El Mariachi (1993)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One very notable thing about El Mariachi is the excellent cinematography. The visual side of the movie gives strong Tarantino vibes, but there was something else too. The shots may not be exactly beautiful, but they are close to perfect. There's something enchanting about how they shot the film. And together with the narrating in the beginning, the movie reminded me of some kind of 60's or 70's art films, which is quite far from how the film really is. Also Rodriguez has used some very interesting effects in the movie, but very skilfully. They weren't used too little or too much, just the right amount.The music in El Mariachi is weird. It's weird and it shouldn't suit to any film - but it does. The soundtrack is a spot-on. It's different and weird, which is a good thing. All action movies tend to have one kind of soundtrack, so it's great seeing (well, hearing) something other for a change.The editing is also great. The movie is not very long, but it doesn't feel too short. El Mariachi also uses both speed and slowness as interesting and effective stylistic devices, without disturbing the pace of the movie.The story of El Mariachi is as simple as a plot can be. However, usually action films make the mistake of wasting extra subplots to the movie to make the story seem deeper. El Mariachi has one story, and it sure as hell is short, but it still is thrilling and as interesting as it can be. It's good enough.El Mariachi is simple and almost modest, yet it is skilfully made and one of the best action movies I've seen. This is the first movie I saw from Robert Rodriguez. I had high expectations for Rodriguez, and I'd like to think he met them.

El Mariachi plays his guitar but is mistaken for a hit men. Lot of thugs with guns keep trying to kill him. The story isn't the big draw of this movie. It's really just an excuse to shot a lot of guns and make an action movie. Robert Rodriguez signals his arrival with this well shot indie. Sure the big draw when it came out was the low low cost of production. That didn't matter when it comes to the value of the camera work. Even the most benign scenes are shot in an exciting compelling way. It's a great sample of what Rodriguez would do in Hollywood later on.I recently watched it again after almost 20 years. I have to admit that I don't remember the narration or the dubbing. They sounded odd to me. It's very distracting.

First of all,let's not look for the needle in the hay here,this movie was made with fistful of dollars and by a 23 years old kid,today man,with not crew and that inspires the hell out of me.If someone out there wants to play Roger Ebert and criticize this flick he better take the camera,and go by himself back to Mexico and do it for 7.500$.Robert Rodriguez's camera work,angles,authentic locations,authentic cast and great editing job at end deserve big 10 stars for his effort.Even that some actors were lacking on their skills,it is still great work cause story unites them well and it was a breath of fresh air to see movie done with amateurs better then many over 1mil. dollar films from Hollywood.Over all highly recommended movie,very aspiring and worth having in DVD home collection.Enjoy the Rodriguez's work folks.

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.