Nero Reviews Weird Movies

Nero Reviews Weird Movies

How it works:
I watch the movie first of course and then I write a review/critique and give a reel rating. Anything over 3 reels I recommend watching and anything 5 reels I think you should drop everything and watch it now.


El Topo
The Metaphysical Western​

Have you ever tripped on acid while watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly while also reading the bible? No? Why not? I hear it’s quite the experience. Not a fan of acid? Well maybe you should check out this surrealist piece of film by cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky titled El Topo (Spanish for the The Mole). The film is surrealist and odd, packed with symbolism and myth and an interesting watch to boot.

The plot follows the mysterious El Topo who is a completely black clad gun fighter played by no one else but the director Alejandro Jodorowsky himself. The film itself is divided into two distinct parts; the first half is what could be considered more of a western though it is much more of a surrealist and metaphysical pastiche than a simple western. It finds El Topo abandoning his son and taking claim of a woman who informs him of 4 masters who are camped throughout the desert who he must fight. The second half of the film is in a figurative and quite literal sense the ‘re-birth’ of El Topo as an almost God like figure complete with locks of shock white hair and skin to match among an extensive group of incestuous freaks who worship him.

The film isn’t really about the story if I wanted to be honest. The movie is much more about the imagery because in the first half of the film the dialogue is very sparse and when there is dialogue it only serves as a device to move the plot along. The movie is about the imagery when it comes to storytelling, and Jodorowsky knows how to create imagery. He uses the imagery of the film to comment on a small handful of things: violence, religion/mysticism, eroticism, and debauchery. The film is also famous for its use of a lot of dwarf and deformed actors which add a sense of grotesque imagery. El Topo is in no way friendly to those with a squeamish stomach as there are scenes of gore-a-plenty. Brains, guts, blood et al in tow, but this is truly where the film shines. This man, El Topo, during the first part of the film knows his destiny lies in dispatching these masters but at the same time he feels this increasingly gnawing sense of guilt and shame. You grow to realize that the violence surrounding El Topo is greater than him and isn’t something under his control – which leads to the deeply religious overtones.

The film is undoubtedly religious and sacrilegious at the same time. Each one of the desert masters represents a mysticism in the world and before taking them on he learns something from each which slowly builds his character. Jordorowsky really knows how to tie these religious sentiments into the story through use of imagery. The scene that sticks out in my mind, as is probably my personal favorite of the entire film, happens during the second half of the film in a rowdy town. A new priest arrives as El Topo and his new lover struggle to make money and a church service happens. It is implied that these parishioners are not worshiping the Christian God, but instead a false idol. (Portrayed by a symbol that greatly resembles the All Seeing Eye) The priest that was already in the town takes a six-shooter and inserts a bullet into the gun and spins the game and plays a game of Russian roulette while the crowd chants ‘Protect us, Lord’, all the while he proclaims God saves and protects those that believe in him. He pulls the trigger and nothing happens. The gun then gets passed around through the hands of several people who do the same with the same result. Finally the new priest retrieves the gun, the original priest leans in and tells him that the gun is on safety and that in-fact the bullet in the cylinder is actually a dummy. The new priest then takes a real bullet from a parishioner and spins the cylinder locking it into place and proceeding to play the deadly game. He wins and a small boy runs over and grabs the gun and before being stopped he shoots himself in the head – thus ending the service for good. The original priest even laments to the new priest ‘The circus is over now’. A comment, possibly, on the nature of worshiping false idols because it seems though that Jordorowsky is heavily influenced by Christianity. Many other commentaries such as this scene exist in the movie such as a lamb hung from the side of the building in a crucified pose skinned and cut in half. It is contradictory, incredibly contradictory in fact because the film feels deeply religious all the while interspersed with violent sexual imagery.

The movie does two things exceptionally well and that is violence and eroticism. From the raping of a slave boy by several old women to then be murdered when they claim rape to a woman cutting a cactus in half, fingering it, and then licking it simulating what else but oral sex. The film is violently erotic, it is one of those things that seems like it would give a rapist a hard on. Jodorowsky uses this to shock the viewer because many of the scenes are quite evil and at times it was a little difficult to watch because if the odd intermingling of sex and violence, but in the end what does humanity boil down to but sex and violence.

In the end Jodorowsky brings many elements together in this experimental, surrealist western that honestly I would have never thought of combining. He stitches together a strong story using effective imagery that you will remember a long time from now. I would watch it again just to catch things that I didn’t the first watch through, because some of the symbolism I didn’t even get. The film is intelligent and it deserves a deep look and consideration. It isn’t a film to watch with mom and dad or anyone who might have easily offended sensibilities. It is however a film I would recommend watching at least once if not twice.
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4 Reels out of 5​

 

Bump!

 

Bump!

 

EL Topo definitely sounds like a weird movie, and when I say weird I mean one that I would not even fathom watching. I'm willing to give you the benefit out of the doubt for the 4/5 rating. I'm skeptical however as to the availability of this movie in New Zealand, where did you obtain your movie from?

 

Means that shall not be discussed. ^_^

It is a really good movie and is highly influential among musicians and directors.

The next film I will be review is The Exterminating Angel. Expect it by the end of the weekend.

 

Bump!

 

I'd really like to read your take on Mullholland Drive.

And I really need to find El Topo

 

That, along with all the other Lynch movies, are on my list. I have 10 movies in my current queue though, so it will be a few weeks before I can get to it.

 

Try Lord of the rings trilogy, or even one movie of it and make a review, i personally find it amazing.

 

LoTR is in no way experimental, underground, or anything like that. They were major blockbusters. I am only reviewing experimental, underground, different/odd, or extremely well made new movies.

 

Okay, try The Watch, seems odd.

 

Bump!

 

I made a promise that I would read your reviews if they were about weird movies, and I did. While I did enjoy its contents and would watch the movie, there was one thing that threw me off; it has the format of an essay.

Your writing is really good, no problem with that.
But the first thing that a user would notice when he read this review was the huge wall of text. It feels more like a book report than a review and thus, most people would not be interested.

If it were up to me, I would make a clear, visible structure of the whole thing.
Short Example:

1. "Human Centipede," directed by ??, actors: A, B
2. Contents: eating feces, a real human centipede
3. Rating
4. Synopsis: madman kidnaps A and B, stiches the mouth of A to the anus of
B so that whatever the A eats, he defecates it into B's mouth, becoming food for B
5. Review.

The people reading a review of a weird movie would typically be more more interested in why it is weird, and whether it's worth watching or not. To them, what the writer thinks is of least importance to them which is the reason why I would put it last.

 

I based my reviews on sort of how Roger Ebert does his. He does so many great reviews.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120919/REVIEWS/120919984/1001

I am nowhere near as good, but I will work on improving it on the second one. It was my first review.

 

I know, but the difference between your and his reviews can be compared to the difference between me writing a boring wall of text and Sythe writing one
(famous person, nom-famous person difference)

Anyways, keep it up, I'll always be reading your reviews lol

 

Yeah I have to concede the big wall of text is kind of intimidating. Perhaps you could break this up by giving some visual people some pictures to emphasize further the points you are trying to make? Maybe you should create a graphical header of "Nero's weekly review" or something, you have a lot of talent man, you can cross-pollinate this into reviewing also. By making it more visually interesting you may get more viewers.

 

that would be nice candy for the eye, a graphic image

 

I'm working on the next one. It'll be out here soon. I got a lot of work to get done.