EL TOPO
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky Run Time: 125 min. Release Year: 1970 Language: Spanish
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alfonso Arau, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta, José Luis Fernández
Originally released in 1970, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo quickly caught the imagination of movie audiences, becoming a landmark in independent film-making. The early screenings at New York’s Elgin Theater sparked the Midnight Movie phenomena, catalyzed by an endorsement from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Classic Americana and avant-garde European sensibilities collide with Zen Buddhism and the Bible as master gunfighter and mystic El Topo (played by writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky) tries to defeat four sharp-shooting rivals on a bizarre path to allegorical self-awareness and resurrection. As it seeks an alternative to the Hollywood mainstream, El Topo is also the most controversial quasi-Western head trip ever made!