Alexandro Jodorowsky

Alexandro Jodorowsky, sometimes spelled "Alejandro" is a Mexican director. His big claim to fame is the movie El Topo, but any movie that he has directed has the same "appeal." His movies defy description. I can not adequately explain to you what one of his movies is like. You have to see one for yourself. You should track down any of his movies that you can and watch it. It will be like nothing you have ever seen before. As far as I know, only one of his movies has ever been officially released in the United States, and that is Santa Sangre. You may be able to find that movie at a video store. His movies El Topo and Holy Mountain were released in Japan on VHS and Laserdisc. About the only way to get these movies is to purchase the movies on the bootleg market. I bought El Topo in a real store, but it was obviously a bootleg recorded from a Japanese Laserdisc. Although the movie was in English, it had Japanese subtitles and the nudity was censored with blurryness. I suspect that some of the movie was cut out altogether. Holy Mountain can be obtained from the bootleg market as well.

Jodorowsky is a very creative director with enough imagination for a dozen directors. His movies can be hard to follow from a plot perspective, but they seem to make sense in the end. I would describe his movies as hallucinatory. They are somewhat like taking a drug trip. They are thoroughly fascinating. There are always religious and spiritual themes. Sometimes his take on religion seems downright blasphemous. He really has a thing for freaks. His movies are always cast with amputees, midgets, retarded people, and just generally bizarre looking humans. I don't mean to offend anybody by saying that retarded people are freaks, I'm just trying to convey that he fills his movies with outcasts. Due to political correctness, freakshows are pretty much extinct in the United States. However, in South America, where political correctness does not exist, the freakshow is still alive and well and some freaks become celebrities. Some freaks from the United States travel through South America where these opportunities are still open to them and make big bucks.

Jodorowsky's movie are heavy on the gore side, too. They contain some pretty graphic violence at times. But this is not to say that these are low budget exploitation movies. Quite to the contrary, they are beautifully photographed and appear to have big budgets. They are first class all the way from that perspective. I can not say how many movies that this man has made, but it appears that he has actually only made a small handful of movies. I also can not understand why his movies haven't had video releases in the United States. His movies have a large cult following and there certainly is a considerable market for his movies here, but nobody has ever cashed in on it, except for the bootleggers.

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