Lists
- ranked 739 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (August 2005)
- ranked 822 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (March 2006)
- ranked 878 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (December 2006)
- one of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
- one of Empire's 250 Greatest Films You've Never Seen
- one of Guardian 1,000 films to see before you die
Acid Westerns, so I am given to understand, take the tropes of classic Westerns, flip the moral arc to show society in decline rather than civilization coming to the frontier, and toss in both the excessive gore and sex of the spaghetti kind and surreal, psychedelic imagery. That's El Topo in a nutshell. The plot starts like a wuxia epic -- our gunslinger hero El Topo (played by director Alejandro Jodorowsky) taking on five masters to prove himself the greatest -- but then turns biblical as he is brought low by a woman and emerges as a priest/monk/half of a comedy double act.
It's weirdly compelling, with much more coherent a narrative than I had expected, albeit one littered with bizarre imagery and (maybe?) symbolism. It's an experience, that's for sure.