Seminal midnight movies El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) are coming to Blu-Ray on April 26. How strange to think that once upon a time – years ago, when I lived in Seattle – the only way for me to watch either of the films was to walk over to Scarecrow Video and rent a Japanese import VHS tape, with a hefty deposit (about $75 or so, if I remember right) in case I failed to bring it back. And even then, I had to cope with the Japanese pubic hair taboo, so that distracting white blobs masked any full frontal nudity. A few years later I would see director Alejandro Jodorowsky introduce The Holy Mountain in Toronto, and proclaim he’d come to like those blobs: “They are like halos!” (Angelic halos feature prominently in his comic books, incidentally.) But the decades-long feud between producer Allen Klein and Jodorowsky was resolved a few years before Klein passed away, and both El Topo and The Holy Mountain are rarities no more, and somewhat demystified in the bargain. Now, bizarre as it seems, you can own them in beautiful high definition – along with his best film, Santa Sangre (1989), released just a few months ago. (Now where’s Tusk?)
It’s been a bit of a Jodorowsky renaissance in recent months – the U.S. wing of the Humanoids imprint has been revitalized after years of hibernation, and at last more graphic novels written by the director/writer/actor/”psychomagic” practitioner/ex-mime are surfacing on these shores. Granted, some are going out of print rather quickly, like a remastered, hardcover version of his classic collaboration with artist Moebius, The Incal, as well as a full-color collection of his satirical masterpiece Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (previously only released in the U.S. in an incomplete, black-and-white paperback from Dark Horse). Already these are going for absurdly high prices on Amazon. But his Technopriests and Metabarons paperback volumes are still in print and affordable, and highly recommended to those who only know the director from his films. Few comic book writers have attained such imaginative heights. (Screaming Planet, a collection of his Metal Hurlant stories, will be released in May from Humanoids, along with a cheaper hardcover edition of The Incal.)
Order Jodorowsky in Blu-Ray from Amazon using the links below, and help to support this site.
El Topo [Blu-ray]
The Holy Mountain [Blu-ray]
Santa Sangre [Blu-ray]
The Metabarons #1: Othon & Honorata
The Technopriests Book One: Initiation (Technopriests (DC Comics))
