Elliott Covert’s review published on Letterboxd:
I didn’t much care for the film (pretentious pseudo-intellectual crap from a director with an obvious God complex) but the morally offensive circumstances of its creation are unforgivable.
During one scene, director/star Alejandro Jodorowsky appears to rape a woman on camera. Since this film came out there have been longstanding rumors that this horrible act of sexual violence was not simulated. The actress who played the rape victim never made another movie and has disappeared from public life since El Topo was made. Jodorowsky at one point stated that the on-screen rape was real but subsequently covered his ass (possibly when he got a phone call from the prosecutor’s office) by saying his statement was only for publicity.
Jodorowsky is an egotistical prick and a scum bag, like many self-involved artists. Unlike many of them he is also probably a rapist. Fuck this monster of a human being. People are more important than art.