New Releases: El Topo and The Holy Mountain Blu-ray

El Topo movie scene

Alejandro Jodorowsky goes for his gun in his 1970 film El Topo.

Anchor Bay Entertainment released director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) on Blu-ray on April 26, 2011, marking the high-definition debut of the cult filmmaker’s most popular “midnight movies” from the 1970s.

The El Topo Blu-ray carries a list price of $34.99; same as the Holy Mountain Blu-ray.

The release followed three months after Severin Films issued Blu-ray and DVD editions of 1989’s Santa Sangre, which was the first of Jodorowky’s films to ever be released in the U.S. in a high-definition format.

El Topo, a surreal, violent Western-type creation, became a sensation on the growing midnight movie circuit in the early 1970s. That John Lennon spoke of his admiration of the film didn’t hurt either.

Jodorowsky’s next movie was The Holy Mountain, a striking and trippy fantasy/allegory about a young, Christ-like figure and the strange mystical experiences he becomes part of as he journeys towards possible immortality. Not surprisingly, The Holy Mountain made quite a splash on the midnight scene in the pre-VCR days, just like El Topo.

Here are the tech specs and bonuses for the Blu-ray discs:

El Topo tech specs/bonus features

  • new high-def transfer from original negative under the supervision of Jodorowsky
  • original academy aspect ratio: 1.33:1
  • DTS-HD master audio 5.1 & PCM stereo
  • commentary by Jodorowsky
  • English feature dub track
  • on-camera interview with Jodorowsky
  • original theatrical trailer
  • photo gallery
  • original script excerpts
  • English, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese subtitles

The Holy Mountain tech specs/bonus features

  • new high-def transfer from 2K scanned from original 35mm negative under the supervision of Jodorowsky
  • original aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic)
  • DTS-HD master audio 5.1 & PCM stereo
  • commentary by Jodorowsky
  • original theatrical trailer
  • deleted scenes with commentary by Jodorowsky
  • The Holy Mountain restoration process
  • photo gallery
  • original script excerpts
  • English, French, Spanish, Brazilian, Portuguese subtitles

Anchor Bay issued a The Films of Alejandro Jodorwosky DVD box set back in 2007.

 

Buy or Rent El Topo
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Buy or Rent The Holy Mountain
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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.