One of the most bizzare, surreal, philosophical films ever made, Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain is his undisputed masterpiece. Filmed in Mexico during the early 70’s and funded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, it’s practically a “how-to” book on tuning in for psychedelic warriors. This is not a film for everyone. If the profane, the salacious, the scatological, the grotesque you find offensive, don’t even try. You’ll be clutching your pearls and fainting before the first five minutes are over. The rest of you, buckle up. You’re about to go on one humdinger of a ride.

This film has a plot and character, but very little dialogue for the first half. What you do get, is a visually scrumptious array of psychedelic paintings, fantasmagorical rituals, strange costumes, comic relief, and a crash course on alchemy, hermeticism, Kabbalah, tarot, astrology, and Eastern religion. After the Alchemist (played by Jodorowsky himself) transmogrifies two female servants, the film turns to the back story of the Thief, a Christ figure. He climbs down off his cross, and befriends a triple amputee little person, whom the Thief carries on his back because…..why not? He then walks into town, to witness a battle between Aztec toads and Conquistador frogs. (Yup the frogs won.) It’s absurd, bizarre, and out of context, but a powerful comment on European exploitation and enslavement of indigenous people. A condemnation of racism, imperialism, war for profit, and the Catholic church’s role in normalizing all this evil. That point is hammered in, when a morbidly obese transvestite portraying Mother Mary, and her four morbidly obese gladiators, make copies of the Thief crucified like Christ. These are then mass-produced, leading to the Thief destroying this mountain of crucified Christs in a fit of iconoclastic rage. After that, the Thief climbs up a ten-story tall red tower, and passing within, meets the Alchemist. He asks the thief “Do you want gold?” Of course, he does, so the Alchemist instructs the thief to defecate into a large beaker. Using alchemical magic, and the Philosopher’s Stone (LSD), the feces is turned into gold. Then the Thief, ritualistically cleansed, becomes the student of the Alchemist.