A trailblazer for the original midnight-movie vogue...

| Apr 18, 2023

As usual, it's all about the journey, by which the hero progresses from killer and rapist to clean-shaven monk (who is nonetheless called back to his old violent ways one more time).

| Original Score: B | Nov 29, 2022

A true one-off

| Jul 29, 2021

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 10, 2020

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 9, 2020

[...] splendid cinematography, astonishing production design and an incredibly human story. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 29, 2017

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.

| Jun 20, 2017

It remains an aesthetically intoxicating trip.

| Mar 11, 2015

Forget about the cosmic significance: it is the work of a talented film-maker, and full of memorable scenes.

| Mar 11, 2015

The film is by turns comic and profound, hysterical and pompous, fully complex enough to deserve more than a simple yea or nay.

| Nov 15, 2013

[VIDEO ESSAY] For all of its easily mocked elements, "El Topo" is a work of mad cinematic genius that sticks.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 4, 2011

... the story of 'El Topo' proves too scattered and weak to bear its digressions and vague symbols that suggest everything, anything and nothing.

| Nov 20, 2011

Has lost little of the maddening, bewildering weirdness that made it a seminal midnight-movie phenomenon.

| Original Score: B | Jun 5, 2011

its mixture of genre revisionism, religious mysticism, and shocking visuals felt new and wild and meaningful, at least to those who wanted to see it that way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 16, 2011

Alejandro Jodorowsky may be full of it, but I'm thankful that he spread it -- whatever it is -- across the screen in 'El Topo.'

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 16, 2011

While I truly do doubt that modern viewer will have much use for Jodorowsky's dated spiritual philosophy, the style with wich he expresses that philosophy is often quite exciting.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 21, 2008

A dated counterculture goulash long hyped as art by a blank generation desperate for something different.

| Jul 14, 2007

As perplexing as large parts of it are, the film certainly isn't boring. And it's kind of fun trying to figure out what it's all supposed to mean.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 13, 2007

For the adventurous viewer, El Topo is a bizarre, colorful, unforgettable experience.

| Jun 14, 2007

Violent, visionary, vital.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 2, 2007