THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. Existential Tourism in Science Fiction According to Jodorowsky

To understand the relationship between science and fiction in Jodorowsky’s work, one must know that he is a holistic artist—he paints, makes films, sculpts, creates theater, acts, writes books and comics, and engages with alchemy, magic, medicine, and philosophy. He views knowledge of the world as a whole, where everything interconnects. Human consciousness and perception play a crucial role, even in events considered by conventional science as independent and unaffected by the observer’s psychic influence (at least not at the quantum level). This is why in “The Holy Mountain”, strict order blends with supernatural reality. Viewers encounter both the prototype of a machine capable of experiencing a conscious orgasm and a surreal mystery of a journey to the source of immortality undertaken by people fearful of death, who have found no fulfillment in knowledge, technology, or wealth. This journey is truly mad, bold, and wise—and it will certainly offend many, especially those bound by cultural, religious, or genre conventions of any kind. Alejandro Jodorowsky has created surrealist cinema, dismissing learned stereotypes that others consider absolute truths.

At the core of the plot is a mysterious journey. No one knows exactly why, where, or in which country it takes place—though, from the story of a businesswoman, one might assume it is Chile, a country long hostile to Peru. It’s also unclear where the Alchemist—with his red tower—came from, played by Jodorowsky himself. What is important is that he appears in thoroughly degenerate times and seeks a team for a dangerous expedition. The goal is the Lotus Island and a mysterious mountain, where, according to legend, nine sages guard the secret of eternal life. The expedition’s members are recruited from the most powerful people of that era, who, in fact, rule the world from behind the scenes. These include industrialists-inventors, politicians, businessmen, and artists—each warped in their own way, solely pursuing self-interest and exploiting others to the maximum. It seems there’s no other way to have it all but to inflict suffering on others. Clearly, something is fundamentally wrong with the world if it allows for such horrors as experiments on children, wars, arms trafficking, the creation of intelligent machines to advise people on how to exploit cheap labor more efficiently, or even to animate corpses to pretend they’re alive. On top of all this, the evil is cloaked in religious justification, allowing corrupt clergy to validate any cruelty with eschatological myths of guilt, punishment, and redemption. Alejandro Jodorowsky thus strikes a blow against the entire technocratic human civilization, including its culture, condemning what is wrong with it through visual storytelling.

However, in addition to the wealthy, who serve as members of the expedition, Jodorowsky needed another key protagonist—a kind of modern, symbolic Jesus, a fallen man tormented by both psychological and physical demons, whom the Alchemist must awaken in a metaphysical sense. But first, he must remove the parasite controlling this man’s body. Once that is done, the whole world becomes more understandable, and the Thief (the name of the main character) will stop wandering around, stealing and getting drunk at a roadside shop selling religious souvenirs. In reality, he was somewhat coerced into drinking too much vodka, and this scene allows the director to demonstrate the degradation of the surrounding world and the principle that governs it. People trust idols too much. So what if in the shop, a mustached Virgin Mary drinks vodka with meat-gorging Romans, and later, like in a pietà, cradles the main character—the Thief—pouring more alcohol down his throat? All this just to catch another fool and make a free mold of his body in a crucifixion pose, later selling these full-sized crosses at a profit to all the gullible souls searching for hope in heaven instead of dealing seriously with their earthly lives. This scene is crucial as it presents the Thief for the first time as a character capable of rebellion, who will undergo the Alchemist’s formation process toward… enlightenment, or the chance to attain immortality. First, one must realize that they are their own excrement—hence the initiation in the tower, involving the removal of the parasite from the back, a symbolic cleansing of the anus, and an inhalation bath from the vapors of one’s own boiled feces, from which the Alchemist can turn into gold.

But the best is yet to come at the very top. Surely, no viewer will predict such a twist in the ending, which is, at its core, so simple, with a masterful touch by Alejandro Jodorowsky worthy of the finest directors. “The Holy Mountain” is a challenging film, but not pointlessly surreal, like much of modern art that randomly combines styles, themes, and so on. Despite the many bizarre situations (e.g., a prostitute with a chimpanzee in a church) and grotesque sequences (a pedophile kissing a girl’s hand), the director manages to maintain a coherent narrative that contains many elements of science fiction and even adventure. He skillfully builds suspense, as if inviting the viewer on a significant, metaphysical journey to the Holy Mountain with such diverse characters. Just as no one expects the Spanish Inquisition, no one will expect such a moral from the artistically sophisticated Alejandro Jodorowsky.