El Topo: The Path to Enlightenment

The movie El Topo consists of two parts. The first part consists of El Topo on a path of revenge, first finding the Colonel, the man who was responsible for murdering a village, and then afterwards on a hunt to defeat the best guns-man, so that he can be victorious, and having the title of the best fighter. Once he does so and learns the lessons of the gunsmen and feels horrible and feels the need to repent. During the second half of the movie, El Topo awakes in a cave after being looked on as a god-like figure for years in a community of disformed humans. He wishes to atone for his sins before, and wants to help the disfigured people and makes a tunnel in the mountain to help them escape, but in the end, they all die and he sets himself on fire.
I think this one particular shot is interesting because it alludes to Jesus on the cross. His feet are pierced and his arms are pierced, and he is walking like Jesus hung on the cross. Even during this scene he says "My God, why have you forsaken me?" which are words spoken by Christ while he was hanging on the cross. While I do not think that the Christian faith completely aligns with this scene, I do find the directors take on the faith interesting. I believe he is trying to say that El Topo is taking responsibility for his wrongs, and is ready to do so, in the same way that in the Christian faith that Christ took the responsibility of the sinners. The whole movie's point is about El Topo's path to enlightenment, or happiness, and I think this scene in particular shows that perfectly, because the only way for El Topo to truly be "enlightened" is by death because he cannot carry the weight of his sins.