Santa Sangre

I think it's fairly safe to say that director Alexander Jodorowsky's (El Topo) latest film has something to offend everyone. On the other hand, no less a personage than film critic Roger Ebert ranked Santa Sangre number six on his ten best films of the year list. Picture this (or rather try not to): Orgo (Guy Stockwell), a knife-throwing circus master is having a fling with the tattooed lady, when Orgo's wife (Blanca Guerra) catches him. She tosses acid on his privates; he responds by cutting off both her arms. Clutching himself, Orgo stumbles naked into the street where he slits his own throat while street people lay against the wall playing music and singing. Although the sight is certainly ghastly, the musicians don't miss a beat. Witness to these brutal proceedings is Orgo's son Fenix (director Jodorowsky's son). After many years in an institution, he escapes and hooks up with his armless mother. The pair do vaudeville shows together, Fenix becoming his mother's hands. Unfortunately, mama doesn't like competition, and whenever a woman enters the picture, mother orders Fenix to kill the usurper. Fenix, bound by his mother's wishes does so--in extremely graphic fashion (Friday the 13th has nothing on Santa Sangre in the hack-em-slash-em category). Coming off gaudy and loud, rather than stylish, much of Santa Sangre is either disgusting or incomprehensible until the final twenty minutes. During that final reel many, though not all, of the film's weird goings-on become clear. A cross between Psycho and Magic, I admired the film's powerful ending--it was the 100 minutes leading up to that ending I objected to. Some directors, such as David Lynch and Peter Greenaway, can be subtly perverse at their best. Jodorowsky has no subtlety--his perversity is simple, brutal, and often cruel. It is perversity on purpose but without a purpose, a crucial difference that Jodorowsky's admirers have somehow overlooked. Not recommended (Note: Santa Sangre is also available in an R-rated version that runs about three minutes shorter than the NC-17 version). (R. Pitman)