It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to El Topo. How do you
describe a film whose scope stretches one’s imagination as far metaphorically
as the titular protagonist’s quest for enlightenment? Alejandro Jodorowsky, the
Chilean psycho-magical one-man-band (he writes, directs, produces, stars in the
lead role and composes the musical score), through the heavy use of imagery and
symbolism, deconstructs the typical Western archetypal tropes (in many ways one
of the first Acid Westerns). Jodorowsky does it so well in fact that it remains
a deliriously entertaining, sexy and at times outrageously funny film, despite
his bucking of traditional genre trends. In the process of this deconstruction he
turns the genre on its head, showing the fantasy of violent delights as an
illusory pursuit, that self-discovery is to be attained a life of pious
modesty, meditation and, should it come down to it, martyrdom. Indeed, if I may
be allowed to make a personal confession, it is a major influence on my own
upcoming short film. Many of Jodo’s oeuvre, including his recent film The Dance
Of Reality, follow the same line as El Topo, and the man himself, at
eighty-seven years old, remains set upon, through his psychomagic and art, his
own pursuit of enlightenment.
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