El Topo

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  October 19, 2009

  DrBenway

  A strange exploration of several Eastern religions with unusual characters that suddenly changes into a blasphemous re-telling of the New Testament with a really brutal and bloody finale that was shot prior to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.
  
  El Topo emerges as the cult movie e...( read more)quivalent of alleged classics like Birth Of A Nation. By that, I mean it's a film you are supposed to see because of its' historic significance, whether or not it stands up as a piece of entertainment. Fortunately, Jodorowsky's work is crazy enough not to be boring or predictable, but that does not mean it is necessarily entertaining or profound. Even as a big fan of El Topo, there are some scenes that can be painfully dull or boring but are made up 3-fold by wonderful scenes and unique images.
  
  

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  October 2, 2009

  SirPant

  Jodorowsky's often misunderstood 'Western' is a surreal masterpiece riddled with religious symbolism and bizarre mythology. There is so much in here, so many influences, it?s easy to make comparisons but the best way I can put it is that it?s like a Sergio Leone directed Monty Py...( read more)thon sketch, written by a south American version of Henry Miller who has based the story on an old testament parable, exploitation style! There is of course, no need for that orgy ever to happen, as we have been blessed with the eyes, mind and most importantly, the cojones of Jodorowsky, the master of the midnight movies! If you are great, El Topo is a great picture. If you are limited, El Topo is limited! I'm great ;o)

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  August 18, 2009

  pier007

  A surreal and mystical western that depicts the journeys of a messianic gunfighter. A rare mix of Buñuel's satire and anti religious imagery and Peckinpah's ultra violent frontiere.
  If it wasn't for Jodorowsky's pretentious guru crap he tries to profess in all of his films, it pr...( read more)obably would have worked better.

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  June 4, 2009

  g0disd3ad

  This is art
  nothing else to talk about, Enjoy it.

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  April 8, 2009

  FangsFirst

  My fourth trip into the mind and works of Alejandro Jodorowsky, this is, unsurprisingly, another thoroughly surrealist film masquerading, in some fashion, as a western.
  
  As stories go, there is technically one, as always with his films, but it's a rough and loose one and is, in s...( read more)ome ways, inconsequential. This isn't strictly true, for there's meaning behind everything in his works, but the events themselves are, in some manner, irrelevant--it is only the meaning behind them that matters. Still, to sort of underline the point by actually naming the effective run of things, we have Alejandro himself (this time credited as Alexandro, I don't know why he can't pick one or the other himself...) as "El Topo," who is a gunfighter beginning the movie with his son Hijo (Brontis Jodorowsky, presumably Alejandro's son) riding naked with him on horseback. They wander into a town which has been mercilessly slaughtered--eviscerated donkeys, contorted bodies, red pools and bloodied sand litter the streets. El Topo asks a dying man who did this, and the man begs to be killed. Finding no answers here, he comes to a group of bandits and asks again, this time discovering it was perpetrated by "The Colonel" and his men.
  
  If this were a plain western, this would be establishing the villain of the piece who would be pursued throughout the rest of the film. But it's not. Instead, we see the Colonel to the conclusion of his "arc" and move on in less than an hour. Now El Topo has abandoned his son with monks and takes a power-hungry woman with him, who demands that he best four master gunfighters before she will love him. Once again, we are not at the final arc, but I will leave the rest to your imagination or future viewing.
  
  There's little to be said insofar as plotting and acting; they aren't really, as I say, the point. We're seeing the ideas, philosophy and perception of Jodorowsky--each of the four masters espouses some metaphysical technique that proves and enables their mastery and reptuation. The first does not allow bullets to harm him; when shot he barely bleeds, and bears wounds from past bullets that should have been fatal. He's also blind. The second has strengthened himself by building copper objects until he has gained immense dexterity and nimble fingers, able to manipulate extremely fragile objects now without damaging them in the least. He shows the difference between El Topo's desire to destroy and find himself through shooting, and his own desire to disappear and minimally impress his actions on the objects and people he affects. The third espouses the qualities of perfection, of choosing the heart over the head. The fourth tells El Topo what it is to always win; when you have nothing to lose of any value, when you don't even have anything to fight with, you are inevitably winner.
  
  We see that he does not immediately have the skill to best these fighters, but the demands of the woman with him lead him to take sidesteps into glory in besting them, which we see as detrimental to his own self-worth, even as she enthusiastically encourages this. All of it leads to a final change in El Topo's perception of the world as a whole, and the final arc deals with his new way of seeing things--his rebirth, both metaphorically and almost literally.
  
