El Topo
The phenomenon of the midnight cult movie is one that sadly gets very little remembrance or modern day acknowledgement in this day and age, with the exception of the goofily entertaining Rocky Horror Picture Show, a sci fi spoof / rock musical that nonetheless carries a prevalent theme of being open and honest about yourself up to and including being gay. These movies carried the reputation of taking far more chances than mainstream cinema did while in many ways being a lot cooler than what mainstream Hollywood had to offer, and the amazing gist of it was they would only be shown in select theaters on Friday and Saturday nights literally at midnight, and run continuously in the one venue for as much as years at a time, with the act of attending screenings being like a sort of cinematic communal. The tradition had its own stars both in front of and behind the camera, with some (John Waters) being as untalented and unskilled at being artists as anyone to ever yell âCut!â, while others displayed all the signs of being an unrestrained, unrepentant genius. As was the case with one Alejandro Jodorowsky, a guy if whom he had produced a much larger body of work would probably be in the pantheon along with Welles, Kubrick and Spielberg as one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live, with a personal background thatâs as fascinating as any movie itself. After filming throughout the late sixties, this masterpiece of his was completed and became one of the first true midnight cult movies in 1971, where no one less than John Lennon managed to catch a screening and became completely enthralled, and upon learning of the filmâs near orphan like status, convinced a friend and manager of his named Allen Klein to buy up the rights to it and oversee a wider distribution under Lennonâs supervision which is where its reputation really skyrocketed, and rightly so, since this was, is, and remains the undisputed greatest of all underground cult films, often imitated but never to be duplicated despite a fanbase that includes many famous directors and musicians in their own right who count this as being a major influence. Jodorowsky is that rare genius, a guy who studied all forms of art, philosophy, and surrealism, picking up pointers from all of them but never embracing any one completely to create his own personal style (the unspoken true way to originality for any artist). His use of symbolism is stunning from the first frame, along with his uncanny ability to make every shot a work of nearly crazed artistic genius. On its own basic terms, the story is that of a Western, a general âmaster gunfighterâ scenario that has been done before, but is now infused with a metaphysical meaning that pertains to the journey of one man as he seeks to become closer to God without losing his own soul in the process before finally learning that he must be broken down and humbled in so many ways before reaching his destination. To this end, Jodorowsky wound up casting himself in the lead role, bringing surprising presence and charisma to the table in an imposing all black getup and accompanied by a nearly naked little boy (his own real life son) as his companion. It isnât long before we are treated to a laundry list of atrocities that he encounters with the aid of stunning imagery, starting with a brutally slaughtered village which leads him to a pseudo military gang of bandits that he quickly picks off one at a time before coming to a monastery where the young novice monks are being brutally raped by the degenerate bandits whilst being overseen by their leader, a fat, pompous type who calls himself âThe Colonelâ and has definitely stepped over the line when it comes to sinning in sickening pride. That is until El Topo shows up, wipes out his remaining men, and joyfully strips and castrates The Colonel to send him the message that suicide is the best option when youâre no longer a man. The ongoing theme of manâs horrifying inhumanity to his fellow man being the basis for all vengeance on a biblical level is set in place here, soon to reach its overwhelming peak by the filmâs end. El Topo acquires The Colonelâs woman (leaving his son with the monks) and sets out with her before soon being joined by another beautiful but mysterious woman dressed in all black. At that point, the woman (rechristened âMaraâ) tells him that in order to prove his love to her (and seemingly reach his own spiritual goals), he must seek out, confront, and defeat the 4 âMastersâ, gunfighters whose invincible skills seem to be conferred on them by a higher power, and in true brilliant form, not one of these showdowns plays out in any way resembling predictable. Unfortunately for El Topo, the end of this mission is merely the turning point in his own journey, and through a series of events, he is taken down hard, only to awaken some decades later as the idol of a commune of (real) freaks and deformities who live in an underground cavern because the outside world wonât accept them. After completely altering his appearance, he decides to team up with a beautiful female dwarf to enter the outside world, entertaining the ânormalsâ and possibly bonding with them to raise money to dig a tunnel so that the freaks can be set free (or let loose as it may be) on the outside world. Unfortunately, we soon see what the outside world has to offer, in the form of a nightmarish town populated and controlled by what can be best described as the ultimate bunch of evil rednecks ever seen on celluloid, White Devils who regularly use minorities for target practice, chase down blacks and roping them so they can be branded as steer (even having one unfortunate black guy put to work as an attendant in some kind of âhealth spaâ for fat, aging, woefully unattractive women who finally falsely cry rape upon him when HE was the unwilling victim, and having him executed for it), and attend a church where the participants worship a crude Illuminati type symbol instead of the cross while engaging in (fake) Russian Roulettte as a twisted form of communion, all presenting itself as an extensive metaphor for the sick, twisted world we live in today. While El Topo and his dwarf lady friend (the two of them having fallen in love) manage to find a level of acceptance amongst these people for their genuinely amusing slapstick routines that entertains the children (Jodorowsky being a former circus clown among other things), the sad truth is once again he has encountered an evil so twisted that it must be destroyed by those with the faith and resolve to carry it out, complicated by the surprise reunion with his now adult son and the eventual release of the freaks themselves. Surprisingly, Jodorowskyâs almost simple message through all this is that enlightenment and understanding can best be obtained by thinking differently and outside the box on all accepted truths, bypassing our official dogma to try and look even deeper, and it works to a tee, as Jodorowsky himself would use the medium of film to find brilliant ways to tell his stories differently, and while this is his greatest and most renowned work, it set the stage for a new (though limited) style of not having everything spoonfed to an audience and allowing them to think for themselves, thus expanding the viewerâs mind in the process, a skill which only the most gifted of artists can truly possessâŚ
10/10