1.23.2008

2 From Jodorowsky

We are the lucky ones.  Films that one would otherwise have had to stay awake until midnight for can now be watched from the comfort of midday; other films that one would never have been able to see, are now available at fine rental agencies (Blockbuster excepted) or the mailbox.   

Two such films that are now handily available from Abcko, set-boxed, are Alexandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and The Holy Mountain.  And, if you fancy seeing mystical cowboys, poo made into gold, toads and gilla monsters reenact the conquest of Mexico, or perhaps the really warm (I think) love between a broken man and a dwarf, they are well worth the click and time.  

El Topo is, as fairly criticized, a synthesis of Fellini, Buñuel, and the Spaghetti Western, but one must admit that's a pretty great mix and the film shines brightly with wide-angled imagery, long, mysterious takes, and subtle mysticism.  It begins with the dark cowboy in the desert, his naked son and the ritualistic burying of a teddy bear and picture of his mother in the sand.  From then on out its gunslinging with odd villains, an ambitious woman, a problem, more initiation rituals, a quest to be the best in the West, so to speak, and then a final quest to still the violence in the black cowboy.  It's all wonderfully enigmatic, like David Lynch south of the border (Lynch must have been a fan).  Like the best midnight movies, I can only stab at its intended meaning but have a small one of my own that I'll keep to myself.  

To say The Holy Mountain is not as good is really a way of saying El Topo is really, really good.  Mountain is piled high with a meaningless mess of religious symbols: we've got a Christ factory, a zen karate alchemist in fighting tefillin, a woman tattooed with trigrams and hebrew, and backstories drawn from the tarot.  The film, like much of the 'theosophistry' that inspires it, looses sense in the random picking and choosing.  Where El Topo was content to confuse, this one looses any subtle subtlety early on.  This dates the film, sadly (oh the period ending, perhaps mind-blowing at the time but, then again, what wasn't?), but it must be said that it still feels personal despite the mix of universal symbolism unlike, say, the Cremaster Cycle (odd, given that the Cremaster series uses a very insular set of symbols to create mystery).  And it is funny!  Watch this scene below.  

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