Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13435 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-01-26
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Dubbed, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 117 minutes

Special Features

• Audio commentary with director Alejandro Jodorowsky and film journalist Alan Jones
  
• Louis Mouchet's documentary La Constellation Jodorowsky (87 mins)
  
• Theatrical trailer
  
• Biographies
  
• Stills and poster gallery
  
• Deleted scene
  
• Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky
  
• Short film Echek directed by Alejandro's son, Adan Jodorowsky

DVD Technical Information:

• Running Time: 117 minutes
  
• Region Code: 2
  
• Widescreen

Synopsis
A bizarre love triangle turns deadly when circus ringmaster Orgo is caught with the tattooed lady by his wife Concha, an aerial performer. A furious Concha spills acid on Orgo, he then mutilates her and then takes his own life. Their impressionable son, Fenix, who witnessed the carnage, is committed to an institution and treated for insanity. His armless mother eventually springs Fenix from the hospital, only to use him as her method of exacting revenge on the world for her unfortunate circumstances. Violence begets violence. A strange, horrific and unforgettablel film by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Customer Reviews

Great DVD presentation of a modern horror classic
This is one of my all time favorite movies - I consider it one of the greatest items from the crossover zone between arthouse, cult movie and taboo-breaking horror, along with Polanski's "Repulsion", Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" and Lynch's "Blue Velvet". Technically Jodorowsky, who's spent more of his career writing influental French sci-fi graphic novels than directing movies (I guess movie producers can be forgiven for being a bit nervous about financing his stuff), may not be quite as accomplished as the three other directors I mentioned, but the sheer power of the story helps making this movie completely memorable. There are some obvious influences here from Fellini, Bunuel, George Romero, Hitchcock's "Psycho" etc, but Jodorowsky is enough of a visionary to make the end result seem completely original: an accessible, entertaining and moving freudian magical realist splatter horror movie. (and if you want an appreciation of the movie from a better writer than me, use Google to locate Roger Ebert's perceptive review of Santa Sangre from his "The Great Movies" series.)

The DVD transfer is nice, anamorphic with vibrant colors. Don't expect super THX surround sound, but it sounds okay. The 90 minute decumentary is informative and good fun, and it has some pretty mindblowing footage, including video footage from weird 1970's surrealist happenings featuring topless women. And the fairly long time spent on live recordings from Jodorowsky's weekly seminars in Paris on the Tarot deck and self discovery doesn't make him look too much like a weird self-indulgent guru, at least not in my opinion. I thought that it was fairly interesting and charming and funny. There's a also very interesting deleted scene. Unfortunately the soundtrack for this seems to have been lost, but it has a commentary track from Jodorowsky. And no, I haven't sat down and listened to the commentary track for the entire movie yet. Getting through Jodorowsky's broken English can be a bit of an ordeal!! But when I get round to it I'm sure it will be fun even though it will probably make my head hurt a bit. Conclusion: Classic movie! great package! five stars! Nine out of Ten! Two Thumbs up! etc.

santa sangre is a delight
my first encounter with these beautiful films by the director Jodorowsky was in 1983. a double feature w/the holy mountain and el topo. what a delight for a young high schooler. even better when santa sangre came our in 1990. by that time i was working at the theatre it played at. so i was very lucky to have seen it many times on the big silver screen. you are the luckiest people to be able to see this film again, as i have only my memory of it.

Brilliant...
I had been searching for this film for years after having read an interview with Jodorowsky. I was simply overwhelmed by this wonderful man's intelligence and character. And, living in South Africa, where one has to really search for a video store that would even contemplate thinking about ordering a film like this (El Topo? More chance of finding rocking horse poo...)I was delighted to finally be able to get my grubby little mitts on this film.

The storyline is simple enough, but what sets this film apart from many other "horror" films (I hate to categorise it, as it is more a performative theory than a drive-in classic) is the sheer beauty of the repulsion, the guilt-ridden internal pleasure one feels at being so utterly enthralled by the sight of a knife entering someone's back...

It is this beauty that really makes this transfer to DVD stand out as a necessity, and just goes to show that technology can actually help in delivering deep-red-surreality the way the director sees it in his head... Fellini? Bunuel? Well, I like to ignore imitations, and drop ice down the back of the postmodernists (Jameson has just been done so many times before *groan*) and am able to see beyond the homage to the vision that is uniquely Jodorowsky's. [insert huge futile and possibly violent debate here]

This vision, beautiful juxtaposition that it is, sees brutality emerging from the joy of the circus (some of the most beautifully photographed scenes I know)and eneveloping itself in the gestalt mind of the family, finally leading to redemption, absolution, and, dare I say it, love...

It seems to linger, Santa Sangre does, with one as a pastiche of set-pieces, and this episodic quality again reinforces the dreamlike hyper-surreality Jodorowsky and his "women" seem to inhabit. The elephant scene, for instance, would probably repulse many people, who would find themselves suddenly, and a week later, replaying the scene in their head, picturing it as it is on the screen, as it was in Jodorowsky's mind...This glorious quality is the property of so few films recently (one or two leap to mind, but there they shall stay) that Jodorowsky can truly claim filmic alchemy as one of his arts...

The second disc to me was definitely as good as the movie itself. The feature length documentary "La Constellation Jodorowsky" enhanced this package for me beyond words. Seeing Jodorowsky talk, synaesthetic though it may with the subtitles, is a sheer joy. Finally, this documentary (more a celebration than a mere retrospective) together with the onstage interview with Jodorowsky filmed more recently, carries one away with the spirit of the Jodorowsky, and leaves one almost mournful of the fact that his output has been sparse, and that the pictures he has made are almost impossible to obtain. So, if anybody from Anchor Bay is reading this, you know what to do...

That is all that needs to be said of this film. Buy it, watch it, then really watch it, then watch yourself, and let the cleansing fire wash over Jodorowsky and bless his heart...