Desperado.

Review #2415: Desperado.

Cast: 

Antonio Banderas (Manito "El Mariachi"), Joaquim de Almeida (Cesar "Bucho"), Salma Hayek (Carolina), Steve Buscemi (Buscemi), Cheech Marin (Short Bartender), Quentin Tarantino (Pick-Up Guy), Carlos Gomez (Memo "Right Hand"), Tito Larriva (Tavo), Angel Aviles (Zamira), Danny Trejo (Navajas), Abraham Verduzco (Niño), Carlos Gallardo (Campa), and Albert Michel Jr (Quino) Written and Directed by Robert Rodriguez (#1193 - Alita: Battle Angel, #1903 - From Dusk till Dawn, #2377 - El Mariachi)

Review: 

Admittedly, I wanted to Desperado for quite a while. I bought a DVD pack with it included a while ago and, well, it is time to collect. Robert Rodriguez followed El Mariachi (1992) with a television movie assignment that came out of the blue with Roadracers (1994)*. But here were are with his second feature film, a "Neo-Western action movie" once again. The movie was shot in late 1994 with a budget that was described as, well, adding a few more zeroes from before that was shot in the same place (Ciudad Acuña) as the first movie; as before, Rodriguez serves as writer, director, and editor. Sure, the movie had its troubles: the original cut was rated NC-17 by the MPAA due to the graphic violence that had to see a handful of cuts just to get an R rating, complete with taking out a shootout at the end that I think you will be curious about. When the movie was released on August 25, 1995 (the first of three Rodriguez-involved projects in a year next to winter 1995's Four Rooms, where Rodriguez directed one of the four segments and 1996's From Dusk till Dawn), the film was a general hit with audiences, and, well, there was eventually a follow-up film with Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). 

It is a nice movie for those who know what they are getting into with a movie that is more of a side-step sequel than anything, one that feels the need to see the last scene of the previous movie but with a different face this time around. Now it dwells on the idea that killing the killer wasn't enough to satisfy the fallen mariachi, now it rests to chop the head ahead of that guy too. For the most part, the movie is generally satisfying to those who liked the ambition shown in the other film without seeming like a product of compromises, which mainly means some energetic shooting and a few quick cuts to go with a slightly more packaged story. So yes, the adrenaline rush may not be for everyone, but it does have likeable folks to carry things for 105 minutes. Undeniably, Banderas has a gritty charm to make this character one worth searching further in how one could just slip into guns as if it was a rhythm to replace the one ripped from his busted hand. He clearly oozes the appeal that one could see a lover or a killer in the same breath without a false note detected because you roll with him and his baptism of fire that clearly needs the touch of people again. It helps to have Hayek (in her first key role in an American movie, after a good deal of telenovela appearances) generate just as much sensual appeal in curiosity at the idea of someone who isn't merely just a tool like other folks in the town but has their own sins just the same. Perhaps not surprisingly, their chemistry simmers quickly to the surface that is clear to root for and watch play out for all of the passionate strings you damn well know will be pulled. de Almeida (cast prior to shooting when Raul Julia died) is at least an adequate adversary to shoot for in clear-cut ruthlessness alongside wavering stability (note the sequence where he can't find his phone), at least until the movie makes its one turn of the screw that probably will strain at least one person's doubts. At least the supporting cast comes and goes for a few curious chuckles from Buscemi and the staging for the mayhem is worthy enough to make it look like the fights worth investing time in. Sure, the climax isn't played out to the whole bloody affair (instead having a few dark chuckles with the arrival (and departure of Gallardo and Michel Jr to the fray), but the slap-bang enjoyment of the film as a whole is consistent and kinetic enough to be satisfied with the movie reflecting the way the last one went: on the road but with company to travel this time around. As a whole, it is an improvement on El Mariachi with its general staging of action and all-around charm to ride the storm of doubt made by an up-and-coming director that is worth checking out.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Incidentally, because he managed to license music from Link Wray (it was cheap at the time), it played a tiny influence on Pulp Fiction (1994), because Quentin Tarantino saw Rodriguez using that music and got the idea to use Wray's "Rumble" for his film. No, really, you can read that and hear about "72 camera setups with a single camera in one day."

El Mariachi.

Review #2377: El Mariachi.

