Video: 1.33:1 full frame. The picture isn't much better. The colours are faded, the print is full of specs and other blemishes, the colours shift and the picture lacks contrast and details. It's too bright at times, too dark at times, and for most of the movie it's just faded. The compression is also not great, with a lot murky areas and digital noise. I've seen worse, but this isn't going to impress anyone, either.

Audio: The lone audio track is a wasted English dub, in Dolby 2.0 mono. I hate dubs and the voices are wrong for the characters but luckily the movie doesn’t have too much dialogue. The music gets screechy and the higher-pitched sounds don't come out too well, either. The dialogue is clear, but that's about it. The effects are also okay, but nothing sounds perfect. The audio, as sparse as it is, is too much for the mono track to handle. This being taken from the Japanese release, there are optional Japanese subtitles.

Extras: To start with, there are two trailers. The original trailer (4:05) has tons of scenes from the movie, from the start to the end and unless you've seen the movie, you have no idea what part of the movie you're watching. It's an interesting trailer, having a lot of quotes from various newspapers, as the narrator tells you about what you're in for. The Japanese trailer (2:35) actually mentions the plot, along with having a bunch of random scenes from the movie. This is in English, which I find strange.

Then, there's a Cast/Staff Index, where you'll find Japanese-language biographies of writer/director/composer Alejandro Jodorowsky, producer Allen Klein and actors Brontis Jodorowsky and Alfonso Arau. Three pages of Production Notes (again, in Japanese) and a Photo Gallery are also found. The gallery has 42 pictures, most of them from the movie. The last few are behind the scenes shots, but they're mostly nice moments from the movie.

The last extra is the best one, a Director's Interview (22:14). Alejandro Jodorowsky speaks French in this interview, instead of Spanish, which I find strange, but it's a nice interview. You've also got Japanese subtitles to help you out. He talks about a lot of things. The lady interviewer asks the director about he movie's influences, about making a western, the costumes, the four masters and their animals, the meaning of the movie. Mr. Jodorowsky also talks about his mentality when making the movie, the idea of cruelty in the movie. He mentions the US premiere. He also says that John Lennon (indirectly) gave him a million dollars to make whatever he wanted. Mr. Lennon wanted him to make 'The Lord of the Rings', but because George Harrison didn't want to show his ass, that idea fell through, and made 'The Holy Mountain' instead. He also says that Cannes wanted to give him a prize for 'El Topo' but at the time Mexico wouldn't represent his movie, so he got nothing. He finishes the interview by talking about making movies today. It's a very nice interview and quite informative.

OVERALL : ...The DVD isn't so good, though. The video is bad and the audio is dubbed and bad. At least the interview is really interesting, though it's in French with Japanese subtitles. It's not likely there'll be a legitimate release of this movie in R1 soon, which is a shame, because it's definitely a movie that needs to be seen, even if it isn't easily understood.

Video - D+
Audio - D+
Extras - C+