  As someone who rather notoriously hates David Lynch's obscure, pretentious films, it's surprising how much I like Jodorowsky's work, though I think it's easily explained by the fact that Jodorowsky more clearly knows where he's going with everything throughout (I recently read that Lynch, apparently, does not even understand his own films...) and is intensely passionate about the ideas he's conveying. Everything is placed very specifically and clearly with a meaning in mind. This meaning is not always clear to the viewer (it seems I should watch these films again with his commentary to find such things out) but it's clear that there is meaning. Nothing is too obscure to be recognized as a symbol, and it feels out its place, even if the specific meaning continues to remain a mystery. The "sense" of the film, despite the lack of logic and oddity and definitively surreal nature, adds up to a distinct whole. You feel satisfied, as though Jodorowsky has definitely told you something, that you at least understand on a subconscious level, even if you aren't necessarily able to put it into words.
  
  As with The Holy Mountain, it's worth noting that Jodorowsky has absolutely no qualms about violence, and even fewer about dead animals.

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  November 4, 2009

  mrchewbacca

  Una joya, tan oriental el enfoque!

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  October 22, 2009

  mthomasjacobmorgan

  one of my favorite films of all time.

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  October 19, 2009

  ElCochran90

  "Hoy cumples siete años. Ya eres un hombre. Entierra tu primer juguete y el retrato de tu madre."
  
  EL TOPO (1970)
  
  Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
  País: México
  Género: Aventura / Fantasía / Western
  Duración: 125 min...( read more)utos
  
  
  
  SPANISH REVIEW:
  
  El Topo ha sido clasificado como el definitivo spaghetti western de culto. Recurriendo a una alta dosis de surrealismo, simbolismo parcialmente subliminal e imaginería religiosa, Alejandro Jodorowsky ha creado una de las obras maestras cinematográficas más perturbadoras en la historia del cine, considerando el hecho de que es uno de los pocos proyectos que resultan ser efectivamente ambiciosos. Perfeccionando su estilo técnico desde Fando y Lis (1968) con un doblaje mejorado, una cinematografía cuya armonía y asombro rebasa límites, y una dirección que, pese a su gran ambición y peso psicológico, consiguió establecer un estilo propio muy diferente a los esquemas fílmicos de Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita [1960], 8½ [1963]), Luis Buñuel (L'Âge d'Or [1930], El Ángel Exterminador [1962]) y Sergio Leone (Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo. [1966], C'era una Volta il West [1968]), con los que Jodorowsky es normalmente comparado, El Topo es la más gloriosa representación del cine mismo resplandeciendo en su máxima expresión, un nivel jamás soñado.
  
  Ciertamente, el aspecto menos relevante de El Topo es su trama. Gracias a su inigualable estilo de dirección, El Topo no posee un solo clímax ni solo una secuencia en donde el anonadado espectador pueda alcanzar un nivel personal de catarsis ni revelación espiritual, cinematográficamente hablando. El Topo, interpretado por Alejandro Jodorowsky, es un invencible y sumamente hábil pistolero quien, con la compañía de su hijo, vagan por la vastedad del desierto hasta encontrar un pueblo cuyos habitantes y animales fueron recientemente masacrados de manera brutal. Mientras los sobrevivientes están siendo torturados y asesinados por los villanos cerca de ahí, El Topo llega a la escena para hacer justicia. Dejando a su hijo abandonado con los franciscanos, él es guiado por una mujer llamada Mara quien le expresa que su siguiente misión es asesinar a los cuatro maestros pistoleros del desierto. Una vez que una misteriosa mujer se les une en el viaje, ambas traicionan a El Topo dejándolo balaceado en el desierto sólo para ser encontrado por un conjunto de gente pobre quienes lo veneran como a un dios, esperando que algún día despierte y los pueda ayudar a escapar de la caverna en la que se encuentran, la cual está localizada debajo de un pueblo bizarramente cristiano. La película ganó un Ariel de Plata por Mejor Cinematografía en 1972, el cual fue otorgado por la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias y Artes Cinematográficas que se enfoca específicamente al cine mexicano. Asimismo, es considerada también como una de las mejores películas mexicanas de todos los tiempos por una versión de la revista SOMOS publicada en 1994, ocupando el puesto número 42.
  
