Original 1970 trailer for EL TOPO, from the renowned filmmaker and father of the midnight movie, Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Famously, John Lennon and Yoko Ono discovered El Topo in 1969 and were impressed with the surreal, bizarre, and visceral imagery which was presented in a ‘psychedelic-western’ theme of personal transformation. The film was so controversial when The New York Times published a review dismissing it, outcries from the film’s supporters forced them to rethink their position. It was the first time in the venerable newspaper’s history where they bowed to public pressure and allowed a counter review.
The legendary cult film was credited with starting the Midnight Movie phenomenon and firmly established Alejandro Jodorowsky as the master of the outrageous and the profound. In the late 1960s, when Spaghetti Westerns were all the rage, Alejandro Jodorowsky used the syntax and style of this genre as a vehicle to tell the surreal odyssey of mysticism and enlightenment. After abandoning his young son, a brazen gunslinger attempts to defeat four masters and become preeminent, but he is betrayed and left for dead. Recused by an underground collection of socially shunned and forsaken dwarfs, paraplegic, and disfigured people, he finds redemption. When he attempts to return to the conventional world, he is confronted with a society of decadence and perversion.
At the time, Mexico had strict rules about filmmaking, severely limiting production. Alejandro circumvented the restrictions by shooting the script as short films, which became ‘chapters’ in the final film. He also engaged in guerrilla production tactics, most notably using an abandoned Hollywood film set they stumbled upon in the Mexican desert and converting it for the final act.
Learn more and explore the fils of Alejandro Jodorowsky here: www.abkco.com/films-soundtracks/ midnight movie
