The Research Thesis Module: 2FTV7H1 Alejandro Jodorowsky`s

The Research Thesis
Module: 2FTV7H1
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Film Analysis under Latin American Perspective and Psychoanalysis.
Monica Jativa
Thesis submitted for the MA Degree in Film and Television: Theory, Culture and Industry,
University of Westminster
© 2014, University of Westminster and Monica Jativa
Abstract
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a contemporary filmmaker with a diverse cultural background so I
research his personal life to help the film analysis. He lived his infancy in Chile, his adulthood in
France and for several year in Mexico. His personal lives influence his work as a filmmaker. He
also has a multi-disciplinary education going from alchemy, psychoanalysis, philosophy and
literature. This makes his work complex and symbolic. Because of that he could be considered a
surrealist but Jodorowsky´s work will fit better under Magic Realism based in Ethnography,
especially from Latin America.
In this dissertation I will analyse his films under the perspective of the Latin American influence
in the content. The selected films are his most representative work El Topo, (1970) The Holy
Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989). I will take from this film the most recurrent motifs
and eventually I analyse each one of the films. The analysis is more focused in the films content
related to Latina America sociological and ethnographic studies.
List of Content.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Alejandro Jodorowsky´s background.
Chapter 2
2.1 Jodorowsky´s films in context.
2.2 Jodorowsky about films.
Chapter 3
General themes or motifs of Jodorowsky´s films
Chapter 4
Film analysis
4.1 El Topo
4.2 Holy Mountain
4.3 Santa Sangre
Conclusion
Introduction
This dissertation will involve detailed analysis of El Topo, (1970) The Holy Mountain( 1973)
and Santa Sangre ( 1989) by Alejandro Jodorowsky, one of the most famous „underground‟
filmmakers of our times. Jodorowsky puts a lot of his own life in his films following his
motto “art is for healing” so I will begin by exploring his personal life and background. I will
also mention the relation between his films and magic realism from Latin-American literary
and artistic traditions and also surrealism. I consider that his work is highly influenced by his
cultural background and especially the time he lived in Mexico. He expressed a Latin
American idiosyncrasy whether he realised it or not but that many of his viewers perceive.
Concerning his films, I will analyse the mise-en scene, particularly the overt symbolic aspects
of his work and how symbols draw upon or can be understood in terms of psychoanalysis,
psychotherapy and semiotics. The thesis will focus in particular on the Latin American
dimensions of his work.
The film examples are chosen because they are particularly representative of his work at the
height of his film career. He has also participated in several projects as a scriptwriter, director,
editor etc. but only in these films has he been in authorial control over each area of the
filmmaking process. So these films are his films as an auteur and are clearly perceived as such
by critics, commentators and audiences in a direct way along the lines of Caughie‟s
typification that, “in the presence of a director, who is genuinely an artist, a film is more
likely to be the expression of his individual personality; and that this personality can be trace
in a thematic and/or stylistic consistency over all the director´s films.” (Caughie, 1981, p9)
Jodorowsky directed and wrote the films, in two of them he also acted, and he participated or
was present in the editing, and was nearly always the centre or focus of discussion and
promotion of the films. People go to see Jodorowsky films because of Jodorowsky.
In general, his films are associated with surrealism, the hallucinogenic, gorishly baroque, are
considered as anarchist, spiritual, hippy, and so on. At the time he realise El Topo was
contributing to the counterculture of the time, a movement that was “a youthful amalgam of
radical politics, oriental (or occult) mysticism, liberated sexuality, hallucinogenic drugs,
communal life styles, and rock and roll that was sufficiently widespread to see itself as a
movement.”(Hoberman, 2008, p285) El Topo was a hit among the counterculture circles in
Europe and in USA because of its controversial content, and its overtly symbolic and graphic
mise en scene that crossed over more recognisable examples of art cinema and commercial
cinema, often finding itself typified as „cult‟ cinema. This opened the way to more overtly
surrealist films like The Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre.
Jodorowsky is one of the filmmakers that just a few lovers of cult films know. Given the
cross-over, or ambiguous status, of his films and also the difficulty of „pinning him down‟, in
terms of a national or even regional identity he has never been considered to be in the
mainstream of the various broad categories of cinema that both audiences and theorists work
with. Therefore there are just a few mentions of him in books of film theory or serious
criticisms and only one book dedicated exclusively to film analysis. He was almost forgotten
until his announcement of a new film The Dance of Reality (2014) that portrays his childhood.
It is in part for these reasons, as well as others, that further examination of his work is needed.
Chapter 1
Alejandro Jodorowsky´s background.
Jodorowsky was born in Iquique, a small town in Chile, in 1929 to Russian-Jewish parents.
Jodorowsky grow up in a repressive environment: “His father was a Stalin-loving
disciplinarian who ran a general store called Casa Ukrania, and his mother was a distant
woman who forced her son to wear his hair long in memory of her deceased father.” (Benson,
2014, web) Perhaps this upbringing and origins sowed the seeds for his refusal to be identified
in national or other terms of cultural identity. He has said “My homeland is my shoes.”
(Memoria Chilena, 2014, web, my translation) For him nationality is not a relevant issue “He
has never fitted in. When pressed on the question of cultural identity, he simply stated that he
is Jodorowskian” (Cobb, 2006, p19)
Shortly after he was born, his family move to Tocopilla where he spent his childhood until he
was ten years old. For Jodorowsky, Tocopilla was “a tough town, filled with sailors and
whores. I lived a very sexual childhood.” (Hoberman, 2008, p285) His classmates
experienced group masturbation and mocked Jodorowsky because of his circumcision as Jew;
as he states “My sex had the form of a mushroom.” (Hoberman, 2008, p285) All these
childhood issues are drawn upon in his latest film, The Dance of Reality. In this film
Jodorowsky explores his childhood with a poetic evocation that mixes with a kind of realism,
and the audience is never sure what is „imagined‟ or „real‟. This ambiguity is reinforced in
interviews or even in his autobiography, where he refuses to give any detailed facts or dates.
In fact his books, which go from novel to poetry, memoirs and essays, had the same oneiric
feeling that his films have. However, in some ways his latest film offers a new kind of access
to his previous ones, as his memories about his childhood in this last film give an
autobiographical dimension to many of the tropes used in his previous films. For example, it
can explain, in a way, his constant use of cripples. Tocopilla “had a factory to create
electricity that gave cancer to everyone. When I was born, there was not a hospital.” (
Zakarin, 2014, web) So probably he grew up in an environment with a lack of medical
facilities, a Latin America reality at the time, and he was indeed surrounded by cripples in his
childhood. Resembling what he shows in the film, during his young years he was surrounded
by cripples, a product of negligence in a nearby mine.
When he was ten years old his family moved to Santiago, the capital of Chile, where later he
attended the University of Santiago. Is not clear what he studied since “depending on the
interview, Jodorowsky studied philosophy, psychology, mathematics, physics, or medicine.”
(Hoberman, 2008, p286) He also studied by his own “the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism,
Judaism, Surrealism, Christianity, Nietzsche and Karate.” (Cobb, 2006, p17) And in Santiago
is where he starts to get involved with the artistic world. He started in theatre and poetry. This
diverse cultural background that he built up begins his reputation as an alchemist or at least
indefinable, as he states “You cease to exist when you say „That is what I am.‟ As soon as I
can define myself. I am dead.” (Cobb, 2006, p17) His studies make him a man that knows a
little bit of everything instead of mastering a particular branch of knowledge or craft.
