Review of El Topo (1970) by Adam G — 22 Aug 2008

It bothers me to end when I see a narrative film that I can't make sense out of (Uwe Boll films immediately come to mind). Narrative films, after all, are supposed to make sense.

On the other hand, comprehension means next to nothing when you're talking about a film like El Topo. It's clear from the first five minutes that this film is working on a whole other level. While there is a "narrative" here (El Topo's quest for enlightenment), it's merely a backdrop for Jodorowsky - his main goal is to submerge us with a deluge of symbolism (sometimes overt, sometimes not), punctuated frequently by various violent and bizarre acts of depravity.

To say that El Topo is a strange film is to state the obvious. Historically, it bridges the gap between Luis Bu�±uel's work and the work of contemporary avant-garde filmmakers, like Lars Von Trier or Harmony Korine (also, I'd see that Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo owes more than a little debt to the second portion of this film).

Stanley Kubrick once said that he thought it best if films were to function more like music - a constant progression of different modes and feelings - rather than mere vehicles for narrative progression. El Topo accomplishes this perhaps better than any film I've seen (with the exception of Kubrick's own 2001).

In short: don't watch this if you want a story you can follow, or if you've never seen Gummo, That Obscure Object of Desire, Koyaanisqatsi or The Element of Crime. You'll decry this film is "nonsensical" or "pretentious", and you'll get no pity from me. Only fools jump off a cliff without knowing just how far down it goes.