5 out of 5

Label: Arrow Video

Produced by: Allan Steckler (original), Teri Landi (reissue)

As a filmmaker, as a comic book writer – the two modes of Jodorowsky’s with which I’m most familiar – I’d need to add several caveats to any recommendations when suggesting so-and-so check out whichever work. They’re all divisive; they’re all… only for certain tastes.

El Topo is my first direct sampling of Jodo’s work as a composer, and, interestingly, it requires no such explanatory add-ons. His score for the film doesn’t misalign to the movie’s themes and styles, but all of the fantastical or macabre or melodramatic aspects of the film translate, perfectly, to some incredibly cinematic (natch) and emotive works – accessible ones, that play within a realm of the delicate or the playful, and speak to a more classical style of composition than one might expect from such an experimental director.

Some military- and carnival-esque themes pop up, given flavor by a Spanish guitar sound; there are also pastoral, peaceful moments, floating on wind instruments. And, briefly, moments of haunting discordance – screeching, anti-music – used carefully so as to tell a story within the score, and not wholly disrupt the flow of tunes from thoughtfulness into mystery into celebration and back around. That storytelling is one of the biggest sells, here: El Topo’s music has its own journey, obviously synced to the movie, but clear simply from the songs as well. And loosened from Jodo’s occasionally shocking imagery, it gives the reader that much more room to let it affect them uniquely.

I’ll cop to not noticing the score much when watching the film, but it’s utterly absorbing – and much deeper than remembered – when taking it on its own terms.