El Topo

Critics Consensus

By turns intoxicating and confounding, El Topo contains the creative multitudes that made writer-director Alejandro Jodorowsky such a singular talent.

78%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 41

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Movie Info

A bizarre, ultra-violent, allegorical Western, "El Topo" is set in two halves that have widely been compared to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the first half, Jodorowsky plays a violent, black-clad gunfighter who, accompanied by his naked son, sets off on a murderous mission to challenge four Zen masters of gunfighting, and learns from each of them a Great Lesson before they die. In the second half, El Topo sets out to find personal redemption, secluding himself in a subterranean community to learn the ways of peace, but unfortunately death is never far away. First released as an underground film, it was thanks to John Lennon that the film was acquired by Allen Klein of ABKCO, who bought the rights to "El Topo" and then financed Alejandro Jodorowsky's next film "The Holy Mountain."

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Cast

Alejandro Jodorowsky
as El Topo
Mara Lorenzio
as Mara
Brontis Jodorowsky
as Son of El Topo
David Silva
as The Colonel
Paula Romo
as Woman in Black
Jacqueline Luis David
as Small Woman
Hector Martinez
as First Master
Juan José Gurrola
as Second Master
Julian DeMeriche
as Priest
Victor Fosado
as Third Master
Agustín Isunza
as Fourth Master
Bertha Lomelí
as Second Master's Mother
Robert John
as Brontis as a Man
Jose Antonio Alcarz
as Sheriff
Felipe Diazgarza
as Deputy
Julián de Meriche
as Priest
Alfonso Arau
as Bandit No.1
José Luis Fernández
as Bandit No.2
Alf Junco
as Bandit No.3
Gerardo Cepeda
as Bandit No.4
Rene Barrera
as Bandit No.5
Rene Alis
as Bandit No.6
Federico Gonzales
as Bandit No.7
Vincente Lara
as Bandit No.8
Pablo Leder
as Monk No.1
Giuliano Girini Sasseroli
as Monk No.2
Cristian Merkel
as Monk No.3
Aldo Grumelli
as Monk No.4
Ignacio Martinez Espana
as Armless Man
Eliseo Gardea Saucedo
as Legless Man
Carlos Lavenant
as Executioner No.1
Eliseo Pereda
as Executioner No.2
Pablo Marichal
as Slave
Beatriz Beltran Lobo
as First Woman
Carmen Lamadrid
as Second Woman
Pepita Gonzalez
as Third Woman
Cecilia Leger
as Fourth Woman
Elvira Agosti
as Fifth Woman
Antonio Alvarez
as First Prisoner
Rueben Gonzales
as Second Prisoner
Victor Manuel Osorio
as Third Prisoner
Jose Perez Bustos
as Fourth Prisoner
Eduardo Danel
as Fifth Prisoner
Álvaro García
as Sixth Prisoner
Patricio Pereda
as Child
Marcos E. Contreras
as Boxer No.1
Arturo Silva
as Boxer No.2
Valérie Tremblay
as Woman In Church
Jose Luis Gonzalez de Leon
as Man In Church
Francisco Gonzalez Salazar
as Shopkeeper
Pedro Garcia
as Man With Carrot
Federico González
as El Gordo
José Antonio Alcaraz
as Comisario
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Critic Reviews for El Topo

All Critics (41) | Top Critics (12)

View All Critic Reviews (41)

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