El Topo
Douglas Music Films | Release Date: December 18, 1970 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
BBCNeil Smith
Without the aid of mind-expanding narcotics though, El Topo can't help looking laughably ramshackle, the combination of bad dubbing, shoddy camerawork and over-the-top performances making it pretty much unwatchable by modern standards. Read full review
60
The GuardianAndrew Pulver
There is a tenous narrative logic - in which Jodorowsky himself, dressed in cowboy black, must gun down four desert-dwelling killers - which gives the film a measure of watchability. But it's hardly deep. Read full review
60
TimeJay Cocks
Jodorowsky's is perhaps a prodigious, certainly a prodigal talent. What is most bothersome is not his chaotic cosmology but his coldness. He is so obsessed with allegorical meaning that El Topo misses any kind of full human resonance. It is instead a vivid if ultimately passionless passion play. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The pacing and action sequences are staged in a manner reminiscent of a spaghetti western and are quite good, but the allegories are too much and too many. Read full review
40
The New YorkerPauline Kael
Jodorowsky plays with symbols and ideas and enigmas so promiscuously that the confusion may be mistaken for depth.
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