Cast: 

Carlos Gallardo ("El Mariachi"), Consuelo Gómez (Dominó), Peter Marquardt (Mauricio "Moco"), Reinol Martínez ("Azul"), Jaime de Hoyos ("Bigotón"), Ramiro Gómez (The Waiter), Jesús López Viejo (The Clerk), Luis Baro (Dominó's Assistant), Óscar Fabila (The Boy) Written and Directed by Robert Rodriguez (#1193 - Alita: Battle Angel and #1903 - From Dusk till Dawn)

Review: 

"Mariachi wasn’t supposed to work out that well. I hadn’t really set a firm plan down. I didn’t expect that to be the movie to get out and make everything. It was in Spanish, it was very low-budget, it was designed to teach me how to make a movie. I had planned to make three of them at the same budget level, that’s why the movie ended the way it did. I was just going to make three in one year. I was hoping maybe the third one would be good enough to get me work on a real film, not be the one that went all over the world. I never expected that to be released, much less for people to see it. It’s good to map out a really decent plan that actually makes sense, that has opportunity for you to learn, because if it takes off from the start like Mariachi did, then that’s good too, but if not, you have to realize it was a learning experience. You have to keep learning and keep making movies."

Admittedly, it never hurts to pick a success story. This was a movie that was made on a budget of $7,000 that served as the feature film debut of its director Robert Rodriguez. The San Antonio native actually was interested in film when his salesman father got him a VCR (with accompanying camera) as a kid. He couldn't attend the film program at the University of Texas at Austin, but he made short films on the side of studying at the College of Communication. It was in 1991 that he made the 16mm short Bedhead (1991) that attracted him to the idea of making a filmmaking career, complete with funds raised from participating in medical testing studies. The movie was shot Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila right near the border in Mexico. If you watch the DVD extras, you get a bit of just how one can really make a movie with little to no film crew: he shot it silent and had actors who weren't in the shot to help out while being quoted as only using "24 rolls of film". Moving shots were done...via wheelchair. This is the kind of movie that hears critics about its production and decides, yes, let us cast them in small parts (specifically, the hotel owner and bartender were played by local newscasters). The movie was aimed for the Spanish-language home video market but the interest was not particularly big there. Instead, through a round of looking around in certain agencies and distributors, it wound up at Columbia Pictures acquiring the movie for a release that took money to spiff up (so about over ten times the amount to make the movie in the first place). In 1995, Rodriguez wrote both a book about the making of the movie (called Rebel Without a Crew*) and followed El Mariachi up with Desperado, which had Antonio Banderas take over as "El Mariachi"; in 2003, the "Mexico Trilogy" concluded with Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)

Sure, it could be pegged as one of various genres and still feel familiar, whether that is in action, neo-noir, or, well, a Western. But it is a particularly familiar movie that still proves an efficient one with a committed director who made a fun movie with that shows its playfulness with a type of scrappy grit that money can't buy, at least for 81 minutes at least. It has enough time to have a song and some general interest in making worthwhile entertainment out of what could've just been goofy meandering. Gallardo mostly is a producer nowadays, but he clearly was a key to making El Mariachi more than just a demo reel, mostly because he makes for a solid everyman. He isn't just mugging it for goofs or stoic boredom, he sells it in a certain type of dignity that is shaken with riveting interest, where even the bumbling for the chases (they kept outtakes in the movie, watch how the first chase goes) is part of the charm, right next to the bathroom sequence at least, where the tension is handled with worthwhile skill in both song and, well, squirming. Curiously, you have a group of unknowns with Gomez, de Hoyos, Marquant, and Martinez, who each appeared in Desperado but have not appeared in a name role since. Marquant happened to be involved in the same drug testing that Rodriguez was involved in. He could not actually speak Spanish (fine by Rodriguez, judging by this), so you get a performance on cue cards that is certainly interesting. Marquardt reprised his role for Desperado but he was mostly busy in video game producing (specifically for Ion Storm) before he died in 2014 at the age of 50. Marquardt may be on the phone for a chunk of his lines, but I do think it is a curiosity more than just a gimmick to see a certain type of stilted lines from this type of adversary, one who believes he has the objects he deserves. When you think about it, every character might as well be playing pretend with themselves, whether that involves how we see the character of Martinez in terms of "hiding out" or with Gomez in "assertive freedom". The climax is swift in its simplicity that I respect for just closing things out and shattering the dream that comes in new cities and new people. As a whole, El Mariachi is a neat accomplishment for its director, riding a rough road of budgetary limitations to strengths in gritty commitment that will be right up one's alley in raw curiosity that you just have to respect.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

*In 2019, Rodriguez made Red 11, which was inspired by his experiences in being a guinea pig for drug testing.