***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I was perusing the Foreign section of the local video store of rare and hard to find films when I saw "El Topo" sitting plainly on the shelf. My heart rose, as I had heard much about the film and wanted to see it very much -- plus it is so hard to find and JESUS CHRIST it was sitting right there!<br /><br />I took it home and watched it right away. I was extremely disappointed. Folks, there is a reason why this movie is so hard to find, let me tell you...<br /><br />(SPOILERS)<br /><br />The first half of this movie has the main character El Topo with his young son riding through the desert where they encounter various violent wierdnesses. The first is a barn in the middle of nowhere with mutilated human and cattle all over the place. Only one man is left - he is lying on the ground, wounded, and begging for El Topo to put him out of his misery. El Topo gives his gun to the seven-year-old boy, who kills the man. Nice, right? This is just one of the many pointless situations they get themselves into. After this, they arrive somewhere else, and then somewhere else, again and again, just for more unexplained violence, without any other plot, explanation, or transition between these episodes.<br /><br />The second half begins after El Topo is shot dead. We are taken to yet another remote village in the desert (again, without any explanation or reason whatsoever). A few scenes stand out in my head:<br /><br />1.) A man is slaving over a group of women in some sort of salon. They all seem to be hitting on him, wanting him to fool around with them. Eventually, one of the women drops something, and when he bends over to pick it up for her, she pulls him to her inner thigh and then starts screaming out that he is advancing on her without her consent. The other women rush over and start hitting him, then sexually abusing HIM, all the while shouting at him to stop raping them. He is dragged outside by the town's men where he is hung and shot.<br /><br />2.) In some sort of room, a bunch of townspeople are passing around a gun loaded with one blank bullit (which they pretend is real) and pretend to play Russian roulette. Everyone misses the blank bullit, and shouting out that they are holy for being so lucky. The son of El Topo (who has found his way to this village and now grown into a man) takes the gun, removes the blank and replaces it with a real bullit. He then does a round of roulette on himself and survives. The people love it. They pass around the gun, pulling the trigger on themselves, surviving. Each time, they shout out praises to God and what not. In all the excitement, a young child grabs the gun and shoots himself in the head and dies.<br /><br />If these scenes are supposed to mean something, I sure as hell missed the point.<br /><br />(END OF SPOILERS)<br /><br />It's not that I don't like Jodorowsky's work, or am weak-stomached. I adore SANTA SANGRE and would recommend it to anyone. It's just that the film seems to exploit unpleasantness as if it were a valuable asset in a film. It does so without entertainment, shock-value, or any other form of success and just comes off as a waste of the little time and money it might have cost to make it. It is offensive for that reason - offensively bad.<br /><br />Anyone who is on this website must appreciate good films. I know I do. There is so much else to apply your mind to, ladies and gentlemen. Go out and rent something worth your while. Don't rent this crap just because it's rare and "notorious". That's why I rented it, but that's not why I didn't like it. Even for those who pursue hard-to-find videos, like me: beware. This is pretty lousy film-making.