El Mariachi (1993)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A lot of fun.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Robert Rodriguez' first movie, before he came to USA, and prequel to famous Desperado. Rodriguez had no team and he shot it on his own with just about 7.000 $ budget. Movie is in Spanish, there's no famous actors and most of the roles are played by local residents. It was shot as silent film and dialogues and sound are added afterwards. Rodriguez wrote the script, gathered volunteers for roles, directed, recorded sound, did editing and everything that goes with it on his own. Something like Chaplin was doing in his time, one man show. Story is good, movie is mediocre, but considering how it's done this is amazing achievement. Then Rodriguez went to America and made other two parts of Mexico trilogy, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.I rated this movie 5/10 before I knew background story, but it's 10/10 for effort. It definitely is worth watching.

Usually a movie is considered to be low-budget if it costs less than $1 million. El mariachi was a micro-budget that costed only $7,000. Robert Rodriguez was in charge of almost everything behind the scenes with some stars in the movie helping out. The low-budget is apparent, but you turn your attention away from the cost almost right away.El mariachi spawned two international blockbusters--Desperado (the best known) and Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Desperado is part sequel and part remake, but both sequel have poor connections with one another. Since El mariachi does not spawn from anything else, it has the most forgivable flaws.In all three movies, the tragic hero (played here by Carlos Gallardo and in the sequels by Antonio Banderas) is an unnamed guitar player (known as El Mariachi) who just wants to get a chance to play and make some money. He wanders from town to town with only his guitar in search of his destiny. So far he sounds pretty generic, but he has a tender heart and very nice appeal. He stumbles into a Mexican town where he meets a bar owner named Domino. The love story between these two is fantastic. We hope that she helps him rise and become a successful musician. This love story may not be the main premise, but it is defiantly something lyrical.The main story is a case of mistaken identity involving a drug lord, his nemesis, and El. Azul is a mean, rough-and-tough Spanish criminal who breaks out of jail and is after the drug lord known as "Moco."Azul loves to wear black and always carries a guitar case that's full of guns. Moco orders his men to kill anyone that fits that description. El also loves to wear black and always carries a guitar case. We all know where this is going. Action scenes and chases occur that are more exciting than stylistic. Style is what Rodriguez was really concerned with in the sequels. With such a low budget, there wasn't very many second takes, just other camera positions. That is what makes it such a great flair. El and Azul accidentally switch cases which makes matters worse. We have grown to love El and Domino, but Azul and Moco still have unfinished business. Sadly, tragedy ensues. Desperado features a recreation of the scene, so the viewer knows what will happen. But Rodriguez did in his first shot what very few directors can ever do: make the viewer wonder what will happen next and root for the best...even after you've seen the movie! This isn't very violent as the others are, but its character and plot developments are strong, and it has a higher emotional factor than any other Robert Rodriguez movie.

It is a surprise to see how far director Rodriguez has come from this movie. This particular movie involves probably the least amount of blood. But either way, it is still entertaining, even if it has English subtitles. I liked the majority of the film except for a few parts.This movie is the story of the guitar player, El Mariachi, who became the vigilante that he was from Desperado (1995) that Antonio Banderas starred in. Everything is explained. From why he became what he became, and how it happened. This movie is not particularly the jolliest of all films. Neither was Desperado (1995) but it did thread in some humor every now and then that did enlighten the spirits. This movie does have a little of it but the story is more focused on the main character itself.Carlos Gallardo plays the original Mariachi, as is his original "girl friend", Domino, played by Consuelo Gomez. Both look great together as did Banderas and Hayek did in the sequel. But because the way the story is told, love never develops. Unfortunately, that was one of the things I wish did occur. However, I can't complain because it led up to a nice sequel. Turns out though, the beginning of the Mariachi's story is quite tragic. Like I said before, it explains everything.The fact that the actors spoke Spanish throughout the movie didn't bother me at all. I am grateful that there were English subtitles because I could still follow what was happening and what was being said. I also enjoyed listening to the dialog in Spanish. It's not often you run into a foreign film when you're in a English speaking nation. Every Spanish word that I heard sounded new and attractive, no matter what mouth it came out of.The music, which had many composers, sounded alright too. It wasn't as memorable as the soundtrack provided by Los Lobos in Desperado (1995) but it still had a good beat. Something I got confused over were the dream sequences that El Mariachi had. What did they represent? Past events? Was the child a younger version of him? Why the severed head? What did that mean? These nightmares were never addressed and there for left me frustrated because I did not understand the meaning of it.The introduction of the Mariachi franchise has the same trademarks by Robert Rodriguez but is also much different. Although it's in Spanish, it's still fun to watch and listen, even if the story is tragic.

In 1992, a little known director by the name of Robert Rodriguez surprised everyone at the Sundance Film Festival with his low budget action thriller El Mariachi. There isn't a whole lot too this film but that might be what makes it so great. It's a straightforward story about Robert Rodriguez's own "man with no name character." But instead of literally being called The Man With No Name, our protagonist is simple called El Mariachi. El Mariachi is a traveling guitar player whose only dream is to carry on the legacy his guitarist ancestors established. He has to take a detour from this dream when he is mistaken for someone with much more sinister intentions than he. A man by the name of Azul is taking out a drug dealer's men trying to get his money the drug dealer owes him. Moco the drug dealer sends his men out to find and kill Azul. The only problem is his men don't know what he looks like and their only identifier is that he wears all black and carries a guitar case filled with guns. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, he also fits this description minus the firearms. And even though the story is fairly simple, it feels like a lot happens in this film, especially for one that only runs 80 minutes.The most defining thing about El Mariachi is its independent feel, which doesn't hold the film back at all. In fact, it gives it a much more intense and gritty feel. It's lack of glamour and glitz makes it a lot more visceral and, to me at least, more exciting. Rodriguez directs this film with a very rough around the edges feel to it. There are a lot of close ups and plenty of quick hand-held shots that put you into the middle of the action, but due to the low budget aura of the film you don't feel shoved into the action, instead just precariously placed there to watch it all unfold in a very real sense without being over dramatized. You have to respect El Mariachi for what it is and if you do you can enjoy it much more.Like I said before, El Mariachi delivers a lot in under 90 minutes. Amidst the great low budget action sequences there really is a great story, despite any simplicity there is on the surface. The film gives us a quick and intense opening sequence in which Azul breaks out of jail and finds out he wont be receiving his money from Moco. We are then introduced to our protagonist and what he stands for. Then we are quickly thrown into the heat of the story as Azul goes on a killing spree for revenge, and El Mariachi is chased down as a result of these actions. The film never has a dull point, which isn't saying much for such a short film, but it still makes it much more enjoyable overall. And even though we see a simple storyline on the surface, we are actually delivered a very well constructed protagonist. He is somebody we are really able to feel sorry for. He pursues such a pure dream of being a renowned guitarist just like his ancestors before him, and yet he has that dream trashed and scattered by the evil of the world. He begins the film as pretty much the only character with good intentions. The rest of the cast, albeit small, are all greedy scoundrels who taint El Mariachi's good hope. In hindsight, it is actually very depressing. And then of course the film ends with a bittersweet set up for Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado.El Mariachi is simply awesome. For something so low budget and so limited, Rodriguez does great things with this movie. It's a short but fun ride that begins strong, entertains in the middle, and ends with a bang. This film shows how much can be done with so little and how you can still make a great movie without an overtly complex concept. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I highly recommend it.