Before we start, look at the price for which this flipper DVD sells. Unlike other DVD's that include a second motion picture for the price of a single movie (like Fox's "The Fly"/"The Fly II", Artisan's "The Arrival"/"The Arrival II", etc.), this package is priced high-enough by Columbia to make one feel he/she’s buying two separate motion pictures instead of one (even though they both come on a single DVD). If you don't consider yourself a fan of either Robert Rodriguez, Antonio Banderas or action movies in general, you might want to shop around for individual versions of these two movies. For hardcore fans of either Rodriguez, Banderas or Hong Kong action flicks (or other equally-stylish cinematic endeavors like "The Matrix"), keep on reading and get ready to empty your wallet tracking down a killer deal (no pun intended) when it comes to watching the evolution of a filmmaker's concept go from humble beginnings to the heights of Hollywood's cutting-edge elite.
If you haven't heard a million times by now the story of how movie director Robert Rodriguez ("The Faculty", the "Spy Kids" series) became a Hollywood player, here's a quick recap: back in the early 90's Rodriguez and his friend Carlos Gallardo shot/edited/scored/financed an 81 min. Spanish action movie called "El Mariachi" for $7,000, which they hoped to sell to the Spanish video market to get more money to finance other projects. After making the rounds of film festivals, audiences saw the movie and were floored when told by Rodriguez that the film only cost $7,000 and was already shot and ready to go. With the critical acclaim and rags-to-riches story feeding into the publicity machine, "El Mariachi" became a poster child for independent filmmaker's wildest dreams. Rodriguez's wild visual style and aggressive editing owed much to Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies. Yet the energy of "El Mariachi" (a much better action movie than similar flicks with much bigger budgets), combined with the knowledge of its budget, made audiences realize that Rodriguez had talent.
For his big motion picture debut Rodriguez chose to stick with a winning formula and do a follow-up to "El Mariachi' called "Desperado". With a bigger budget, an all-star cast (Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, etc.) and an 'R' rating, "Desperado" was born. It’s a wild action movie that mixes great camera angles, humor, bloody shootouts and sexy actors engaging in Hong Kong cinema's grandest tradition of acrobatic, slow-motion, poetic violent confrontation with dozens of armed thugs. Watching both movies gives viewers the experience of seeing how a budget can help the director/editor/writer of an indie movie push his vision further, and the extras included in this two-movie DVD are perfect icing on the cake. Although pricey, I cannot imagine any film freak or DVD owner worth his/her salt not tempted by Rodriguez's first two movies to pick a home video camera and dream of hitting it big at the Sundance Film Festival. Here's the breakdown of each individual movie's attributes:
EL MARIACHI
In a Mexican town called Acuna there's a gringo bad guy named Mauricio, aka Moco (Peter Marquardt), that tries to get rid of a rival henchman named Azul (Reinol Martinez) with a bunch of armed thugs. Azul avoids Moco's trap, and massacres several of his men at a local bar while wearing a black outfit and carrying his arsenal of weapons in a guitar case. Using the age-old gimmick of the mistaken identity plot, a young mariachi player (Carlos Gallardo) walks into town wearing an outfit and carrying a guitar case that looks just like the one Azul had when he carried out his massacre. Barely escaping repeated attempts on his life by Moco's men (who are unaware that there are two men with black outfits and guitar cases in town), the young mariachi befriends a local girl named Domino (Consuelo Gomez) and tries to settle into town unsuccessfully.
Although nobody in "El Mariachi" is an actor (Gallardo's Spanish voice-overs sound as flat as Dick Cheney reciting the lyrics to "American Pie"), the cast of Mexican locals are pretty decent considering all they do is shoot, run and look confused, especially the chief bad guy Bigoton (Jaime DeHoyos). The skillful edits and camera angles that Rodriguez used to shoot "El Mariachi" give the flick a fluent and fast-paced atmosphere that elevates it above the glut of Mexican garbage it was intended to be a part of. Rodriguez constantly switches gears between comedy (Gallardo singing his life out while Domino holds a letter opener near his manhood in Ch.13) and some pretty exciting action sequences (a hotel getaway scene in Ch.8). The movie occasionally suffers because of the cast's obvious lack of acting skill (the young lady that plays the role of Domino and the gringo actor playing the role of Moco being the prime culprits). Overall though, “El Mariachi” is a quirky and pretty enjoyable low-budget action flick that serves as an acceptable stepping-stone to its far superior sequel.