He has said that Chile during the fifties had a „poetic atmosphere‟ and he has said “in the
fifties, in Chile they lived poetically as no other country in the world.”(Jodorowsky, 2009,
p30, my translation) This is since many poets were involved in politics, culture and education
rather than just in independent or detached existentialist or romantic writing. In Chile almost
every aspect of daily life was influenced by poetry. This was the decade in which the most
representative poets of Chile emerge, like Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra;
plus the influence of other Latin American writers such as Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel
Garcia Marquez. It is around this time that he starts what he calls „poetic acts‟ that he defines
as “something beautifully [?] aesthetic and without justification” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p 40, my
translation) For example, as a teenager he recreated in his house the funeral of his mother with
a dummy. All this had a big impact on his family that did not approve of his artistic and
eccentric life.
In 1953 he left Chile and cut every link with his family. He arrives at Paris with empty
pockets but willing to work. He tried to make contact with Breton, a founder of surrealism
writer, but they did not get to meet. Instead Jodorowsky‟s main influence in the world of
surrealism was Antonin Artaud who rejected mainstream theatre (including left-wing theatre),
proposing that theatre “must make itself the equal of life…themes will be cosmic, universal
and interpreting according to the most ancient text.” (Hoberman, 2008, p 286) Artaud
proposed the „Theatre of Cruelty‟ a concept or practice that Jodorowsky will use in his films.
The „Theatre of Cruelty‟ is the stepping stone of Jodorowsky point of view of art “Artaud´s
anarchic ideas about the transforming alchemical power of theatre ignited Jodorowsky´s long
belief that art could actually change the way people see; that the artist is a master magician
who can change reality” (Cobb, 2006, p34) He teams up with “Fernando Arrabal, a Spanish
writer and enfant terrible of the Theatre of the Absurd and Roland Topor, the French born
Polish novelist, playwright and sometimes actor.” (Cobb, 2006, p 34) . Together they form the
„Panic Movement‟, based on the Greek god Pan. They did „happenings‟ in contexts and
locations that broke with the theatrical norm. The point of this kind of theatre was to “promote
in the actors/spectators a radical theatrical act which consist in interpret their own drama”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p49, my translation). For Jodorowsky this was a kind of theatre that heals,
it had a therapeutic function.
In Paris Jodorowsky also worked with Marcel Marceau in his company for six years. During
this time he realises his first short film La Cravate (1957) a mime version of Thomas Mann´s
story The Transposed Heads - A Legend of India (1940). This short is an important and
representative step in his life: “La Cravate acts as a vital link in the progression of
Jodorowsky´s cinema by fingerprinting the transition of art from stage to screen.”(Cobb,
2006, p26) In one of the tours of Marcel Marceau, Jodorowsky visited and then stayed in
Mexico. There he wrote a weekly comic called „Fabulas Panicas‟ or Panic Tails. He works as
a theatre director, on more than one hundred plays and he also starts his career as a writer.
One of the most important things that he did in Mexico was his training with the „shaman‟
Panchita. This training will help with the emergence of his own practise, „Psicomagia.‟
Jodorowsky had said that in general “Mexico is an oneiric country in which the unconscious
continues to emerge.” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p105, my translation) It is a country in which the
practice of witchcraft (or shamanism) and magic is commonplace. Here each neighbourhood
has a witch or shaman. Shamanism is “a family of traditions whose Practitioners focus on
voluntarily entering altered states of consciousness in which they experience themselves or
their spirit[s], travelling to other realms at will, and interacting with other entities in order to
serve their community.” (SHI, 2014, web) These practices are from the indigenous cultures of
South and Central America. The worldview of these communities is more holistic in relation
with man and the environment. Holism is a way of perceiving the world as a whole, “the idea
that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of
parts.”(Wikipedia, 2014, Holism) In these communities there is no division in between spirit,
mind and body. People go to the local shaman to heal emotional and physical scars and
diseases.
Panchita was one of the most famous shamans of Mexico, and as Jodorowsky said “on the day
of consultation he could easily attract three thousand visitors”. (Jodorowsky, 2009, p109, my
translation) At the time he met Panchita, Jodorowsky had recently made his first film El
Topo. She was eighty years old but he said that she had “the aura of a great lama
reincarnated” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p112, my translation), and he became one of her pupils.
Her practice could go from healing the evil, as she calls it, with infusions and ritual. In
extreme cases she performed „surgical operations‟ in which she (apparently) removed a heart
and replaced it with another or even repaired a broken spine. Jodorowsky himself experienced
one of this „surgical operations‟ on his liver and claims he never felt pain in the liver again.
During his training he witnessed several of these procedures but could never figure out what
or how she did it. Jodorowsky‟s conclusion about this shamanistic practice is that “I will
never say that the manipulations of Panchita were true, but neither would I say otherwise.”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p 126, my translation) Jodorowsky did acknowledge that “the healing and
weird phenomenon that happened around her, could be explain by a set of psychophysiological laws (Jodorowsky, 2009, p 136, my translation) It is clear he believed in the
magic of these procedures of Panchita and in keeping the mystery behind them alive.
Jodorowsky is aware that this shamanistic magic works in the patients because the patient
believes in it. Rationality is one of the tools that the human mind uses to explain the world
and Panchita‟s procedures are outside any rational explanation. This shamanic perception of
the world is not irrational either; it does not follow the dialectic perception in which if
something is not rational it is irrational. In front of the shaman “there is only the world, one
dream tingling with signs and symbols…the world was like a forest of symbols in permanent
relations” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p 126, my translation) as in the holistic point of view, it
embrace everything at the same time. Jung has argued that symbols “should be understood as
an expression of an intuitive idea that cannot yet be formulated in any other or better way”
(Jung, 1967, p70), so the shaman is the one that sees and „uses‟ these symbols. Jung also
explains this idea with myths like the Christian idea of a Kingdom of Heaven and Plato‟s
Cave. Jodorowsky has said of magic and shamanism, that, “what makes these things unsettle
us is our belief in the objective world, our modern mentality known as rational.” (Jodorowsky,
2009, p126, my translation)
In the shamanic perception is more important the intuitive knowledge .Panchita had this
intuitive knowledge that perhaps only a few people have, “Panchita´s power lays precisely in
the fact of maintaining with the world an internal relationship.” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p131, my
translation) Jodorowsky has stated that despite being her pupil he did not intend to became a
shaman like her or become her successor, as for him “you cannot became a shaman if you did
not grew up in a primitive context” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p 132, my translation)
Jodorowsky´s experience with Panchita gave him some of the most important bases related to
his philosophy of Psicomagia or Psychomagic. Out of this participation in Panchita´s
procedures he came up with the concept of the „sacred trick‟, in which it “is necessary that the
sick person, admitting the existence of the miracle, believes firmly that that he will be cured.”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p10, my translation). He said that with her, he “learned how to treat
people. Thanks to Panchita I understand that we are all kids or sometimes adolescents”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p127, my translation) He also “learned the way to handle the language of
the objects and the vocabulary of symbols” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p137, my translation) But
most importantly he “understood the place of magic in all primitive cultures” (Jodorowsky,
2009, p137, my translation)
Jodorowsky developed Psicomagia drawing on different cultural backgrounds and
philosophical influences, a result of his studies in different areas of philosophy, spirituality
and his time with Panchita. It consists in a practice in which Jodorowsky starts reading the
Tarot. First he practiced with his family and friends, eventually with random people in a cafe
in Paris for free, and has never ask for money to read the Tarot. In the reading he does not try
to predict the future, instead he attempts to reveal the secrets of the consultant. The consultant
has to be honest with Jodorowsky but sometimes the unconscious mind hides something from
us and there is when the Tarot reveals the consultant‟s secrets of his present life, past and past
generations. With this information he advises a Psychomagic act. Each act is personal and
could involve the use of objects, personal confrontations, writing down stuff or burning and
breaking things. These acts have an important relevance for the consultant and the objects,
because “for the unconscious mind the objects that are around us and are with us, form part of
a language.” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p11, my translation) He did not consider Psicomagia like
the primitive magic of that shaman that address the superstition of the patient, for in
Psicomagia “the patient instead of a superstition needs to understand. He has to know the
reason behind his acts.” (Jodorowsky, 2009, p 11, my translation) With this the consultant is
aware of his emotional or psychological issues and the purpose of the Psychomagic act.
