![]() What is El Topo seeking in the desert? Why, he is seeking symbols, images, bizarre people and events, with which to fill the film. But now having seen more of Jodorowsky's work, I think Jodorowsky's method is not without a purpose. I still agree with that and do not think the symbols add up to a conclusion. The effect resembles Eliot's 'The Waste Land,' and especially Eliot's notion of shoring up fragments of mythology against the ruins of the post-Christian era." Instead, they're employed in a shifting, prismatic way, casting their light on each other instead of on the film's conclusion. He makes not the slightest attempt to use them so they sort out into a single logical significance. In my review when the movie opened, I wrote: "Jodorowsky lifts his symbols and mythologies from everywhere: Christianity, Zen, discount-store black magic, you name it. I am reminded of one of Ebert's Laws: "If you have to ask what something symbolizes, it doesn't." Or it stands for itself. ![]() "El Topo" is filled with symbols, and they're not obvious. Will El Topo dig free and go blind? And if he does, what will that mean? Pauline Kael observed that Fellini's " La Dolce Vita" is filled with symbols, and they're all obvious. ![]() This is not quite true, but truth is not allowed to interfere with its use as a convenient symbol. The name translates as "the mole." The movie informs us that a mole spends his life digging tunnels to the sky, only to go blind when it sees the sun. ![]()
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