I'm definitely a fan of cult movies--when they're really good. I often feel that they are hit or miss for me. And it's this way for a lot of people. It is known that cult classics can sometimes be relatively low budget films, making a cult film "so bad it's good," a term coined by critic Michael Medved. I'd say that's the case in the 1970 film El Topo.
The story this film attempts to tell isn't all that bad and it has certain cinematic qualities that all films desire. In particular, the above scene really caught me. There are a lot of close ups in this film that capture the intense emotions the characters are expressing. This shot, while it's not necessarily a true close up, does a fantastic job of capturing the emotions of the entire scene, of almost every character in this shot, the Colonel and one of his men.
Throughout the movie so far (the first 22 minutes) there are, what some might call, cowboys, gallivanting through the desert, abusing and taking advantage of people and laughing at just how great they think they are. We discover that these men work for the Colonel. It is also hinted to us the the Colonel is an extremely powerful man and the most respected and important person in the film.
This scene captures just how important he really is. The Colonel steps outside and the cowboys immediately stop laughing. A close up of the back of the Colonel slowly pans down to the shot you see above. The pan down shot reveals all the metals and weapons the Colonel has, revealing why he is so respected and powerful. While still staying with that same shot of the Colonel, we also see through that shot into another perfect shot, framed by the Colonel's legs.
For starters, this shot does an incredible job of showing how great and mighty the Colonel is and how week and small the cowboys are compared to him. Then we get a great view of that face the cowboy has. Fear. That's immediately what one perceives. Altogether you get a shot within a shot, creating one cohesive shot that reveals a mighty ruler and his feeble servant who has been reverted to a small, desperate man on his knees in fear.
I requested an alternative movie for this week because of my aversion to gore and rape. Mr. Rios was kind enough to heed my request, so I haven't seen El Topo.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to hear, since this is apparently a low budget film--was it as bad as online content guides made it sound, or was it just really cheesy? Was the gore unsettling, or laughable?
For starters, yes it was low budget and it was very, very clear that it was low budget. Some of the gory props used were very cheap and I think to make up for that excessive amounts of blood were used. So it wasn't laughable and not necessarily cheesy. If anything it was awkward and that's what made it unsettling.
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