Monday, April 16, 2007

EL TOPO

This movie sounds absolutely abysmmal and heavenly brillaint. It comes out on dvd May 1st, and its already in my Netflix queue.

From Wikipedia (Spoilers rampant):
The movie takes place in two parts. The first half, in an unnamed desert, begins with the title character, accompanied by his naked son, hunting down and killing a band of outlaws who have butchered the inhabitants of a town. After leaving his son with monks he has rescued from the outlaws, he rides off with a woman the outlaws had kept captive to defeat the four great masters of pistol duelling. As El Topo encounters each of the first three masters, the master teaches El Topo a lesson and they then duel, in which El Topo cheats every time. The final master kills himself, in a demonstration of the unimportance of life. The first half ends with El Topo's betrayal and near-murder by the woman and an unnamed informant.

The second half of the movie takes place years later, after El Topo is rescued by a band of deformed outcasts, saving him from death. The outcasts take El Topo to their underground community, where he, comatose, meditates on the four lessons for many years. When he awakes, he is 'born again' with the help of the outcasts, and goes on a quest to free them from their subterranean prison.

With the help of his dwarf girlfriend and his full-grown son, now a priest, El Topo digs an exit out of the cave, only to see the others of his community murdered by cultists from a nearby town. In a rage, El Topo kills them all, then pours oil on himself and sets himself on fire, as he has learned all he can about life.

El Topo's son and girlfriend survive the ordeal and make a grave for his remains, which becomes a beehive full of honey.
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*thanks (I think), HH!

3 comments:

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Jodorowsky was originally up to direct Dune in the early 70's he had Dan O'Bannon, Chris Foss, Moebius and H.R Giger working on design and FX, that's how Dan O'Bannon knew Giger's work when he was doing Alien years later. I've heard El Topo is genius, I've heard The Holy Mountain and Sante Sangre are great too.

allen etter said...

And, strangely enough, Salvador Dali was pegged to play the Emperor of the Known Universe...I've seen a photo of Dali and H.R.G. sitting together.

el maléfico doctor Bob said...

Dude, this is one of the movies that rock your world to its very foundations; its really awesome.You sould get is as soon as it get to the market.

Jodorowsky also writes the Metabarons, a very nice comic.

be cool