DESPERADO
As "Desperado" opens we get an anecdotal re-enactment of the myth of the first movie's bad-ass character via a flashback scene told by Steve Buscemi, who scares a bunch of henchmen at a bar (including bartender Cheech Marin) into expecting the arrival of a killing machine into the Mexican town of Santa Cecilia. Eventually such killing machine arrives in the form of the guitar case carrying mariachi (Antonio Banderas), who apparently has become a vigilante that eradicates drug dealers now that he can no longer play guitar (because of the ending in the original "El Mariachi", which I won't spoil if you haven't seen either flick). After engaging in a ferocious gun battle against the men at the bar and leaving a message to the new bad drug lord in his crosshairs, Bucho (Joaquin DeAlmeida), Banderas stumbles into the loving arms of a young pretty girl named Carolina (Salma Hayek) that saves him. They fall in love while she's sewing his wounds off atop a library counter (Ch.8), but her loyalty to Banderas is questionable due to Carolina's alliance to Bucho.
In an echo of the prequel's ‘mistaken identity’ plot (which contrasts with "Desperado's" more simple ‘revenge’ plot), Bucho sends his henchmen out to get the new man in town man wearing black clothes. They’re unaware that another man wearing a similar outfit named Navajas (Danny Trejo) has been sent by Bucho's Colombian allies to watch over the drug trade. Bloody mayhem ensues! "Desperado's" pace has an even more kinetic kick of energy highlights, with an odd romantic interlude (a sex scene in Ch.19) occasionally interrupting violent action sequences that are as wild and imaginative as they are funny and extremely over the top (Bucho shooting his own men in Ch.23). By the time Banderas is joined by two other fellow mariachis (including the prequel's star and this film's co-producer Carlos Gallardo) for this movie's equivalent of the gunfight at the OK Corral (Ch.25), you have either surrendered to the film's contagious sense of giddy excitement or have thrown your arms in disgust.
Questionable departure of a few key characters (including a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as a drug pick-up guy) and an anti-climactic ending aside, "Desperado" is one of the best Hollywood tributes to Hong Kong action flicks ever made. It's also Banderas’ best film role since “The Mambo Kings”, and the beginning of a prolific working relationship with Robert Rodriguez in the “Spy Kids” movies.
The Disc:
Considering that the first thing that suffers when budgets are extremely low in motion pictures is the film stock, asking for a pristine picture from a film that was shot for $7,000 is unreal. Even Rodriguez himself admits in the commentary track that his 3/4" video master looks better than the blown-up 35mm film print from which this DVD's picture was transferred. All concerns taken into account though, "El Mariachi" looks pretty decent in this Widescreen Transfer despite its perpetual grainy picture, orgy of film scratches and never-ending stream of dirt and grain specs throughout the picture. Because of the fast-paced of the edits and fancy camera work, very few scenes in "El Mariachi" linger on the screen for long-enough to be distracting due to their technical shortcomings. Since this film was destined to an obscure existence in Mexican video anyway, a bad-looking DVD with a second/third-generation transfer of "El Mariachi" seems like plenty.
“El Mariachi” comes in Portuguese/French/Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround Tracks, with the Spanish one being the best because it’s the intended language with which the movie was shot. Although briefly discussed in Rodriguez's commentary track, the English dub that Columbia commissioned for the American VHS release of "El Mariachi" is MIA from this DVD. Considering that the original Spanish track sounds were recorded on Radio Shack issued audio equipment, "El Mariachi" sounds OK. Very few voices get obscured by the sound effects or the eclectic soundtrack (credited to five different composers that helped Rodriguez out during his days without money), but the stale and unemotional delivery of the actors doesn't help the movie’s mood when it attempts to be dramatic.
The 1:44 min. Theatrical Trailer that Columbia used to tout the arrival of Rodriguez as the hottest director at the time appears in its blown-to-35mm film aspect ratio of 1:85:1. Also included is a 9:55 min. short film, ’Bedhead’, that Rodriguez made for the short film festival long before “El Mariachi” hit it big (and looking every bit like an early blueprint for Rodriguez’s own “Spy Kids” movies). Also included is something called '10 Minute Film School' Featurette (which actually runs for 14:30 min.) in which Rodriguez uses a few snippets of unused film (as close as a tightly-shot low-budget flick like "El Mariachi" ever gets to your average DVD's deleted/alternate segments) to illustrate how a filmmaker can save money in unnecessary takes by pre-planning ahead; home video of Rodriguez and star/producer Carlos Gallardo rehearsing a few special effects shots and recording the soundtrack on a regular audio microphone can also be seen here. Inspiring stuff to perpetuate the myth of the courage and tenacity of a visionary filmmaker that'll stop at nothing to get his movie made (particularly the credit at the end of the '10 Minute Film School' stating that Rodriguez edited this Laserdisc/DVD featurette at his home on a PC).
