The first time I was introduced to Alejandro Jodorowsky was about 5 years ago when I was living with a fellow named Apron John, named for his penchant for wearing apron-skirts, which I still believe is a good fashion move for the 60+, semi-homeless, waify, mumble mouth, hippie population… In fact, I wish I had a picture of him because for mansy fashion you really don’t get much better. But nevertheless, he had some bootleg tape of Holy Mountain and though it cut off near the end, I was definitely impressed by the film, the sheer inhibition, the strange occult way of processing colonialization and western imperialism, and while the drug references and macho free love didn’t do much for me, the film got him on my list of people to meet in this life, if just for conversation and a tarot reading.
So with that spirit in mind, I saw El Topo last night, his second film after Fando y Lis (which was so well received, it started a riot, whereby Jodo had to be snuck out of the city, so as not to be killed…) and is made in the style of a western, but is also a sort of classic coming of age/ guy-becomes-jesus-by-killing-a-bunch-of-gurus-then-looses-his-girlfriend-to-a-woman-that-dresses-just-like-him-then-tries-to-save-a-bunch-of-differently-abled-folk-and-his-son-wants-to-kill-him-but-doesn’t-then-basically-leads-his-differently-abled-friends-to-the-slaughter-then-kills-himself-by-self-immolation-whilst- in-lotus-position story. But plot aside, as far as mansy fashion is concerned, I really think there’s a lot to work with here especially for the western mansy. For one, the hat is “well plastic,” as they say, and the leather daddy meets preacher man who also eats the style innards of clint eastwood and a conquistador is a sure path to fashion victory. Personally, I think his female alterego/mother/savior/judas (pictured below) wears the better look for mansies, because it’s better accessorized and the hat is a little more wearable, but both are great…
As for the movie itself… hmmm. I love the cinematography and the general feel of it, there are parts of the movie that are absolutely amazing, beautiful and insightful; and yet, in the end it was perhaps the most intensely homophobic movie I’ve ever seen. Every gay male relationship was based on rape and coercion and every gay man was a villain. I mean there is a big difference between some good old Genet-esque rough trade and homophobic demonization, seriously, wtf. I mean, I suppose when you are dealing with something as esoteric as this you could make the argument that the world of El Topo was a spiritual metaphor, and that the gay villains were actually representations of straight homophobic power archetypes and through sexualizing their relations to other men it made their ultimate motives clear… but I don’t buy that or anything similar to that in the slightest. I ultimately forgive El Jodo simply because, message aside, I think he likes some hot bods and og. man on man love like the rest of us, as he seems to go there time and time again in his films, but at the end of the day, esoterica is no carte blanche for hate speech, in my book.
But I digress… Here’s a couple more great looks from the film. The first incorporates some definite confrontational eccentricity, in the use of the massive belt, fur coat (faux hopefully), cossack hat and you can’t tell in this photo but he carries his holster over his pachacho, naturally. The second look is classic for those on the hippie side of the stick, this is probably the only safe outfit for your ilk in these troubling times.
Oh and this cowboy in the pink is pretty great too, note in the second photo, the use of the live gila monster as codpiece…
Tags: confrontational eccentricity, Jodorowsky, western fashion
