It’s been many years and I don’t think I’d love it as much now but at the time I saw it I was blown away with his imagination. It is visually amazing. I have not seen his other works but this film was a somewhat coherent, darkly surreal nightmare. There are strong images here and the film should be on DVD, although it isn’t my number one choice right now.
How did you see it? Did you pay a hundred dollars for the dvd?
Without a doubt the crowning achievement of Jodorowski’s wildly erratic career, and one of the finest films of its kind.
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I am old so I had the VHS.
Double
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPU_kOU6PZM
Mike W, go watch it on youtube for now, someone put up a pretty high quality transfer of it, but yet, this thing deserves a Region 1 release.
Like Blue K said has it also been uploaded on youtube, so anyone can watch it gratis now. I would equally consider it Jodorowsky´s best film, and I didn´t care much about the other films I´ve seen from him which were generally trying to hard to be pseudo-surrealistic.
Is this ever going to be release on dvd. If the rights are lost, Criterion should snatch them up. This would be a perfect candidate for a Criterion Release
^ I agree, perfect Criterion release. I can only dream
I have a VHS copy that I got for a dollar when one of the Blockbuster’s in my neighborhood was switching to DVD’s. Still plays great. One of my favorite films. It really should have been released with the Anchor Bay box set.
I would say that it is Jodorowsky’s best film, and here’s why:
Sorry, but I don’t care for the man. I watched El Topo and Holy Mountain and what I got from both of them is that all that symbolism would be interesting if the man knew how to end a movie for once. I have a friend who tells endless stories that you begin to slide in and out of paying attention to, and Jodorowsky is just like that friend except with a cult following. But as far as near randomness and his technique is concerned, it makes for a great psychedelic horror movie because, well, you don’t ever really know what to expect. So when it suddenly cuts to a snake rolling around that guy’s body or whatever, it doesn’t really matter that it doesn’t make a lick of sense, it’s still rather surprising and sometimes disturbing.
So power to him, as regards letting beasts run awry on camera. It’s probably a misstatement saying that Jodorowsky is good for making horror films because he doesn’t make genre films, but it’s worth noting that he doesn’t make genre films because he’s incapable, not because he decides not to.
At least Sante Sangre was short(er).
—PolarisDiB
“Santa Sangre” is a masterpiece in my book. The completely off-kilter world he presents, the circus, the sleaziness and some amazing scenes between the son and the mother as the film develops (I won’t give it away.) Elements of horror, surrealism and old-school Latin drama abound.
I have a Betamax copy that I finally transferred to a DVD. It’s only full-frame and not the best picture, but it works.
A few years back I was really into Jodorowsky’s other films, namely Holy Mountain, El Topo, and Fando y Lis. Now I don’t desire to see them as much. And at the time, when I saw this, I thought it was so cheap compared to those other films. This does have a weird late-night horror movie, Dario Argento, Evil Dead 2 kinda feel to it… but it’s not really a horror movie at all. The more I watched it, and understood it’s lesson, the more I thought that it is his best. Holy Mountain is balls-to-the-wall mysticism, but this one tells a beautiful story with heart, and it certainly is surreal, but strangely beautiful. I thought it was ugly at first, but it’s not at all. It’s so beautiful.
I bought it off amazon for a reasonable price, but it’s not region 1. I have a region free dvd player. This and Sans Solei are the reason I got a region-free dvd player, and it’s totally worth it. Plus the version I got has an extra disc with great in depth interviews. But I agree, this is EXACTLY the kind of film Criterion should pick up, make it bluray and everything.
Redrum4
I have been dying to see this film, but it isn’t available for dvd in the us (unless you want to spend 140 bucks). Has anyone seen this movie? How good is it? How did you see this movie? Does anyone know why it isn’t available on DVD?