El Topo

Jonathan James Romley

at 7:07 pm

El Topo was director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature film – following the low-budget surrealist parable Fando and Lis in 1967 – and, as a result of its violent content and scenes of grotesque symbolism, was the first film to bring him to the attention of a western audience. At its heart, the film is a violent and deeply mystical dream-play about a mythical gunfighter cleansing himself of the violence of his past, only to discover that the world itself has already been corrupted by the bloodshed of the present (with the film making barbed cultural references to the escalating violence of the twentieth century; with the atrocities of the holocaust, the violence of the Spanish Civil War, the massacres of Vietnam and the escalating tensions in the middle-east all informing the heavily-stylised and overruling spirit of anger and aggression).

With this in mind it is important to point out that despite the sense of violence and the scenes that seem to be intentionally designed to provoke a drastic reaction from the audience the film is in no way lurid or exploitative; with Jodorowsky placing the violence alongside Eastern philosophies, religious symbolism, situationist-inspired absurdity and a genuine sense of compassion; with his aggression being more of an existentialist scream of pain and torment, as opposed to one of masochistic excess. The film also explores a number of mystical themes that would be later fleshed out even further with The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky’s second of only three films produced in the 1970’s, which, much like the film in question, unfolds through a series of surrealist vignettes, rife with the aforementioned factors of religious symbolism, sardonic satire and distancing cinematic shock tactics.

As with The Holy Mountain it remains a film that polarises audience to this day, with El Topo, to some, remaining a monumental achievement of philosophy, mysticism and surrealist satire (according to some; a film capable of changing the viewer’s entire perspective on life itself through the wisdom of its central character and the potency of its imagery). To others however, the film has already become something of a dated relic, with some viewers arguing that the cartoonish violence, casual nudity and notions of questing for inner peace and tranquillity have become throwbacks to the late 1960’s flower-power aesthetic; which is always easy to discredit through blind cynicism (although this is the point).

So, with these considerations in place, you’ll no doubt be asking yourself how you’ll react to the film on a personal level, and – if I’m being completely honest – then I couldn’t possibly say. I will say however that it’s best to approach the film with an open mind and with some familiarity with other films of this nature (surreal, deeply metaphorical art-house cinema) as well as with Jodorowsky himself.

What surprised me the most when viewing this film for the first time was the tremendous amount of depth that can often be lost within the giddy barrage of sights and sounds that burst from the screen in a vibrant vivid collage of philosophy, art, sex and religion. As a result, I often find it annoying when people discredit Jodorowsky as simply throwing images on the screen to shock and disarm the viewer for no apparent reason. I find similar arguments regarding the work of filmmakers like David Lynch, Shinya Tsukamoto and Miike Takashi similarly offensive. Simply listen to the audio commentary on this DVD to hear Jodorowsky taking the film apart image by image; explaining the incredible amount of minor details purged from every religion, steeped in every form of art and combined in an attempt to overload the audience’s senses and perceptions to effectively change the very fabric of their own personal universe. It worked for me, though as you can possibly gather from the previous reviews, opinions are mixed.

As you can imagine from the sketchy plot outline, what follows is fairly episodic in design, sometimes tapping into the cinematic absurdity of Luis Bunuel and at other times reminding me of the epic opulence of early Ken Russell (in particular, films like The Devils, The Music Lovers, The Boyfriend, Mahler, etc). For the most part though, the film is pure Jodorowsky, with the central character (played by the director himself) tapping into the intensity of The Holy Mountain’s iconic shaman-esque leader; whilst the constant barrage of cripples, dwarfs, freaks and geeks cut adrift against a backdrop of raped priests, slaughtered villages, philosophical gun-play and an all-mighty sense of fury as the world of peace and love comes crumbling down as a harsh-reminder of the character’s once violent past, all stand out as a testament to the pure, unbridled genius of Jodorowsky himself.

Obviously, it’s not going to be a film for everyone, but those already turned on to Jodorowsky’s ideas will no doubt take away a great deal from the film’s central message, and from the dizzying kaleidoscope of visual ideas, interpretations and sight gags that explode from the screen in a veritable barrage of colour and movement. The Tartan DVD features some fine extra features, most notably Jodorowsky’s informative and fascinating audio commentary, while also doing a fairly great – if not quite perfect – job of re-mastering a film that has remained in the vaults for well over thirty years.
Rating: 5 / 5

Anonymous

at 7:51 pm

This is one movie you don’t forget…And it’s a movie that have been available on laser disc only until now. It’s a movie better than much new stuff on the big screen…..
Rating: 5 / 5

Solarhawk

at 10:56 pm

How people can watch a film such as this and totally ignore the terrible cruelty involved to living creatures is beyond me. This is not a cult film, it is the work of a sick pretentious idiot. I mean, I always thought donkey’s were kind of cute and I don’t like to see them cut down the middle with a knife screaming for mercy with their insides hanging out, or a sheep crucified alive with its four hooves nailed to a wall just to make a pretentious arty point. This is real cruelty with really screaming animals, not staged.

One of the themes, the The Spanish civil war, is about cruel nasty little people fighting other cruel nasty little people so leave animals out of it. People who harm children and animals are bad. I think that seems fair comment.

Rating: 1 / 5