Western [USA:Not Rated, 2 h 5 min]
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta, Alfonso Arau
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
IMDb rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 7.5/10 (15,082 votes)
El Topo decides to confront warrior Masters on a trans-formative desert journey he begins with his 6 year old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man. El Topo (the mole) claims to be God, while dressed as a gunfighter in black, riding a horse through a spiritual, mystical landscape strewn with old Western movie, and ancient Eastern religious symbols. Bandits slaughtered a village on his path, so El Topo avenges the massacred, then forcibly takes their leader's woman Mara as his. El Topo's surreal way is bloody, sexual and self-reflective, musing of his own demons, as he tries to vanquish those he encounters. (IMDb)
Critical reception:
Some critics, including Gary Arnold of The Washington Post and Times-Herald, were offended by the film's visuals. Arnold wrote of the film: "There's not enough art to justify the sickening reality of Jodorowsky's artistic method. The meaning of the film is not to be found in the mystical camouflage of the gunfighter-turned-guru-and-martyr (for what, one wonders? Evidently self-agrandizement rather than the well-being of his congregation of the deformed), but in the picturesque horrors and humiliations". (Wikipedia)
Awards: 4 wins and 6 nominations
More info at IMDb, Freebase, Wikipedia, Netflix.
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