Erm...I'm going to put down in this review what I thought of this film as I was watching it, and see what I come out with:

Nice scenery.
In Western times, being 7 years old was considered to be the age at which you become a man?
Repetitive credits.
Massacre, massacre, massacre, massacre.
Disembowled donkeys.
He actually made his 7 year old son conduct a mercy killing. He's the world's worst dad.
Yep, shooting shoes.
Yep, slicing bananas.
Yep, making a naked woman out of seeds, then eating it.
Laughing.
Balloons were invented in Western times?
Bang bang, splat splat.
OK, how can he still walk after being shot with a high-powered rifle in both knees?
Massacre.
Laughing.
Just casually…

Huh, so that... well... ok. 'El Topo' is the kind of film where the end is almost completely unrelated to the beginning, but you don't really mind. The 'plot' is unusual to say the least, feeling like a revenge movie at first but ascending into an increasingly Biblical allegory which is as visually striking as it is nonsensical, but Jodorowsky's conviction in its bizarre and arresting imagery makes this a film which must be taken seriously, if not overly so.

The Mexican desert is the perfect setting for this film, feeling slightly alien in comparison to the American west which is so common in Westerns. Jodorowsky makes full use of this beautiful landscape (albeit not in the widescreen format which…

This is my first Jodorowsky film, a short but illustrious career to be true, and despite what the stars above tell you, it will certainly not be my last. Perhaps avoiding him was an oversight but I knew his films would be highly contestable with me. I had a gut feeling about the way I had heard his films were told. Like Lynch an appeasing style and a way that entices me, only to suckerpunch me and regret crawling into bed with them. Surrealism tends not to be my scene, wacky sequences, try as I might I just can't dig it. I believe the technical term is ''lolsorandum'', and if it weren't such a gloriously efficient film on a technical…

Alejandro Jodorowsky is one wacky filmmaker. I am not sure whether I should applaud or boo his work. I think my confusion about him means he is probably doing something worthwhile.

What can I say about El Topo to let you know if you should watch or skip it?

Would you like to watch a man's penis get chopped off? Watch El Topo.

Would you like to watch a lesbian cut out the center of a kiwi fruit and lick it as if it were a vagina? Watch El Topo.

Would you like to watch old, fat ladies paw and literally roar like lions at a hot, black man? Watch El Topo.

Would you like to see aristocratic women of…

Huh, so that... well... ok. 'El Topo' is the kind of film where the end is almost completely unrelated to the beginning, but you don't really mind. The 'plot' is unusual to say the least, feeling like a revenge movie at first but ascending into an increasingly Biblical allegory which is as visually striking as it is nonsensical, but Jodorowsky's conviction in its bizarre and arresting imagery makes this a film which must be taken seriously, if not overly so.

The Mexican desert is the perfect setting for this film, feeling slightly alien in comparison to the American west which is so common in Westerns. Jodorowsky makes full use of this beautiful landscape (albeit not in the widescreen format which…

This is my first Jodorowsky film, a short but illustrious career to be true, and despite what the stars above tell you, it will certainly not be my last. Perhaps avoiding him was an oversight but I knew his films would be highly contestable with me. I had a gut feeling about the way I had heard his films were told. Like Lynch an appeasing style and a way that entices me, only to suckerpunch me and regret crawling into bed with them. Surrealism tends not to be my scene, wacky sequences, try as I might I just can't dig it. I believe the technical term is ''lolsorandum'', and if it weren't such a gloriously efficient film on a technical…