Review of El Mariachi (1993) by Cj S — 01 Jul 2010

Directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Written by Robert Rodriguez.

Starring Carlos Gallardo.

Running Time: 1 hour and 21 minutes.

Rated: R.

El Mariachi is a 90s action flick that is notable and well known because it is Robert Rodriguez's debut film, it was made on a 7,000 dollar budget, and lastly, it went on to win the highly coveted Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The funny thing about this film is the fact that it was originally intended for the Mexican home video market, but went on to be purchased by Colombia Pictures, promoted, marketed, and distributed. Alright, enough with the back story on this film, let's get into what I thought.

First off, a low, low budget is no excuse for poor writing and an all too familiar plot, which we get a lot of with El Mariachi. Now, don't get me wrong, Rodriguez does a fantastic job with the film. His directing is inspired, and right away you can see his promise as a director. We already begin to see some of his trademarks emerge with his quick cuts, intense zooms, and fast camera movements that give a sense of humor to offset the action. Nonetheless, the writing of the film should have been more focused, with more narration and dialogue that can offer us some sort of insight into the main characters, which we don't get a lot of.

Carlos Gallardo, who plays El Mariachi, is not ideal for the part. He turns out to be an undeveloped character who offers nothing to his part. The performance is poor, along with the character. The rest of the cast is just as inexperienced and lost as Gallardo is, and the script is no help as each one of their characters is very forgettable.

To conclude, without the superb job of directing by Rodriguez, this movie would have ended up exactly where everybody thought it was going to be, on the Mexican home video market. Instead, Rodriguez adds great energy and pace to terrible acting and poor writing. By doing this, he takes a film that would have been just another forgotten film, to an inspiration for film makers everywhere who only have a camera and an idea.