Comments on: 915 (56). El Topo (1970, Alejandro Jodorowsky)

By: Testicular Cancer Symptoms

Testicular Cancer Symptoms — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:33:07 +0000

Amazing post that I am going to be sharing with my followers thanks again!

By: Swing Trading

Swing Trading — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:09:44 +0000

Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. My friends will enjoy reading it also.

By: testicular cancer symptoms

testicular cancer symptoms — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:39:48 +0000

I agree that El Topo is a living film, and that way of judging a film (or any creation, I guess) is making me think about other movies that have lived and breathed. Very cool.

By: Club Troppo » Missing Link Daily

Club Troppo » Missing Link Daily — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:31:38 +0000

[...] Shooting Down Pictures considers Alejandro Jodorowski’s 1971 film El Topo offering a video-essay that documents the diverse audience reactions, as this blog-poster struggles in his own assessment of this extravagantly exaggerated Western. [...]

By: alsolikelife

alsolikelife — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:39:43 +0000

Thanks to both of you for your comments – I really appreciate them. John I’m afraid you are right – I had to remove a lot of the filters that I had picked up from word-of-mouth and pieces I had read here and there, and just come to the film fresh. Actually with many of the films I’ve watched for my project I’ve had to “unlearn” some of my biases in order to appreciate where each film is coming from. It’s certainly broadened my tastes in film, though one thing I worry about is whether my own nascent sensibilities (which are part of what I think make me unique as a viewer/thinker) are being eroded…

Thanks Whitney – I just wish I could articulate this idea of a film that lives and breathes — to be honest it may be an idea I’ve picked up from some Serge Daney article from way back, it sounds like something he would say. In any case if I could write about this idea the way Daney could, that would be something…

By: Whitney

Whitney — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:12:02 +0000

I loved this essay. I’ve never thought of the film as “cinema-as-automatic writing,” sort of like the visual representation of stream-of-conscious. I’ve only seen this film once, but I think your final statements about the film living and breathing are so fantastic. I agree that El Topo is a living film, and that way of judging a film (or any creation, I guess) is making me think about other movies that have lived and breathed. Very cool.

By: John Hanlon

John Hanlon — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:51:01 +0000

An excellent and definitive resource for El Topo. I’m glad to see the film is getting its due and considered one of the thousand films people should see. For several decades, what one knew of it was inspired by the backlash; glad to see its reputation is slowly being revised, though I don’t think there will ever be a consensus. It’s too polarizing a film.

Jodorowsky has been criticized for the mishmosh of religious, occult and esoteric traditions represented, notably by Danny Peary in Cult Movies. But in this he was ahead of his time, anticipating late post-modernism. However, his references were to religious imagery rather than pop culture references. I suppose most critics are more comfortable with (or at least understand) pop culture rather than spirituality.

Again, great job.