9 Confusing Films Where Absolutely Nobody Knew What Was Going On

3. The Holy Mountain

What would a list like this be without an Alejandro Jodorowsky movie? Where to begin, though? The director's famously challenging movie is more about images than ideas, with the movie's opening act containing practically no dialogue at all. An opening section features a man shaving the heads of two blonde women (pictured above), before we move onto the loose central narrative, which features a Christ lookalike teaming up with a limbless dwarf to reach the so-called Holy Mountain, which is essentially a giant, towering metaphor for spiritual enlightenment...or something. As an eventual group of ten, their plan is to reach the top of the mountain and topple the Gods who live there in order to achieve immortality. During their travels, they have a number of peculiar encounters, stuffed to the gills with Jodorowsky's expectedly bizarre imagery. The director himself plays The Alchemist who assembles the group in the first place, while some of the more memorable imagery includes flies covering the protagonist's face, naked boys with green-painted penises, fecal matter being turned into gold and countless theatrical displays of animals both alive and dead. However, the true WTF occurs at the very end of the movie, as the alchemist shouts "Zoom back camera!" while revealing the set of the movie, and exclaiming, "Real life awaits us" as the movie ends. Theories: For many, the movie just makes good background viewing if you've dropped some acid or started toking up, because taking much meaning away from it continues to prove challenging. Many critics have agreed over the years that the movie is best viewed as a satire, an excessive and often incoherent satire, but one nevertheless. This is arguably best apparent when we meet the protagonist's fellow travel companions, who are all questionable individuals to say the least (such as, a weapons baron, a sketchy toy maker, a cosmetics manufacturer and so on). As for the beguiling final scene, it could, perhaps simplistically, reflect a disdain for easy answers and false enlightenment, instead urging viewers to seek their own enlightenment and meaning to their lives, not achieved through illusory means but in the real world. Or maybe it was just a giant middle-finger to the audience. Answers on a postcard, please.