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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Jodorowsky's El Topo Is Available As A Download

By Jaclyn Mckee

Alexandro Jodorowsky created El Topo as his own approach to the old western flick. The end result was essentially one of the strangest, most beautiful and most violent westerns ever made. The movie is shocking, at times disgusting, but is also, at times, enlightening and uplifting. Next time you want to watch movies online and you want something bizarre, check out El Topo.

The movie follows a black clad gunfighter named El Topo, beginning with him and his son on a quest for revenge. The mother has been killed, and the father has the son bury a photograph of the mother as a symbolic end to his childhood, and a beginning to his adulthood. The two then trek through the desert to find the man responsible for her death.

Upon attaining their revenge, the man and child go separate ways. The man leaves the boy in the care of a church while he leaves with his new lover. Here the movie takes a dramatic turn towards a new story development. The woman wants El Topo to kill the four fastest killers in the desert before she can love him, since she refuses to be with anyone but the strongest. They wander for ten years seeking the men out and killing them one by one.

Each of the killers is a fascinating character in their own right, such as the big burly man whose incredible strength also gives him incredible muscle control, so he has the ability to create incredibly delicate, fragile structures out of toothpicks, which Topo cannot even touch without destroying. Then there's the old man who's grown into a cynical nihilist after so many years of violence. He uses a butterfly net to deflect bullets, and has no other possessions in the world.

Eventually, El Topo must search for redemption after his girlfriend betrays him, putting him in a coma. He stays in a mountain for several years and wakes up to don a priestly robe and shave his head and become a saint. He hopes to repent for his sinful past, but must first find the capacity for forgiveness within his own soul.

He reunites with his son and finds that the religious life has just as many troubles as the life of a skillful killer, that the world is a harsh, difficult place no matter who you are or what your background.

The movie is deeply rooted in religious symbolism. There are so many different religions on display here, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, that it really becomes its own thing, almost its own religion in a sense. Whatever it is, it's all Jodorowsky.

El Topo is perhaps one of the most surreal and strange films of any genre. It will, all at once, shock you and uplift you, repulse and enlighten you, and it will leave you feeling positive, confused, and curious. It's a rare film that asks more questions of the universe than it is capable of answering. Jodorowsky has always been one of the strangest directors of all time, and this may just be his crowning masterpiece.

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