El Topo (1970)
This is no doubt a very unique film that I felt like I had to watch as a big fan of the western genre, with how it uses and destroys western tropes and create something completely new and bizarre. However, this is very much not my type of film. I generally don’t enjoy movies that rely so much on symbolism and the need to think about what every weird thing might represent. I prefer something that allows me to feel the movie intuitively, where there is still a sense of emotion and atmosphere evoked from what happens on screen. I am fine with things not making logically sense all the time or weird unexplainable scenes, but it here it was mostly just random stuff happening that I am sure can be interpreted in many ways, but on their own it was completely flat to me.
What I did appreciate was how Jodorowsky takes a ton of western tropes and take them to an extreme where it becomes almost a satirical mocking. Like the constant random duels, which worked out almost as video game bosses. The ultra violence is also above and beyond even the more violent spaghetti westerns, but since it lacked any sort of atmosphere as I get from said spaghetti westerns, all the gore became somewhat pointless.
Rating: 2