CTVA 215 Week 1 - El Topo (1970) Review
To start off my History of Cult Cinema class, we began the semester watching one of the most esoteric, thought-provoking and all around strange films I’ve watched for a class. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surrealistic western El Topo is full of striking imagery and symbolism that was definitely a lot to process on a first watch. El Topo follows a gunslinging cowboy on his quest to kill the four greatest gunmen in the west, and his quest for meaning after his opponents are all dead. Through this story, as well as his transgressive montage style, Jodorowsky explores themes of religion, violence, and power. Due to the disorienting style and surreal storyline, I believe Jodorowsky’s primary goal with this film was to leave audiences with questions to ask themselves about these topics. Considering how much time I spent reflecting on this film, I believe he succeeded in this aspect.
As impressive as this film can be stylistically, it’s hard for me to remove the story from its real-life context. Learning about El Topo and Jodorowsky’s background, you learn about things like his interest in Buddhism and his years as a mime, but you also learn about the animal deaths that happened in order to create this film, as well as the rape scene that Jodorowsky has claimed to be real and to be faked at different points. It adds a meta layer to a film asking questions about violence and what the point of that violence is, but it also just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Reckoning with the real life consequences of what we see in this film, as well as its disorienting style as a whole, leaves me really confused on how I feel about El Topo. Even though I’m unsure of my feelings, what I do know is that Jodorowsky is a singular creator in the film industry, and El Topo is a prime example of how.