El Mariachi
The state of low budget independent filmmaking has come down to one major factor when it comes to young filmmakers who are both short on funds and also lacking the ingenuity to make something memorable. Indy filmmakers have usually resorted to churning out what amounts to badly acted, badly written, badly directed and badly made films of which most have generally qualified as being “personal dramas”, stomach churning pieces of melancholy reflecting the writer / director’s life experience which might be of modest interest to said filmmaker’s immediate family and friends while they almost always find themselves being laughed out of most respectable film festivals where the film is played. Only the low budget horror genre seems to get any real interest with people not directly connected to those who made it and of course Sam Raimi being the most renowned example of such with the incredibly amazing results he managed to get with 1982’s The Evil Dead, but still even real triumphs in this genre on a low budget are few and far between. Enter Robert Rodriguez, a guy who was so determined to prove that he could get a movie made for next to nothing that he spent a month as a “human lab rat” for a laboratory service testing out a new cholesterol drug in order to raise what little money he could (an estimated $7000 for the production budget) and make his debut feature not as either a horror film or drama, but in perhaps the riskiest low budget genre of them all, that being an action movie. And much like Raimi successfully pulled off one of the greatest horrors of all time, Rodriguez shocked the world by pulling off what is easily still in this day and age of elaborate CGI disaster scenes one of THE greatest action movies in the history of cinema, creating a character who became iconic in his own right while perfecting a guerilla type method of shooting where almost all of the shortcomings managed to be masked by a breathtaking style of both editing and discipline. Indeed, Rodriguez was literally a one man crew on the project, holding the camera himself at all times (and pulling off some beautifully evocative and ironic shots) and re-recording all spoken dialogue after scenes were shot into a tape recorder and Radio Shack microphone so that it could be synced up later. Locations were reused often but disguised by having different camera angles, and the action, energy and graphic violence came out to be the cherry on top, pushing the movie towards far greater heights than anyone could have ever expected. Even more interesting is that after Rodriguez managed to sell his little film that could and watched it turn into a big hit, he accepted an offer to do a sort of hybrid remake / sequel for a much bigger budget this time. That film turned out to be Desperado, which recast Antonio Banderas in the title role as not only someone with a genuine movie star presence, but one which also turned the character into a more Wraith like angel of death figure who was already on the hunt for revenge as the story began (even though this film wrapped up its story quite nicely with no need for a sequel) with some blurring of the lines in the early scenes to make the transition more palatable. Regardless, whereas Banderas stepped into the part in order to play a man of violence, this original film offers a very well told origin story for the character, presented here as being more of a boyish, timid, sensitive soul played by Carlos Gallardo (also a co producer who would return in Desperado as a bandmate / fellow gunslinger of the Banderas interpretation) and it has to be said that Gallardo does an excellent job in the part, succeeding in making the viewer care for both him and his predicament and coming across as being far more human than Antonio’s killing machine. The story sees him coming to a small Mexican town searching for work as a mariachi singer not so much for the money, but for the fun and pleasure derived from seeing other people enjoying his performances. He finally finds work at a saloon run by a beautiful girl (Consuelo Gomez), but there is a BIG problem, as a notoriously feared hitman (Reinol Martinez) has just broken out of prison and is headed towards the town to take down the local drug dealing kingpin (Peter Marquardt, who had met Rodriguez in the test lab facility) who had betrayed him and screwed him out of a sizable amount of money. And with that, he also carries with him a large black guitar case full of weapons (which would be Mariachi’s trademark in the sequels). All the henchmen know about this feared killer is that he carries the guitar case and dresses in all black (just like Mariachi does) and to make a long story short, the henchmen mistake our hero for the hitman and open fire with the twist coming out that when this nicest, sweetest of guys finds himself suddenly under fire and must defend himself, he turns out to just naturally be the baddest son of a bitch on the planet as soon as he picks up a firearm, handily taking out those who are mistakenly hunting him down with such precision and iron will that everyone of course assumes that he really IS the super badass hitman whom they are looking for (with the actual hitman himself really turning out to be more of a cowardly type who spends most of the movie laying low rather than taking out the unholy vengeance which he had promised). Again, considering that Rodriguez’s budget issues usually forced him to shoot everything with one take (and utilize his editing skills to cover up on any flubs or blunders), the fact that the shootouts and other action scenes still come off as just being so smooth and fluid is really a testament to the incredible talent he had that was on display here, never letting up on either the pacing or suspense either. Other things that are very noteworthy include Rodriguez’s rather underrated job at screenwriting here (in both the original Spanish and English dubbed versions), which includes a narration by Mariachi that succeeds at being both deep and introspective and enough well rounded character development, unexpected offbeat funny bits, and nuanced dialogue to keep the whole film just flowing along (including a welcome grasp at sympathy towards the main henchman who can’t seem to figure out which guy that he’s supposed to be after) as well as Rodriguez’s own admittance to alleged “stunt casting” right on the spot literally grabbing people who just happened to be walking along on any given day of shooting and putting them in the movie with speaking parts. With the use of water pistols for most firearms, clothes and vehicles that for the most part belonged to the actors and just the sheer ingenuity of creating effectively convincing gunshot blood squibs and other things that he probably thought up right there on the set and incorporated into the movie, this remains the triumph that it was hyped as being upon its original release and still is to this day, and yes, it remains the better overall movie than its Banderas counterpart which reveled in its sheer excessive violent setpieces, its cast of more seasoned, better known actors in both major roles and cameos, and its absolute determination to obviously rewrite certain aspects of the character’s origin while absolutely NOT being an origin story in its own right like this film was. Moreso, it lacked the heart that this film had in effortlessly allowing us to connect to the characters whereas Banderas was really more like a merciless cyborg killing everything in sight as opposed to a good guy just trying to protect himself and stay alive under extraordinarily violent circumstances. And the ending here, which sees Gallardo’s Mariachi riding off alone but still making it quite hazy for us as to what his future might hold, is in many ways the most iconic of the franchise (which ultimately extended to three films) as Gallardo would appear to be a destroyed, broken man who might just indeed morph into being a cold blooded, unstoppable killer (and as said, the opening scene of Desperado might possibly represent a stitch in the fabric of time that justified the casting changeover), but there can be no doubt that when it comes to the fact that a mere $7000 budgeted film can still be enjoyed and appreciated even today amongst the other classics of its genre, that is proof enough that Robert Rodriguez will always be considered a force in the world of maverick independent filmmaking…
9/10