Spagetti Wester Recomendations

[peter johnson]

If you can get EL TOPO, even a EP copy, for $10, then do it, say I!  Not only is it worth every penny, ie., it's not only worth repeated viewings,[you HAVE to see it at least 3 times to start to get the nuances,]but you can also flog it again for what you paid for it for no trouble, if you don't like it. Hell, if they don't know what you paid for it, you could even turn a profit!
I got my copy from a guy named "Kenneth", who worked for Jodoworsky in the 80's.
Jodoworsky has copyright interest in all his films, not wholly owned, like Russ Meyer, but enough.  He's also bipolar & quite disturbed.  He is, in the words of Firesign's Phil Ausitn, "Crazy as a hoot-loon!", so don't expect the copyright to be relaxed any time soon.
Fun Fact:  EL TOPO was the very first "midnight movie".  The Museum of Modern Art, in NYC, started having midnight showings of it in 1971, because they didn't think anyone would want to see something like that during the day.  It predates"Rocky Horror" as a Midnight Flick by a good 7 years.
Now, I may be guilty now of what I accused my friends of doing by "overselling" or overy-hyping something, but really all I've tried to do here is give some factual info.   It is a genuinely interesting, genuinely unique, genuinely crazy f-ing film.
It is nothing more than a plain, blank fact, for example, to state that parts of the film are lifted verbatim from classic Zen Buddhist fables and koans.  It no doubt had some influence on David Carradine and the folks who gave us "Kung Fu", yet is more of a classic Western than "Kung Fu" was.
This is not to say it isn't heavily flawed.  Some scenes don't work at all.  Others are left in even after obvious technical glitches have reared their heads.  But, taken as a whole, this is one serious David Lynchian mindflik.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Menard]

I guess that I should also point out that people who nitpick westerns for historical inaccuracy could have a time with EL TOPO. The movie does have elements that either do not appear to belong in a western or are out of time for a western. In EL TOPO this, however, comes off okay, if not a bonus, since, at least to me, it is rather like allegorical journey, or dream sequence, in which the out of place elements fit as a presense of archetypes that bring the viewer into the story much like they do in our dreams.

Fair warning: there are images in EL TOPO you will never forget.

[Scott]

Like I've mentioned that I have yet to see EL TOPO. I'm wondering if EL TOPO is anything like DEAD MAN starring Johnny Depp. DEAD MAN has some really strange images and I was wondering if it may have elements of EL TOPO.

[peter johnson]

Saw Dead Man.  Own El Topo.  No similarities.
Or, I should say, no similarities beyond them both being unexpected and weird.
El Topo is far more stylized & bizarre than Dead Man.  
Dead Man, for all its oddity, does, indeed, tell a linear story in a classic Heroic Journey fashion.  In parts, it is a genuine depiction of what life in the Old West could have been like.  Plus, it's in black and white.  
El Topo is in screeching lurid color.   El Topo is a Zen exercise on the contents of a -- literal -- madman's (Jodorworsky's) brain.
Dead Man is Protestant Existentialism.
El Topo is Zen Insanity by way of Terrance McKenna.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Jack Corbett]

I say that so far it is Open Range. f**king Awesome!

What about yours?

[Scott]

Thanks Peter for the information.