EL TOPO (1970)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
The story deals with a mysterious gunfighter named El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky) who rides on horseback through the desert with his seven-year old son, Brontis (Brontis Jodorowsky) who is usually seen naked and only wearing a hat. In the exquisitely gorgeous opening sequence, El Topo tells his son that in order to become a man, he must bury his mother's picture and his toy in the sand. As they progress on horseback, they come across a bloody massacre in a nearby town. El Topo intends to find who is responsible and eventually does - the leading killer is known as the Colonel (David Silva). After the Colonel is confronted by El Topo and stripped down to his bare necessities and is castrated, he kills himself. The Colonel's woman, Mara (Mara Lorenzio), joins El Topo, leaving behind his son with some monks who are relieved, no doubt, to be alive. Mara and El Topo spend a good deal of time making love in the sand, shooting rock formations that spew water and finding food buried underneath the sand. Mara tells him that he should prove himself the best by killing the four Sharpshooter Masters of the desert. It is difficult to say if El Topo is interested in such a quest but he goes along with it.
So we get more lovemaking in the sand and in ponds, some guitar playing courtesy of El Topo, lots of elaborately staged gunfights, dozens of dead rabbits, and lots of gruesome violence. My favorite of the Sharpshooter Masters is a Jesus Christ-lookalike who can't be killed with bullets, though they obviously pierce his flesh (El Topo can somehow withstand bullets as well). The weakest of these sharpshooters is the Second Master, who is preoccupied with his mother. After nicely dispatching all the Masters, El Topo goes mad, particularly after Mara makes love to another woman who mostly dresses in black, and rides off into the sunset. Then it is 20 years later and El Topo finds himself trying to build a tunnel for deformed dwarfs so they can go live in the local town that can only be described as "Sin City."
I suppose "El Topo" is intended to be spiritual considering all the overt religious symbols in the film. There are intertitles that read things like "Genesis," "Prophets," "Armageddon," and so on. Jodorowsky claims the film is divided into two segments, The Old Testament and the New Testament. What kept nagging me throughout the film was Jodorowsky's own portrayal of El Topo - he is a stone-faced blank who only comes to life towards the end of the film when he literally becomes reborn. His shaved head and clownish acts, not to mention a wicked smile, reminded me of a Buddhist monk. Since Jodorowsky, the director, is less interested in El Topo overall than in the conception of the character, we remain at a distance. The same goes for almost all the characters in the film who remain ciphers in Jodorowsky's evolving world of loopy behavior and surreal landscapes.
If nothing else, "El Topo" is always compelling and mind-bending in its desire to drive you up the wall and out of the theater screaming, "What the heck have I just seen? A Christ film?" Maybe, but Jodorowsky has created one of the most phantasmagoric westerns ever made - the images will burn in your mind for a long time. Think of "El Topo" as a religious, violent, comic-book fantasy western done with more style, pizazz and nerve than anything Hollywood could manage. It is no masterpiece but it is unforgettable.
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