El Topo

Aroview: The first official midnight movie - Jodorowsky's legendary vision is a bonafide 'head' picture (confusing yet stimulating), committing enough raw inspiration/indulgence, gallows humour, jolting violence, and pungent, often surreal imagery to keep acid freaks and other 'deep thinkers' coming back for seconds and beyond.

First half is a macabre spaghetti western following bandit El Topo (The Mole - Jodorowsky himself) on a quest to prove himself 'the best' by killing the four sharpshooting masters who live in the desert. Post confrontation, he staggers into an existential fantasy/religious allegory - famously unfathomable and over-ripe with biblical and literary symbolism. John Lennon liked the film so much, he wholly funded his follow-up, The Holy Mountain.

Incredibly Strange Film Fest 1995

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