EL TOPO (1971)

written and directed by Alexandro Jodorowsky

starring: Alexandro Jodorowsky, Jacqueline Luis, Mara Lorenzo, Paula Romo, Robert John, Brontis Jodorowsky, and Alfonso Arau

This surreal, and oftentimes anachronistic, pseudo-western, is a religious/mystical allegory, extracted from multi-cultural parables and mythology, layered with heavy-handed symbolism, yet combines the visual and story telling elements of cinema's master artists; Kurosawa, Leone, Peckinpah, and Fellini.

Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, Tusk, and Santa Sangre), who also writes comic book scripts for French artist, Moebius, tells the story of El Topo and his spiritual journey to find enlightenment, in two separate, yet equal, parts - not unlike the Bible --- the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

The first half of the film is of El Topo, as a black leather-clad gunfighter, with long dark hair and a beard, who, while riding a horse through the desert with his seven-year old son, Brontis, comes upon a village laid to waste - the villagers have been slaughtered and El Topo seeks their revenge. 

Upon his victory, he abandons his son, leaving him with the local Franciscan monks, and continues on his journey with a woman - the mistress of the man responsible for the death of the villagers.

 But this woman, Mara, demands that he prove his love for her by killing Four Master Sharpshooters who live in the desert.  And, one by one, he eliminates each of the four masters.  Although, not by the mastery of his gun, but by trickery and/or the masters' desire to be killed, so that they can continue on their own journey. 

However, along the way, El Topo and Mara are shadowed by The Woman In Black, who seduces Mara and together, they kill El Topo, in Christ-like fashion, as he mourns his fate and the folly of his journey.  Upon his death, his body is carried off by a band of cripples and freaks.

In the second half, El Topo, awakes, many years later, deep within a mountain cavern, to find his hair/beard bleached and his skin painted white.  It seems that he has been revered by the cripples/freaks as a god.  But he is the first to admit that he is only a man. 

One of the cavern dwellers, referred to in the screenplay only as the Small Woman (actually a dwarf), leads El Topo through the enormous cave and among the deformed populace who stare silently at him, beseeching his help. 

During a beetle eating ceremony with the community's Elder, El Topo is resurrected and reborn.  With his head and face shaved, and wearing the cloth cassock of a monk he vows to dig a tunnel and lead the cripples/freaks out of the mountain and into town. 

El Topo and the Small Woman venture into town and, posing as simpletons, in an effort to earn money, perform odd jobs and vaudevillian stunts in this latter day Sodom.  And with their earnings, El Topo is able to buy dynamite to begin the excavation of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, a young Franciscan monk has arrived in town and has taken over the ministry of the local church.  It is Brontis, El Topo's fully-grown son.  And when El Topo and the Small Woman enter the church in search of a priest to marry them, Brontis, recognizing the man who left him years ago, vows to kill his father. 

The Small Woman pleads for mercy, as she tells of El Topo's new life.  Brontis, now wearing the exact same outfit his father wore at the beginning of the film, relents and allows El Topo and the Small Woman to finish their work, promising to "dog" them day and night until they are finished.

But the job takes many weeks, months in fact, and Brontis is encouraged to help them beg and dig in an effort to fulfill his vow.  But when the tunnel is completed, he realizes that he cannot kill his "master" and throws down his gun in tears.

Meanwhile, inhabitants of the cavern, pour out into the daylight and run amok down into town.  El Topo tries to stop them, as they are not ready.  But they don't listen and knock him out of their way.

In town, the villagers are armed and ready for the onslaught of cripples and freaks, massacring them on sight.  El Topo arrives filled with rage and despite the numerous shots he takes, he is able to kill all the townspeople and immolate himself.

The final scene is of Brontis, the Small Woman, and her new born baby, riding out of town on horseback.

Lo, these many years later, El Topo is sometimes painfully embarrassing watch - like looking at old high school graduation photographs of yourself, but it is worth seeing nonetheless.  It is an icon of film and should be required viewing by every student of film and a necessary frame of reference.

And now, twenty-seven years later, Alfonso Arau, the actor, turned director (Like Water for Chocolate, A Walk in the Clouds, and the upcoming Pancho Villa), will executive produce the sequel, as Jodorowsky prepares to direct the screenplay for his long awaited The Sons of El Topo.

[originally published in VMag - February 1998]