These acts could be considered poetic since Jodorowsky use objects and acts to symbolise
emotional issues and the healing process. Poetry for Jodorowsky is an important way of
dealing with emotional issues “Poetry has to be a constant in life, to debug the ego.”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p210, my translation) In general, for Jodorowsky, art is tool of
psychoanalysis “art heals because we need to cure ourselves from being ourselves.”
(Jodorowsky, 2009, p211, my translation) This idea is closely related to Jung´s theories about
art. Jung states that “art, like any other human activity deriving from psychic motives, is a
proper subject for psychology” (Jung, 1967, p65) Jodorowsky‟s practice of Psicomagia is also
one of the things closely related to his films that are full of symbols in objects and acts. Thus,
in part, the symbolism of his film narratives and mise en scene are driven by this personal and
idiosyncratic learning and traditions and are not entirely the same as the kind of „symbolism‟
we might expect from a more identifiable kind of „art film‟ or the more directly functional
„symbolism‟ (about character, internal emotions, relationships between characters, etc) to be
understood in a mainstream narrative film and that we can find being analysed in any „art of
cinema‟ book.
Chapter 2
2.1 Jodorowsky´s films in context.
Jodorowsky´s films have been considered powerful and „mind blowing‟, even when
considered in comparison to contemporary „surrealist‟ filmmakers. Cobb has typified this
when he says that, “Jodorowsky is the master of transformation for the last four decades of the
history of imaginary cinema: more aberrant that Buñuel, effortlessly more perverted than
Lynch, more esoteric than Fellini.” (Cobb, 2006, p5) Hence he could be one of the
representative filmmakers of our time but his ideological position in relation to the cinematic
industry has caused problems as regards his success and fame; “The main reason he has failed
to become a big-name director is his inability to conform, obey or compromise. He is an
anarchist.” (Cobb, 2006, p14) This has led to conflicts between Jodorowsky and basically
every producer he has worked with. One of these conflicts he had was with Allen Klein. After
John Lennon saw El Topo he “was so mesmerised by the film's otherworldly quality that he
persuaded his manager, Allen Klein, to buy the rights and bankroll Jodorowsky's next project,
an alchemy themed psychedelic trip called The Holy Mountain (1973).” (Cobb, 2007, p92)
They work together with several conflicts in the process but the critic point of their working
relationship was when they made plans for a next project , “Plans for a follow up disintegrated
into an acrimonious dispute that was to keep both El Topo and The Holy Mountain from
audiences for more than 30 years.” (Cobb, 2007, p92) Apparently the conflict was because
“Klein had seen massive potential in Pauline Réage's 1954 sado erotic bestseller The Story of
O, but Jodorowsky walked out on the deal.” (Cobb, 2007, p92) When Klein refused to
distribute Jodorowsky´s films, “The films became highly-sought-after works for cinephiles,
geeks and stoners who had to make do with cruddy bootlegs.” (Jones, 2014, web) And
sometimes Jodorowsky himself give the film to underground cinemas.
The films of Jodorowsky were also thought of as „surrealist‟ because of the symbolic or poetic
way of representing complex ideas of spirituality and philosophy. Some academics relate him
with the work of Luis Buñuel, especially his film Un Chien Andalou (1928). This film shares
some of the features that we find in the work of Jodorowsky. Both creators use religious
symbols and reference to sexual repression. The cultural background of these directors is
often associated in terms of „Latin‟ or Spanish influenced „surrealism‟ and its often overt
reaction to religious (Catholic) repression, both sexual and social. But the way they represent
this cultural background is different and some academics consider that Jodorowsky is not a
surrealist. Richardson argues that his work does not fulfil the true spirit of surrealism (though
no-one seems to be agreed as to whether surrealism has a „true sprit‟). For him the films of
Jodorowsky are “self-centred and inwardly focused leaving no place for collective exploration
of consciousness that is at the heart of surrealism.” (Richardson, 2006, p142) Richardson
dislikes Jodorowsky‟s work, claiming that his films have lack dialectic tension and that, “the
human will in his films is dominant and reality must be brought under human control; „real‟
and „non-real‟ are different states whose mingling provides a heightened sense of reality than,
as a genuine surrealist, a contradictory relation based upon an illusion which dissolves as one
penetrates further into the sense of what reality is.” (Richardson, 2006, p142) This is probably
true considering that is a dialectic perspective of a work based on a non-dialectic culture.
Hence the distinction between real and not real has to be clear for the surrealist movement but
not for Jodorowsky. With this “Jodorowsky‟s distance from surrealism is complete.”
(Richardson, 2006, p142)
Richardson also claim that “ He does no political or social awareness” (Richardson, 2006,
p142) Jodorowsky‟s work is pervaded with social and political critiques that go beyond the
obvious or the literal. The „political‟ in his work is never obviously about the „world of
politics‟ and his political critiques are clearly „symbolic‟, not some kind of direct political
analysis or theory. This is obvious to anybody watching his films. But then even those
surrealists who saw themselves as being allied to left-wing or anarchist politics (and not all
did) were clearly practicing a political aesthetic that concerned itself with the psycho-sexual,
socio-sexual, repression, and so on, that more „mainstream‟ politics ignored, refused or
considered marginal.
For example the way in which Jodorowsky ridicules the Catholic Church in the first part of
Holy Mountain, is not just a joke or satire, he is also exposing the lack of veracity that religion
has as an institution and its flaws, especially in Latin America. About surrealism he states, “I
broke off with surrealism because (Andre) Breton had created a surrealist respectability that
we wanted to go beyond. Surrealism had become an incredible petty bourgeois movement”
(Cobb, 2006, p 34) By the time he found the surrealism movement, he was looking for his
own style and by this time is when Jodorowsky was disillusioned and frustrated with the
surrealist movement. He wanted something beyond the surrealist rules or requirements; he
wanted to make films by his own rules.
