El Topo

"El Topo" was one of the first midnight-movie cult hits because of its visually stunning, mentally exciting indulgence in gratuitous sex and exaggerated violence…

Avenging angel El Topo—meant to be wise and mystical—rides into a town whose population has just been massacred… He guns down some of the cruel and perverse bandits responsible and brutally punishes their leader… He leaves his seven-year-old son with some monks and goes away with the gang leader's woman, Mara…

In the desert sands, El Topo and Mara make love, and she quickly falls in love with him… After their frantic love-making, she tells him that he can prove that he's the 'best' by killing the Four Masters…

For no apparent reason other than to please Mara, El Topo begins his mission, defeating and killing each of the Four Masters…

The film has been quite controversial… It lacks clarity and has painful emotions that make it quite compelling

Truly astonishing film from writer/director/composer Alejandro Jodorowsky. This is one of the most hypnotic films you'll ever see and is one that stays in the mind for days afterwards. Think Leone, Fellini and Peckinpah joining forces to make a mystical, existential and spiritual western and you're someway close to Jodorowsky's masterpiece. There are so many things to like and admire in this film from the sometimes purposely jarring editing and the beautiful music to the gorgeous vistas inhabited by a plethora of interesting and unusual characters. Track down a copy (Italy's Raro video currently has a decent dvd on release. I got mine from xploitedcinema) and you will not regret it. Be warned though - some of the images are pretty extreme, especially for 1971. A stunner and a definite must have for any serious film collector.

This is my first venture into Jodorowsky's territory and I can safely say that I'm highly impressed."El Topo" is one of the most bizarre and impressive movies you'll ever see.It features plenty of interesting,weird characters,lots of religious symbolism and extremely violent gun-fight scenes.One of the producers of this one is Mexican horror veteran Juan Lopez Moctezuma("Alucarda","Mary,Mary,Bloody Mary").I urge you to see this masterpiece right now.Simply breathtaking!

El Topo (1970)

*** (out of 4)

Often considered the king of the midnight movies, Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO is part Spaghetii Western and part avant garde madness. El Topo (Jodorowsky) is a mysterious gunfighter dressed in black who shows up out of nowhere and must go up against four other gunfighters.

EL TOPO is a rather miraculous movie in the fact that it became a huge box office success across the world. I say it's a wonder this happened because there really aren't any other movies quite like this one and there's no question that Jodorowsky has a certain flair for cinema and there's also no doubt that his vision is something no one could try to recreate. Part Bunuel, part madness, EL TOPO is an ultra-violent film that manages to be about whatever is going on in the viewer's mind.

I'm not going to sit here and call this film a masterpiece like so many have. Yes, I'm sure many potheads and acid trippers saw this in the theater back in the day and was blown away by it. You also have the likes of John Lennon and Roger Ebert who called this a masterpiece so there's no question that a wide range of people love this movie. While I didn't love it I can at least respect what the director was going for, which was pure madness.

I think the best thing that can be said about the film is that it has a unique look that isn't like any other movie ever made. The film benefits from the non-stop violence that runs throughout the picture and each death is usually done with a ton of gore coming out of the bullet wounds. People call George Romero or Lucio Fulci the Godfather of Gore but it could be said that the realistic violence and over-the-top gore started right here.

As for the story, there really isn't one. The viewer could draw countless conclusions as to what the film is about and not one explanation would be better or worse than another. Personally I thought the film ran on way too long and at times I found it to be quite boring. Still, the originality factor alone makes EL TOPO something everyone should see at least once.

It's a violent, brutal, to some confusing, but fascinating and ultimately a brilliant allegorical film. It was the first of the midnight cult films.

Unrelenting at times. There are several characters and situations the protagonist experiences. Each of these characters and situations have a connection to various (mostly Eastern) religions. The feel of the first part is almost like a mid-period Fellini spaghetti western (had Fellini made a spaghetti western--which he did not). The second half of the film has an entirely different feel, message and pacing. The second half of the film is an allegory of the New Testament. Eventually it does all tie together however.

There seems to be a scene missing at about the mid-point of the film, and a characters motivation suddenly changes. Jodorowsky explained it was mostly intentional, but, two shots were ruined and never re-shot which would have helped set up a more discernible meaning to the scene in question. It occurs between the women in the desert.

Jodorowsky will not explain in detail all that he was going for in the film. He considers the film an Eastern.... he agrees that my interpretation of various characters embodying Eastern religion and philosophy is correct. He also was creating a film of emotions, violence, salvation, and redemption---so he intentionally did not follow the expected structure of most films regarding first, second and third acts and when major conflicts occur.

He flippantly agreed with some New York critics years ago who described the film as one which seemed to be a filmed version of a very strange L.S.D. trip. He had a lengthy conversation which was published and used as liner notes in the El TOPO soundtrack album which talked about the film in terms of it being something akin to a LSD trip. But Jodorowsky said, you certainly don't need LSD to enjoy it, it's already been done for you.

This was not something he was serious about it. But being 1969, and after having trouble getting a distributor for the film in the first place, and now watching the film having moderate success as a midnight cult film and amongst college students he decided it was good for the film to agree that the N.Y. critics were partially correct.

It is at times an extremely disturbing film. I thought I detected more than a little of misogyny in the film-- --however, as Jodorowsky essentially told me--none has been intended, except that the world now, like in the past, has always brutalized women and men have insisted on brutalizing themselves.

Seeing it with an audience in a theater also means you can discuss it with people of all types. Reactions to the film are all over the map. Most agree it is art---- many don't like the film---many find it too disturbing, too violent, too sacrilegious, too scattered. Others disagree over the various messages and meanings they receive from the film. Others just 'enjoy' it as a wild, weird, disturbing film.

Usually video copies of the film are from Japanese laserdiscs which fog all pubic hair. It looks strange if you are not familiar with this.

It is a film akin to an Opera. Although it was extremely low-budget, the film is an epic and has, if not a big budget feel to it, an impressive grandeur and sweep that few films achieve.

Filmed over a course of nearly three years, the filmmakers twice were stranded for weeks without supplies and without money. This film was started in 1964/65, completed and originally set for release in 1967/68, it predates The Wild Bunch, Easy Rider and other 60's landmarks.... It was a true labor of love to finish the film. And then the film was banned in several countries.

It is not in general release. For many years from the late 70's to the mid 90's it was rarely if ever shown.

A few years ago I revisited the film in a theatre and had the opportunity to discuss it as an audience member and later on one with Jodorowsky. His other film Sante Sangre is also quite good in my opinion, but I am not a fan of his Holy Mountain. Other films he has been involved with are of lesser value. He was a good friend of Fellini's and may someday direct Fellini's script of Don Quixote. He is working on Son of El Topo, but not sure when it will be released and who will distribute it.

El Topo began a nearly 5 year run as a midnight film and often sold out. It started in a small Greenwich Village theatre in New York City. After a few years of success in NYC, other prints were distributed to college campuses and for midnight shows in other cities. It became a modest hit!