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Released by: Arrow Video
Released on: August 27th, 2024.
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Carlos Gallordo, Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp
Year: 1993/1995/2003
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The Mexico Trilogy – Movie Review:
There are very few Hollywood directors right now who do stylized ultra-violence as well as Robert Rodriguez does. He upped the ante in a big way with Sin City but you can really see the genesis of what the man is capable of in El Mariachi and Desperado, and while story-wise the final film in the trilogy, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, is a little weak, it's still got plenty of amazing action set pieces and a few standout performances that definitely make it worth a watch.
Arrow Video now provides special edition high definition releases for all three films in Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy, even offering up the best of the three films, Desperado, on both Blu-ray and UHD.
El Mariachi:
Made fast and cheap for amazingly low sum of only $7,000.00, El Mariachi is the movie that made people start paying attention to the young up and coming director. It was shot fast and cheap on 16mm film stock and ended up earning a selection at the Sundance Film Festival which, in turn, skyrocketed him into Hollywood far faster than anyone could really have imagined.
The movie borrows a little bit from Sergio Leone in that the lead is a mariachi without a name (played by Carlos Gallordo) needs to find a paying gig and as such, he wanders into a town looking for somewhere that he can play. Things start to move when a crime lord named Roco (Peter Marquardt) hears word that his arch-enemy, Azul (Reinol Martinez) has busted out of the big-house and is gunning for him. Unfortunately for the mariachi, he's a dead ringer for the escaped convict who is out for blood, and soon Roco's men are planning a pre-emptive strike on him.
The only person in town who the mariachi even knows is the grungy bartender, Domino (Consuelo Gomez), but there's more to that than he realizes and it won't be long before the mariachi has to put down his guitar and pick up some guns if he wants to make it out of town alive…
There are a few interesting twists in the story along the way but at its heart, El Mariachi is a rather simple tale, but a very effective one. The story of how Rodriguez put all of this together for less than the cost of a good used car has become something of a filmmaking legend (check out the commentary for more details on that) but what matters is that not only did he finish the film but he delivered something special, something worth watching. Originally made for the Spanish speaking market the film was thought to have only limited appeal but the story of the mariachi fighting for his life proved to be a lot more popular than anyone ever initially thought not because of the acting or the story but because of the editing and the action choreography. Rodriguez has a knack for staging shoot outs and fights and even here at a young age in his feature film debut, he shows ability above and beyond a lot of what we see in big budgeted Hollywood productions.
The film isn't a literal masterpiece and it does have its flaws in the acting department. There are times when the low budget shines through in a few spots but overall, El Mariachi is a pretty amazing accomplishment and one that would set the director up nicely to move on to bigger and better things. Which brings us to…
Desperado:
If Rodriguez was able to turn in a good movie with a seven thousand dollar budget, imagine what he'd be able to do with seven million dollars!
This time out, the mariachi's dirty boots were filled by Antonio Banderas, in one of the best roles of his career. While the film tells a story very similar to that of El Mariachi, it's not quite a remake as it throws a few different twists into the mix. The film again beings with the lone mariachi with no name wanders into town looking for work.
A crime lord named Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida) runs his business out of a bar (where Cheech Marin works behind the counter) and we find out that the mariachi is here looking for him to get revenge. Crime lords don't tend to take that type of thing lying down, however, and when he finds out that the mariachi is here, he wastes no time assembling an army of hit-men to take him down first.
Luckily, or so it would seem, for the mariachi, the beautiful Caroline (Salma Hayek) is willing to hide him in the confines of her small bookstore. With this safe haven, he wages his war against Bucho to exact his revenge, and gets some help from a few friends along the way.
The biggest difference here is that the mariachi character doesn't walk into things by accident this time out. He's a cold blooded killer out for revenge, his guitar case a cache of hidden weapons. With a great supporting cast made up of Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo and Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez's second voyage into the world of guitar playing gunslingers is a highly polished and incredibly entertaining affair choke full of bloody violence and black humor. Banderas plays the role perfectly, he's suave and slick and just over the top enough to fit the bill, while Hayek brings some very welcome sex appeal to the movie. Their chemistry together works well and is a lot of fun, but the real reason to check this one out is for the action and the gun play.
From the opening scene where Banderas struts across the bar playing his guitar to the grand finale where his mariachi brethren show up to help him out, there's tension in the air of the movie and where there's tension, there's violence. Stealing a page or two from John Woo and another page or two from Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, Rodriguez crafts one of the most enjoyable shoot'em ups of the nineties. Again, it's not all that original and in fact some scenes are downright derivative but it's fast moving and well made and completely enjoyable.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico:
Now firmly established as a top talent in the industry, Rodriguez, after making a few movies in between this one and Desperado, decided to finish the Mariachi films with this last move in the trilogy. Again, the budget had been bumped up, this time to thirty million dollars, and the action set pieces also escalated with it.
