Post by Fickle81 on Sept 15, 2005 1:52:34 GMT -5
Well I've finally done it. I've seen the major,most well known and acclaimed works of Alejandro Jodorowsky with the exception of Fando and Lis,which is apparently not only damn near impossible to find,but also is apparently his weakest film other than the two he has disowned (Tusk and The Rainbow Theif).
El Topo is actually my least favorite of the three major works (the other two being Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre,which I gave both films a 4.5/5 rating). You could tell that Jodorowsky was still learning the craft as it has some noticable errors that Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre didn't have.
Firstly,I found the film to be too long for a movie of its nature. There were some scenes that could have been eliminated to cut it down to about an hour and a half (as its stands,the movie is only 18 seconds shy of being 2 hours long). Because the film is rather lenghy,it tends to drag in places.
Secondly,there are quite a few moments where the consistency of the picture is WAY off due to how scenes are edited together. The major example is after El Topo defeats the third gun master,he starts to ride away while his lover pleads for him not to leave her...then in the very next scene,all three party members (there is another woman...more on that in a minute) are sitting in the desert eating fruit...did he come back for her? Did she follow him? It just felt out of place. Going back to the third woman,she just appeared seemingly out of nowhere (when she first appears,I thought it was El Topo's lover in different clothes). I don't really get her purpose other than to seduce El Topo's lover away from him when he failed to defeat the final gun master.
Finally,I didn't understand why the colonel's men betrayed him and helped El Topo cut off his balls...because they were all executed in the very next scene.
Otherwise,I did very much enjoy it. At times,its easy to figure out and decipher and other times its downright difficult. I liked that. It didn't stray into the bizarre (Holy Mountain) or straight forward (Santa Sangre) too much,but juggled both elements equally. The film gave me a variety and engaged me on both levels.
4/5
Now that I've seen all three,Santa Sangre is hands down my favorite.
El Topo is actually my least favorite of the three major works (the other two being Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre,which I gave both films a 4.5/5 rating). You could tell that Jodorowsky was still learning the craft as it has some noticable errors that Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre didn't have.
Firstly,I found the film to be too long for a movie of its nature. There were some scenes that could have been eliminated to cut it down to about an hour and a half (as its stands,the movie is only 18 seconds shy of being 2 hours long). Because the film is rather lenghy,it tends to drag in places.
Secondly,there are quite a few moments where the consistency of the picture is WAY off due to how scenes are edited together. The major example is after El Topo defeats the third gun master,he starts to ride away while his lover pleads for him not to leave her...then in the very next scene,all three party members (there is another woman...more on that in a minute) are sitting in the desert eating fruit...did he come back for her? Did she follow him? It just felt out of place. Going back to the third woman,she just appeared seemingly out of nowhere (when she first appears,I thought it was El Topo's lover in different clothes). I don't really get her purpose other than to seduce El Topo's lover away from him when he failed to defeat the final gun master.
Finally,I didn't understand why the colonel's men betrayed him and helped El Topo cut off his balls...because they were all executed in the very next scene.
Otherwise,I did very much enjoy it. At times,its easy to figure out and decipher and other times its downright difficult. I liked that. It didn't stray into the bizarre (Holy Mountain) or straight forward (Santa Sangre) too much,but juggled both elements equally. The film gave me a variety and engaged me on both levels.
4/5
Now that I've seen all three,Santa Sangre is hands down my favorite.