In that regard we need to consider the strong influence that Jodorowsky‟s films have from
Latin America point of view of the world or worldview. Some of the representative figures of
surrealism where interested in the primitive cultures of Mexico. Figures like Andre Breton
visit this area; this is because “the surrealist fascination with what was rare and unknown
permeated their interest in ethnography.” (Eder, 2012, p84) The critic Pail Westheim also
lived in Mexico and wrote about his impressions of the local art in several essays and two
books. For Westheim in Mexico “It is a culture that sees the world as the stage of endless
cycles of construction and destruction ruled by celestial bodies.” (Eder, 2012, p88) In this
worldview the emerge of “visual arts are not the result of an optical process, instead, they
emerge from the form that gives shape to the symbolic in contrast to objective realistic
thought” (Eder, 2012, p88) Art in Mexico emerges from the religion and system of beliefs, “
art of Mesoamerica has to purify reality until it becomes a spiritual form” (Eder, 2012, p89)
Therefore the sculptures and paintings represent deities and diabolic beings, mixing animals
and human bodies in their work. For Westheim this art deserve the name of surrealist because
“it eschews the Aristotelian imitation of nature, also because the process of its compositions
aligns with practices embraced in modern surrealism.” (Eder, 2012, p89) This way of seeing
cultural manifestations as natively surrealist (that is, not derived from a modern self-conscious
aesthetic theory or approach) is the point of view of European man and their intent of
categorising this art in something familiar. Probably it will be more suitable to consider the
native Mexican art as part of Magic Realism instead of Surrealism. The same thing happens
with Jodorowsky‟s films since he draws from symbols and traditions of these primitive
cultures.
Magic Realism is a term that was created by the German art critic Franz Roh around 1924 or
1925. He calls Magic Realism, “paintings where real forms are combined in a way that does
not conform to daily reality,” (Carpenter, 1995, p102). This is Roh‟s attempt to define a kind
of art that was emerging. Alejandro Carpenter, one of the most representative writers of
novels and essays in Latin America, argues that what Roh named as Magic Realism were
Expressionist paintings without a political content. Carpenter also compare Surrealism with
magic Realism For him the Surrealists paintings are the ones in which “on its canvases
everything is premeditated and calculated to produce a sensation of strangeness.” (Carpenter,
1995, p103) It is a manufactured mystery that aims to have strange elements and that is the
difference with Magic Realism. Carpenter states that “marvellous real is encountered in its
raw state, latent and omnipresent, in all that is Latin America. Here the strange is
commonplace, and always was commonplace.” (Carpenter, 1995, p104) carpenter and
Westheim share the opinion that Magic Realism in Latin America is a cultural expression
rather that an artistic creation.
In fact Latin America Worldview is saturated with Magic Realism “Azteca art had been great
and original when its wandering fantasy, powerful and barbarically bold, was absorbed by its
meditation on life and death.” (Eder, 2012, p91) This is clear if we see the indigenous point of
view of the world that is based in animism; this “is the worldview that non-human entities
(animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.”
(Wikipedia, 2014, Animism) In this system of belief, “The animistic perspective is so
fundamental, mundane, every day and taken-for-granted that most animistic indigenous
people do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to animism” (Wikipedia,
2014, Animism)The local communities in Latin America built the spiritual world by giving at
their environment spiritual and human qualities, this makes Latin America a place of magic
realism.
Even after the imposition of Catholicism in Latin America, animism did not fade away.
Catholicism and Animism in Latin America developed as a kind of fusion. This fusion is
called syncretism, which is “the selective alliance of indigenous and non-indigenous elements.
“(Pick, 1993, p 127) forming some of the most colourful and exuberant expressions of
religion. Jodorowsky bases his films in this kind of Magic Realism in his aesthetic style and
content that emerges from the systems of beliefs. Some of the more weird moments in his
films are based on some of the most traditional rituals of Latin American indigenous
communities, especially Mexico. So from the point of view of Carpenter, Jodorowsky is a
major, if not the most important, magic realist of cinema (at a time when the concept was
most popularly associated with Latin American literature).
2.2 Jodorowsky about films.
Jodorowsky‟s particular point of view about what he does is that, “Film is a metaphysical
search. I wanted to address consciousness, sub consciousness and super consciousness where
you can comprehend the universe” (Jodorowsky in Aitken, 2006, p186) We can see such
motivations in his recurrent use of religious symbols and the theme of the spiritual search. As
he said in one of his interviews, “I will shoot you with celluloid. I want to wound you with
images you will never forget. My art is to conjure up new interpretive dream worlds every
member of the audience will see on different levels.” (Jones, 1989, p35) This is based in all
his training, from the theatre of cruelty to Psicomagia, in which he has developed a taste to
shock the audience in order to transform them. His films are revealing his personality; they
are the fingerprint of Jodorowsky, “the artist is so identified with his work that his intentions
and his faculties are indistinguishable from the act of creation itself.” (Jung, 1976, 72) Hence
at the moment of analysing his films we are also analysing the filmmaker. Under this
conclusion, Jodorowsky can be seen as a powerful guru and poet of cruelty. Jodorowsky´s
films have a trademark style which is, “a mixture of dark surrealism, melancholia and the
macabre, encapsulated in the film‟s tagline —See this film before it sees you.” (Cobb, 2007,
92) His films are characterised by a combination of themes of spiritual enlightenment and the
cruelty of violence and death.
For him the film industry, in general, produces films without a real value for the audience. He
states about movies “they are just cold products effigies. And they are infantile because our
stupid civilization has mad people so childish. Hollywood seems to think ideas are what
count. But ideas are ten a penny. The only way to make masterworks is to focus on feelings.”
(Jodorowsky in Jones, 1989, p36) Some film critics agree with Jodorowsky in this statement.
For example, for Cobb filmmakers like Coppola and Scorsese “label themselves independent,
Jodorowsky lives it. The sheer exuberance of his work makes today´s cinema feels processed,
bland and over packaged” (Cobb, 2006, p13)
Chapter 3
General themes or motifs of Jodorowsky´s films
In Jodorowsky‟s films we can find the recurrent use of certain motifs. For instance, in the
selected films he uses violence, sacrifice of animals and cripples in the cast
There are distinct cultural influences in the way he represents violence. In El Topo, the main
character, The Mole, has the characteristics of the typical western personality of a silent, lone
ranger. This is until he breaks down into chaotic and aggressive behavior. It happens after he
realizes that killing the four masters did not make him the best man in the desert, he suffers a
symbolic loss. He runs dramatically through the desert, returns to the graves of the masters
and destroys them with rage; plus the use of sound is a loud and long scream. After this
moment of violence The Mole eats honey, “Honey is the product of your spiritual work.”
(Jodorowsky, 1974, p111) For Jodorowsky only after this cathartic moment can the Mole
reach enlightenment represented by the honey. Then we see him banging himself against the
walls of a pit until he breaks it with his fists (it is clearly a prop). His use of violence and rage
are expressive and not subject to a straightforward realism but also intentionally go beyond
the spectacular and cathartic violence of the Spaghetti western hero who may purge his
bitterness and anger with climactic and extended moments of violence but who does not live
in or have access to any sort of spiritual enlightenment.
In The Holy Mountain when the Thief, again the main character, also has an explosion of
rage. The Thief passes by a place with a sign that says „Christ‟s for Sale‟, and below this we
see soldiers wearing ancient Roman uniform and a man dressed like a nun representing the
church. The Thief gets drunk and passes out; when he wakes up he realizes that he was used
by the soldiers as a model to make a hundreds of plaster figures of Christ on the cross with the
Thief‟s face. He breaks each one of the crosses and punishes the soldiers. He is emulating
Jesus in the temple when he punishes the sellers. “Religion is killing the planet. The churches
are taking the money, the priests are molesting children. It‟s a disease in the world.”
