Watched this (first time) last night, for what it’s worth here are my thoughts on the movie:-
I really like the first act, El Topo discovering the massacred town (brilliant sound on this scene, crow calls outside the church and creaking ropes inside). The town even makes the Unhappy Place in Django Kill… look like a good neighbourhood 
El Topo’s pursuit of the perpetrators is great especially the “balloon” gunfight. The second act concerning El Topo beating the four "masters is more like a kung-fu movie and the last act even stranger. The movie is quite a challenge in places, there is a story-line which flows through all three acts, but I found myself wishing the whole film had been based on the first. Obviously this film is considered by many to be a cult classic. If you like your westerns really different or are generally interested in the film I’d recommend the newly re-mastered DVD which is excellent quality. If like me you were expecting the more usual Spaghetti Western, well I’m not sure.
‘El Topo’ is no spaghetti western at all !!! It’s more a ‘peyote-trip’ kind of thing ! It does contain some sw elements though. Still it’s pretty surrealistic !!!
[quote=“The Halitosis Kid, post:41, topic:45”]Watched this (first time) last night, for what it’s worth here are my thoughts on the movie:-
I really like the first act, El Topo discovering the massacred town (brilliant sound on this scene, crow calls outside the church and creaking ropes inside). The town even makes the Unhappy Place in Django Kill… look like a good neighbourhood El Topo’s pursuit of the perpetrators is great especially the “balloon” gunfight. The second act concerning El Topo beating the four "masters is more like a kung-fu movie and the last act even stranger. The movie is quite a challenge in places, there is a story-line which flows through all three acts, but I found myself wishing the whole film had been based on the first. Obviously this film is considered by many to be a cult classic. If you like your westerns really different or are generally interested in the film I’d recommend the newly re-mastered DVD which is excellent quality. If like me you were expecting the more usual Spaghetti Western, well I’m not sure.[/quote]
These are good point’s you raise, and I agree with what you are saying.
That’s a great movie. Biblical allegory or something. Anyway, that’s a great surrealistic trip. Jodorowsky shows once again that he has got great imagination. I love this guy’s movies 
I still havent bought it, i might wait for the price to go down
i have only seen SANTA SANGRE, i really should see the others, they look quite mad from the trailers i have seen.
There is also a U.K. box set coming out and a friend of mine told me although the content is the same the packaging is a lot nicer.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:46, topic:45”]i have only seen SANTA SANGRE, i really should see the others, they look quite mad from the trailers i have seen.
There is also a U.K. box set coming out and a friend of mine told me although the content is the same the packaging is a lot nicer.[/quote]
Haven’t seen Santa Sangre, but El Topo and The Holy Mountain are great movies. Fando and Lis is not so good as they are but it’s a good one.
Santa sange is his most normal film among the “real Jodo films”. He also directed Tusk and Rainbow thief but I haven’t seen them. I suppose they are just normal films without any Jodo madness.
I hope he gets someday enough fundings to make the films he have been planning for years now: Sequel to El Topo and the King Shot.
[quote=“Bill san Antonio, post:4, topic:45”]This is one of my all-time favorite films. It’s a very strange movie. Something of a mixture of spaghetti western, Tod Browning’s Freaks, Bunuel’s surreal films and epic bible movies.
But not really a spaghetti western…[/quote]
I thought it owed an aweful lot to Bunuel, but without really capturing my imagination or blowing my mind - it was like a spaghetti western parody of bunuel… so much so that if any one likes this film they need to see the real thing… i recommend starting with “rebellion of the hanged”…
Well…just watched this for the first time. I didn’t know what to expect and deliberately did not read past the first couple posts of this topic.
Very very “different”! I’m not sure if I liked it or not though…a very thought-provoking piece but I think I’m going to have to give it another go in a couple months to make up my mind.
My initial reaction is not to judge this as a SW per se but as some kind of surreal film that happened to have a western theme to it.
In any event, not your average film and that’s about all I can say for now!!!
I finally got round to watching this for the first time a few nights ago.
I have to admit that I think it is way over-rated. I quite liked the first part - especially the first scene, but I thought the rest was pretty dull. I found that it was overlong & had to stop it twice, as my mind drifted. It could’ve done with being half an hour shorter.
Although I wasn’t crazy about it, it was definitely well photographed, with some great scenes. I’m glad I’ve watched it, but found it to be a great disappointment. I personally prefer Arrabal’s ‘Viva La Muerte’.
got my hands on a mexican bootleg…didnt have subtitles…I know a good amount of spanish already but I missed a few words here and there so I stopped it and just ordered it from Netflix…need to finish this even though what I saw was pretty frickin weird…what the hell, why’s that kid got to be naked!
Just watched this today. What in shitting crikey was all that about? I’ve never been one for symbolism or subtext so if it was “clearly” saying one thing in showing me another, it lost me. Was it even a western, or was it just taking the piss?
Some powerful imagery was on display, for sure. As El Topo moved through the village of slaughtered people and animals right at the start I thought I was onto what was about to become a huge favourite. Then that sort of degenerated into a lot of rolling around in the desert - which had its moments, finding the strange gunmasters - but it was a bit of a yawn, really. Then: odd-bods in a cave and a LOT of religious jiggery-pokery, and then I thought the film was about to pick back up for the final act with the town full of illuminati symbols and it kind-of did pick up, but with a lot of nakedness and unfunny “hilarity” going on.
My immediate reaction is that I’m not especially keen on it but it definitely has something about it, and in parts has something really powerful about it. I’m kind-of annoyed that I’ve wasted a couple of hours on it and yet, at the same time, I’m well aware that it could wind up being a bit of a favourite, somewhere down the line.
Strange.
I think you’re onto it - it’s about shitting crikey and jiggery pokery!
May I recommend Jodorowsky’s second film, Holy Mountain, as being a little more explicit of his worldview and a little less jammed up his own back pages? Cheers ;D
Absolutely weird movie !!!
I watched it about two years ago.
Jodorowsky’s long planned sequel “Sons of El Topo” is now in progress… as a comic book.
No Shit??? :o
I hope Humanoids will release this in english soon. Jodorowsky writes so much comic books that I have hard time collecting what’s been released even though I only collect those released in english or finnish.
I’d buy this in English as well