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Disturbing,
surreal, psychedelic, flamboyant, visceral, phantasmagoric, deranged, alchemical,
allegorical, gory, hallucinatory, mind-boggling, violent, demented, poetic,
religious and sacrilegious... These are only a few of the words  that
comes to one's mind when trying to describe the films of legendary filmmaker/author
Alejandro Jodorowsky. It's so natural to categorize him as a cult filmmaker, but then again, what is a cult film? Did Luis Bunuel ever declare that he was going to make a cult film? How about David Lynch or Peter Greenaway? Does Jan Svankmajer ever call his films cult? When one is absorbed in the works by these filmmakers, it becomes normal to demand something (one or more of the adjectives above) of movies. When their films turn into standards in one's mind by which all other films are measured, "Pretty Woman" 
may become the weirdest film of all. As Jodorowsky himself is known to have
stated that he asks of movies what North Americans ask of hallucinogens
(I'm paraphrasing here), once you've watched a Jodorowsky movie, it's tough
to sit through an "ordinary" movie - at least for a while - without
the aid of two bottles of vodka and a really heavy dose of flu, not to mention
staying asleep or unconscious might help. He also once said that he never
set out for his film "El Topo" to be a cult movie, and that he
just had no idea how people would see his film.Speaking of "El Topo," the movie is known to have impressed John Lennon so much that he had a sizable hand in the film's worldwide distribution, and even helped finance Jodorowsky's next movie, "The Holy Mountain." Psychedelic, surrealistic, zen-like western fable, "El Topo" catapulted Jodorowsky's status from obscurity to international cult favourite. Once vanished from view, entangled in a legal battle, 
"El Topo" has acquired such an underground status that film buffs
paid loads of money just to get their hands on a fourth or fifth generation
copy."The Holy Mountain" is chock full of psychedelic imagery just like "El Topo," and some more. In it, a mystic, simply called the Alchemist (played by Jodorowsky himself), takes some seekers to the Holy Mountain, on a mission to kill the nine individuals who have discovered immortality and have been ruling the world ever since. Their journey, along which they're supposed to go through mystical experiences that would help them complete the task, turns into a menagerie of surreal phantasmagoria, freckled with plenty of black comedy that would shame even the Monty Python gang. 1989's "Santa Sangre" is also jam-packed with outrageous imageries, and offers just as wild and surreal a cinematic trip as "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain." The difference is in the inclusion of a much more coherent narrative which was absent in his earlier films.
The boxed "Alejandro Jodorowsky" DVD set released in Japan includes "El Topo" (1970), "The Holy Mountain" (1973), "Santa Sangre" (1989), and "Fando y Lis (Fando and Lis)," Jodorowsky's 1967 oeuvre about the title duo's surreal quest to find the mystical city of Tar. The five-disc set also contains a bonus disc that includes a very recent interview with Alexandro Jodorowsky himself, and a bonus set of tarot cards. "El Topo," "The Holy Mountain," and "Santa Sangre" are also sold individually. "Fando y Lis (Fando and Lis)" is only available with the boxed set.
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