(Jodorowsky in Cobb, 2006, p133)
In Santa Sangre we see the violence in the recurrent crimes. We see it when Orgo (Fénix´s
father) cuts the arms of Concha (Fénix´s mother) and the violence is especially highlighted in
the scene of the murder of the Tattooed Woman. Jodorowsky said about this murder, “I want
a bad taste, a violent crime with the Mexican dancing music and more blood, more! A
fantastic crime” (Cobb, 2006, p246) The Tattooed woman murder implies a healing process
for the protagonist since in his childish mind he blames her for the death of his parents. Hence
her death has to be outstanding and impressive. The crimes in Santa Sangre are personal and
intimate; there is a close relationship between the killer, Félix, and the victims. The crimes in
the film are loaded with seduction and passion. These crimes of passion are common in Latin
America and in most of the countries there are tabloids that are dedicated especially to crimes
of passion, and this kind of journalism dominates tabloid journalism.. Octavio Paz, a Mexican
intellectual, says about crimes of passion that they have, “the old relationship between victim
and victimizer, it is what gives humanity to the murder, it is what makes the murder
imaginable, and this is despairing.” (Paz, 1950, p50, my translation) He is referring to the fact
that this kind of murder is made to carry all the factors associated with passion, close,
familial, incestuous and jealous, in contrast to what serial killer stories carry: a perverse
pathology of inexplicable alienation. Paz claims that for the Mexican, “The crime is still a
relationship, and in that way it has the same liberating effect as festival or the confession”
(Paz, 1950, p51, my translation).
In general, these extremes acts of violence could be closely related to how the Mexicans
behave in celebrations. We can see these celebrations in chaotic scenes in the streets of
Mexico from Santa Sangre. “In these festivals- national, local, or familiar- the Mexican opens
himself to the world.” (Paz, 1950, 40, my translation) These celebrations represent the only
relief of feelings such as anger, violence and sometimes even love, for the Mexican people.
Paz argues that the Mexican people repress their true feelings and thoughts as a practice that
remains from Spanish colonialism, during which expressing oneself could mean punishment
or death. Therefore, these extreme celebrations are the place and moment to release the
repressions of the rest of the year. The Mexican, “wants to exceed himself, jump the wall of
solitude that the rest of the year isolates him.” (Paz, 1950, 41, my translation) So when the
characters of Jodorowsky´s films experience these explosions after they realize some
profound truth they are behaving in a distinctively Mexican way, using rage to liberate
themselves. They are liberating themselves from their own emotional chains, like the Mole, or
from society, like the Thief. Paz claims that, “The festivals and the crime of passion, reveals
that the balance, that we pretend to have, is always in danger of being broken in a sudden
explosion of our intimacy.” (Paz, 1950, 41, my translation) In the violent scenes of
Jodorowsky we see the most intimate frustrations of the protagonist that emerge as violence.
Then we have in Jodorowsky‟s films the use of dead animals. In El Topo Jodorowsky used
animals with each one of the Masters, representing them. Jodorowsky said, “For me the
animals are like solar symbols. Vital fire symbols, of inner fire.” (Jodorowsky, 1974, p113)
This is a clear reference to animism and giving human qualities to animals. He makes this
idea by assigning a particular animal to each master. For the First Master it is the Horse, the
Second Master a Lion, the Third Master rabbits and the Last Master a butterfly, or at least a
butterfly net that implies the existence of a butterfly. From these animals the only ones that he
kills are the rabbits of the Third Master. He uses dead rabbits to represent his spiritual death,
the rabbits die when they start to feel the presence of The Mole. Here we find an example of
animism. In native indigenous communities rabbits have a meaning, “Mexico counts years by
rabbits. The rabbit is also a solar symbol of reproduction.” (Jodorowsky, 1974, p113) They
are also used by shamans to heal or diagnose diseases. In the film the use of rabbits could
symbolise the progressive loss of the Master‟s life and his health. This makes the death of the
rabbits a projection of the Spirit of the Third Master and of his own immanent death.
In Santa Sangre we see the death of an elephant in the circus, where Felix, the protagonist,
grows up. Fénix sees the elephant of the circus agonising with blood pouring from its truck.
Fénix mourns the death of the elephant as if it was part of the family, as often the members of
the circus are a family. Then, later in the film, Fénix has a dream in which he sees the
elephant again in his living room with blood pouring from its truck and then Fénix takes the
place of the agonized elephant with blood from his own nose. In this case the connection
between the elephant and Fénix is more emotional. The projection from Fénix to the elephant
is connected with his childhood and a trauma. The elephant represent his lost childhood that
was interrupted by a crime.
In Holy Mountain one of the most important uses of dead animals is in the scene in which
Jodorowsky use flayed lambs on crosses during a procession. They are being taken by
soldiers. The use of the lamb on the cross is a clear reference to Jesus in the cross, Jesus as
„The Lamb of God‟ that represents the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. The fact that in the film the
soldiers are carrying them away makes the scene meaningful in a different way. This is
particularly symbolic since in the next scene we see the soldiers shooting at people in a strike.
The juxtaposition of these two images in the same scene leads the audience to the idea that the
people in the strike are martyrs and the soldiers represent the repression of state power and an
allegory of Jesus‟ relationship to Roman power.
In the same film we have the representation of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, which is
based on an idea of Artaud for The Theatre of Cruelty. Jodorowsky uses Toads to represent
the Spanish and Chameleons to represent the native Aztecs. We see a peaceful Aztecs town
until the Spanish arrive to commit a massacre. Historical records have probed this massacre as
a fact. As this Azteca poem describing it, “Broken spears lie in the roads/ We have torn our
hair in our grief/The houses are roofless now, and their walls/ are red with blood/ worms are
swarming in the streets and plazas/ And the walks are spattered with gore/The water has
turned red, as if dyed/ And when we drink it, it has the taste of brine.” (Cobb, 2006, p132)
The concept of sacrifice of animals is in common Latin America where, as we saw before,
shamanism is a regular practice. George Bataille muses upon the significance of animal
sacrifice. Bataille, “formulates his approach to the sacred, describing sacrifice as an act of
renewal that leads to an alternative creativity based on the dismemberment of the body and
the omnipresence of blood-ideas” (Eder, 2012, p78) Relating this idea to the work of
Jodorowsky, we can see that he uses violence under this idea of the sacred. He is renewing the
meaning behind this the idea of the “Lamb of God”, behind the notion that Latin America was
vanquished by the Spanish conquistadors, and behind the meaning of animals as creatures that
do not feel, that are innocent.
Another of Jodorowsky‟s recurrent devices is using crippled people in his films. Jodorowsky
“undeniably shares Fellini‟s fascination with distorted body, but unlike the Italian, does not
use freak imaginary as theatrics to encourage farcical hysteria.” (Cobb, 2006, p73) He uses
unusual looking people and bodies as part of the cast to represent complex ideas. Like in the
case of El Topo the physically disabled and cripples are part of a hidden community, a
product of the incest in the main town. In Holy Mountain the main crippled character is the
imaginary friend of the Thief and represents his insecurity and weakness; he is called
„Monster of the Mind‟. Jodorowsky‟s influence comes from the film Freaks (1932) by Tod
Browning, Jodorowsky had stated, “I like Tod Browning a lot. He is like a father to me. I
think maybe I am the reincarnation of Tod Browning.” (Cobb, 2006, p217) Both of them are
use the physically disabled with a moral context so Jodorowsky´s work is more similar to
Browning than Fellini. However, of course, the use and „meanings‟ associated with such
figures will be subject to disagreement and controversy. The film critic Michael Richardson
had said about the topic that Jodorowsky has, “a marvellous affinity with physical and mental
difference. Not since Tod Browning has a director been able to represent abnormality and
physical disability in such an uncondescending and unassuming way.” (Richardson, 2006,
p140) As we saw in his biography, he grew up surrounded by cripples and being kind with
them, so his childhood give him an empathy with these people. In the film Santa Sangre he
uses people with Down´s syndrome and he said about it, “They are so poor so they were
happy to be paid and also happy to just do something. Society hides them and feels good
about hiding them but in myself I feel better because I give them something to do.” (Cobb,
2006, p230)
Chapter 4
Film analysis
4.1 El Topo
El Topo is Jodorowsky‟s most international recognized film. At the time of its on December
17, 1970 in New York, and ran continuously seven days a week until the end of June 1971.
