Another classic weird movie which uses deformed performers to enhance the unreal effect is El Topo, Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1970 epic "Western" about a mysterious gunslinger on a quest for Enlightenment. Hinting at the gloriously unusual excesses which were to come in The Holy Mountain, El Topo is a movie concerned with nothing less than the spiritual path towards death and rebirth. With imagery which bounces between the striking and the outlandish and characters which appear to have jumped out of the most peculiar dreams imaginable, El Topo is a movie which you'd be forgiven for struggling to make any sense of. Residing half way between drug-induced counter-cultural exploitation flick and masterful representation of deeply spiritual and religious musings, it understandably divided critics. Love or hate it though, you can't help but be impressed with Jodorowsky's unbridled audacity, oozing from every saturated frame.
