Film: Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky - El Topo

Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
El Topo
[Western/Drama/Horror]






The plot: El Topo (Jodorowsky) happens across a horrendous, bloody mess in a remote town. With no clues as to who is responsible, he sets off into the mountains with his son to search for the culprit(s). Lots of crazy shit then proceeds to happen.

Re-released after more than thirty years of legal wrangling, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult favourite, El Topo (The Mole), is a hit and miss affair. At once a traditional cowboy tale, blazing satire, unrelenting gore-fest and sketchy moral guidebook, the only certainty with El Topo is that it’s practically impossible to understanding everything the first time through; choppy editing, random cuts, on-screen riddles and apparent character hallucinations all try their utmost to confuse the viewer in what has to be, if nothing else, one of the most bizarre films I have seen in a long time.

Visually it is outstanding, with Jodorowsky’s lens perfectly capturing the baking heat and vastness of an unnamed desert location. The obscurity of the place in itself is often unsettling, featuring a disquieting bunch of misfits (one character consists of two men strapped together, one with no arms and one with no legs), countless dead animals (including gruesome close ups of a skinned, crucified goat and a disembowelled dog, not to mention hundreds of dead rabbits) and buckets of blood waiting to be spilled at every opportunity. Aside from a handful of aesthetic missteps - due, no doubt, to budgetary restrictions - the atmosphere of El Topo is fantastically disturbing.

Where it falls down quite badly is the plot which, though closely adhering to an interesting Biblical allegory becomes an incoherent mess after the first hour. Without revealing too much, after El Topo completes his initial task, he passes out and is transported to a completely different location, subsequently being tasked with a completely different objective. Now, though I’m often turned off by the unnecessary handholding in most British and American mainstream flicks, a little explanation wouldn’t have gone amiss, especially considering the second half is also stylistically and dramatically inferior to the gripping, more character-driven first.

That said, the frequent surrealism is actually managed terrifically by Jodorowsky, never threatening to undermine or override the main action. The acting is also top notch for such a low budget movie, especially considering many of the leads are relative unknowns and much of the supporting cast were chosen primarily because of their physical idiosyncrasies (you’ll see).

On the whole, though overly frequent morality checks and the apparent loss of direction do weigh heavily against El Topo, its overall craziness, jet-black heart and dazzling cinematography ensure that it’s definitely worth a watch. 73