The film “presented itself as a spiritual initiation, speaking at once to the counterculture´s love
of the arcane and its collective paranoia”.(Hoberman, 2008, p290) The film was also
described as “a delirious Buddhist Western , a gunfighter in mourning overcoming impossible
odds in a series of sequences combining scatology with surrealism, dismembering old codes
and offering creative chaos in their place, a freak show of impressive proportions.” (King,
1990, p 134) It is a film loaded with strong images, complex symbols and psychedelic scenes.
“El Topo changed the face of film distribution in 1971 by becoming the first ever release on
the ground- breaking Midnight Movie circuit.” (Jones, 1989, 34), as if it was “a film heavy to
be shown any other way.” (Hoberman, 2008, p285) It was his first big success but some of
the critics found it derivative. It makes sense since Jodorowsky had stated, “There are
multiple influences in the film. I have them all: the influence of books I have read and all
films I have seen” (Cobb, 2006, p71) Jodorowsky makes homage filmmakers like Buñuel,
Godard and Buster Keaton. The Mole was also inspired by the western genre, especially, of
course, its Italian variant: “Jodorowsky‟s vision of the western is derived from the majesty of
Sergio Leone‟s macaroni-opera and the sweaty blood baths in Sam Peckinpah‟s macho
fables” (Cobb, 2006, p73)
This tone and iconography of the violent 1960s westerns is of course combined with overt
religious themes and symbolism. The structure of the film is divided in chapter emulating,
“the Bible provides: Genesis, Prophets, Psalms and Apocalypse.” (Cobb, 2006, p71) The
main character was also based on Friedrich Nietzsche‟s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “Jodorowsky
took three central themes from Nietzsche‟s book: the death of God, the idea of a „Superman‟;
and the theory of eternal return” (Cobb, 2006, p73) Jodorowsky has said “I wanted to break
time in my films. I wanted to break the norms of constructing the narrative and the edit. Break
the linear notion of time” (Aitken, 2006, p186) The theory of the eternal return of Nietzsche is
“the idea that with infinite time and a finite number of events, events will recur again and
again infinitely” (Wikipedia, 2014, web) We can see this at the end of the film The Mole
immolates himself but his son takes his place and the last scene resembles the first scene, a
cowboy on a horse and with a child. The idea of the eternal return is also found in the
indigenous worldvision. For the Aztecs “time-was something alive that is born, grows,
decays, and is reborn, a succession of returns” (Paz, 1950, p79, my translation) This full
cycle of time it emulated in the way the Mole grows during the killing of the Masters, dies
and is reborn in the cave. This idea of circular time or eternal return is of course to be found
in Hinduism and Buddhism. Clearly the director was inspired in this idea by several sources
because of his diverse cultural background.
Both appropriate to the genre it elaborates on and drawn from Latin culture the theme of
„machismo‟ is strong. Jodorowsky exaggerates, in expressionist mode, the machismo of The
Colonel and the thieves who over use their guns in a ridiculous way, when they shoot at
women‟s shoes and at people for no reason. Here we see how machismo is associated with
“strength that manifests itself by hurting, humiliating, splitting and destroying.” (Paz, 1950,
p69, my translation) The „macho‟ abuses and objectifies women. And we see this with the
treatment of Mara by the Colonel, using her as a servant and as toy for the thieves.
As is often remarked upon as regards macho behavior, the exaggeration of the manly features
comes with homosexual tendencies. The „macho‟ has “homosexual inclinations with the use
and abuse of the gun, a phallic symbol.” (Paz, 1950, p69, my translation) This is especially
clear when the thieves dress up with women‟s close at a group of to dance and flirt with
them. The fact that the priests wear women's clothing makes a statement about femininity and
masculinity. They are aware that the priests are men but they do not care anymore, probably
because of a lack of women in the desert, as in most of the western films. So they decide to
replace this absence of women with that have a girl-like look.
The Mole also has an abusive use of gun and power. During the film, the Mole is a
stereotypical loner, an alienated outsider, but he suffers a transformation or enlightenment that
changes him into a sympathetic leader of the cripples. After the Mole dies and is reborn he is
not a „macho‟ anymore, since “in the psyche there is nothing by which the subject may situate
himself as a male or female being” (Lacan, 1977, 204)
It is also important to mention his relationship with Mara and the Woman in Black. The
relationship between Mara and The Mole is a way to represent Adam and Eve in Eden,
especially in the scene in the oasis. Mara has troubles finding food and water in the desert
until The Mole rapes her, and with this Jodorowsky tries to say that sex revitalizes her and
give her life. Hence she can find life symbols in the desert, “she digs in the sand and finds
many turtle eggs, fertility. She hits a phallic rock with a stone producing a fountain of water,
ejaculation.” (Cobb, 2006, p85) These symbols represent sexuality and fertility that lead her
to life.
The Eden allegory is broken with the presence of the Woman in Black. Jodorowsky has said
about it, “I cannot say anything about the second woman, the woman in black. You can say
what you like If you want, think about Jung, about light and shadow” (Cobb, 2006, p88)
Despite the typical vagueness of the independent auteur, it is clear that Jodorowsky is saying
that the Woman in Black is his alter ego but in an ambiguous way. Some of the symbols or
features of the character reinforce the idea of the alter ego. She has a masculine voice, The
Woman in Black and The Mole desire the same woman and “She reveals two stones on her
tongue, one dark and one light, identifying herself as The Mole‟s alter ego” (Cobb, 2006, p88)
The Woman in Black starts her relationship with Mara with a fight. The Woman in Black is
establishing a position of power over Mara, like a „macho‟ would do. Then she gives Mara a
mirror, which, “represents the introduction of physical vanity and sexual awareness” (Cobb,
2006, p88)
The Woman in Black starts her relationship with Mara with a fight. The Woman in Black is
establishing a position of power over Mara, like a „macho‟ would do. Then she gives Mara a
Mirror “represents the introduction of physical vanity and sexual awareness.” (Cobb, 2006,
p88) This is a reference to the Mirror Phase of Lacan is a fundamental stage for the formation
of the I. In this case Mara is recognizing her own image in the mirror; Lacan considers “the
mirror stage as identification (…) the transformation that takes place in the subject when he
assumes an image.” (Lacan, 1949, p 2) Mara takes the mirror in several scenes recognizing
her image to the point of over using it. She starts to shows gestures of vanity and The Mole
breaks the mirror. Jodorowsky is pushing the idea recognizing in the mirror to narcissism. It
is significant that the Mole alter ego or The Woman in Black gives Mara the mirror and later
in the film Mara chose The Woman in Black over the Mole. Mara chose the Black Woman
not just because she defeats the Mole but also because she help her to know herself.
Following the allegory of Adam and Eve in the paradise the With the Black Woman could
symbolise the snake. She is gives Mara the mirror as a tool to recognize herself hence to know
herself. The snake in paradise gives Eva the apple from the tree of knowledge.
