Comment on Ze Alchemist by LordSinrath

Yes, well, that film was certainly interesting, if nothing else. I cannot say it was a good film, only interesting. I don't feel there was any particular need for much of the blatant gore and sexuality, and the whole thing has sort of a huckster-ish, cult-leader vibe to it. Jodorowsky casting himself as the sage, wizardly Alchemist leading the most powerful people on Earth to enlightenment seemed gauche and self-indulgent, to me, at least.

Nevertheless, it was definitely interesting. An intelligent man like myself can recognize and appreciate the extremely dense and carefully-crafted symbolism, and the imagery was particularly striking. My favorite scene is where the Thief breaks into the Alchemist's tower to try and steal some gold, and after walking down that sweet rainbow hallway and seeing the Alchemist on his "throne," they kung-fu fight. Symbolic or otherwise, I thought it was pretty awesome. I actually once played a D&D character based off the Alchemist. He was a multiclass monk/wizard, and his name was Alejandro. I showed all my friends that scene as my primary inspiration.

By the way, how did you hear about this film? It seems to me that it's quite an obscure, art-house piece. My introduction to it was tangential in the extreme. I only found out about this film through the cartoon Adventure Time with Finn and Jake. The series features the specter of Death as a recurring character, and Jesse Moynihan, the character designer, said he based his design off of the Alchemist. See for yourself: adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/D… When I heard that, I decided to look into this film, and thought it was interesting enough to check out. That, I suppose, is a fine example of tangential learning.