  Culminando con una de las secuencias más violentas y simbólicas jamás logradas hasta entonces, El Topo sigue siendo un triunfo cinematográfico que rebasó las definiciones de todos los géneros con que puede ser descrita, especialmente los géneros de aventura y fantasía. En mi opinión personal, la definición de cine no sería totalmente conquistada y superada sino hasta 3 años después con su largometraje The Holy Mountain (1973) el cual, a comparación de El Topo, poseía menos (si no es que ninguna) influencias e inspiraciones cinematográficas. Pese a estas controversiales características, los aspectos técnicos finalmente lograron alcanzar un alto grado de calidad. La cinematografía es resultado del trabajo de un individuo con una concepción del cine superior a la normal, cubriendo vastos paisajes, contando con la correcta mezcla de ángulos balanceados y bizarros y el más brillante manejo de cámara, gracias al talento de Rafael Corkidi. Era necesario que El Topo, a diferencia de Fando y Lis (1968), contuviera el estilo y visión de Jodorowsky en su totalidad de principio a fin con el objetivo de consolidar su estilo de dirección, por lo cual el guión fue totalmente escrito por él. La escenografía, la banda sonora, y el vestuario fueron aspectos que también estuvieron bajo su cargo.
  
  La lentitud de la película es justificable. En su altamente notorio intento por tratar de ser una experiencia extraordinaria y una odisea espiritual epifánica, la película funciona como un viaje abierto a una interpretación personal. El vago dicho "Inventa tu propia versión de los hechos y ésa será la correcta" puede definir parcialmente el objetivo de la película, así como el amplio criterio de Jodorowsky. La atención dada a cada detalle, sea éste visible o simbólico, es hipnóticamente adecuada. Un hecho cierto es que los proyectos cinematográficos de Alejandro Jodorowsky no pueden ser resumidos ni explicados en una reseña, así que ¿qué demonios estoy haciendo ahora mismo? Estoy haciendo dos cosas: Una es rectificar dicha declaración. La segunda es expresar mi propia experiencia al haber visto El Topo, dejando muy en claro que mi versión personal no es la oficialmente aceptada, probablemente ni siquiera la versión de Jodorowsky, con todo respeto.
  
  Evitando ser una película religiosa blasfemante, uno de los propósitos de Jodorowsky es simbolizar, a través del cristianismo, de elementos budistas, del sexo, de la violencia y de la forma en que la Iglesia Católica ha dañado por siglos la cristiandad y la verdadera religión, el surrealismo como una herramienta para complementar a los personajes de una manera catártica. Desde Kafka hasta Buñuel, Jodorowsky utilizó elementos que conforman la cultura cinematográfica popular para engrandecer las diversas temáticas manejadas por El Topo. Independientemente del hecho de que la película haya requerido la buena actuación estelar de Jodorowsky, el pistolero creyente de Dios posiblemente simboliza la segunda venida de Cristo, el Hijo de Dios hecho Hombre en todas sus características humanas, por lo cual experimenta al final una horripilante revelación de su propio existencialismo. A diferencia de las opiniones que afirman que El Topo insulta y se mofa de los eventos retratados en La Santa Biblia, interpreto que el largometraje enaltece tanto las Sagradas Escrituras como la imagen de Jesucristo y la verdadera religión, la cual es el cristianismo, mediante la cual se puede alcanzar la Vida Eterna gracias a la fe.
  
  Representando de manera simple y simbólica los constantes fracasos del pistolero y los elementos originadores de la violencia, desde un par de armas y el mismo cuerpo humano hasta una red de mariposas, la dirección conlleva al ciclo de la vida balanceado. No me refiero específicamente al balance gráfico visual presente concerniendo religión, comedia clásica, fornicación, violencia, estereotipos, simbolismos, belleza, surrealismo y sectas ocultas como los Illuminati, sino a cómo todos estos elementos conllevan a un equilibrio y a una perfección, representado comúnmente con el Yin Yang, culminando en la constante representación de círculos, una figura geométrica que, dentro de la película, convive con la muerte y la espiritualidad. Se podría afirmar que el director interpreta a su manera partes de La Santa Biblia tales como el Génesis, los Salmos y El Apocalipsis en una forma similar que interpretó las memorias de la obra de Fernando Arrabal en Fando y Lis (1968).
  