4.2. Holy Mountain
Jodorowsky´s second big success was Holy Mountain (1973) and, “the film had its premiere
at Waverly Theatre, an art house movie theater in New York City on November 29, 1973,
where it had restricted run on Friday and Saturday midnights for sixteen months” (Wikipedia,
2014, Holy Mountain). Jodorowsky´s second film, “was finished in the nick of time for the
1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it was eagerly anticipated but, for the most part, coolly
received.” (Hoberman, 2008, p292)
The film was first thought of as a sequel to El Topo. “Ascent of Mount Carmel inspired
Jodorowsky to think of following El Topo with a film where the journey to enlightenment
would be upwards.” (Cobb, 2006, p120) Written between 1578 and 1579, Ascent of Mount
Carmel is a spiritual treatise by Spanish Catholic mystic and poet Saint John of the Cross.
This film “makes explicit Jodorowsky´s profound fascination with alchemy, which for him is
a search of the soul‟s pure essences.” (Cobb, 2006, p15) Jodorowsky combines elements from
Hinduism, Buddhism and Catholicism. This fusion of religions could be based in Jungian
conceptions of archetypes, in that “Jung believed that the images of myths were
personifications of underlying archetypal content.” (Waddell, 2006, p15) and thus, for some,
religions and their specific myths and beliefs are expressions of underlying and unifying
collective meanings. Jodorowsky is also showing the similarities in myths from different
religions, “our description of the archetypes and the classical description of Gods, heroes and
daemons have to be analogues” (Waddell, 2006, p15). And this idea is clear when The
Alchemist explains at the group of selected people from different planets about the Mountains
and the sacred meaning in different religions and countries. Because of this, “the act of
mountain climbing is filled with a sacred significance beyond the physical order. Scaling such
treacherous heights involves a process of initiation ceremony and faith” (Cobb, 2006, p120),
making the film a spiritual search intended to be relevant to different cultures.
The shooting process of the film “was designed to be a spiritually enriching experience.”
(Jodorowsky in Cobb, 2006, p127) He did a preparation process for him and the cast based
on spiritualism. Jodorowsky trained with a Japanese Zen master and with Oscar Ichazo, a
Bolivian guru whose “system was an amalgam of Zen, Sufi and yoga exercises with
theoretical overlay derived from alchemy, the Kabala, the I Ching, the teachings of Gurdjieff,
and other esoteric doctrines.” (Hoberman, 2008, p291) The lead actors of the film also did this
training for three months before they lived communally for another month in Jodorowsky´s
home.
Jodorowsky based the plot of the film in the book Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal.
“Jodorowsky took the book premise, its storyline, endless textual details and even the way
Daumal introduced his group members.” (Cobb, 2006, p120) For Jodorowsky the film was
an alchemic experiment in which the characters of the film that start being the worst version
of themselves end up transforming into new reborn people. In this film he intended to
transform people not only in the cast but also the audience.
In the film there is a particular scene in which a vulture is standing on a bull. This image came
from the Yawar Festival. This festival began during the colonial times in Latin America. It
began in Peru but is common along the Andes. It centres on tying a bull to an Andean condor
and letting them fight each other. The condor symbolizes the indigenous communities and the
bull represents Spain. In the film The Alchemist says, “to hold on to the bull, the vulture uses
the same amount of force than the bull uses to accept the vulture” (Holy Mountain, 1973,
film) This image in is a representation of tolerance between Spanish and indigenous
communities.
In this film Jodorowsky makes reference to several religions including references to rituals
from Mesoamerican indigenous communities. We can see one ritual in the scene in which
The Thief shits in a bowl, goes to a sauna made of crystal and the vapours of his sweat
transforms his shit into gold. In Mesoamerica there is a practice in the native communities
that also involves purification with sweat as a preparation for important events. This practice
is the Temazcal, “it was used as part of a curative ceremony thought to purify the body after
exertion such as after a battle or a ceremonial ball game. It was also used for healing the sick,
improving health, and for women to give birth. It continues to be used today in Indigenous
cultures of Mexico and Central America that were part of the ancient Mesoamerican region
for spiritual and health reasons.” (Wikipedia, 2014, Temazcal) In some communities in the
Andes this practice is also popular and represents a symbolic rebirth from the Pacha-Mama
(Mother Earth). In the film Jodorowsky uses a structure of crystal but the Temazcal is made
of regular stones for the structure and volcanic stones to put in to the fire to produce the heat
of the sauna. The Thief struggles and sweats to the point of suffering, in the Temazcal could
also be like that since it is in groups and it is not allowed to go out until the ritual finishes and
all the fix amount of stones are used. The concept of this practice and the concept in the film
is the same, to purify. In the film this scene is also related to alchemy, “the transmutation of
lead to gold symbolises the transformation from imperfect to perfect.”(Jodorowsky in Cobb,
2006, p125) This transformation also has a symbolism with a psychological meaning. “Jung
reads the turning of base metals into gold as an analogy for the perforation of unconscious
content to consciousness that effects psychological development as they transform from one
state to another.” (Waddell, 2006, p18) This symbolism applies to The Thief‟s transformation
that starts his journey with this ritual to eventually be part of the group.
The Temazcal is recommended before the ingestion of a spiritual brew like Ayahuasca in the
rainforest or San Pedro in the Highlands. It is part of an important spiritual ceremony that is
used for enlightenment. The native communities of Latin America do this ritual but they fast
for three days and or do the Temazcal, depending on the area. The Thief is the only one that
actually did all the ritual since he did the purification in the beginning of the film or
Temazcal. This especial ritual that The Alchemist has with the The Thief is probably because
at the end of the film he becomes in a Christ figure. The Thief does a premature exit from the
Holy Mountain climb and leaves with The Prostitute and The Chimpanzee. “The Thief- Christ
is the only one who remains fictitious; he is not part of the group.” Jodorowsky in Cobb,
2006, p169) The Thief is representing Christ and The Prostitute is representing Mari
Magdalena. Jodorowsky is here referring to the myth that Christ did not die in the Cross and
that he had a family with Mari Magdalena. This could explain the rituals that the The Thief
does and the other don not, from the beginning he is supposed to become a new spiritual
master.
In the film the journey of the group starts in the house of an old man from Latin America,
most likely Peru. In this part of the film Jodorowsky uses Andean music during the rituals and
ceremonies with The Old Man who could be a local shaman. Then an Old Woman gives
Ayahuasca to the group. The Ayahuasca has this meaning in local Selvatic communities
because they have animistic relationships with the environment. It is also clear that in the film
the group consume Ayahuasca because of the effect it has: “people who have consumed
Ayahuasca report having spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth, the true nature
of the universe as well as deep insight into how to be the best person they possibly can”
(Wikipedia, 2014, Ayahuasca) In the film the group goes through a series of hallucinations
that bonds them with nature. For these communities, “Drugs, the ascetic practice, and
meditation are means not the aim” (Paz, 1979, p127), the aim to use these plants is spiritual
research and enlightenment. As Jodorowsky shows it in the film this plant has a spiritual
purpose, not for entertainment.