Banderas is once more El Mariachi, and this time he's being searched out by an FBI agent named Sands (Johnny Depp) who wants to hire him to kill off General Marquez (Gerardo Vigel) as he knows that he's in cahoots with a drug lord name Barillo (Willem Dafoe). It seems that Marquez and Barillo have got bigger plans than just peddling dope, they're actually involved in planning to take down portions of the Mexican government, and Sands aims to stop that from happening before it's too late.
El Mariachi has a reason to take this job aside from the lucrative paycheck that Sands has dangled in front of his face, as we learn through a flashback sequence that Marquez was the man behind the murder of his wife, Carolina (once again played by Salma Hayek). So with the tempting prospect of revenge proving too hard for him to resist, he assembles his troupe of guitar playing gunmen and sets out to wage war on Marquez and Barillo, but things get complicated when another FBI agent named Ajedrez (Eva Mendes) steps into the picture and a second crime boss named Billy (Mickey Rourke) moves onto the scene.
While Once Upon A Time In Mexico definitely has its moments, it is ultimately bogged down by too many subplots and a truly messy and muddled plot. The basic premise is simple enough, but there are too many distractions from that premise and it ends up hurting the film a bit. That being said, Depp and Banderas are great in the movie, as are Rourke and Defoe. Hayek is pretty much disposable in this one, as despite her prominent role in the ad campaign, her screen time amounts to no more than a few minutes of flashback and as such the sexual tension between Carolina and the mariachi that made Desperado so fun doesn't really come into play here.
The best parts of the film are the action scenes, particularly Depp's last stand, which pays tribute to Fernando Baldi's 1971 underrated Spaghetti Western gem, Blindman. The violence is even more stylized here than it was in the first two movies and everything about the film is as slick and as polished as can be. Rodriguez did most of his own cinematography for the film and the movie does look fantastic as it does a great job of capturing the dust, dirt and grit of the locations in fantastic detail.
The Mexico Trilogy – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
Each of the three films in the collection sits on their own separate disc and is offered up in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. El Mariachi looks pretty strong, considering the film’s low budget 16mm origins. It’s framed at 1.85.1 and colors generally look good (though it would have been nice to have a 1.33.1 option here). The naturally grainy image is in pretty good shape. There’s some minor print damage here and there but overall, it’s pretty clean. The image always looks like proper film, there isn’t any obvious noise reduction here and the grain resolves properly, never clumping up. As to Desperado, which is remastered in 4k from the original 35mm camera negative and framed at 1.85.1 as well, there are UHD and Blu-ray editions included in this collection. They both look really strong but the UHD is, understandably, the winner. Colors pop nicely and we get deep, inky black levels. Skin tones are perfect and there is a noticeable increase in detail and image clarity when compared to the Blu-ray edition, you’ll notice this in pretty much every facial close-up shot but you’ll also be able to appreciate background detail more, like some of the grit and dirt on the walls. The transfer pops quite nicely and shows no problems at all with any noticeable edge enhancement or noise reduction issues. Neither disc shows any compression problems and the image on both discs is spotless, retaining natural film grain but showing no real print damage at all. Once Upon A Time In Mexico, which is framed at 1.78.1, was shot digitally and, as such, obviously shows no print damage, dirt or debris. Detail is quite nice here and colors look good. The movie has always had a very ‘hot’ looking color scheme and that’s reproduced well here. Skin tones are a tad warm but this seems to be an intentional decision. Compression is held in check and the image is pretty strong overall.
Audio options for El Mariachi include the original uncompressed Latin-American Spanish stereo audio, plus an English dub in lossless stereo with optional English subtitles and closed captioning options. The audio is fine, with clean, clear dialogue and properly balanced levels. Understandably, the mix isn’t as elaborate as what we get in the two follow up movies, but it sounds fine and there’s a reasonable amount of depth to the score. Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico offer up your choice of 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio options in 2.0 Stereo and 5.1, and both of these films include optional English closed captioning. Both of these two movies sound great, with the 5.1 tracks really opening things up in terms of both score placement and directional effects. The tracks are clean, clear and properly balanced offering crisp dialogue and strong reproductions of the movies’ respective scores.
Extras are spread across the set as follows.
