Customer Reviews

El Topo

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I recently saw El Topo at the IFC Theater in NYC, and the restoration was beautiful. This film has only been available in North America in bootleg form, and these bootlegs ran from from passable to abominable. My personal copy was a VHS dub of a Japanese laserdisc, which had the film optically censored (you can't show pubic hair in Japan, but just about everything else), Japanese subtitles, and it was dubbed in English (it is supposed to be in Spanish). Now we will get it as the great Alejandro meant it to be seen. This film is really astounding at times, considering Jodorowsky was mainly known as a theater director, and he had only directed one previous feature (the little seen and frequently banned Fando y Lis). His films have a truly hallucinatory quality that is magnificent to behold. This was reportedly John and Yoko's favorite movie. They recommended that Allen Klein pick up the rights to it, and he did. Allen and Alejandro have been feuding for the last 30 years over this film and who owns the rights, but luckily, they've made peace (let's hope it stays that way). El Topo, along with The Holy Mountain, are Jodorowsky's best films. Many thanks to ABKCO films for finally releasing this masterpiece.

Just to let you know, the above is a review of El Topo. This review is also appearing for some reason under the box set of The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky. The box set is magnificent, by the way...

Notorious as "the" cult movie between "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "El Topo" certainly deserves a new, commercial DVD edition no less than the aforementioned cult hits and the contemporaneous "Pink Flamingoes." The film is primarily Jodorowsky's private allegory, often inscrutable but nonetheless thought-provoking and conducive to productive discussion--perhaps more than any independent film prior to "Eraserhead."

There's something for everyone in this film. The alternative, cultist crowd will enjoy the striking, often daring, imagery--the nude child who accompanies the mole, the wife impaled on a lofty stake towering over a pool of blood, the lust in the dust scenes, the mutilated bodies, the homoerotic images, etc. The philosophic and theologic-minded will have a field day with the film, drawing as it does on all three of the world's major religions with a good deal of "magic realism" thrown in. (El Topo's mortification and transformation into a clown recalls both St. Paul's "you must become a fool for Christ" and the privileged and sacred role of the clown in Eastern religions; his self-immolation summons up television imagery of Buddhist monks in Viet Nam during the time of the film's production.) The archetypologists will no doubt interpret the film as a variation on the Campbell monomyth, beginning with the hero's departure and--following numerous tests, descent into the belly of the whale, and resurrection--concluding with his return home.

But for a true film buff, "El Topo" deserves to stay around because of its clear indebtedness to a film tradition of cutting-edge, innovative movies--Bunuel's surrealist "Un Chien Andalou," "Simon of the Desert," and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"; Godard's ellipsist editing in "Breathless" and "Contempt"; Peckinpah's over-the-top, cleansing violence in "Straw Dogs" and "The Wild Bunch."

My major problem with the film concerns the ubiquitous, practically non-stop gun play. At some moments the story makes it clear that "El Topo" cannot be a master of selfish fear until he renounces the gun, but more often than not the gun serves the cause of both justice and the assertion of personal will. When even as a clown he returns to the gun, I find it difficult to muster any sympathy for him. Perhaps the final image of his self-demise (a return to the earth echoing and building on the opening image of interment) is meant to be the story's major apocalypse, but I doubt that most of the 1970's' "midnight movie" crowd ever saw it that way.

El Topo is the classic Mexican film hailed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono enough that it was shown at midnight in many cinemas for years. It is often credited as starting the midnight movie countercultural that helped bring attention to, and build cult film audiences for movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and David Lynch's Eraserhead. In that respect it is far from a mainstream film but it got enough attention that it is celebrated even today. I feel that this is with good reason, as El Topo is one of best films ever made. Alejandro Jodorowsky directs and stars as the title character.

