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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A couple of reviewers have referred to this film as twaddle, and that to enjoy it you have to have had your brain melted from actual thought. Another reviewer has detailed the film's allegory, which is fair enough, but then allegory is what you go to church for, not why you buy a movie. Although I speak for myself. Who knows.
The thing is, El Topo is less like a movie, or even an art film. It's more an insanely theatrical hallucination. There are no recognisable human beings in it - as in, no-one behaves in a manner you have witnessed in real life. It is deadly serious, and then there's lowbrow hijinks. There's lots of mime in it. The first line of dialogue, which is a long time coming, is "I am God." And there's some weird violence - the first sequence ends with a naked child killing an old man with a gun. So, you know, I'm just saying.
But it is incomparable, which is why people get so upset. If there's a genre frame, it's the revenge western - but even then, you know, not really. And yes, it is pretentious. But not in a French relationship-drama way; more in a "I do not know what is happening but it appears to mean something" way. Which can be frustrating. But then, you shouldn't only eat hamburgers. Vary your diet.
The thing is, El Topo is less like a movie, or even an art film. It's more an insanely theatrical hallucination. There are no recognisable human beings in it - as in, no-one behaves in a manner you have witnessed in real life. It is deadly serious, and then there's lowbrow hijinks. There's lots of mime in it. The first line of dialogue, which is a long time coming, is "I am God." And there's some weird violence - the first sequence ends with a naked child killing an old man with a gun. So, you know, I'm just saying.
But it is incomparable, which is why people get so upset. If there's a genre frame, it's the revenge western - but even then, you know, not really. And yes, it is pretentious. But not in a French relationship-drama way; more in a "I do not know what is happening but it appears to mean something" way. Which can be frustrating. But then, you shouldn't only eat hamburgers. Vary your diet.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Alejandro Jodorowsky is truly one of cinema's real mavericks - and unfortunately due to legal wrangles and a whole host of issues the public has been denied the possibility to see this - several of his film projects such as Frank Herbert's Dune (in the late 70s) failed to get made and others, such as his three early films Fando Y Lis, The Holy Mountain and El Topo, have been unavailable for decades, in fact never being released for the public to own. Now finally the films will see the light of day again in the form of a cinema and DVD release, both of which offer an incredibly exiting prospect.
El Topo is an allegorically spiritual and political, surrealistic take on the Western - splattered in bloody violence, peppered with religious symbolism and jam-packed full of confusing yet engaging action. It is literally the father of the Midnight Movie phenomenon having created enamoured fans out of such counter-cultural icons as Dennis Hopper, John Lennon and Yoko Ono as well as thousands of hip New Yorker 'heads' - all of whom had to see the film in the now legendary Elgin Theatre - at 12am - after the normal programme had finished.
This is just a pure strange joy to watch and offers material to please fans of surrealism from Bunuel and Dali, European art films of those such as Fellini and Pasolini, experimental cinema from the likes of Kenneth Anger as well as, more obviously, Westerns from Leone and Peckinpah, and the classics of the extreme/exploitation circles.
El Topo is an allegorically spiritual and political, surrealistic take on the Western - splattered in bloody violence, peppered with religious symbolism and jam-packed full of confusing yet engaging action. It is literally the father of the Midnight Movie phenomenon having created enamoured fans out of such counter-cultural icons as Dennis Hopper, John Lennon and Yoko Ono as well as thousands of hip New Yorker 'heads' - all of whom had to see the film in the now legendary Elgin Theatre - at 12am - after the normal programme had finished.
This is just a pure strange joy to watch and offers material to please fans of surrealism from Bunuel and Dali, European art films of those such as Fellini and Pasolini, experimental cinema from the likes of Kenneth Anger as well as, more obviously, Westerns from Leone and Peckinpah, and the classics of the extreme/exploitation circles.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I'll keep this breif. This is not your typical Western. With superb use of mise-en-scene and cinematography, some of the special effects may not be up to a Hollywood standard but it makes up for this with an excellent and a somewhat alternative storyline. With and thrilling storyline mixed with suspenceful action and just a little dab of humour make this film the brilliant.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Don't Look Now!
All those years later, after it was made, this strikes more than a chord, it is a deep resonating bell. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
Loony Tunes Amok.
Oh boy, I thought I had seen just about all there was to see in in the way of westerns. Turns out, not for the first time I might add, that I really aint seen nothing yet. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Bob Salter
Pretentious and poorly made
Being a fan of many avant-garde and experimental films, such as the works of David Lynch, Kenneth Anger and Jim Jarmusch, I thought I'd give El Topo, by the supposedly great... Read more
Published 23 months ago by RDWHITE
brillant film
very good fastest deliver and i like watch it film wow so make me lol
Published on 5 Aug 2009 by freddy
About as sick as you can get
How people can watch a film such as this and totally ignore the terrible cruelty involved to living creatures is beyond me. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2009 by Solarhawk
Vivid and visionary philosophical western that points the finger at...
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... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Jonathan James Romley
Vivid and visionary philosophical western that points the finger at...
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... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Jonathan James Romley
A Movement Into Chaos
"El Topo" - The very name of the movie can send afficionados into the throes of ecstasy, hipsters into the realms of the warm-and-happy, Dennis Hopper to the bottle... Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2007 by Brady Orme
Complex Mexican Religious Allegory
El Topo is the classic Mexican film hailed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono enough that it was shown at midnight in many cinemas for years. Read more
Published on 16 July 2007 by K. Driscoll
Seriously - Don't bother
I thought we had a decent bottle of red wine and a good film for the evening. Unfortunatley the wine was bland and the film was worse. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2007 by Abbey Crunch
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