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El Topo (The Mole) is a 1970 violent allegorical, cult western movie and underground film, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. Characterized by its bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy, the film is about the eponymous character - a violent, black-clad gunfighter - and his quest for enlightenment.
Plot
The movie takes place in two parts. The first half, in an unnamed desert, involves the title character's journey with his young son to defeat the four great masters of pistol duelling. As El Topo encounters each of the first three masters, the master teaches El Topo a lesson and they then duel, in which El Topo cheats every time. The final master kills himself, in a demonstration of the unimportance of life. The first half ends with El Topo's betrayal and near-murder.
The second half of the movie takes place years later, after El Topo is rescued by a band of deformed outcasts, saving him from death. The outcasts take El Topo to their underground community, where he, comatose, meditates on the four lessons for many years. When he awakes, he is 'born again' with the help of the outcasts, and goes on a quest to free them from their subterranean prison.
With the help of his dwarf girlfriend and his full-grown son, El Topo digs an exit out of the cave, only to see the others of his community murdered by cultists from a nearby town. In a rage, El Topo kills them all, then pours gasoline on himself and sets himself on fire, as he has learned all he can about life.
El Topo's son and girlfriend survive the ordeal and make a grave for his remains, which later becomes a beehive full of honey.
Interpretation
The film is sometimes interpreted as a metaphor for the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the four duelists representing the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) of the Old Testament and El Topo himself representing Jesus Christ.
In an animated introductory sequence, "The Mole" is directly explained to be one who has experienced the process described in the Platonic allegory of the cave, found in Plato's The Republic (dialogue).
The final scene where El Topo burned himself bears a similar imaginary to the photo of a Buddhist monk who burned himself outside the U.S Embassy, during the Vietnam War as a form of protest.
Trivia
- John Lennon had named El Topo his favorite movie.
- The Holy Mountain was Jodorowsky's followup to El Topo.
Sequel
Since at least the early 1990s, Jodorowsky has been attempting to make a sequel to El Topo. In 1996, a teaser poster was released *, but apparently, no shooting was actually done. The original working title, The Sons Of El Topo (Los Hijos Del Topo), was changed (sometime between 1996 and 2002) to Abelcain, due to disputes over ownership with Allen Klein. Additionally, the name of the character El Topo (The Mole) was changed to 'El Toro' (The Bull). Jodorowsky said of this, 'I am now working on a Franco-Canadian production called Abelcain, which is a new version of the same project. The character El Topo has become El Toro. A single slash added on letter P changed a subterranean rat into a charging bull. For a true artist, difficulties become opportunities. And clouds become solid present.'
A 2002 article in The Guardian stated that Marilyn Manson was attached to star in the film, but that Jodorowsky was having great difficulty raising money for the project *. No information has been publicly released about the project since then, and as of 2006, it appears to have been put on hold indefinitely for lack of funds.
See also
External links
1970 films | Mexican films | Cult films | Western films | Fictional gunslingers | Films directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky | Spanish-language films
"El Topo"