El Topo begins with its eponymous character in the desert with his son. He tells the boy to bury a picture of his mother and his toy in the sand as now it is time for him to become a man. The boy is vulnerable but El Topo leads him by example while protecting him in their various interactions with others. The film understands the western genre and the machismo that often accompanies it. El Topo is one bad cowboy who can guarantee protection for anyone he cares about. So it really sucks when he soon leaves his son behind with a bunch of monks after emasculating some evil banditos. He leaves with a girl he saved and he names her Mara. Mara loves El Topo for being the alpha male that he is, so she convinces him to kill the four best gunslingers so he can be baddest cowboy of them all. He manages to defeat them in various significant ways. These scenes are rich in biblical and other religious references and operate allegorically to show that being a bad cowboy isn't really all it's cracked up to be. Nevertheless, for better or worse, El Topo kills all four of them and begins to learn four specific lessons along the way. He begins to feel guilty and while he is caught off guard during the beginning stages of his enlightenment, he is defeated by the unknown woman who followed El Topo and Mara during their journey. Viewing El Topo as vulnerable, Mara betrays him and leaves with this unknown woman gunslinger. El Topo's battered and shot up body is taken away to a cave by a multitude of unseemly characters.

Macrocosmically, the journey for El Topo overall suggests that his travels represent the rise and trials of Judeo-Christian theologies, with the son representing new Judeo-Christianity and El Topo representing the old philosphies. The second half of the film seems to comment on more contemporary dealings and even anticipates what will happen in the future. How will El Topo's son grow? How will he react to the father who abandoned him but who has himself grown? How will the dominant faith evolve? How will it maintain its truth and purity with humanity at the wheel?

In the literal sense, the second half of El Topo forwards to a few years later after he is brought to a cave by this band of deformed pariahs. When he wakes up we soon realize that El Topo is a different man. He shaves off his beard and head and dresses as a monk. He makes a plan to free these people from their cave so they can join the community outside. He plans to fund the building of a tunnel to free these people. He does this by going to the town with his dwarven girlfriend to entertain them with comedy and dancing, among other small jobs. The town itself is by no means a utopia as it is wrought with slavery and violence. A new priest at the church in town is revealed to be El Topo's own son who he abandoned years earlier. El Topo's son plans to kill him but he decides not to do so until the tunnel is complete. The tunnel gets finished and El Topo's son decides not to kill him. Meanwhile, the deformed people are free and as they head to the town the villagers there begin to shoot and kill all of them, to El Topo's dismay. El Topo unleashes his vengeance on the villagers, killing them all and in the process freeing their slaves. El Topo then lights himself on fire, which was a timely parallel to the Buddhist monks who did the same in protest of the Vietnam War. During his death, El Topo's new son is born to his dwarven girlfriend. If the Buddhist references are consistent then this would suggest that El Topo is reincarnated as his own son and religious truth will continue to surface again.

I think it is important to note that the content in El Topo could be perceived as both perplexing and offensive to many movie-goers. Alejandro Jodorowsky kills real animals, uses real deformed and dwarfed people, and liberally applies nudity and violence throughout. It doesn't offend me at all but I knew my wife wouldn't like it and I understand why, so I mention it here just in case.

El Topo is a complex story with many odd details as well as many religious references and metaphors that comment on a larger scale as I noted earlier. I've seen it many times and in my first few viewings I didn't understand it and thought it was entertaining but pretentious. It is not pretentious. Microcosmically, El Topo is a film about a human being finding himself, and finding out all alone what it means to be alive. It is about independently becoming a good man as a good man is defined in the eyes of Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is obviously a deeply personal film for its director and it may not touch on elements personal to everyone in its audience, but it definitely did for me. Jodorowsky invokes religious references as a vehicle to express his own torments and challenges and how the enlightment experience for El Topo is merely mirroring his own experiences. It's commentary addresses oceans of issues in many layers. Conjuring up the imagination to produce this web of ideas so alive is indeed an ambitious undertaking. I find El Topo to be profoundly inspiring in a way that few films are. Its significance alone should at least justify one viewing for you and I hope you get the same satisfaction that I did. Perhaps you will like it enough to enjoy El Topo again and again.

It's not an ordinary movie, and as such there will be lots of different opinions as viewers try to make sense of what they've witnessed. Over time what I remember the most is all the dead animals, and a host of 'loaded moments'.

It has the look and feel of those violent Westerns produced in Mexico back in the 60's and 70's, but this is something more. Much, much more.

