El Topo

Alejandro Jodorosky's "El Topo" is a surrealist spaghetti western about the dichotomy of mercy and severity in life and spirituality. El Topo, meaning "the mole" in spanish, is a metaphor for the spiritual seeker. Much like the prisoner in Plato's "Alegory of the Cave," the mole scrapes and digs to find the surface, but upon seeing the light of day he is blinded.

The movie begins with the title character riding through the desert with his son on a horse. He is dressed in all black and carries a pistol at his side. As the story progresses, El Topo rescues a Franciscan Mission from a gang of brutal banditoes, and castrates their leader. When the head bandit demands to know who he is to dole out judgement, El Topo replies, "I am God." After the rescue, El Topo abandons his son, leaving them in the care of the missionaries, and rides into the desert with a woman that he has rescued.

In the desert, the woman demands that he slay the worlds four greatest gunfighters to prove his worth. He travels the mystical desert, meeting the masters one at a time. But as he speaks with them, he finds that the key to their skill lies in spiritual wisdom. Each of the Gun Masters has a lesson to impart to El Topo, but by trickery, El Topo is able to slay them all. However, as the final Master dies, El Topo realizes that he has killed the only people in the world that could teach him anything meaningful.

The second Half of the movie shows El Topo reborn as a christ-like figure. Cleansed of all lust for power, he now lives a humble life working to buy supples so he can build a tunnel to free a community of outcastes and deformed people from a mountain prison. But the wealthy village below, where he earns his keep, is corrupt and decadent. And when he finally frees the people of the mountain, the townsfolk gather and slaughter them all before they can reach the town. in a rage, El Topo mows down the townsfolk, then emolates himself.

Through dreamlike scenery and mystical symbolism, Jodorosky uses the cinematic motiff of the Western to display concepts of esoteric wisdom in a mode more easily followed than in dry, dense tombs or stuffy monasteries. It also warns against he extreamism represented by the gunslinging, black-clad hero and the all forgiving, christ-like monk. It seems to suggest that the better way is in between the two ideas.

El Topo