DESPERADO
The quality of the 1:85:1 Widescreen Anamorphic Video Transfer in "Desperado" will look like a five star picture after being exposed to the low-budget print of "El Mariachi" (or the not-too-different Superbit version of the movie Columbia released last year). There are a few grains of dirt every once in a while, but this film is just a few imperfections shy of perfection. From the detail in the few sets and many locations (both movies were shot in the Mexican towns of Acuna and Cohavila) to the detail of the sweat and hair in Banderas' face, or from the many fiery explosions to the lack of major artifacting or edge enhancement issues to complain about, the picture quality of "Desperado" kicks ass. It lives up to Rodriguez's premise that this are $7 million bucks wisely stretched to look as if five times that amount was spent to make it look good; not too shabby given “El Mariachi’s” $7,000 production price tag.
Three Dolby 2.0 Surround tracks in Portuguese, French, and English serve as back-up coverage for an exhilarating Dolby 5.1 English Track. The first three are self-explanatory, but the 5.1 Dolby track exhibits an unbelievably loud and crystal-clear projection that uses every speaker to great effect (even if some of the dialogue gets lost in the loudness of the explosions. The shootout in Ch.7, in particular, has different bullets firing from every speaker at different cuts to convey the madness of the mayhem. And unlike the no-name soundtrack of "El Mariachi", "Desperado" boasts an all-star soundtrack that mixes classic rock music (Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits) with Latin music (Santana, Los Lobos, Tito Puente, etc.). Yep, I guess $7 million from Columbia Pictures does get your movie better sound than $7,000 and the collaboration of the wonderful folks over at Radio Shack.
A music-only, full screen 1:23 min. Theatrical Trailer (very energetic and well-edited) accompanies a montage of scenes from the movie, along with another '10 Minute Film School' Featurette (10:26 min. to be exact) that focuses on showing the importance of pre-planning shots and using video as a substitute (or enhancement) to storyboards. Speaking of storyboards, 'Anatomy Of A Shootout' shows us Banderas and Rodriguez's crew rehearsing and pre-planning every shot in the infamous shootout in Ch.7 (one of the better parts of the flick), which is not only interesting and informative but also very funny. Unfortunately this DVD doesn't include any of the more gory or deleted scenes (including the curiously toned-down anticlimactic ending in Ch.26) that the MPAA forced Rodriguez to cut in order to give "Desperado" an 'R' rating. This sucks balls!
Last but not least, writer/director/producer/editor/cameraman Robert Rodriguez appears on both “El Mariachi” and “Desperado” with a Feature-Length Commentary Track that is nothing short of Film Ed 101. Everything anyone ever wanted to know about how to shoot for either lower-than-low budgets ("El Mariachi") or how to stretch an indigent Hollywood budget of $7 million into looking like something much more expensive ("Desperado") is shared here. Rarely does Rodriguez not have anything interesting to say (he even comes back on during the credits of "Desperado" about a minute after he says he's done talking), but he's never boring and his insights show the care and love of a man that knows and loves what he's doing. It’s commentary like this and the one in “From Dusk ‘Till Dawn” that make the absence of Rodriguez commentary tracks in “The Faculty” and “Spy Kids” so hard to swallow.
bottom line:
"El Mariachi" is a tad slow and boring (kinetic camera movement and fast edits notwithstanding), but it serves as a measured introduction to the glorious orgy of calculated death and mayhem that is unleashed when "Desperado" and its two red-hot leads (a manlier-than-man Antonio Banderas and a fetching Salma Hayek) blow up half the town and every bad guy in sight. This double-movie DVD is definitely worth buying IF you're into this kind of thing. Remember though: watching these movies comes at the danger of getting caught in the fever and desire to become involved in the motion picture industry, which will inevitably lead to desolation and depression. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who knows me!
By - J.M. Vargas
