsis
The Alchemist assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.
Verdict
Deliberate blasphemy, visceral violence, and explicit sex in an experimental film.
In-depth analysis
From its very first sequence, The Holy Mountain unleashes a visual and conceptual assault against Christianity and organized religions. Jodorowsky crafts an esoteric manifesto where Christ is parodied as an addict among beggars, actual animal crucifixions punctuate the narrative, and the spiritual quest resolves into a syncretism that equates all faith as an illusion to be transcended. The film operates simultaneously on two levels of transgression: formal (constant full nudity, explicit sex, visceral violence with actual cruelty towards animals) and ideological (total relativization of the sacred, presentation of occultism as a superior truth). The visual language is deliberately profaning: the Eucharist replicated with excrement, Catholic symbols subjected to systematic mockery, Christian redemption presented as a mass deception. The final thesis — that all reality is a cinematic illusion, including faith — seals the philosophical nihilism of the project. As a work of experimental auteur cinema, it has academic defenders, but for a Christian family, it is indefensible: it combines the visceral cruelty of its form with the calculated blasphemy of its content. Not recommended under any circumstances.