The Holy Mountain (1973 film)
| The Holy Mountain | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| Produced by | Alejandro Jodorowsky Roberto Viskin |
| Written by | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| Starring | Alejandro Jodorowsky Horacio Salinas Zamira Saunders |
| Music by |
Don Cherry Ronald Frangipane Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| Cinematography | Rafael Corkidi |
| Edited by | Alejandro Jodorowsky Federico Landeros |
| Distributed by | ABKCO Records |
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $750,000 |
| Box office | $95,858 (re-issue) |
La montaña sagrada (The Holy Mountain, reissued as The Sacred Mountain) is a 1973 Mexican surreal fantasy film directed, written, produced, co-scored, co-edited by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also participated as a set designer and costume designer on the film. The film was produced by Beatles manager Allen Klein of ABKCO Music and Records, after Jodorowsky scored an underground phenomenon with El Topo and the acclaim of both John Lennon and George Harrison (Lennon and Yoko Ono put up production money). It was shown at various international film festivals in 1973, including Cannes, and limited screenings in New York and San Francisco.
A man (later identified as the thief) representing The Fool tarot card, lies in the desert with flies covering his face like excrement. He is befriended by a footless, handless dwarf representing the Five of Swords, and the pair travel into the city where they make money entertaining tourists. Because the thief resembles Jesus Christ in appearance, some locals cast an impression of his body and sell the resulting crucifixes. After a dispute with a priest, the thief eats off the face of his wax statue and sends it skyward with balloons, symbolically eating the body of Christ and offering "himself" up to Heaven. Soon after, he notices a crowd gathered around a tall tower, where a large hook with a bag of gold has been sent down in exchange for food. The thief, wishing to find the source of the gold, ascends the tower. There he finds the alchemist and his silent female assistant.
After a confrontation with the alchemist, the thief defecates into a container. The excrement is transformed into gold by the alchemist, who proclaims: "You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold." The thief accepts the gold, but smashes a mirror with the gold when shown his reflection. The alchemist then takes the thief as an apprentice.
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Wikipedia