I was always impressed with the subtle sparity of this work. It has its violent moments but also has a sublime beauty in the quiet moments which may just be this movie's tendency to make one introspective while viewing it. The sets and dialogue are trimmed to the bare essentials and this creates a sort of cinematic vacuum where the viewer tends to build their own narrative from thematic associations. It's difficult to describe this film because at its heart it's a sureal journey through a dusty, and often bloody desert. It appears at times to float like a visual and experimental stream of consciousness exercise, but yet it still retains a gritty cohesiveness which may or may not have been intentional. This makes for compelling cinema if you have an open mind or happen to be a serious student of filmmaking.

This film is often regarded as one of the original cult films that sparked the Midnight Movie craze of the seventies. If you have a taste for midnight movies and get a kick out of absurd or unconventional themes, you'll probably like this film on many levels. The film is a journey, and it's a testament to Alejandro Jodorowsky's vision and skill that one actually feels like they're 'along for the ride'. The path in itself is just as mysterious as the implications of what awaits just beyond the horizon.

No one can tell you what it is, it simply has to be experienced. Much of what you take from this film is actually what you brought to it. Bring an open mind and you'll be amazed.

"El Topo," long enmeshed in litigation, finally makes its bow on Blu-ray. Originally released in 1971, the strange Western "El Topo" perplexed moviegoers and still will cause some head scratching, though the movie has become a huge cult classic over the past 40 years. The film pays homage to the spaghetti Westerns of the late 60's/early 70's while incorporating a great deal of curious religious symbolism and grotesque imagery. It is definitely not a movie for everyone.

Alejandro Jodorowsky directed, wrote the screenplay, composed the music, and stars as the title character, a mysterious gunfighter in black who roams the Mexican desert. El Topo is accompanied for much of the film by his son, who learns several brutal lessons about growing up. Among other things, the boy witnesses firsthand how his father deals with a corrupt Mexican army colonel (David Silva), who's been terrorizing local villages.

"El Topo" is unrated and contains scenes of extreme violence, violence against women, blood and gore, male and female nudity, strong language, and simulated sex. The movie ran a full year in New York at midnight showings. Bonus Blu-ray features include commentary and on-camera interview with director Jodorowsky, and a photo gallery with original script excerpts.

NOTE: For the purpose of this review, I will be addressing the new Blu-Ray editions of "El Topo" and its sequel "The Holy Mountain" together. I viewed them back to back and feel that it is easy to see the two films as one experience.

Blu-Ray specs: If all you care about is how the new discs stack up, let's get that out of the way. Both films have received new HD transfers and look better and crisper than any other version that I've seen. That day-glo blood is potently orange! El Topo is in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio (won't be in widescreen), while The Holy Mountain is anamorphic. Most notable special features on El Topo are Jodorowsky commentary and an additional interview. Most notable special features on The Holy Mountain are a commentary track, deleted scenes, and insight into the film restoration. Both have traditional extras like the trailer, photo gallery, and script excerpts.

Madman or genius? Pretentious hokum or revolutionary cinema? Alejandro Jodorowsky is a film maker whose vision brooks very little middle ground. It seems to be a love it or hate it proposition. In truth, I'm a fan--but his work is definitely not for everyone. I may get into trouble with the most ardent of Jodorowsky enthusiasts when I say that I get more visceral satisfaction from the madcap imagery in his films than to any purported deep meaning. As two of his trademark films hit Blu-Ray, I was pleased to get an opportunity to check out his landmark films "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain" again after about ten years. Experimental, controversial, provocative, disturbing--these demented films helped define the cult movie scene in the early seventies. "El Topo," in fact, played as a midnight movie in New York City for seven straight months. Today, they are still bizarrely fascinating but, once again, their divisive nature is likely to garner as many (if not more) detractors than admirers.

Of the two films, El Topo is closer to my heart. Starting out as a deranged western, the film morphs into a bloody existential quest, and ends as a struggle for redemption. The early scenes of this film always trap me into a full viewing! The central hero, played by Jodorowsky himself, is a gunfighter who becomes corrupted. Searching for meaning within his new existence, he tracks down four opponents with advanced battle skills and enlightened viewpoints. But these battles don't offer the solutions he had hoped for. Another chance at salvation comes about with a clan of misfits, but do they really require saving? Absurd, funny, and always intriguing--this is an incredible journey to nowhere and I love it!

