Worst movie ever!

definitely not the worst movie ever, but el topo is overrated, don't get me wrong, i "get it," or as much of "it" that's getable anyway, and i did find value in the picture, there was some instances of great imagery, the jesus-esque character with his bullet-holes is burned in my mind for example, and there was great symbolism as well, such as the two characters who worked in tandem where the one was missing his arms and the other was missing his legs, who actually spent more time fighting each other then anything else, which i believe represents how our biggest struggle's in life are with ourselves; dealing with our own feelings and emotions and our inability to balance them in a healthy way, but there simply werent enough quality moments to fill the 2 hour plus runtime, time and time again i had to fight myself from falling asleep, you can only show weird stuff for so long before weird images become normal and then boring, and that's exactly what happened, i was bored stiff watching this, and boring is the last thing a surrealist movie should be, i believe the only way this movie would have truly worked would have been as a short film, similar to Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, show a bunch of weird stuff and stop just before the viewer's brain has time to adjust, leaving them stupified, which isnt to say that you cant make a full-length surrealist feature, David Lynch's Eraserhead and Takashi Miike's Gozu are both great examples of full-length surrealist pictures done right, so what worked for those movies that didnt wotk for el topo? the difference was those two movies flowed together much more effectively, but unlike what most detractor's of el topo believe; that el topo doesnt flow well because it had a disjointed story-line, i would disagree, because i felt el topo had a fairly decent story-line, the gunslinger's quest through the desert to find spiritual enlightenment leading to his ultimate demise was a fine story-line, true to life as well, look at what just happened to UFC star Evan Tanner, but it was the disjointed TONE of el topo that was the true problem, the movie kept trying to employ this monty python-esque humor in tandem with these terribly horrific images, it didnt work, the audience doesnt even have a chance to laugh at the supposed funny parts because before the joke is even over somthing horrible is happening, and on the flip side, the audience can never truly be disturbed because before a moment of horror is able to be soaked in, something ridiculously stupid is happening that ruins the effect, so what happened was, in an effort to be both so funny and so disturbing it did neither and accomplished nothing at all, and lastly, as far as the symbolism goes, like i said some of it was good, but so much more of it made no sense whatsoever, and at that point, if nobody understands what you're symbolising, then i believe you're not symbolising correctly, the audience has to understand what you're saying or you're not saying anything at all, it's the same as someone going into a room of people who only speak english and giving a speech completely in japanese, they could have peformed the greatest, most enlightening speech ever, but since nobody in the room understood it, it was a waste of time, and in the end, so was el topo

personally, i don't view dreams and movies as the same type of entertainment, in fact i don't view dreams as entertainment at all, they might be, more coincidentally then anything, entertaining, but they are not true pieces of entertainment such as a book, or movie, or anything purposely made with the intent for public exhibition, and that right there is where any comparison of dreams and movies ceases to make sense, we cant say the maker of a dream didn't make it properly because it didn't make sense, because the maker of the dream didn't even consciously create it, the dream was just a random assortment of images and ideas the person's brain put together while it was in a state of rest, a movie is work of art specifically made by an artist in order to convey a certain mood or express a certain message in order to entertain or educate his/her intended audience, and that is why a movie can most assuredly not make sense

and furthermore, music can make or not make sense as well, the obvious way would be lyrical sense; a singer's lyrics can properly express his ideas and emotions or they can confuse and frustrate his audience, now in the case of classical muscians such as mozart that you brought up, no lyrics are used so no true message can be sent, however the song can still instrumentally make sense, certain instuments can work well together or they can sound terrible when played simultaneously, so i would argue that even without lyrics a song can not make sense

and lastly works of nature, such as a flower, make sense, haven't you ever seen that daffy duck cartoon (what i base most of my math knowledge on :)) about how all works of nature follow rigid mathematcal laws, flowers for example all form perfect mathematcal shapes, now the daffy duck movie didnt touch on moutain tops (however if you want to learn about billiards, i remember quite a bit about that in the movie) but i would imagine they would also follow some mathematical law, so yes all these things make sense in there own way, but unfortunetly el topo does not

I got it :D

Alex Trebek: "This is someone who would tell you not to do something, while they are doing that very same thing."

Contestant #1: "What is a hypocrite?"

Alex Trebek: "Yeppers"

I love it how there's always some witless rube on these boards who starts a thread with the title "Worst Movie Ever!"

There are different kinds of movies. Some films are just mindless entertainment where you can just switch your brain off and absorb storyline and visuals that are undemanding, unambiguous, have only one interpretation and are basically chewed up and spit up for breakfast.

Other movies are experiences in the fullest sense of the word, and cannot really be called entertainment, since they are more demanding. Some movies require an active imagination to appreciate. EL TOPO is one of those movies.

No wonder that some people only seem to "get" this film after watching it under the influence of cannabis or psychotropic substances. Once you alter your consciousness, either through the discipline of meditation or the shortcut of psychadelic drugs, the movie makes a lot more "sense."

Jodorowsky himself summed it up best:

"I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs."

"If you're great, El Topo is a great picture; if you're limited, El Topo is limited."

THANK YOU itpdude, a rational mind at last, that's all i was asking for

Look, monty, if you insist to put your butt-plug in your butt and your mouth, please, your mouth FIRST, better luck next time champ