Retro Film Review: El Mariachi (1992)

about 4 years ago (Edited)

(source: tcmdb.org)

The most amazing films aren't necessarily the best ones. Or the worst ones, either. Sometimes the mere circumstances of production are enough for the film to earn place in history books. El Mariachi, 1992 action thriller written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, is one of such titles, arguably the most amazing film made in 1990s. Shot for unimaginably low budget of mere 7000 US$ in circumstances worthy of an urban legend (and described in Rodriguez's cult book Rebel Without a Crew), this film almost instantly turned young and completely unknown director into household name.

The protagonist of the film is El Mariachi (played by Carlos Gallardo), singer of traditional Mexican songs who wants to continue family tradition. He arrives into small border town and tries to earn some money by playing guitar. His arrival coincides with the arrival of another man - Azul (played by Reinol Martinez), deadly assassin who carries guns in his guitar case and wants to kill Moco (played by Peter Marquardt), powerful local drug lord. Since both men wear black and carry guitar cases, El Mariachi is mistaken for Azul by Moco's henchmen. El Mariachi, suddenly forced to run for his own life and not knowing why, finds the only help in the form of Domino (played by Consuelo Gomez), beautiful bar owner who happens to be Moco's love interest.

All those expecting El Mariachi to be film masterpiece are going to be disappointed. El Mariachi is masterpiece, but masterpiece of improvisation. Rodriguez lacked finances and other resources and was forced to be his own screenwriter, producer, editor, special effects supervisor and camera operator. Yet he managed to turn those financial and logistical limitations into advantages. Unconstrained by financial considerations and someone else's supervision, he was free to experiment with unusual camera angles and other tricks that turn otherwise mundane action scenes into something reminiscent of John Woo's and Sam Peckinpah's classics. In Rodriguez's talented hands even the otherwise mundane locations of Ciudad Ocuna proved beneficial for El Mariachi - they provide almost surreal atmosphere, quite suitable for Kafkian nightmare of the protagonist. Even the casting proved to be spot on for this kind of film, especially in the case of title role. Rodriguez's friend, co- producer and assistant Carlos Gallardo might be complete amateur when it comes to acting, but his lack of experience in front of camera corresponds well with a character of ordinary man suddenly thrown into nightmarish situation.

Unfortunately, this film also has flaws and all of them can't be attributed solely to Rodriguez's financial problems. The plot is interesting, but the characters are one dimensional and the dialogue is wooden. On the other hand, Rodriguez himself didn't take this film as seriously as some well-established filmmaker would do - for him this whole project was nothing more than training for the future projects. Yet, even when we take those flaws into account, El Mariachi is still very entertaining piece of low- budget cinema and, as such, deserves our attention for something other than being inspiration for future generations of film makers.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 9th 2002)