The Holy Mountain has much loftier goals--but, to my mind, bigger isn't always better. A direct sequel, although relatively unrelated except for the central character, it picks up in the aftermath of the first film. Our hero now embraces a Christ-like countenance and the first third of the film presents some of the grimmest religion related spectacles you're likely to encounter on film. (In fact, the was a huge uproar at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival). Achieving a heightened state of being, he assembles a collection of powerful individuals--each representing a different planet. Stripping them down, the gang embarks on a lengthy existential quest to take a place among the gods. Strong religious allegory, mystical symbolism, and ideological iconography are brought together and are inherent parts of this film--but philosophical points tend to be hammered home. Sometimes "The Holy Mountain" loses me, it can be very heavy handed and message oriented. But still, an intriguing example of avant garde film making.

Again, the most arresting aspects of both films for me are most assuredly the visual qualities. If you like the gruesome and provocative imagery of Bunuel or Pasolini, you'll definitely want to check the films out. For entertainment, my easy choice is "El Topo." (4 stars) If you're searching for something fraught with meaning, try "The Holy Mountain." (3 1/2 stars) Or catch them together as I did. KGHarris, 4/11.

This has over the years really become a cult object, and though it is today by many considered a classic, its notorious history still hasn't come to an end, as the availability of the film is very limited, and there seem to be various edited versions in screen time and screen size. I saw a widescreen version with washed-out colors, which was a bit cut I believe.
Nevertheless the power and vision of this film came through my 16:9 TV screen and I experienced enough of its magic to glimpse its greatness.
The film was made as an underground project in the Mexico of the late 60s, and had difficulty finding distributors, probably because Jodorowsky had already caused a scandal with his previous film "Fando y Lis" in 1967 which was (reportedly after a notorious run in Mexican cinemas, where numerous fights broke out over it) banned by the Mexican government. This film too has in time become a cult object all over the world, and is available on DVD in the US along with an audio commentary by Jodorowsky himself and a documentary on its making. Though I haven't seen it yet myself, I don't think fans of surreal films would be disappointed if they took a chance with it. Because all of this Jodorowsky had difficulties with El Topo, but after John Lennon urged a friend to buy distribution rights, it got a world wide release and was heralded all over the world for its weirdness and strange philosophical take. If one considers a statement by Jodorowsky where he said that he asks of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs, one can see why the hippie-generation all over the world got enthusiastic about it. But while for example a film like "2001 - A space Odyssey" (which also got a lot of negative press on its original release, and commercial success through stoned audiences) became later regarded as a great cinematic achievement, El Topo hasn't yet gotten the same academic "beatification", for better or for worse.
So a modern viewer commonly approaches it not expecting a demanding work of art, but more something along the lines of 70s pseudo-intellectual Eurotrash, spiced with some gore and sex scenes.
I must confess, that this was also my own approch, when I borrowed it from a local videostore, but I was soon to be disabused.

The film features Jodorowsky himself as the main character El Topo, a gunslinger in search of himself. At the beginning he has a young son with him, but he leaves him alone in a village after finding a woman who is willing to accompany him on his travels. From this point on things start to go downwards for him, as the woman stirs up his ambitions to become something. On his search for fame and money he becomes more and more unscrupulous killing and torturing people, and even aquiring a second wife. The mission he finds himself on is a mixture of a spiritual search and a killing spree, on which he has to find four master gunmen of the desert (each with a personal philosophical stance) which he wants to defeat. After completing his task (not in an honest way that is), he is left alone in the desert to die by the two women who have apparently bscome a couple.
After this many a viewer (and critic) would have liked the film to end, but Jodorowsky is more interested in his philosophical vision, and the expression of a humanist view of the world, and adds a final chapter to this film, which is imo crucial for its understanding and the overall quality of the film. In the last part (which is the strongest) El Topo awakes in a cave where he has been worshipped for many years as a saint who is going to rescue the clan of deformed outcasts living there. Felling guilty of his former sins, he starts digging a tunnel, to connect the cave with the outer world, represented by a nearby town. Here Jodorowsky gets deeply allegorical and crafts a pessimistic commentary about the state of things in present day Mexico. I'll only tell, that in the following El Topo encounters his son, and that the union of all people is a task that can't be easily completed. The ending shows a bit hope for the human race as a whole, though it is far away from happy. It personally reminded me of the end of Jean Renoirs "La grande illusion", with whom the director shares his love for the common people and his ambivalent belief in and love of mankind, though both know what horrible things it is capable of.
But above all the films quality rests in its subversive take on film and society, which has put many viewers of, and is also the most responsible factor for the films strange reputation.
Jodorowsky uses elements from all over the world, mixing western and eastern philosophies, using film styles as different as the western and the slapstick comedy (where Jodorowskys knowledge of film history gleams), and dialogues and a use of language that seem to come from everywhere. The use of camera-angles contrasts beautiful panoramas with repulsive stagings of human decadence, and from gore to sex scenes, to a lrelationship between a dwarf and a "normal" person, there seem to be few topics the film doesn't have something to say about. But this eclectisicm isn't just a show-off, but at the very center of the films whole concept.
As a whole the only satisfying comparison I found, would be to Glauber Rocha's brazilian masterpiece "Black God, white Devil" (which was - made in '64 - surely a huge influence), with added philosophical grounding.
Jodorowsky has afterwards made only a handful of films (some also classics), but with this film alone he has left an important mark in film history.

