Hello all, this week underground will present Alejandro Jodorowsky's notorious 1970 film El Topo.
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Often referred to as the original midnight movie, El Topo is a mystical and allegorical psychedelic Western. Chilean director and star Jodorowsky (who has also worked in theater and comic books) cobbles together bits of ancient and modern mythology from around the world, crafting a surreal experience whose meaning is always just out of reach. The film is constructed in two parts: in the first, El Topo pursues the title of greatest gunman in the land. In the second part, he is reborn as the savior of a group of subterranean outcasts. The film's many stunning set pieces suggest a search for meaning through myth, a search ultimately doomed to fail. Though it is impossible to adequately summarize, El Topo remains, for all of its grandiosity, a striking, visionary film.
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The underground film series is sponsored by Indiana University's Department of Communication and Culture. All screenings are on alternating Fridays at 7 p.m. in room 251 of the Radio-TV building on the IU campus. All screenings are free and open to the public, and free parking is ample in the lot adjacent to the building, provided you clearly display an underground flyer on the dashboard of your vehicle.
