Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

for Jodorowsky fans only

This collection of short films from the extreme arthouse director was in my view boring and very arty i couldent get to grips with the content and didiny see the disc to the end

[Highly rated reviewer]

A brilliant story about enlightenment and self exploration

'The Holy Mountain' is a masterpiece, simple as. If you watch it with a closed mind, or you are not a spiritual person, you'll probably think it is artw*nk. I urge you to watch it again, but this time with the subtitles of Jodorowsky's commentary. It will explain everything, from the jewellery to the symbolism to the dwarf etc etc etc. And then you will realise you've watched something special.

I watched the film immediately afterwards with the subtitles as I knew it was special but some of the symbolism I had missed. I love it so much I'm now going to buy it so I can watch it again and again... It is a life affirming movie, and quite beautiful.

Yes, there are some scenes that animal-lovers will find hard to watch, but they are all essential (again, read the subs). Jodorowsky himself was someone very spiritual and in touch with nature and the concept of reincarnation. It is important to consider this at all times.

He plays the alchemist who brings the Christ character (a thief) on a spiritual journey. In real life, over six months, he brought unknown actors - hardly any of whom had experimented with psychodelic drugs - on the same spiritual journey, and for this reason the film was actually shot chronologically, so that the journey would be intense for his 'actors' and they too would find enlightenment. I did not want this film to end, and felt very close to the story.

'Fando & Lis' is nowhere near as good, but it's interesting none the less. I didn't listen to the commentary - not sure there was one, I wish I had checked before I sent it back - but it's much more 'accessible' so you don't really need one. In a way, the story reminded me of Fellini, and the girl certainly has something of Gelsomina about her. Again, quite a surreal tale, about a man carrying a paraplegic woman around Tar. It's not as good, in fact it's rather poor by comparison.

'El Topo' is a film I didn't 'get' so much when I first saw it, and I was a little disappointed. However, I will certainly give it another viewing with a more open mind.

Why bother

Why spend all that time digitally re-mastering a film then set out the subtitles in white. I spent more time trying to de-cipher these than concentrating on the film.

[Highly rated reviewer]

El Topo

Halliwell calls this Mexican film by Chilean Alejandro Jodorowsky a 'perverse surrealist allegory', and if that doesn't put you off you'll probably find it just the sort of film you like. It's certainly a movie like no other, unless it's one of Jodorowsky's others. They used to get stoned and watch this at midnight in Greenwich Village in the early 70s and come out thinking they'd seen the greatest film ever made. Now it seems like a dated, po-faced sequel to The Life of Brian, or a Spaghetti Western made by Pasolini. Writer/director/composer Jodorowsky himself plays the Christlike gunfighter on a mystical mission of death and liberation, but Clint Eastwood did this sort of thing so much better in films like High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider. However, there's no denying the imagination and imagery on display here are rather arresting, and there's a visual beauty in the strange sandy and rocky landscape in which the drama, such as it is, is acted out. Jodorowsky said you can't make a mystical film without violence - think Andrei Rublev - and there's plenty of that. This is religious allegory all right, but which religion? Catholicism? Zen Buddhism? El Topo is a puzzle you could spend many hours unravelling, but I agree with Samuel Goldwyn that allegories belong in the Nile, and I couldn't be bothered.

el topo

load of arthouse twaddle. No story at all. drawn out rubbish. painful sounds. supposedly 'arty' but really just completely unwatchable - you'd be better off watching Bruce Willis than this rubbish !

Weird and Wonderful

This film ,is basically the type you either like or hate. I loved it. Its weird and a funny story too,not comedy and definately of adult nature,pretty gory too.

extraordinarymisticalmovie

Once u watch this movie it will move u on a incredible trip on the heart in mexico,searching for the truth! Visionary,violent,powerful of own light!It conteins all the worlds, jodorowsky made the first 'midnight movie',there aren't words to describe 'el topo', just have a look inside it!

YAWN!!!!

This guy missed the surreal movement by about 40 years. If you want surreal film watch anything by Luis Bunuel like 'L'Age d'or' or 'Un chien andalou' I just felt like I was going around in circles in some horrid dream. If I wanted that I'd eat cheese before I went to bed.

Fando Y Lis

Don't get me wrong, this is a well photographed, occasionally (generally when there is narration) this is hypnotic but sadly that is about five minutes at the beginning. The rest is agonisingly painful to watch. Admittedly, the photography is good but the film is in itself pointless. Fando wheels his paraplegic girlfriend around rocky terrain and encounters unusual people on the way to the mythical city of Tar, which exists only in Fando's head. I suspect the film is meant to be a meditation on the human condition and be a parable of some kind. But I didn't dig that deep, I found the movie too pointless, too tedious to contemplate. Movies like this when they work are hypnotic, sometimes disturbing, and somehow get under your skin. In the instance of Fando y Lis the film is neither deep or hypnotic just plain dreadful to view.

Thus it must be given 0 stars, especially because it has its plus points (cinematography being one) but such is the overarching pointless pretentiousness of the film that really, it should have been so much better.

[Highly rated reviewer]

for die-hard cult fans only

In ‘Fando & Lis’, A couple make their way through barren landscape to a mythical town called Tar. Lis is paralysed from the waist down so Fando has to carry her. On their way they encounter, among other oddities, elderly women playing cards in the desert, the winner of which gets to kiss a young semi-naked man, a naked boy leading a white horse and a group of transvestites who dance for them. It’s an abstract and surreal film. The disc features a shot film called ‘La Crauate’ also surreal.

‘El Topo’ is on a quest to find the four mythical desert killers. He needs to kill them in order to attain some form of spiritual awakening. Each of the killers has their own philosophy about being a gunfighter and with each encounter, El Topo loses his soul and has to be reborn. The film has one of the most startling images put to film, a massacred town with a blood red river. It’s about an odyssey of mysticism, religion and spirituality and deserves its cult status.

With ‘The Holy Mountain’, the basic story is there are nine immortals who live on a holy mountain. They must be attacked to find out the secret of immortality. Nine individuals from different planets band together to attack the immortals. There’s a succession of bizarre, surreal images, elements of sci-fi, the nature of illusion, religion, dystopian futures and questions about the past. All a bit much for me but I can’t deny this is an extremely bold film.

Overall, though these films wont be to everyone’s taste, Jadorwsky was probably one of the most important filmmakers of his generation. ‘El Topo’ was my favourite.