i'll tell you right off the bat that if you are into more the linear straightforward filming of hollywood, than el topo nor any of of jodorowsky's films may not be to your liking. some may even go as far as to call it a mess. i can say i am personally a big fan of surreal cinema, it is my favorite, & jodorowsky is quite possibly my favorite director. his style of filmmaking is unlike nor will ever be like anything else ever made. each of his films, including el topo aredirected in such a why to strike such blissful illusion into the viewer's imagination, its as if each frame is flow after flow of a dream.

though there is barely a plot, one may say it is a very abstract "western".

my personal version
*spoilers* about a gunslinger dressed in black leather raoming a vast desert with his young, innocent son in tow on horseback. he comes across a village completely slaughtered & for no aparent reason, except out of rage, treks after & defeats the gang of wacked bandits at a franciscan monk mission where they are in the midst committing the same act. after being tempted by the bandit leader's mistress, the gunslinger abandons his son with the monks & sets ride with the woman, who convinces him he must become the best world's best gunman.

it seems that in order to become the world's best gunman, the gunslinger must travel all different parts of the world to find the four master gunmen & defeat all of them. through this journey, there is much abstract symbolic imagery shown. the gunslinger also finds himself in scenes where the fellow "master" gunmen share peaceful moments before their duel, where respectfully, he is enlightened by them in some way. near the beginning of this journey, he crosses paths with another woman, fellow gunslinger who seems to recognize the male gunslinger as having greater potential than her, and shadily requests she direct him to the next gunslinger, she ends up staying for the whole journey to find the four masters. eventually, though through sinister ways, the gunslinger defeats the four master gunmen, but instead of being grateful of his victory, instead he is disturbed & regretful & eventually falls to his knees in what seems to be a power he thought he wanted but does not. at this precise moment of weakness, woman gunslinger seduces the other woman into taking the gun & shooting the gunslinger, who appraoches the constant gunfire, as if making a martyr of himself. he is thought dead & the women ride off.

now here's where the movie takes an even more outlandish turn. what seems an incredibly long time(at least between 15-25 years). the gunslinger awakens, in what seems to be an underground cave layer. for this time he has been taken care of & worshiped by a group of deformed subterainian cave people. they all revere him as a messiah/christ-like figure & upon his awakening, grant him the task of finding a way for them to escape the cave & find a safe home on the land where they coexist in harmony with the people above land.

the messiah takes to this new way of life and seems to have a rebirth or sense of redemption, in which he really does become their leader of peace. accompanied by a dwarf maiden who had looked after him for years. he heads to the surface to find civilization. they surface & eventually come across a near town that is not very peaceful at all. in fact its like a western town (literally) from hell. townspeople follow a bizarre religious cult, as well as joyfully watch sadistic obstacle course games where they kill what appears to be slaves. the town seems to be riddled with sex, violence & disgrace. as the messiah & his maiden become street performers to raise money to help them, eventually they fall in love & want get married, but the monk who they want to marry them turns out to be the messiah's son & with rage beats on the man. after they explain about the cave people, he agrees to help only under the condition that he is allowed to kill his father afterwards.

eventually they free the cave people but as they surface, the townspeople panic, pulling out arms, they massacre every last one of the cave people. enraged, the messiah/gunslinger grabs an automatic rifle & kills all of the villagers, & then (imitating the infamous monk who burnt himself in protest) sits on the ground, douses himself in oil & lights himself on fire, till he burns to ash. around the same time the dwarf maiden gives birth to the late gunslinger's 2nd child. after they give him & honorable burial, the gunslinger's son(now dressed just like his father was for the first part of the film), the handmaiden & her child, ride off out of town, ending the film .

