S5E6: EL TOPO

Enter The Void

Clearly still recording together in NYC—though they never actually say so—Bill and Renan talk EL TOPO (1970), the legendary, head-spinning "acid Western" by the irascible Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film is remarkable for many reasons: its status as the undisputed first "midnight movie", its embrace by heroes of the 70s counterculture, for being locked away for decades in a contractual dispute, and for the very very questionable (potentially criminal) circumstances regarding its production. Discussed in this episode: Jodorowsky as proto-Tarantino and anti-Kubrick (but he's still a fan of the Master!); Jodorowsky, Frank Zappa, Yayoi Kusama, and why artists aren't like you and me; why Jodorowsky called John Lennon's manager "a gangster"; all the things in this movie that you can't do anymore, should never have happened in the first place, might not have happened at all, and which Jodorowsky interview should we believe?

Film links:

• El Topo on IMDb
• El Topo on Wikipedia
• El Topo on 366 Weird movies
• New York Times review (1971)
• Roger Ebert review (2007)
• El Topo: A Book of the Film (PDF)
• Nightmare Alleys on rape claim
• Yayoi Kusama at the Hirshhorn
• Elgin Theater on Wikipedia
• Acid Western on Wikipedia

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