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EL MARIACHI (1993)
*** (out of four)
Image A- Sound A-
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August 9, 2003|El Mariachi has tons more charm than its star-studded, big-budget reprise Desperado, and not for the temptation to overstate the surpassed expectations of any breakthrough underdog, but because there's no Hollywood artifice to obscure its heart and soul. Somehow, the Big Bad (Jaime De Hoyos) having untouched zits makes him more emotionally truthful than Joaquim de Almeida's correlative in Desperado, and as blindingly gorgeous as Salma Hayek is in Desperado, the love interest you fall for is El Mariachi's Consuelo Gómez: resembling no one so much as a Mexican Arsinée Khanjian (though thankfully lacking her undead stare), Gómez breathes authentic vivacity into the movie. And when you recast Carlos Gallardo with Antonio Banderas, you eliminate the gonzo X-factor from the character's fate--hardscrabble films have the advantage of being disconnected from star politics, permitting the death of the protagonist. Rodriguez isn't nihilistic enough to kill off Gallardo, of course--rather, he's a classicist, more content to strip the titular troubadour of his ability to make music, elevating what is essentially a spaghetti (tortillia?) mistaken-identity comedy to the level of Greek tragedy. I really do appreciate the miracle of El Mariachi, which is not that it was made for $7000 (it wasn't--not the spit-polished El Mariachi we're familiar with, anyway), but how frequently it swerves to avoid mere schlock and bumps into something affecting, whether it be funny (so willing is the film to let us laugh that even the Ed Woodian stream-of-consciousness narration seems wry instead of pathetic--"And then I saw a turtle," Gallardo narrates, and lo and behold, a shot of a turtle), sad, or electrifying, like the Sam Raimi-esque chase sequences through the streets of Acuña-Coahuila ("Land of Friendship"), for which montage was invented.
Both El Mariachi and Desperado arrive on DVD in separate Special Edition reissues, their joint release sandwiched between the theatrical debuts of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and the third chapter in the El Mariachi saga, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, whose title finally puts Rodriguez's Sergio Leone fetish centre stage. The El Mariachi SE lays claim to an all-new, Rodriguez-supervised 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer taken from the original negatives, and the qualitative improvement upon that to which the home audience is accustomed indeed startles: grain, while still prevalent, is tamer, at least, the overall image often transcending its 16mm origins through splashy colours and fine shadow detail. (The inconsistently punchy Dolby Surround mix of previous video versions is recycled here.) But beyond the fresh presentation, both El Mariachi and Desperado are coming out on DVD again for the sole purpose of pimping Once Upon a Time in Mexico: each disc has been outfitted with a 4-minute, interview-laden preview (although Rodriguez is praised up and down by the cast in this promo, the man himself does not speak on camera) and trailer for the upcoming film, the remaining extras of both discs identical to those found on the El Mariachi/Desperado double-feature platter from 1999.
El Mariachi contains the "10-Minute Film School Featurette" (actually 15 mins.), in which Rodriguez talks over raw footage from El Mariachi, exposing the film's seams for the world to see in the hopes of impressing his guerrilla philosophy ("You have to refuse to spend") on struggling filmmakers. (One could argue he's just showing off, but then, he's entitled.) Bedhead is a short film starring the Rodriguez clan and directed by Robert; about a boy with bedhead named David picking on his sister, Rebecca, until she gains psychokinetic powers and gets even, Bedhead offers a thumbnail sketch of Rodriguez's Spy Kids series and, for all its fantastical tangents, realistically depicts the indiscretion of rivalry among young siblings, with David drawing a swastika on one of Rachel's dollies. Though Rodriguez's instructional commentary track for El Mariachi proper lacks thematic insight (THE VILLAGE VOICE recently complained that Rodriguez only uses the yakker as a forum for explaining cost-effective special effects methods), it's prescribed listening for the frugal auteur, while his feature-length monologue atop Desperado (which continues to look and sound as Vincent described--too bad the DTS option of the Superbit edition was dropped for the new disc) is targeted at the slightly more elite crowd of indie filmmakers embarking on their first studio picture. Desperado also includes "Ten More Minutes: Anatomy of a Shootout" (10 mins.), a Rodriguez-narrated breakdown of the pre-planning that went into the film's key action sequences. Cast/crew filmographies and trailers for Desperado and Love and Bullets round out the Desperado DVD; El Mariachi leaves out filmos but adds The Mask of Zorro's trailer to the aforementioned lot.-Bill Chambers EL MARIACHI: Running Time 81 minutes Aspect Ratio(s) 1.85:1 ONLY, 16x9-enhanced; Languages Spanish Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround; CC Yes; Subtitles English, French, Spanish, Korean; DVD-9; Region One; Columbia Tri-Star|DESPERADO: Running Time 103 minutes Aspect Ratio(s) 1.85:1 ONLY, 16x9-enhanced; Languages English DD 5.1, French DD 5.1, Spanish Dolby Surround, Portuguese Dolby Surround; CC Yes; Subtitles English, French, Spanish, Portuguse, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Thai; DVD-9; Region One; Columbia Tri-Star
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With 1993's El Mariachi, director Robert Rodriguez wowed critics and art-house audiences with his sheer talent and passion for filmmaking. Shot on a budget of merely $7,000 and with a cast and crew of Rodriguez's friends, El Mariachi was a gleefully amateurish work of pure cinema. Upon garnering awards and praise at The Sundance Film Festival, Columbia Pictures agreed to distribute the film and to finance Rodriguez's Hollywood debut. Which prompted one to ask what Rodriguez could accomplish with a real budget and real talent at his disposal.
