It took me a while to watch this one. I tried to watch it a few weeks ago but my mind was too busy and I didn’t understand a single thing in the first five minutes. I finally got back to watching this one last night and I can say I am glad I tried it again, even though I don’t like these kinds of movies. It is one of those artsy impressionist type of movies. Very symbolic and open to interpretation. Lots of nudity and I’m sure psychotropic drugs would have made it easier to understand.
Sumo wrestlers dressed as Roman centurions, limbless midgets, frogs and lizards reenacting the conquest of Mexico, skinned and crucified animal carcasses… All within the first half hour. A very strange movie. It does its best to shock you with imagery and I’m sure back in 1973 it worked. The level of disturbance is dated because there was nothing in this movie that I didn’t see at the Marilyn Manson concert a few years back. I’m not sure many people would get it today. I’m not sure I got all of it.
I will try to resist giving you any of my interpretations, just the basic idea of what happens in the movie.
A fallen Christ-figure resorts to thievery and crime. He rebels against his life and goes in search of who he is. He comes across a man who takes him in and endeavors to teach him how to turn his life around. He literally has this guy take a crap in a bowl. Then they take the bowl of shit and turn it into gold, much like Geffen Records.
He is set on to a quest to climb the Holy Mountain and discover the secret of immortality from the nine immortals who control out lives from on top of the mountain. On his quest he will be helped by nine people, each representing a planet. A major chunk of this movie is the display of each of these nine people and their daily functions. Most of this deals with nudity, sex and guns. Really. I guess surrealism makes more sense if you’re naked and armed.
So they train together to forget their selves and to form a single being. They take to the mountain and are immediately tempted by the bar at the base of the mountain. There is no need to climb the mountain, every vice can be indulged and every secret can be told here at the Pantheon Bar. They resist the temptation and continue with their quest. Along the way they are each tempted with their own personal vices. They resist with simple maneuvers like, “You have forgotten that we are all one being, rub your clitoris against the mountain!” She humps the cliff face for ten minutes and then they continue along their way. Now why didn’t I think of that?
As they approach the summit, our Christ hero is told by the master that he has learned all he can and that the summit does not matter, he should take this woman (a prostitute with a monkey that has followed them along the way) and to go, enjoy life, conquer the Holy Mountain through love.
He leaves and the remaining eight approach the nine immortals. They discover that the immortals are eight mannequins and the ninth is the master that has led them to this place. He explains that the Holy Mountain does not matter, that life is an illusion and that the important thing is to live life. To illustrate how life is an illusion he orders the camera panned back to show the film crew. He proclaims that we must not be tied to any one illusion and that we must escape our lives in order to live them.
It was hard to watch the whole thing because it was difficult to sit through all the slow parts. It turned out to be a pretty good movie. All of the imagery was beautiful and really well done. The story is a simple eastern/Buddhist story. Nothing too far fetched about anything in the movie. There were lots of small aspects to the film that begged for attention and for interpretation. I thought it was a good flick. I wouldn’t sit through it again but that’s just my personal likes/dislikes. I don’t want movies that are too shallow but when they get too deep I feel like I have to do homework. I’d rather read a story like this rather than watch it. I’ll probably go out and find the unfinished book that the movie was inspired from and I’ll most likely read it a few times. But as a movie I’m stuck with the images the director chose to display.
7 of 11 Skulls
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