*end spoilers*

now like i said before the film is not for everyone. it is a beautiful piece of surreal art & should be appreciated for that exact reason, amongst others. sure the film often doesnt make sense, but it really isnt supposed to.

I think this is a western classic. It is most certainly not a traditional western. It is not a traditional movie by any means but very well worth watching for those with an open mind and familiar with the religious and philosophical allusions alluded to. For example, the Biblical idea of Original Sin where Satan tempted Eve with the fruit and Plato's allegory of the Cave. Sometimes I felt the allusions were a little gratuitous and clumsily incorporated but for the most part, they were appropriate and had the intended effect.

The movie is extremely violent and unforgettable for its surreal, disturbing images. But within that violence and surrealism is a sensitivity; it contains several surprisingly touching moments. Also surprisingly, it contained (unintended?) some hilarious moments. The leading character played by the director, Jodorowsky himself, is on a mission for enlightenment as the eponymous gunslinger ('El Topo' or 'The Mole'). He tries to free people from oppression and fear but ends up usually causing harm to them in unforeseen ways. He is anguished by his failure as a seeker of enlightenment and as a person and eventually finds himself in a cave living as a ascetic monk among deformed people. He tries to free them from the cave but as always, tragedy ensues. The allegory of the mole, as something that digs around in darkness and when it finds itself on the surface of the earth, is "blinded by the sun" serves as a metaphor for human history and its own search for enlightenment and truth.

Having read about this film for decades, and only recently having seen it, I am guilty of prejudging this film. Didn't think I'd like it, but I had to satiate my curiosity. First off, I thought it would have had far lower production values because it's always described as a low budget affair. Actually, this film was shot (according to IMDB) in Mexico in 1969 for $400,000 1969 dollars. No - not a blockbuster budget, but certainly not shoestring stuff I had expected, given the era it was shot and the country where it was lensed.

I expected something much more amateurish, and was prepared to give it some latitude in terms of production values and acting. This was unnecessary. It is beautifully shot, on location, with vivid colors and the compositions and locations are excellent - perfect. Every penny is on screen, and it is as gorgeous as any big budget Western I've ever seen, perhaps more so. The performances, the costumes, everything is spot on.

There are those who call this film self-indulgent, and I suppose it is as much as any modern art in other media. I find it ironic that experimental jazz artists, painters of modern art, and experimental stage works escape such criticism , but if filmmakers endeavor down similar "semi-linear" or surreal paths, their work is derided as being "self-indulgent" and written off.

However, this is a film you will likely not soon forget. Image after image, scene after scene - from frame one, till its end, will be seared into your memory - forever. Some say the shock value of this work has worn off over the years, I don't think so - at least not for me. Perhaps it has attenuated to a degree but this works more in the films favor, as you can watch the film on its own merits, rather than the surface-level shock value of /most/ of its imagery. Like it or hate it, if you make it through, you will not forget this film or its depravity, perversity, strangeness, and unrelenting ultra-violence. If you're not up for such a cinematic event, stay away. It's more perverse than anything ever put on screen that's reached a mass audience. Forget about making sense of the mish-mosh of symbolism. These are undiluted scenes straight from the imagination and subconscience of its creator, Alejandro Jodorowsky, who allowed these vision to "bubble up" to the surface and pulled no punches in sharing them with an audience via the medium of film. And, he did this with great care and skill. This is the beauty and genius of this film, El Topo. Don't try to psychoanalyze it or figure it out. It's not a puzzle. Just sit back and take it in.

Few films can lay claim to being unforgettable and have as much disturbing and oddly beautiful imagery. This is one of them. It's ultra-violent even by today's standards, perverse, and surreal - a surreal Western and a sick and strange little dream recreated on film. Perhaps its not entertaining in the traditional sense of the word, but it is, to the right audience, unique, facinating, disturbing, and unforgettable.