El Topo (1970)

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El Topo (1970) – A. Jodorowsky

A cult sensation and “Midnight Movie” that brought director Alejandro Jodorowsky (still working at age 90 as of 2019) fame/notoriety and the attention of the Beatles and their resources, El Topo is something of a curiosity in these days of much more grotesque shocks. Despite all the violence and blood (garishly looking like red paint slopped everywhere), the film has more in common with Buñuel’s provocative surrealism than with grindhouse exploitation fare. Jodorowsky himself plays the gunslinger who must defeat four masters to gain enlightenment but who ends up trapped underground with a community of physically disabled outcasts (who he then frees). The shifts in the film are jarring – from mystical acid Western to socio-political attack on religion with some mime thrown in for good measure (Jodorowsky trained with Marcel Marceau!). It doesn’t really make sense but has some great images – every time I started to get bored, another beautiful vista or startlingly weird set-up appeared.  You have to keep asking yourself, who would put this sort of scene in a film – and why? I believe the answer can only be found in Jodorowsky’s deeper consciousness or his autobiography (he’s a metaphysical guy, very interested in the Tarot, as his next better film, The Holy Mountain, would reveal). Of course, El Topo crosses the line of good taste very often and is not for the squeamish or easily offended (Jodorowsky has since apologised for some aspects).