El Mariachi:
First up is a full length commentary with writer/director Robert Rodriguez. This track makes for a fantastic extra, as Rodriguez more or less takes us through the entire making of the film in one lively discussion. He covers the budget problems he ran into, a lot of money saving techniques he employed, some of the aspects of the effects and stunt work that was done for the film and some of the incidents he ran into while shooting this one on such a shoe string budget. Rodriguez is very entertaining on this track, making some entertaining jokes while he educates us at the same time.
Big Vision Low Budget is a new interview with Rodriguez where, over fourteen minutes, he talks about how he came to decide to make this film on his own when he did, why he chose to collaborate with the people he collaborated on in the production, the influence of John Carpenter, working with the police on getting the firearms needed for the movie, where the idea for the Mariachi character came from, shooting locations, his relationship with Carlos Gallardo, making the movie without a crew, how he did the editing and sound for the film, staging the action set pieces, promoting the film, editing on the fly as he was making the movie and how the simplicity of the movie and sense of humor work in the film.
The Original Mariachi is a new interview with producer/star Carlos Gallardo that clocks in at fifteen minutes. He talks about how the short films that he and Rodriguez led to the making of the director's first feature, how the village he grew up in was the location for the movie, how he and Rodriguez met and became friends while bonding over movies, his initial thoughts on creating the Mariachi character, casting the movie, memories of shooting key scenes, using migrants as extras in the film, doing his own stunt work, getting the film distributed and his feelings on the movie's legacy.
The Music of 'El Mariachi', a new featurette on the music in the film, featuring interviews with composers Eric Guthrie, Chris Knudson, Alvaro Rodriguez and Marc Trujillo. This thirteen minute piece explores what went into creating the music for the film, who did what in terms of creating the score for the movie, the influence of John Carpenter on the scoring of the film, background info on the respective contributors, the influence of some Mexican action films on the production, creating specific recurring motifs for specific scenes, the instruments and technology used to create the score, thoughts on how the finished film turned out and how they feel about having been involved with the project overall.
The Film School featurette is a ten minute comparison that shows us what his raw footage looked like versus the finished versions of the scenes that made it into the final cut of the film. It gives us a nice idea of how the post-production process can make such a huge difference in a movie and it's really interesting to see the truly creative methods he used to spice up his film.
There's also a ten minute short film on here, directed by Rodriguez, entitled Bedhead. This quick little comedic short tells the story of a little girl named Rebecca who gains psychic powers after a squabble with her older brother lands her on her head.
A theatrical trailer and TV spot for the movie round out the extras.
Desperado:
Once again, we get a commentary track with director Robert Rodriguez, who fills us in on the making of the movie. What's interesting about this track is just how very different the experience was compared to what he went through making El Mariachi. This time out, while he was still making his movie, he did so from safely within the confines of the Hollywood studio system and he points out some advantages and some disadvantages of both ways of working. He also details the casting, how his working relationship was with Banderas, Hayek, and even Cheech, and how Quentin Tarantino ended up in the movie. It's an interesting commentary and a lot of fun to listen to.
Lean and Mean is a new interview with Rodriguez that clocks in at seventeen minutes. He talks openly about the influence of John Woo, the film's rushed production schedule, insisting on editing the film himself despite initial resistance from the studio, how the movie started as a remake of El Mariachi but then took on its own life, the importance of casting Antonio Banderas in the lead, bringing Salma Hayek on board, casting the supporting players in the movie, working with his actors, shooting the action set pieces, what he learned on the job and the film's theatrical release.
Producer Bill Borden shows up in a new interview titled Shoot Like Crazy where he spends eleven minutes going over how he came to work at Sony/Columbia, some of his earlier projects for the company, how he came to meet and work with Rodriguez, overcoming challenges on set and at the border, what Rodriguez was like to work with, the quality of the acting in the film, what it was like on set, the energy in the film, the quality of the stunt work in the movie, working with so many firearms on set and how he feels about how the movie turned out and how it was received.
In Kill Count we get a new chat with stunt coordinator Steve Davison. In this eight minute piece he talks about his thoughts on the script, trying to bring Rodriguez's vision to life, collaborating with other people on the stunt work, staging complex sequences before the cameras started rolling, how he came to work on the project in the first place, how the kill counts were on the call sheets each day, using wire work and air ramps to make bodies fly, how game Banderas was to do as lot of his own stunt work and why making the movie was "a stunt man's dream."
Lock And Load is a new interview with special effects coordinator Bob Shelley where, over nine minutes, he talks about the mechanical and pyrotechnic special effects work that he was responsible for on the film. He also talks about his military background and how this came in handy when dealing with pyrotechnics and how it led to his entry into the film business, working with Rodriguez and collaborating with him on Desperado, creating a special 'blood gun' for the movie, his thoughts on how the movie turned out, dealing with the firearms on the shoot and more.
