El Topo | 
 enlarge | Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Actors: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Jose Legarreta, Alfonso Arau, Jose Luis Fernandez
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.97
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Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 17423
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 125 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: ANBD76000D
UPC: 013137600098
EAN: 0013137600098
ASIN: B000NY1E8U
Theatrical Release Date: 1971
Release Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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Product Description
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 05/01/2007 Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
El Topo's surrealism is more slapstick than Jodorwosky's brilliant follow-up, Holy Mountain, making it more akin to a spaghetti western than a psychedelic journey through the subconscious. The director stars as the gunfighter, El Topo (The Mole), who first gives his 7-year old son (played by real life son, Brontis Jodorowsky) a glimpse of manhood in the form of weaponry, then abandons him for a horseback revenge trip focused on a heartless team of raping, pillaging bandits. Along the way, he meets Mara (Mara Lorenzio), whose tough love encourages him to become a monk. On El Topo's new quest, he encounters spiritual leaders and endures a series of personal realizations about his past violence. Absurd moments, such as when the viewer first encounters the bandits sniffing and drooling over high-heeled women's shoes out in the desert, make El Topo satirically wry. Brutal scenes in which rivers of blood run through towns, or people slaughter each other in firing lines, remind the viewer of Mexico's bloody history. The mixture of ironic humor and violence in El Topo encapsulates Jodorowky's vision of a world in which reality and the imagination are fused, yet completely separate. This paradox, of great thematic concern in all of Jodorowsky's films, is most resonant in El Topo when Mara and The Mole sadistically communicate with whips, guns, and knives. As Holy Mountain's religious message centers wholly around The Alchemist's transformation of Jesus, El Topo introduces love between man and woman into the symbolic mix, compensating for the divine settings and imaginative characters that elucidate the protagonist's enlightenment in the later Holy Mountain. Only by viewing the two films as a double feature will one get the full power of Jodorowsky's Buddhist message, one of self-sacrifice and suffering towards a greater end. --Trinie Dalton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 not for the faint of heart October 10, 2008
J. D. hill (HIGH POINT NC)
THIS WAS EVEN BETTER THEN WHEN I SAW IT AT THE ELGIN THEATRE IN NEW YORK. WITH THE DVE YOU CAN STOP AND GO BACK OVER PARTS THAT YOU WERE NOT CLEAR ON. IT WAS ALSO A GREAT COPY.
ENJOY
 El TOPO Dennis Hopper Meets Clint Eastwood July 2, 2008
Jack Neeley (Tulsa, Ok USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird and weird Spagetti western madness, LSD in the 1870's. My mind still has not recovered.
 El Terrible May 26, 2008
The Critic (USA)
1 out of 12 found this review helpful
This utter wretchedness of this movie defies a description that even Shakespeare could give. It is quite possibly the most useless, pathetic piece of garbage ever to hit DVD. Unfortunately, not even its own despicableness redeems it. For example, take a movie like Godzilla (not the classic original, but the 1998 version with Matthew Broderick). Godzilla is so bad that you may be entertained simply by wondering what level of awfulness you will be exposed to next. Not El Topo, which reaches levels so inane it has simply declared an all-out war on common decency. Do not be fooled by the positive reviews here. Avoid as you would any annoying insect.
"El Topo" es El Loco! May 22, 2008
Horror Metal Girl 6 (having a cup of tea with Pinhead)
Have you ever seen:
Banditos who are obsessed with women's shoes?
A man digging up eggs in the desert?
A man with no arms climbing a ladder using the arms of a man with no legs?
A woman who can only make bird sounds?
A ruthless gunslinger converted to a peaceloving holy man who does schtick to make money to save a community of deformed people living inside a giant mountain?
Well, expect that and more from this movie that I can only describe as a mindtrip!
Alejandro Jodorowsky's masterpiece is unlike anything you've seen before. Accept what you see, don't question it!
Some of the pieces may come together, some will be left a mystery, but if you have an open mind, you will enjoy this movie very much, and have a few laughs along the way!
This is one of those movies where I found myself saying "Hmmmmm...." many times, but as I pressed on I learned to expect the unexpected, and found it thoroughly enjoyable!
I can't wait to check out more of his films, I'm only sorry it took me so long to find this one!
Mind Altering April 13, 2008
Nick Tropiano (Havertown, PA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having read about this film for decades, and only recently having seen it, I am guilty of prejudging this film. Didn't think I'd like it, but I had to satiate my curiosity. First off, I thought it would have had far lower production values because it's always described as a low budget affair. Actually, this film was shot (according to IMDB) in Mexico in 1969 for $400,000 1969 dollars. No - not a blockbuster budget, but certainly not shoestring stuff I had expected, given the era it was shot and the country where it was lensed.
I expected something much more amateurish, and was prepared to give it some latitude in terms of production values and acting. This was unnecessary. It is beautifully shot, on location, with vivid colors and the compositions and locations are excellent - perfect. Every penny is on screen, and it is as gorgeous as any big budget Western I've ever seen, perhaps more so. The performances, the costumes, everything is spot on.
There are those who call this film self-indulgent, and I suppose it is as much as any modern art in other media. I find it ironic that experimental jazz artists, painters of modern art, and experimental stage works escape such criticism , but if filmmakers endeavor down similar "semi-linear" or surreal paths, their work is derided as being "self-indulgent" and written off.
However, this is a film you will likely not soon forget. Image after image, scene after scene - from frame one, till its end, will be seared into your memory - forever. Some say the shock value of this work has worn off over the years, I don't think so - at least not for me. Perhaps it has attenuated to a degree but this works more in the films favor, as you can watch the film on its own merits, rather than the surface-level shock value of /most/ of its imagery. Like it or hate it, if you make it through, you will not forget this film or its depravity, perversity, strangeness, and unrelenting ultra-violence. If you're not up for such a cinematic event, stay away. It's more perverse than anything ever put on screen that's reached a mass audience. Forget about making sense of the mish-mosh of symbolism. These are undiluted scenes straight from the imagination and subconscience of its creator, Alejandro Jodorowsky, who allowed these vision to "bubble up" to the surface and pulled no punches in sharing them with an audience via the medium of film. And, he did this with great care and skill. This is the beauty and genius of this film, El Topo. Don't try to psychoanalyze it or figure it out. It's not a puzzle. Just sit back and take it in.
Few films can lay claim to being unforgettable and have as much disturbing and oddly beautiful imagery. This is one of them. It's ultra-violent even by today's standards, perverse, and surreal - a surreal Western and a sick and strange little dream recreated on film. Perhaps its not entertaining in the traditional sense of the word, but it is, to the right audience, unique, facinating, disturbing, and unforgettable.
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