Review of El Topo (1970) by Stephen M — 15 Feb 2008
What a pretentious, narcissistic, masochistic piece of crap! I can't believe John Lennon thought so much of this, but that's what marrying a conceptual artist will do to you; I prefer the earlier Lennon, cynical of intellectuals, who once declared that 'avant garde' was French for bullshit.
I can't recall ever being so disappointed by a film I've looked forward to seeing so much. It's not the impenetrability of it that I object to--indeed, if you accept in on its own surrealist terms it makes a reasonable amount of sense--so much as the vanity of its director, who casts himself as the messianic hero then wallows in his own suffering.
The most disgusting aspect of this horrible film is its shameful parading of genuinely deformed and disfigured people, which is freakshow-ish exploitation that no amount of intellectualisation can disguise.
"El Topo" is also frequently boring and at least half an hour overlong. The best thing I can find to say about it is that some of the Dali-esque desertscapes in the first half are stunningly beautiful.
This review of El Topo (1970) was written by Stephen M on 15 Feb 2008.
El Topo has generally received positive reviews.
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