Clint Eastwood’sA Fistful of Dollars. Lee Van Cleef’sDeath Rides a Horse. Franco Nero’sDjango. These are just some of the more popular spaghettiWesternsof the mid-1960s. While cinematic historians still appreciate this now antiquated subgenre, Westerns as a whole were offered another kind of thematic spin-off a few years later that goes relatively unnoticed these days. Enter the Chilean and French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. First crafting a short 20-minute surreal production calledThe Severed Headsin the late 50s, he then co-founded an art collective called The Panic Movement (which was inspired bythe art of absurdism) and was mentored by a Zen Buddhist monk. While these different periods helped shape a unique outlook on life, his uncanny 1970 film showed audiences what he was truly capable of.
Jodorowsky explicitly relates the experience of his films to psychedelic drugs. At the same time, he states in a self-written book that one distinct difference must be noted: “he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill.” This is the quote that neatly conveys the ride the viewer is about to take when watching 1970sEl Topo.
At first glance, the gunfighter in all-black traversing around the desert to defeat the four great gun masters seems to be a premise that can be attuned to a spaghetti Western.ButEl Topowas much more than that. There’s a reason why the movie only had midnight screenings for decades. There’s also a reason why the Beatles’ manager, of all people, picked up Jodorowsky’s third film for distribution. Most importantly, there’s a reason why people call this one of the first and arguably the best acid Western.
El Topo Is Full of Spiritualism
The name for this subgenre is a fusion of three topics: the traditional characteristics and clichés ofcritically acclaimed Westerns(thinkShaneor any Gene Autry movie), the many over-the-top aspects made famous by director Sergio Leone’s filmmaking style, and, you guessed it, the drug buzz that was going around in the ’60s.This almost manic combination helped birthEl Topo, a movie that is utterly symbolic but not logical. An example of this is found right at the beginning of the film. El Topo rides into the opening shot, fully dressed. On the other hand, his young son is totally nude. It’s never explained why he has no clothes on, and interpretation is left to the viewer.
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The same goes for The Woman In Black, who guides El Topo and his wife to the gun masters. She shows up out of nowhere and speaks with a man’s voice. Is she real, a representation of some kind of religion, or symbolic of his wife’s sexual identity? As with everything else inEl Topo,that question is never answered.Rocks that spray water into the air, a man with no legs being carried by a man with no arms, a town in the middle of nowhere that’s full of depraved cultists who pray to an all-seeing eye— these are just some of the unbelievable facets toEl Topothat cannot be explained logically. Ben Barenholtz, an owner of the Elgin Theatre in NYC, wanted to help convey these revelatory themes to viewers in a unique manner.
El Topo Found Distribution Through the Beatles?
Barenholtz convinced one of the producers ofEl Topoto screen the movie at 1 a.m. to bring an aura ofself-discovery to audience members.This extremely successful movement paved the way for generations of “Midnight Movies.”Despite Jodorowsky’s infamous quote about the movie being the pill and not the vision from taking the pill, we can imagine what was taken by the anti-culture to accompany this psychedelic feature.
During a chat withInterviewmagazine back in 2011, even Jodorowsky himself claimed that when he first came to the Elgin theater to see the movie in the ’70s, “there was a big cloud of marijuana smoke.” Having so much to do with drugs, some even callEl Topoanallegory of sortsto the Bible (the first half being the Old Testament and the second half being a replication of the New Testament).
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However,the movie’s connection to the Beatles is not at all a theory. While experiencing the avant-garde film one late night, John Lennon (and Yoko Ono) were amused by the movie so much that the Beatles singer actually propelled his manager, Allen Klein, to put his money into the film, so people all around the country could see it.
Thus, El Topo’sjourney of enlightenmentwas spread (and distributed) throughout the United States, riding the drug culture of the 1970s. He even obtained the help of musician and composer John Barnham to finely tune the score of the movie (which would later be released on Apple Records). Of all the names, who would’ve ever thought that John Lennon would be helping to keep this spiritual Western alive today? If you would like to take part in the mind-altering, thought-provoking, foundational acid Western,Alejandro Jodorowsky’sEl Topois available to rent onPrime VideoandApple TV.
