El Topo is a famous cult movie well known historically as the movie that launched the Midnight Movie craze and aesthetically as a post-modern "Western" that takes on issues of mysticism, religion, and social-satire through compelling images of freaks, alternative sexuality, iconoclasm, no-holds-barred gore, and grotesquely obese women. It's not as good as it's fame will lead you to believe, but it's undeniably unforgettable.
Many synopses sum this movie up as being about a gun-slinger mystic who takes on five of the world's best gun-fighters in the desert. That's, like, a third of the movie, and grossly underplays the importance of the rest of the film. However, it should be noted that that's also the most compelling and interesting of the movie, and that Jodorowsky's loose structure sometimes loses track of where it's going. To be sure, I was done with this movie a good half an hour before it was done with itself, though that's not to say there weren't more memorable moments to come. However, as a product definitely of the era and a post-modern look at mysticism and peace, it does deserve it's place as a challenging aesthetic that movie buffs and historians should see.
If you liked this movie, my recommendation is to see Performance, a film contemporary to this one (though vastly different in nature) that was also as maltreated by distributors and that also recently got it's victorious DVD release. Between these two, you pretty much have mood of the late 60s/early 70s down.
--PolarisDiB
Many synopses sum this movie up as being about a gun-slinger mystic who takes on five of the world's best gun-fighters in the desert. That's, like, a third of the movie, and grossly underplays the importance of the rest of the film. However, it should be noted that that's also the most compelling and interesting of the movie, and that Jodorowsky's loose structure sometimes loses track of where it's going. To be sure, I was done with this movie a good half an hour before it was done with itself, though that's not to say there weren't more memorable moments to come. However, as a product definitely of the era and a post-modern look at mysticism and peace, it does deserve it's place as a challenging aesthetic that movie buffs and historians should see.
If you liked this movie, my recommendation is to see Performance, a film contemporary to this one (though vastly different in nature) that was also as maltreated by distributors and that also recently got it's victorious DVD release. Between these two, you pretty much have mood of the late 60s/early 70s down.
--PolarisDiB