4.3 Santa Sangre
Santa Sangre (1989) is the film that affirms his place as a filmmaker since it shows that
Jodorowsky has established his own style and also tell a different kind of story, outside the
topic of enlightenment. This evolution or transformation in the way he made films brought to
this film a better reception from the audience, “It is not a coincidence that Jodorowsky´s most
accessible film to date- both in terms of structure and characterization- was also by far his
most commercial.” (Cobb, 2006, p213) “The film was screened in the Un Certain
Regard section at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, and generally was critically well received,
eventually being ranked 476th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of
all time.” (Wikipedia, 2014, Santa Sangre) Richardson considered this film the best work of
Jodorowsky. “He is adept at capturing the vivacity and excitement of circus life with all of its
colours and pageantry, and the intricacy of mime and conjuring tricks are explored with a fine
eye.” (Richardson, 2006, p140)
The film is based in the history of Goyo Cardenas who was, “whilst living under the „evil
presence of his mother‟ Cardenas had brutally murdered as many as thirty women, burying
their bodies in his garden” (Cobb, 2006, p213) Cardenas confessed voluntarily and was
institutionalised for ten years until he was pronounced cured. After this he did not remember
killing all those women and became a family man. This history inspired Jodorowsky who
hearted it from Cardenas himself in a bar. For him this history was about redemption “If a
killer can forget and later live a normal life, maybe our society, which is a criminal society,
one day will live in a beautiful world.” (Jodorowsky in Cobb, 2006, p214)
The film was filmed in the streets of Mexico which gives the film special qualities in the
visual and sound aspects “Americans do not shoot in Mexico, they shoot in Mexican studios.
They do not capture the surrealistic flavour of Mexico.” (Jodorowsky in Jones, 1989, p35) In
the cast of the film is included three of his sons Adam as young Fénix, Alex as elder Fénix
and Teo as a pimp. Jodorowsky tends to use his sons in his films, as he did in El Topo using
his son Brontis as his son. He has stated about this, “my sons are not in it for nepotist family
reasons; they were simply the best actors for the job, even though they told me I directed them
like Hitler in a trance” (Jodorowsky in Jones, 1989, p36)
The film shows the structure of a Latin American family “the greatest irony in Latin America
is that men dominate virtually all institutions except the most significant: The home.”(Hansis,
1997, 92) The home in Latin America is dominated by the woman. Women in the family have
the role of mother and also manage the resources. The woman, despite the fact that they
already work outside of the household, is the one in charge of the house and makes sure the
tasks are completed. In one study, a working class Mexican woman explains, “Men are
naturally irresponsible, adding that men act foolish because they cannot help the way they
are.” (Hansis, 1997, 93) Hence the woman is the one that assume the responsibilities of the
house and family. In the film this relation or dominance is clear at the beginning of the film in
which we see Ogor (Fénix‟s father) sleeping in the car instead of working. Fenix‟s mother,
Cocha, has a strong bond with her family. Concha is in front of the heavy machinery willing
to sacrifice herself to safe the church of Holly Blood until Fénix begs Concha to stay with
him. Concha moves because of Fénix and the church of Holy Blood is destroyed. Her
character is dominant and intents to control everything related to her family as she did with
her cheating husband.
The mother and son relationship is central, and Jones describes the film as, “Norman Bates
goes to Mexico.” (Jones, 1989, p35) We can take as a reference Psycho (1960) by Hitchcock,
in which Norman Bates lead by the „ghost‟ of his mother commits murder. This same
comportment happens with Fénix and the ghost of Concha. The strong mother figure that
Fénix experiences in his childhood is the one that takes place in his mind and dominates his
will. Fénix commits all his crimes under his mother‟s domain. According to Zizek the mother
in Psycho represents the Super Ego of Bates, this “Superego is an obscene agency,
bombarding us with impossible orders, laughing at us, when, of course, we cannot ever fulfil
its demand.” (Zizek, 2006, film) This is the exact behaviour of Concha with Fénix, she use
her son arms as a tool to perform in a show and to do daily life tasks. Fénix personality is
absorbed and Concha´s ghost or mental representation takes over of his life. When he can do
what she demands, she laughs and punishes him as if he is still a kid.
In this film Jodorowsky also makes a critic at Christian regulations that new Saints of Virgins
had to go to be recognise by this institution. We can see this in the scene in which Concha
defends the church of Holy Blood from destruction. Here the Christian authorities refuse to
acknowledge the sanctity of the Church and its patron. For Jodorowsky this is a, “classic
example of religious imperialism” (Jodorowsky in Cobb, 2006, p215)
Conclusion
Jodorowsky is one of the contemporary filmmakers with a unique and particular style. This
style is based in his roots as we have seen he used in his films, drawing upon the rich and
syncretic cultures of Latin America, especially Mexico. His films can be considered as magic
realist that use ethnographic elements rather that strictly surrealistic principles, even though
he he can be thought of as a surrealist because of the clear commonalities in the use of
symbolism and a clear rejection of a naturalistic narrative and mise en scene. Jodorowsky
tends to touch delicate topics as violence against women as in El Topo, a film in which he
pushes the concept of chauvinism to the point of an absurd charade. He applies the same
exaggeration to the Catholic Church But his expressionism and non-realist exaggerations are a
method of social critique. He is not just talking about chauvinism or Catholic repression to
expose it but to expose the crude realities behind these traditional institutions in Latin
America. He has also being accused of being exploitative of women and the disabled. In his
films he has cast women with personal issues to help them in their personal enlightenment
during the shooting of his films. He is also convinced that he is helping the disabled by
including them in his narratives, giving them visibility.. However, this position could be
considering as patronizing. However, there is no agreed „good or bad‟ way to represent
women or the disabled in film. Every film made about disabled people (made by able-bodied
people) is an outside perspective of their reality. The same thing with women and physical
abuse, sadly a frequent reality in Latin American chauvinist countries. If the only way to
represent these realities is with a woman directing and writing film about their reality, and
disabled people directing or writing a film about their reality, then of course others must
remain cinematically silent about these matters. Of course, Jodorowsky is hardly a
„contemplative‟ filmmaker. His films can be shocking and utterly expressionist and any
treatment he makes of any sort of people and groups has to be considered with that in mind,
even though, of course this does not mean that Jodorowsky can escape criticism on the
grounds that nothing in his films can be taken „literally‟.
I consider his films postmodernist “Postmodernist film attempts to subvert the mainstream
conventions of narrative structure, characterization and destroys (or, at least, toys with) the
audience's suspension of disbelief. Typically, such films also break down the cultural divide
between high and low art and often upend typical portrayals of gender, race, class, genre,
and time with the goal of creating something different from traditional narrative
expression.”(Wikipedia, 2014, Postmodernist film) Jodorowsky‟s recurrent motives that I
have analyses fit with this description of postmodernist films. His tendency to the fusion of
different cultural backgrounds from a wide range of countries makes him also a postmodern
filmmaker.
Thanks to „underground‟ and alternative distribution, some of it done by Jodorowsky himself,
his film gained popularity in cult film circles. Jodorowsky was an inspiration for many.
“Dennis Hopper got him in to re-edit his troubled The Last Movie, John Lennon crusaded for
him. Jack Nicholson and Tim Burton love him. Johnny Depp signed up to star in his
abandoned El Topo sequel. He officiated at the wedding of close friend Marilyn Manson and
Dita Von Teese dressed as The Alchemist from Holy Mountain.”(Cobb, 2006, p15) However,
Hollywood itself was not ready for Jodorowsky‟s wild imagination and rejected him.
However, this failure to be embraced by a more mainstream cinema (whether desired by
Jodorowsky himself or not) has allowed his films to remain a distinctive body of work,
especially as concerns the idea of a filmmaker as shaman and film (or cinema) as a kind of
„therapy‟, both in the process of making and in the process of watching.
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