The Holy Mountain

We're on something of a hiatus this week but a few months ago Dan and I watched something a little bit different... I'm probably not going out on a limb when I suggest that Chilean surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) is not for everyone. Here is the plot as regurgitated using excerpts from my notes: Twin girls in white are undressed and have their heads shaved while the drums on the soundtrack try to break my skull. Stuffed goats adorn a throne room that's painted like a Dulux colour chart. A hippo is in the bath. Jesus who was stoned to death by children has been revived by a man who has no arms or legs who then rolls a spliff for him. The conquest of Mexico is re-enacted using Toads and Iguanas. In a factory, artists produce masterpieces by using their naked painted asses. A mechanical penis and vagina about 2 metres tall does sexy things. A well-dressed woman leading the military explains that a computer is fed data about wars and revolutions which in turn tells the government what to do, for example creating toys to condition children from birth to hate Peru and become machines of war. An alchemist can turn faeces into gold by vaporising it and breathing in the fumes. A man in silk pyjamas with a face mask is being spanked by a chubby woman riding a mechanical horse. Children dressed as mickey mouse in a house like Swiss cheese; a man like a jedi, bearded, the kids celebrate him. They make purposefully shitty condos; at a huge meeting, the jedi speaks of conditioning people to work while an ice sculpture of a penis is brought in. An old lady wielding a bloody soaked sword in a tree made of chickens, she castrates a man. Another man is covered in tarantulas and screams.Under a tarpaulin a naked hermaphrodite jizzes milk from his tiger tits.  That's really just a snapshot of this experimental film which relies heavily on symbolism, a great deal of which flew way over my head. A loose narrative does emerge from the chaos which sees a group of people representing the planets - or perhaps the actual planets themselves, that seems equally plausible - ascend to the summit of the Holy Mountain in order to kill the Immortals and steal their secrets. An insane and often quite beautiful movie, when it's not completely and overwhelmingly oppressive that is, there's often incredible creativity and imagination on screen as we veer from one darkly comic scene of psychedelia to the next. Unforgettable. In an alternate universe somewhere, Jodorowsky made a version of DUNE. I would love to see that!You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at [email protected] or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads