El Topo is a 1970 is a Mexican acid western film written, scored, directed, and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film follows a mysterious black-clad gunfighter that wanders a mystical western landscape who encounters multiple bizarre characters. El Topo is a retailing of Sodom and Gomorrah that follows characters rise and fall from grace to become a god like character.
Within the film El Topo is somewhat symbolic of death as he wanders the dessert dressed in black with his naked son in tow. He then makes him burry his toy and a picture of his mother symbolically getting rid of his childhood so he can be born again as a man. El Topo means mole as the film states the mole digs to the sun and once is finds light its blinded like the character, he is trying to be God but once he almost gets there he falters. He then finds dead bodies and blood as a massacre has accorded. They find people hanging for the rafters of the church as he makes his son kill a dying man to make him a man, this is to show that violence and death is a natural part of life. This massacre symbolically shows that death and violence is symbolic of the blood of life. He then collects rings and outs them on his fingers symbolising the people his killed. The cowboys they come across cowboys engaging in their own weird, perverted pleasure. They have becoming detached from women at therefore have to sniff soes in a fetish like way as well as chopping up a plant like a penis and eating it. This is also shown with them making a picture of a woman on the ground out of rocks before lying on it and eating it. They then harass El Topo and his son wanting to seal is rings and harasses him as they people are brainless animals drinking. From a though/ they then have a stand-off in which El Topo uses his two gun to kill them as the third guy and El Topo have a sword fight with guns as El Topo shoots him dead and gets info on who wanted him dead putting rings his mouth symbolically showing him respect. He then comes across guys killing people with machine guns as the film shows that by having a bit of that god like power death is everywhere as they are blasphemers. They then dance with monk boys showing that they need to channel the absence of women in society through a sexual way as they dress them in drag and make up. They also don’t care much for human life as they randomly kill people. They then see a woman who in society is a rise for men as they ride iguanas towards her symbolising penis’s and is sexual in nature, however they fear the control and don’t want to die. She treats the cornel like a kind or a god washing his feet like a disciple of Jesus as she takes care of him like a traditional wife clothing him as the man then yells at her asserting his dominance. The men are mindless creatures whilst the Capitan is a godlike figure they bow down to. They are mindless creatures who need treats like dogs as she kisses them on the mouth to satisfy them as he makes her show them her breasts to satisfy their animal lust. El Topo then barges in sticking them up and shoots one of them dies. El Topo and the cornel then engage in a battle to see who is God. El Topo humiliates him, shoots him, stripping him showing him to be a god like character as he castrates him to destroys his masculinity as with that gone, he kills himself.
The woman in the film wants a lover who is like a god as she offers herself to him which he refuses before forcing himself on her, he ultimately gives into lust abandoning his son saying to trust no one and to destroy him as he grows up spiritually with the monks. The film shows the beauty of life with the girl playing with the birds as El Topo plays is recorder down by the pond, the film shows that people need a connection to spiritualty as El Topo turns the water from bitter to sweet. He says she’s called mars symbolically a goddess of war. They then live in the dessert though a spiritual connection with the earth as eggs are cooked on the sand and he shoots water out of a rock. He tries to train her spiritualty which she is incapable of, as El Topo rapes her giving into lustful desires to be a man and like God in a way as he is like a babysitter to her. She drinks water from a phallic rock as she states for her to love him, he must be the best and defeat the four legendary gun masters of the desert as a woman loves and wants a man who is a god. El Topo is determined to defeat the gun masters despite her protests with them almost dying and becoming delirious, the gun masters then give off signals like they are servants from God. The first gun master is blind and has mastered his senses with reflexes and strength giving him the lesson of power and to control fear by not worrying about death. He is worries about losing literally and metaphorically as the woman says she wants a man who is the best and that he must find a way to cheat. El Topo is a anti spiritual character cheating the fights to gain power. They prepare for their spiritual battle as he cheats by in the fight by digging a hole for the guy to fall into where he shoots him as this is anti-spiritual as he just tricks them and wins. They kill everyone as the film shows anti spiritual protagonists particularly the girl however El Topo does have some spirituality to him as he respects the gunmen, as from his victory he receives the love of a woman. They then find a naked woman doing drugs in a lake as Marah sees her other self and the three of them go off together. El Topo awakens form his sleep in the dessert symbolically shedding his ego and humanity as he has sex with her in the dessert as she looks at herself in the mirror sees her ego reflected at her. El Topo shoots the mirror destroying her ego which she picks up, they find the next gun master she mum says he keeps falling and that he is a traitor and coward and a murderer. The gun master can shoot with insane accuracy which El Topo can’t. This is because heh as has the strongest fingers making hard objects at first and then making delicate ones that El Topo can’t do. This is shown by him unable to precisely shoot him with a gun. This master’s lesion is to be genital and to love someone and give yourself to someone else through self-sacrifice. El Topo plays dirty hurting the gun master’s lover to spiritual destroy the gun master allowing El Topo to kill him. The two women fight over El Topo the god like figure in the film, as one woman whips the other in the back as she then tenderly kisses her wounds as they embrace one another in a lesbian like way.
El Topo finds a raven on a white rabbit symbolising both death and Alice in wonderland as his character has gone down the rabbit hole. He finds the third gun master where they bond through music. He says that El Topo loathes himself and wants him to have respect, he is pure and can kill with one shot. El Topo has the brains but the gunmaster has the heart, as he shoots El Topo in the heart as El topo then shoots him in the heart killing him as he has a metal dish under his body as he makes a grave out of rabbits. This is El Topo being taught the lesson of self-respect and improving one oneself though a loathing. He celebrates life and love as he puts his bloodied hands over the woman’s breasts as a reward as they start to love him, as she cuts a bit of a cactus to look vaginal as they lock it, and the girls kiss each other and El Topo. El Topo comes across the fourth gun master that has let go of his ego as he has given up on everything making him inevitable. He doesn’t have a gun anymore and can beat El Topo up and catch bullets in his net as El Topo is destroyed. He can’t fight someone who has nothing, no will tofight to show he doesn’t care about anything he kills himself making El Topo loose. From this El Topo has a mental breakdown as he can’t become a god. The bodies burn like sacrifices as the pool is red. He has destroyed everything as he finds the dead gun master one with hardened skin, one dead in a ditch from honey, tat he eats and one in a building skinned as he destroys the buddings as doves fly away to symbolising the gun fighters. He smashes his gun out of anger as he feels he did not properly win like a man to confront God this shows his damaged masculinity as his love tire to control him saying he own but he is destroyed. He has been broken by this as he runs onto a bridge asking why God has forsaken him. The other woman confronts him and throws his gun both out of anger from losing and so he can prove himself. He doesn’t pick it up having nothing left as he surrenders, and she shoots him down like a dog as he wishes for death. He is a Jesus like figure sacrificing himself as his first wife shoots him as they go off together leaving him for dead.
El Topo is then carried away by a group of deformed people, as he has a spiritual awakening becoming a God to lead people to the light. He awakens in a cave a different man stripped of everything has he has no ego, as a dwarf fixes him up as he thinks about the four-gun master lesions being having strength through no fear of death, self-sacrificing for the person you love, having a loathing of the sins of one’s past self-creating self-respect and having a loss of ego. The city the mutants live near is a metaphor for Sodom and Gomorrah whose cities were full of sin and were destroyed by God as only one holy man and his family survived. The dwarf loves him and sees him as a god like figure as she kisses him. he tells her he is no god but is a man who has been there for eternity. They believe he’ll free them as deformed outcast that live underground as they are prisoners here. El Topo is born again from a holy woman becoming a Christ like saviour character he is a new person. He is then cut and shaved bald for his new personality like a monk. He is symbolically born again as he’ll get them money and build a tunnel to the town to free the holy people from Sodom and Gomorrah. They go into the town which is symbolic of Sodom and Gomorrah overrun with sin, as they are part of a cult that attacks and brands black people. This showcases this town is a puritanical cult that hides its socially sanctioned racism though colonialism, debauchery, and violence. They get new slaves as they have captured to sell them of as animals as they are racist and enslave and control through a religious escape goat. The cult parades through town killing minorities to the delight of the citizens. This massacre links to Sodom and Gomorrah as these atrocities are hidden behind religious virtue. They round up minorities and execute them as this horrific town uses racism to enact violence.
El Topo and his lover become beggars to get money and ultimately save the deformed people. They humiliate themselves for entertainment putting on a show, this show is a sort of comedic mime were the two of them try and be entertainment but fail due to their height difference as they exploit themselves for money. The film shows the higherups that control the people link to Sodom and Gomorrah as a cult of puritanical that that hides socially sanctioned racism colonialism debauchery and violence, which is shown as he higher up members of the town exploit the black servant they have for sexual pleasure blackmailing him into sexual servitude as shown through lion sound effects they are devouring him. The crowd runs to the framed black man who is shot and killed showcasing the parrels of Sodom and Gomorrah as this cult uses religion as an excuse for racism and Violence. El Topo and his lover them go off as thy see everything as pointless as El Topo still wants to dig as they are digging their way into Sodom and Gomorrah to make it into paradise. In the town they force people to fight to the death via boxing, this showcases the town as being like Sodom and Gomorrah as these horrific acts for sadistic pleasure are hidden behind traditional religious believes. The black men are paid to be servants as the owner has sexual boy slaves showing how this traditional religious society mask racism. El Topo’s son then comes back as a monk looking for him. The priest of the town controls and exploits people though religion in a cult like way, which is shown by them all chanting in unison.
The priest is a Chalcidian that uses pallor tricks to control the masses as they play Russian roulette with a blank round. This very much how Sodom and Gomorrah as this cult uses religion to control and exploit the mases. El Topo’s takes the gun as the priest says it as blank showing how they are tricking and controlling people though religion. El Topo’s son loads a live round into the gun showing he has spiritual faith and is a true believer. The other people then try until the kid kills himself sowing the dangers of spirituality. From this the church is over as fake faith has been destroyed as the eyes are ripped down to revel a cross. El Topo has now become the opposite of his son and is now a spiritual beggar. El Topo and his lover enter an orgy in the cellar where they perform. They are also forced to do sexual acts which humanities them as she says she love him as they are spiritual, they don’t need ego’s and they give themselves to each other. She is discussed by the attacks whilst he has no ego and is focused the task, as the then go to the church to marry were El Topo runs to his son who is still a priest and working at the town. He hates him for abandoning him and attacks him, he emerges form the cave as the man Eel Topo once was wearing his unform as he is a vengeful spirt wanting to kill God which he believes is El Topo. They explain to him that they are digging a tunnel to help the deformed people go free linking to Sodom and Gomorrah as once the town is free of the people’s sin then it can be paradise, as his son waits for them to finish. The film has a role reversal as his son watches El Topo do the work, as El Topo gets his son to help them who he does as El Topo has no ego he is a master his son is learning from.
El Topo having learnt from the strength master breaks rock he cannot, as they dynamite the era as El Topo has learnt from the master to strengthen his body from injury. El Topo’s son snaps being his old self saying it can’t be done as El Topo uses strength to get through, El Topo’s son can’t kill him zas his master as the mutants is freed. They then go into the village where they are massacred by the town’s folk as the dwarf weeps and El Topo runs to the, this relates to the massacre of Sodom and Gomorrah as these immoral people wish to eliminate the sinners as the cult is supposedly puritanical that hides socially sanctioned racism colonialism debauchery and violence as they kill everyone. El Topo finds dead mutants and breaks down using his strength skill to walk towards the villagers shooting him as he massacres them driving the rest from their home as the immigrants take over. This massacre is a Sodom and Gomorrah like story were people have puritanical values and massacre people through racism, colonialism, debauchery, and violence. El Topo then lights himself on fire as an anti-Vietnam war commentary on the film mimicking the protests. His wife and child find him as well as their son as the three of them go off together with his son having reached spiritual enlightenment. El Topo’s grave becomes a beehive as he has become one of the gun masters a god that is shown with the cross on his grave.
El Topo is a retelling of Sodom and Gomorrah showing the rise and fall of a god like character and what it takes to achieve true spiritually.
