Oh my God this new Blu-ray.
How many times as an undergrad did we watch this in the Hayden Hall dorms? How many times did we nod off before the end? The VHS tapes we rented from Kim’s Video (R.I.P.) were illegal dubs from Japanese laserdiscs (R.I.P.) that blurred out all the pubic hair and, basically, looked like shit. It all added to the underground nature of the film, but, hot damn, this new disc looks FANTASTIC.
The Holy Mountain is just an inch behind Eraserhead for my favorite stoner pic that isn’t Koyanisqaatsi (which, I argue, is NOT a stoner film.) There’s more humor in this than I remember (Horizontally, I am a champion!!), and not *quite* as much gross violence. (El Topo, which I’ll be revisiting soon, is where the disgusting stuff lies, I think.) Some of the violence is actually quite beautiful, with blood squibs in all the colors of the rainbow and birds flying out of bullet holes.
For all the people who like to bitch and moan that nothing cool ever happens anymore, let’s celebrate that this forever lost film is on Blu-ray.
