By Steve Biodrowski

Since its debut in 1970, this surreal, mystical take on the Western genre had developed an enduring reputation as a cult film oddity, worth seeing whether or not it makes much sense. Writer-director-star Alejandro Jodorowsky mixes Spaghetti Western violence with Biblical references to create a saga of a gunfighter-sage (Jodorowsky himself) on a path toward some kind of spiritual enlightenment. The film is divided into chapters titled "Genesis," "Prophets," "Psalms," and "Apocalypse," and much of the action does not make literal, logical sense, indicating that it is to be seen as an allegory. Yet the outrageous imagery (which includes lots of bloodshed, nudity, and blatant symbolism) seems so over-the-top that one is tempted to regard the film as something of a joke - an ironic attempt to create a "head trip" movie for the drugged out audiences of its era.

The story, told with minimal dialogue (which mostly consists of pseudo-profoundites blurted out like bizarre non-sequiters), follows El Topo (literally "the Mole"), who is first seen tracking down some bandits (including one played by Alfonso Arau, later the director of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE) who massacred an entire village. After dispatching them, El Topo abandons his son, replacing him with Mara, a woman he rescued from the bandits. Mara declares that she cannot love El Topo unless he proves himself to be the best gunfighter by defeating four gun-fighting masters who live in the desert. One by one, El Topo tracks down these gunfighters, who are less masters than mystics: in addition to their gunfighting skills, they also have lessons to impart, which they do with an impressive indifference to the fact that El Topo has come to kill them (not to mention the fact that he must resort to trickery to defeat these superior opponents). His glory is short-lived: during his quest he has been joined by a black-clad female gunfighter (a sort of distaff version of El Topo), who has been making eyes at Mara; after the death of the fourth master gunfighter, Mara and the female gunfighter shoot El Topo, apparently to death, and ride off together.

A crowd of handicapped people show up and drag El Topo's body away. Apparently decades later, he awakens to find himself in a cave with these outcasts, who believe he has been sent to help them escape their miserable existence, preferably by joining up with the people in a nearby village. Abandoning his black leather gunfighter gear, El Topo shaves his beard and hair, assuming the look of a monk, and vows to dig a tunnel to unite the cave with the town. Accompanied by a female dwarf, he heads to town, where there they perform routines to earn money for digging supplies. Unfortunately, El Topo is recognized by a young local priest, who is apparently the son El Topo abandoned for Mara years ago. Replacing his clerical garb with a gunfighter outfit like his father's, the priest vows to kill El Topo but allows him to finish his good deed (digging the tunnel) first. When the tunnel is finished, the ex-priest realizes he cannot kill his former master and runs away into the desert. The cave-dwellers emerge from the tunnel and head to town, but the townfolk, disgusted by their handicapped appearance, shoot them all to death. An outraged El Topo is also shot but survives his wounds, picking up a rifle and killing most of the "decent' town folk (the remainder of the populace runs away like a stampede of cattle). El Topo then douses himself with oil from a lamp and immolates himself. The female dwarf, pregnant with El Topo's child, rides away on a horse with El Topo's son, the priest-gunfighter.

Exactly what the audience is meant to make of these events is not altogether clear. Jodorowsky seems to be working in the surrealist tradition of Luis Bunuel, where at least part of the intent is to shock the viewer with unexpected eruptions of impolite material (presumably meant to symbolize the eruption of subconscious lust and desires normally repressed in civilized society). There is a relatively clear attempt to undermine the usual assumptions of the genre; for example, the town in the third act, far from civilizing the West, is a cesspool of corruption, with a sleazy prostitution service hidden beneath a trap door of a supposedly respectable establishment and a church that runs a rigged game of Russian Roulette to prove to the faithful that God is protecting them from death (each time the gun clicks on an empty chamber, the congregation declares it a "miracle").

As for El Topo's spiritual quest, this seems best summed up by the film's epigrammatic explanation at the beginning: "The Mole" spends its live digging tunnels, trying to find its way to the sun, but when it finally emerges from the darkness, the sunlight blinds the poor creature. Presumably, this is what happens to the gunfighter character in the film.

In the end, EL TOPO emerges as the cult movie equivalent of alleged classics like BIRTH OF A NATION; that is, it is a film you are supposed to see because of its historic significance, whether or not it stands up as a piece of entertainment. Fortunately, Jodorowsky's work is crazy enough not to be boring or predictable, but that does not mean it is necessarily entertaining or profound. One images that, if you see this movie, you should be sure to take the drugs well enough in advance so that they kick in before the film starts.

TRIVIA

Although the gunfighter played by Jodorowsky is identified as "El Topo" in the credits, he is never referred to by that name in the film itself.