The last of the new interviews is Game Changer, which is a seven minute appreciation piece by filmmaker Gareth Evans (of The Raid fame). This seven minute featurette sees him speak about how he came to discover Rodriguez's work, how inspiring El Mariachi was, the influence of John Woo and Hong Kong action cinema, what he learned from Rodriguez's work and how he took that to his own filmmaking experiences, how technology has changed filmmaking, setting realistic expectations when working on low budget productions and his thoughts on some of the stand out scenes in the movie.
A follow up to the film school featurette from the El Mariachi DVD is also included, entitled Ten More Minutes, which again is a look at how the footage goes through various stages of polishing and editing and post production to the version we see up there on the big screen or on DVD.
Rounding out the extras are a textless opening ("Morena de mi Corazón") sequence, a few tTheatrical trailers, menus and chapter selection options.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico:
First up is a commentary track with Robert Rodriguez, and as he's proven in the two films that came before this one, he knows how to deliver a really nice mix of humor and facts/trivia on his discussion. He covers casting, shooting on digital video versus film, a lot of the post production tweaking that went into a few scenes, some of the stunt work and even the score. Seeing as Rodriguez wore so many hats getting this movie made he's obviously the one to go to for all the inside information and he doesn't disappoint. The man covers an insane amount of detail in this track and there's barely more than a few seconds of dead air throughout. If there's one complain to levy against it, it's that one feels he had a lot more to say that he just didn't have time to delve into here.
The Revolution Will Be Digitized is a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez that runs twelve minutes. Here, the filmmakers talks about how this movie goes back more to El Mariachi than to Desperado, the influence of George Lucas on the film and his decision to shoot digitally, getting the cast together for the movie, the film's rushed production schedule, playing around with the "myth of the mariachi," the influence of Leone's 'Dollars Trilogy' on the movie, shooting and scoring the film, the post production process and more.
Troublemaking is a new ten minute interview with visual effects editor Ethan Maniquis where he talks about trying to capture Rodriguez's vision, the bombastic nature of the movie's plot, how he came to work with Rodriguez in the first place, making the shift from editing on film to editing digitally, the film's post production process, the evolution of Troublemaker Studios from something that started in Rodriguez's garage to a big deal win Hollywood, the use of digital effects and playing Halo in their downtime!
Up next is a selection of eight deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Rodriguez. Running just over seven minutes in total, the scenes are Sands Phones Dead Man, Mariachi In The Desert; Sands Outside Restaurant, Goat Milk, Cold, Sands On Internet, One Arm, Jorge and Spy Dog. The commentary from Rodriguez sets up the scenes and explains why the material wasn’t used in the final cut.
Continuing the tradition, we find a third ten minute segment entitled Ten Minute Flick School where once again, Rodriguez shows us how adding the special effects overtop of the digital photography really helped him in post production and in terms of keeping the budget realistic.
Inside Troublemaker Studios is an eleven minute tour of Rodriguez's home studio where he's set himself up with pretty much everything he needs to make movies out of his house. There's also a soundstage in Austin that he uses but by and large he does the majority of his work out of the rooms he has set up in his home and it's a pretty interesting scenario that he's built.
Ten Minute Cooking School is an archival featurette running six minutes where Rodriguez demonstrates how to cook Puerco Pibil, which is a meal that’s actually featured in the movie.
A thirteen minute Film Is Dead segment is up next, where Rodriguez talks to a crowd about his experiences shooting the film digitally. A lot of this information is covered in the commentary track but there's still some neat footage in here.
The Anti Hero's Journey looks back at the Mariachi films over eighteen minutes of clips, interviews, and behind the scenes footage from the set of Once Upon A Time In Mexico. This is an interesting refresher course and it made sense for it to be on the individual release of the film, but bundled here in a set with the other two movies it's rather redundant.
The Good, the Bad and the Bloody: Inside KNB FX, is a nineteen minute archival featurette on the film's special effects that is made up of interviews with the effects technicians that worked on the movie as well as some interesting behind the scenes footage showing the team at work.
Finishing up the extras on this last disc are red band and green band theatrical trailers, menus and chapter selection options.
As Arrow Video only sends test discs for review, we can’t comment on any packaging or insert books that might be included with final retail product.
The Mexico Trilogy - The Final Word:
Arrow Video’s release of The Mexico Trilogy is a good one, offering up all three films of Robert Rodriguez’s in very nice shape on discs loaded with extras old and new. Each film looks and sounds quite good, and getting Desperado on UHD is a definite bonus. Recommended!