  Pese a que parcialmente puedo concordar con la opinión popular que afirma que El Topo es una de las películas más pretenciosas jamás creadas, la verdad es que, desde Fando y Lis (1968) hasta Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky no se hundió en un ego gráficamente pretencioso gracias a la oportunidad que ofreció a masas mundiales a interpretar sus proyectos de una manera personal. Simplemente soy un ejemplo más: Jodorowsky ha cambiado mi forma de ver la vida. Honestamente, ¿qué se puede esperar de una película cuyos fans famosos incluyen a celebridades y directores diversos como John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Manson, Peter Gabriel, Peter Fonda (Easy Rider [1969], 3:10 to Yuma [2005]), Dennis Hopper (Cool Hand Luke [1968], Blue Velvet [1986]) Samuel Fuller (Pickup on South Street [1953], The Big Red One [1980]) y David Lynch (Eraserhead [1977], Mulholland Dr. [2001])? Representando eventos como la reencarnación, el viaje de Moisés y el pueblo de Egipto a la Tierra Prometida, la revelación de Sansón, el poder de los elementos esenciales (tierra, agua, fuego y aire), la crucifixión de Jesucristo, la transformación de agua amarga a dulce de Moisés y los Evangelios del Nuevo Testamento, el maltrato de los fieles creyentes por la Iglesia Católica, así como el nacimiento de la religión y la muerte, El Topo es un atrevido llamado a contemplar a la vida de forma diferente sin hacer un innecesario comentario en contra del incorrectamente llamado opio de las masas. En un mundo donde la clase alta es mostrada como una parte de la sociedad que está destinada a ir directamente al infierno y la clase baja es enaltecida (pues de ella es el Reino de los Cielos), la obra maestra de Jodorowsky se ha convertido en una de las mejores películas mexicanas de todos los tiempos, ligeramente alcanzando el nivel de los mayores expositores del surrealismo.
  
  100/100
  
  ENGLISH REVIEW:
  
  El Topo has been classified as the definitive cult spaghetti western. Resorting to a high dose of surrealism, partially subliminal symbolism and religious imagery, Alejandro Jodorowsky has created one of the most disturbing cinematic works of art in the history of cinema, considering the fact that it is one of the few projects that ended up being effectively ambitious. Perfecting his technical style since Fando y Lis (1968) with a better dubbing, a cinematography which harmony and awe surpass any limit, and a direction that, despite its great ambition and psychological weight, achieved to establish a unique style that could be considerably different from the filmic preconceptions of Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita [1960], 8½ [1963]), Luis Buñuel (L'Âge d'Or [1930], El Ángel Exterminador [1962]) and Sergio Leone (Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo. [1966], C'era una Volta il West [1968]), with which Jodorowsky is normally compared, El Topo is the most glorious representation of cinema itself shining at its maximum capacity to a level that had never been dreamt before.
  
  Certainly, the least relevant aspect of El Topo is its plot. Thanks to its incomparable direction style, El Topo does not posses just one single climax or one single sequence where the dumbfounded spectator can reach a personal level of catharsis or spiritual revelation, cinematically speaking. El Topo, interpreted by Alejandro Jodorowsky, is an invincible and highly skillful gunman who, along with the company of his son, wanders through the vastness of the desert, finding a town whose inhabitants and animals were recently massacred in a brutal manner. While the survivors are being tortured and murdered by the villains nearby, El Topo arrives to the scene to do justice. Abandoning his son leaving him with the Franciscans, he is guided by a woman named Mara tells him that his next mission is to assassin the four master gunmen of the desert. Once that a mysterious woman joins them in their journey, both women betray El Topo, leaving him shot and wounded in the desert only to be found by a group of poor people who warship him as a god, waiting that someday he will awaken and help them escape from the cavern in which they are found in, which is located under a bizarrely Christian town. The film won a Silver Ariel for Best Cinematography in 1972, which was given by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences that specifically focus to Mexican movie industry. Also, it is considered as one of the best Mexican films of all time by the 100th edition of a Mexican magazine called "SOMOS" published in the year of 1994, reaching the 42nd spot.
  
  Culminating with one of the most violent and symbolic sequences ever achieved by then, El Topo is still a cinematographic triumph that surpassed the very definitions of all of the genres that can be used to describe the film, specially the adventure and fantasy genres. In my personal opinion, the definition of cinema would finally be conquered and surpassed 3 years later with his feature film The Holy Mountain (1973) which, unlike El Topo, possessed less (if any) influences and cinematic inspirations. Despite these controversial characteristics, the technical aspects finally managed to reach a high quality level. The cinematography is the result of the work of an individual with a superior-to-normal-standards conception of cinema, covering vast landscapes and counting with the correct mix of balanced and bizarre angles and with the most brilliant camera work, thanks to the talent of Rafael Corkidi. It was necessary that El Topo, unlike Fando y Lis (1968), contained the style and vision of Jodorowsky in its totality throughout with the purpose of consolidating his direction style, so the screenplay was completely elaborated by him. The scenery, the soundtrack and the costume design were aspects that also were under his charge.
  