Desperado (1995) provided the answer to that question: not much. Essentially a remake of El Mariachi, Desperado is full of the glitz and flashiness that one would expect of a visceral filmmaker like Rodriguez but has none of the heart or joy of El Mariachi. It's a "cool" movie that leaves the viewer feeling...well, cold.
The film begins well enough, as a stranger (Steve Buscemi) strolls into a Mexican dive and recounts the tale of a mysterious, guitar-toting gunman who slaughtered the patrons of a bar in a nearby town. In flashback we see the carnage, as the Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) whips an arsenal of firearms from his guitar case and unloads on his prey. In operatic fashion (and with large debts to Sergio Leone, John Woo, and Sam Peckinpah, among others), Rodriguez has effectively established the myth of "the mariachi."
Unfortunately, the film quickly devolves into a series of increasingly ridiculous shootouts, strung together along the barest of plotlines. It seems the Mariachi is out for revenge against Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida), a druglord whose henchmen murdered his woman and nearly destroyed his hand. Along the way, the Mariachi teams up with Carolina (Salma Hayek), the local bookstore owner who is on Bucho's payroll and is quite possibly a reluctant mistress. As the films makes its way, in fits and starts, toward its inevitable conclusion, Rodriguez throws in a not-so-surprising twist that, like everything else in the film, amounts to nothing and has little bearing on the outcome.
Still, the real problem with Desperado is not its plot, or lack thereof; El Mariachi hardly impressed on the basis of its narrative of an honest musician mistaken for the mythical, guitar-playing assassin. No, Desperado fails because its raison d'etre, the shootouts, are literally a bloody mess. As skilled as Rodriguez is at romanticizing violence, he seems to have no sense of pace or space. A bar which seemingly has a dozen or so bad guys suddenly has about thirty, coming at Banderas in all directions, from places never properly delineated in establishing shots. (An extended bit of gunplay takes place on opposite ends of an initially one-sided bar.) As editor, Rodriguez cuts the action together without rhythm or structure, causing one to stare blankly at the screen without the slightest bit of excitement, or emotional investment in the characters. Sure, Banderas looks great in black denim and Hayek looks devastatingly lovely in whatever that is she's wearing, but neither the action nor the story are well-executed enough that I cared what happened to either of them. As a result, I watched Desperado feeling pretty desperate for a glimpse of the innocence and ingenuity which characterized El Mariachi.
At least my eyes and ears were happy: Columbia's no-frills DVDs are short on extras but long on quality, and their Desperado disc is no exception. Lacking an interesting menu and even so much as a trailer (the DVD is, however, captioned in English, subtitled in Spanish and Korean, and dubbed in French and Spanish), the film nevertheless looks and sounds beautiful.* The images have a glow and a crispness at which the theatrical presentation only hinted, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is both explosive and completely enveloping; this is one disc that will give your rear speakers, and your subwoofer, a serious workout. (Late-night viewers should be cautioned, though, that the sound is not very well-balanced, and you may find yourself riding the volume control each time Banderas opens his guitar case.) In short, this is one of those transfers--all-too-familiar to fans of LaserDisc and DVD--that leaves one longing for so many infinitely better films to receive this kind of exceptional treatment.
As an aside, the disc begins with a brief but excellent montage of current and upcoming Columbia Tri-Star DVD releases. Among the films depicted is Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which presently seems unlikely to appear on DVD anytime soon due to its maker's reluctance to support the fledgling format. CE3K is exactly the kind of film deserving of the attention lavished upon the transfer of Desperado and, if this preview is any indication, it will make a particularly stunning disc. So, fans of what is arguably Spielberg's best film should unite, and drop him a line demanding this film on DVD!-Vincent Suarez
*Desperado's LaserDisc featured a full-length commentary by Rodriguez, but only 2-channel Dolby Surround.
© Film Freak Central; filmfreakcentral.net. This review may not be reprinted, in whole or in part, without the express consent of its author. |
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DVD GRADES:
Image A
Sound A |
DVD VITALS:
Running Time
103 minutes
MPAA
R
Aspect Ratio(s)
1.85:1 ONLY, 16x9-enhanced
Languages
English DD 5.1,
French Dolby Surround,
Spanish Dolby Surround
CC
Yes
Subtitles
Spanish, Korean
DVD-5
Region One
Columbia Tri-Star
the critic
Buy the DESPERADO poster at Moviegoods (click on image)
What's coming out on DVD? Check the release calendar
Published: June, 1998
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