El Topo

I ate something and 30 minutes in I couldn’t stop laughing. Probably more enjoyable after eating something.

This review is not speaking the quality of the film. All spoken dialog is Spanish and the English subtitles are out of sync by at least 7 seconds so youre seeing subtitles before characters have even spoken and by the time the actor says the line the subtitles are gone.

I had a dream! He must have been one of the people there (so was David Lynch -- you can guess why!). It was in a past life ... there were five of us who should have been there, the sixth, lets just say he was immensely pleased. You can see this in the beginning of the movie. People strung up like for entertainment ... ripped open like fresh bread (hey! Spalding Grey must have been another) and tossed around for *sheer inventiveness* ... every time you turned a corner, there was another horror. After a certain point, you stopped saying anything and just gestured as though you could nod your head to point at it (except for the happy-about-it-guy). Im surprised Jodorowsky got so much of it out of his memory. It was like it was left for us, except it couldnt have been the case, because he just turned a corner and happened on it ... within days. It went beyond ritual, beyond gain of lucre, to sheer *inventiveness*. Rib cages broken open like piano kids, kids in front of their parents, stuff that obviously took a *long time* ... who would do this? All we could do is throw our hands up and drop it (except for the happy-go-lucky guy). It was weird, and the smell was terrible ... as people know, considerations about vegetarianism aside (or *included*), whatever offal from pigs or cows smells like, when people have been slaughtered, it just smells *bad* and *wrong* and *awful* ... Who could do this? We could barely get our minds around this, and it echoed with us -- for lifetimes. (Except the happy-go-lucky guy -- hey, maybe another one was Ioan Grillo, author of El Narco! Hes pretty stalwart, and that would fit). The she would had to wait on the boat wasnt too pleased at first, but when we came back with those looks in our eyes, she gathered it was at least for a reason ... better than we could have imagined when we left her on the ship, out of caution ... (hey! I think she works at Movie Madness now!). Suffice it to say, the film grasps that the tendency towards ambition also puts you in the tendency towards self-destruction; that to honor beauty and exalt, also has in it hidden the tendency to betray, to shatter for no good reason. A very wise film! And eye-opened about the indigenous peoples. Remember, it came out after Sam Peckinpahs The Wild Bunch, and we know how *that* one goes: The people with the guns, who can *afford* them (or *cannons*, or what-have-you ... ), like to shoot them because ultimately ... its *fun*. (Try not to get in their way! Amen.) Thanks, Alejandro!

I saw this film in a theater in Europe, in the 1970s and its classification as an Acid Western, portraying a counter culture dream through drug induced hallucinations, summed it up well. Alejandro Jodorowsky stalked critics of this film with admissions of criminal behavior and later denials. Hollywood did well by not allowing his Dune to be filmed.

It has some adventurous visuals, but on the whole El Topo fails massively as a coherent story, or even one who sets out to purposely baffle its audience with its strange allegories. The finished product just isnt that entertaining. Lennon and Ono really pulled the wool over our eyes promoting this weirdness. Drugs may help keep you strapped in, but I couldnt say.

Bizarre cult film. Couldn’t get it to work. Pass on this.

Were always a good time. I missed this one and had to watch it. John Waters has the honor of the my original first Midnight Movie with Pink Flamingos and I have the ability to appreciate those cult movies from the seventies. I have seen Hairspray so many times its almost memorized. Ill never forget John Waters. Divine is a Saint. RIP Glen.

A much deeper story than most may understand. Beautiful.

Oddest western I have ever seen.

I understand the role of gun violence and cultural violence in westerns and I see how Jodorowsky amplifies these experiences in his movie. Scenes like the gun man shooting the villagers in a line highlight his perspective on this kind of random and personal violence. This type of critique makes sense in all its excesses. What does not make sense to me is having El Topo violently rape the first woman to have any kind of dialogue or introduction in the film. And not even ten minutes before that she is already groped and forced to kiss several men. What is the point of this kind of sexism? It serves no purpose. The commentary is unnecessary and jarring. I would not recommend this film despite its potential cinematographic or metaphorical benefits because of its gross disregard for women.