El Mariachi

El Mariachi (1992) was a fine debut for film maker Robert Rodriguez. He makes the most of his minuscule budget and makes a very entertaining action film. The story behind the making of the film is even more interesting than the movie itself. You can tell from this movie that Robert Rodriguez had a bright future in the movie business.

The story is about a musician who's trying to find work in a Mexican border town. None of the places he visits wants to hire a guitar player for their business. Meanwhile another man comes to town carrying a guitar case, he's no musician. He's a notorious hit man for a local gangster. When their paths cross, nothing but trouble lies ahead for the El Mariachi. Can the poor dude survive the week without being killed? Who is this guitar carrying killer? Why is he in town? What are the local crime boss' motives? To find out you'll have to watch EL MARIACHI!!!

An interesting debut that showed lots of promise. The movie was followed by a pseudo-sequel/remake a few years later with a bigger budget and a cast filled with a lot of named actors.

Highly recommended.

Let's give credit where credit is due. Although this picture had an extremely low-budget, it goes to prove that a nice film can still be produced if the director has the imagination and talent to pull it off. And let's face it, the sad fact is that there are all too many movies being made today that cost much more than this particular film ($7000) but fail to deliver the same level of satisfaction. The director (Robert Rodriguez) deserves every attribute due to him. The humor was good and there were some social commentaries that I think some people might have missed. That is not to say, however, that this film was necessarily perfect. It wasn't. The acting wasn't great by any means. Neither was the script. But then, the movie was originally produced in Spanish and the version I saw was dubbed in English, so it is possible that some of the dialogue may have been lost in translation. The ending though, was unexpected and abrupt and I didn't quite like it. As far as the characters are concerned, I thought Reinol Martinez (playing the part of the gangster "Azul") did the best. Consuelo Gomez ("Domino") was attractive and put in a fair performance as well. Carlos Gallardo ("El Mariachi") was average at best. The rest of the cast were pretty much forgettable. Having said all of this, the fact that this film was produced with a low budget doesn't mean that a person should lower his standards and give it a higher score than it deserves when it comes to evaluating it. This wasn't "Gone with the Wind" so there's no need to give it an equivalent rating. The bottom line is that it was an enjoyable low-budget film and it made a hefty profit. No need to argue with that.

What could easily be viewed as just a simple B-movie turns into an impressive, gritty and action-packed independent feature from director Robert Rodriguez. It's the volatile, gripping story of a wandering guitarist who arrives in a small Mexican town looking for a big break, but unfortunately a case of mistaken identity makes him the target of the town's cold-blooded boss and his vile henchmen who are bent on killing him. Shot for a remarkable $7,000, and featuring a cast of newcomers and generally unknowns, this formidable little feature still packs a punch with violent, pumped-up action scenes and credible performances. Nothing ever truly breathtaking, but a respectable showing nonetheless. ***

I know the budget for this film was somewhere between 5000 and 7000 dollars, but I would like to comment more on the pacing and frenetic film style Rodriguez bestows upon us. Low budget or not,this film has energy. It never lets down for more than a few minutes and the editing is amazing. Robert Rodriguez has such a knowledge of film-making that he makes this movie look like a million bucks easy. The film isn't perfect, but on sheer energy alone it will entertain you more than most over-blown Hollywood action films.

I have loved some of Robert Rodriguez's later works like Sin City, so I was pretty excited to see this movie.

The movie is extremely small budget and it really feels like it is more expensive than that. I mean, Robert Rodriguez makes this movie look like it had much more money spent on it, and that is because of his creativity and resourcefulness.

The directing is really good. I loved many of the shots and scenes in this movie and the way they are edited.

My problem with the film or at least my dilemma is... I just find this movie OK. The main actor and character itself is pretty lousy, the movie is too long for its own good, and the story is just OK.

Many people argue that this might be justified because of the low budget. But I do believe that all of the story problems don't have anything to do with the budget. It is not as if I don't like low-budget films, I LOVE "The Evil Dead" and other low-budget films. I just find this movie uneventful, and sometimes boring.

I think this film is the kind of film you should only watch once and move on with your life. I do recommend you to watch it though.