El Topo (1970)
80%RT Audience Score:
Awards & Nominations: 4 wins & 3 nominations
By turns intoxicating and confounding, El Topo contains the creative multitudes that made writer-director Alejandro Jodorowsky such a singular talent
El Topo is a wild ride that will leave you questioning everything you just watched. It’s like a fever dream mixed with a trippy art exhibit and a spaghetti western. The visuals are stunning and the violence is over-the-top, but somehow it all works together to create a truly unique cinematic experience. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re in the mood for something weird and wonderful, give El Topo a try. Just be prepared to have your mind blown.
Production Company(ies)
Dreamworks Pictures, Pacific Data Images Dream Works Animation,
Distributor
Douglas Films
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Cañón de la Huasteca, Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, Mexico
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
1971
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.33 : 11.37 : 1
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Runtime:2h 3m
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Language(s):Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 18, 1970 Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 1, 2007
Genre(s)
Western
Keyword(s)
starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mara Lorenzio, Jacqueline Luis, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta, Alfonso Arau, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Western, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Ed Potton, Peter Bradshaw, Ben Walters, Jay Cocks, Nick Schager, David Parkinson, Rob Aldam, Ángel S Harguindey, Indra Arriaga, Christopher Hudson, Cole Smithey, Donald J Levit, MPAA rating, Douglas Films, Old West, Sodom and Gomorrah, gunslinger, redemption, violence, surrealism, religious references, mistical, symbols, unique, evocative atmosphere, narrative structure, cult cinema, forgotten classic, raw energy, fluid direction, unprecedented, memorable scenes, obscured
Worldwide gross: $160,468
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,316,751
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,525
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 143,593
US/Canada gross: $80,302
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $658,933
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,270
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,857
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $56,266
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,157
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $1,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $8,205,690
Production budget ranking: 1,742
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $4,418,764
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$11,307,703
ROI to date (est.): -90%
ROI ranking: 1,958
Mara Lorenzio – La mujer
Jacqueline Luis – Mujercita
Brontis Jodorowsky – Hijo
José Legarreta – Moribundo
Alfonso Arau – Bandido 1
Director(s)
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Writer(s)
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Producer(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
4 wins & 3 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (9)
It’s tempting to say they don’t make films like this any more, but I’m not sure anyone has ever made them like Jodorowsky.
January 10, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Ed Potton
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
It’s a bizarre head-trip festival of occult psychedelia, heatstroke visuals, Age-of-Aquarius nude dancing and violence through poster-paint fake blood splattered about the place.
January 9, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
It remains an aesthetically intoxicating trip.
March 11, 2015
Ben Walters
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
The film is by turns comic and profound, hysterical and pompous, fully complex enough to deserve more than a simple yea or nay.
November 15, 2013
Jay Cocks
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Has lost little of the maddening, bewildering weirdness that made it a seminal midnight-movie phenomenon.
June 5, 2011 | Rating: B
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
TOP CRITIC
Violent, visionary, vital.
May 2, 2007 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
A true one-off
July 29, 2021
Rob Aldam
Backseat Mafia
[…] splendid cinematography, astonishing production design and an incredibly human story. [Full review in Spanish]
August 29, 2017
Ángel S. Harguindey
El Pais (Spain)
The element of violence… holds the kernels for inexhaustible analysis of the human condition that preceded the film, through the time the film captivated audiences, and even today.
June 20, 2017
Indra Arriaga
Anchorage Press
Forget about the cosmic significance: it is the work of a talented film-maker, and full of memorable scenes.
March 11, 2015
Christopher Hudson
The Spectator
[VIDEO ESSAY] For all of its easily mocked elements, “El Topo” is a work of mad cinematic genius that sticks.
December 4, 2011 | Rating: A-
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
… the story of ‘El Topo’ proves too scattered and weak to bear its digressions and vague symbols that suggest everything, anything and nothing.
November 20, 2011
Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews…
Plot
El Topo decides to confront warrior masters on a transformative desert journey he begins with his six-year-old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man. El Topo (the mole) claims to be God, while dressed as a gun-slinger in black, riding a horse through a mystical landscape strewn with American Western and ancient Eastern religious symbols. Bandits slaughtered a village on his path, so El Topo avenges the massacred, then forcibly takes their leader’s woman Mara as his. El Topo’s surreal way is bloody, sexual and self-reflective, musing of his own demons, as he tries to vanquish those he encounters.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film El Topo on Fresh Kernels.
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