  The slowness of the film is justifiable. In its extremely notorious attempt of becoming an extraordinary experience and a spiritually epiphanic odyssey, the movie works as a trip open to personal interpretation. The vague saying "Come up with your own version of the facts and that will be the correct one" can partially define the purpose of this film in a similar way it can define the vast criterion of Jodorowsky. The attention given to all the details, whether they are visible or symbolic, is hypnotically adequate. One true fact is that the cinematic projects of Alejandro Jodorowsky cannot be resumed or explained in a review, so what the hell am I doing right now? I am doing two things: One thing is to rectify such statement. The second thing is to express my own experience after having seen El Topo, leaving very clear that my own personal version is not the officially accepted one, probably just like even Jodorowsky's version, with all due respect.
  
  Avoiding being a blasphemous religious film, one of the purposes of Jodorowsky is to symbolize through Christianity, Buddhists elements, sex, violence and the way the Catholic Church has damaged Christendom and the true religion for centuries, the surrealism as a tool for complementing the characters in a cathartic manner. From Kafka to Buñuel, Jodorowsky utilized elements that form part of the popular cinematic culture for exalting the diverse subject matters contained in El Topo. Independently of the fact that the film may have required a good leading performance from Jodorowsky, the gunmen believer in God possibly symbolizes the second coming of Christ, the Son of God made Man in all of his human characteristics, so he experiments a horrible revelation of his own existentialism at the end. Unlike the opinions that affirm that El Topo insults and mocks the events portrayed in The Holy Bible, I interpret that the character praises the Holy Scriptures, the image of Jesus Christ and the true religion, which is Christianity, through which Eternal Life can be obtained through faith.
  
  Representing in a very simple and symbolic manner the constant failures of the gunman and the elements originators of violence, from a couple of guns and the human body itself to a butterfly net, the direction automatically leads to the balanced cycle of life. I am not specifically referring to the graphical visual balance present concerning religion, classic comedy, fornication, violence, stereotypes, symbolisms, beauty, surrealism and occult sects like the Illuminati, but to how all of these elements lead to an equilibrium and a perfection, commonly represented with the Yin Yang, culminating in the constant representation of circles, a geometric figure that, within the film, coexists with death and spirituality. It could be affirmed that the director interprets, in his own way, different parts of The Holy Bible such as Genesis, the Psalms and the Book of Revelation in a similar way he interpreted his memories of the play by Fernando Arrabal in Fando y Lis (1968).
  
  Despite that I can partially coincide with the popular opinion that affirms that El Topo is one of the most pretentious movies ever created, the truth is that, from Fando y Lis (1968) to Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky did not drown in a graphically pretentious ego thanks to the opportunity he offered to worldwide masses to interpret his projects in a personal scale. I am simply one more example: Jodorowsky has changed my view on life itself. Honestly, what can be expected from a film whose famous fans include diverse celebrities and directors such as John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Manson, Peter Gabriel, Peter Fonda (Easy Rider [1969], 3:10 to Yuma [2005]), Dennis Hopper (Cool Hand Luke [1968], Blue Velvet [1986]) Samuel Fuller (Pickup on South Street [1953], The Big Red One [1980]) and David Lynch (Eraserhead [1977], Mulholland Dr. [2001])? Representing events such as the Reincarnation, the voyage of Moses and the people of Egypt to the Mountain of God Sinai, the revelation of Samson, the power of the essential elements (earth, water, air and fire), the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the changing of bitter water to sweet water made by Moses and the Gospels of the New Testament, the mistreating of the believers by the Catholic Church, and the birth of both religion and death, El Topo is a daring call to contemplate life in a different way without making an unnecessary commentary against the incorrectly called opium of the masses. In a world where the upper class is shown as a part of society that is destined to live permanently in hell and the lower class is exalted (since they are predestined to live in Heaven), the masterpiece of Jodorowsky has become one of the best Mexican films of our times, slightly reaching the level of the biggest auteurs of surrealism.
  
  100/100

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  October 17, 2009

  casperflip

  a master pice of art! enjoy it!

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  October 13, 2009

  dipa89

  
  

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