This is the low budget film that launched the career of Robert Rodriguez and really cast him as the Squire to Quentin Tarantino's Knight in what was thought to be a Kingdom of New Cinema. So far, neither has really lived up to the stratospheric expectations that were thrust upon them. But while Tarantino has at least achieved momentary greatness, Rodriguez has so far never been more than just good. Watching El Mariachi now, you can see that he probably never really deserved to be in Taratino's class.
The story concerns a violent Mexican criminal named Azul (Reinol Martinez), a drug-dealing Anglo named Moco (Peter Marquardt) and a traveling Mexican guitar player we never know as anything but "El Mariachi" (Carlos Gallardo). Azul and Moco used to be partners, but Moco cheated Azul out of his cut. That, apparently, wasn't so bad but when Moco tries to have Azul killed and fails, all bets are off as Azul picks up his guitar case full of weapons and starts to hunt down his old partner. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, Azul dresses all in black and carries a guitar case, just like the young musician. Moco's men mistake Mariachi for Azul and try to kill him in spectacularly unsuccessful fashion. As he tries to stay alive and figure out why strangers are trying to kill him, Mariachi meets a local girl named Domino (Consuelo Gomez), who's connected in someway to Moco. That sets the stage for our three main characters to collide in a deadly climax.
For a low, low, low budget movie, El Mariachi isn't half bad. None of the actors are particularly talented and Paul Marquardt reveals himself to be especially horrid at the end of the film, though up to that point he was quite convincingly menacing, even while getting a manicure. The dialog is effective but unremarkable. The scenery and the costuming is all appropriately low rent and the story itself is more like a pilot for a TV show than a legitimate movie.
Rodriguez' direction, however is obviously a cut above the rest of the material. He was still very green and some of his shots and set ups are very basic, almost student film-like at times, but there's a noticeable confidence in his storytelling. The camera doesn't linger on any shot for too long, scenes don't just ramble along until they peter out, and you can tell that he's trying to be as visually interesting as he can with limited resources. He also manages to pull off some stunt work that is very impressive for this level of film. Low budget movies are notoriously bad for cheesy, fake and lame action sequences. Putting explosions, gun battles and harrowing escapes on screen usually takes a lot of money. If you can't afford good special effects, good make up or good stunt men, there's not much you can do. Rodriguez manages to somehow make it work, with one scene involving sliding down a telephone wire to the hood of a moving bus being remarkable for a low budget film. That one scene is probably the single thing that most attracted attention to Rodriguez out of all of El Mariachi.
And though he occasionally lapses into dumb melodrama, Rodriguez shows a very good grasp of storytelling fundamentals. He tries to show the audience things through a character's actions, instead of having someone tell the audiences stuff through clunky exposition. He's able to pull off a running gag involving Azul always wanting his beer in a bottle. And he knows exactly when he's got to juice things up a bit to keep the story moving and the audience engaged.
But while there's flashes of talent shown, El Mariachi isn't really the mark of a great filmmaker. There's no reason to think the guy who made it would go on to create anything like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. You can see that things like From Dusk Til Dawn or the Spy Kids movies were a much more natural progression for Rodriguez. Because ultimately, he only attempted to be good with El Mariachi. He succeeded, but for a low budget film to be great it has to be willing to be so "out there", so over the top, so outrageous, so imaginative that it runs the risk of being a complete and utter clusterbleep. Rodriguez isn't willing to take that chance and probably didn't deserve quite as much of a moment in the sun as he got from this film.
But there's nothing wrong with "just" being a good filmmaker and there's nothing wrong with "just" being a decent film. You can certainly do a lot worse for an evening's entertainment than renting a copy of El Mariachi.
The story concerns a violent Mexican criminal named Azul (Reinol Martinez), a drug-dealing Anglo named Moco (Peter Marquardt) and a traveling Mexican guitar player we never know as anything but "El Mariachi" (Carlos Gallardo). Azul and Moco used to be partners, but Moco cheated Azul out of his cut. That, apparently, wasn't so bad but when Moco tries to have Azul killed and fails, all bets are off as Azul picks up his guitar case full of weapons and starts to hunt down his old partner. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, Azul dresses all in black and carries a guitar case, just like the young musician. Moco's men mistake Mariachi for Azul and try to kill him in spectacularly unsuccessful fashion. As he tries to stay alive and figure out why strangers are trying to kill him, Mariachi meets a local girl named Domino (Consuelo Gomez), who's connected in someway to Moco. That sets the stage for our three main characters to collide in a deadly climax.
For a low, low, low budget movie, El Mariachi isn't half bad. None of the actors are particularly talented and Paul Marquardt reveals himself to be especially horrid at the end of the film, though up to that point he was quite convincingly menacing, even while getting a manicure. The dialog is effective but unremarkable. The scenery and the costuming is all appropriately low rent and the story itself is more like a pilot for a TV show than a legitimate movie.
Rodriguez' direction, however is obviously a cut above the rest of the material. He was still very green and some of his shots and set ups are very basic, almost student film-like at times, but there's a noticeable confidence in his storytelling. The camera doesn't linger on any shot for too long, scenes don't just ramble along until they peter out, and you can tell that he's trying to be as visually interesting as he can with limited resources. He also manages to pull off some stunt work that is very impressive for this level of film. Low budget movies are notoriously bad for cheesy, fake and lame action sequences. Putting explosions, gun battles and harrowing escapes on screen usually takes a lot of money. If you can't afford good special effects, good make up or good stunt men, there's not much you can do. Rodriguez manages to somehow make it work, with one scene involving sliding down a telephone wire to the hood of a moving bus being remarkable for a low budget film. That one scene is probably the single thing that most attracted attention to Rodriguez out of all of El Mariachi.
And though he occasionally lapses into dumb melodrama, Rodriguez shows a very good grasp of storytelling fundamentals. He tries to show the audience things through a character's actions, instead of having someone tell the audiences stuff through clunky exposition. He's able to pull off a running gag involving Azul always wanting his beer in a bottle. And he knows exactly when he's got to juice things up a bit to keep the story moving and the audience engaged.
But while there's flashes of talent shown, El Mariachi isn't really the mark of a great filmmaker. There's no reason to think the guy who made it would go on to create anything like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. You can see that things like From Dusk Til Dawn or the Spy Kids movies were a much more natural progression for Rodriguez. Because ultimately, he only attempted to be good with El Mariachi. He succeeded, but for a low budget film to be great it has to be willing to be so "out there", so over the top, so outrageous, so imaginative that it runs the risk of being a complete and utter clusterbleep. Rodriguez isn't willing to take that chance and probably didn't deserve quite as much of a moment in the sun as he got from this film.
But there's nothing wrong with "just" being a good filmmaker and there's nothing wrong with "just" being a decent film. You can certainly do a lot worse for an evening's entertainment than renting a copy of El Mariachi.