This deserves to be remembered. A young, enthusiastic man named Robert proved a number of things about film-making. Such as that low-budget doesn't have to mean "bad", that "inexpensive" and "cheap" can be two different notions, and that, today, everyone and anyone can make a movie, something which he has since gone on to release self-made documentaries in order to further encourage, and educate about the possibilities of. He knew he didn't have a big studio backing him, and he refused to do what so many others have done in that position, and give in to the idea of the end result being poor. Instead, he made every effort and put all that he was able to put up on the screen, and went a couple of places that Hollywood, out of fear of lost profit, doesn't dare to go often enough. Yes, he got a lucky break. That doesn't change the fact that this can fuel the dreams of other hopefuls, and, along with Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, has allowed independent cinema to not purely be deeply artistic pieces, but also hold mainstream-audience-friendly genre-flicks. The plot bears the marks of not having a skilled or experienced writer behind it, though the characterization, what there is of it, is pretty good, if the people tend to be types we've seen elsewhere. It should be noted that this was made for Rodriguez to practice, he didn't expect it to be a success. I stand by that he fares considerably better when he has someone else provide the script, a theory backed up by more or less everything he's made. He's visual, he puts together cool images, that's what he excels at. His cartoonist side shows, as well, in the somewhat warped sense of humor, and while he goes kind of far in some places, this can still be viewed by most. The pace is fast, and the almost 80 minutes fly by. He gets a lot of energy into the majority of this, partially on account of the rather frequent cuts(since he pieced it together from takes that had the bits required, instead of redoing entire setups). The action is well-done, and bigger than you might think, for the whole thing costing so little. Since the actors are untrained, the performances are average. The dialog varies, and surely it's never less than passable. Cinematography and editing help prove how much RR put into this. The music is great, throughout. I haven't watched a dubbed version, so I can't vouch for the quality of that. This has disturbing content and violence. The DVD comes with Bedhead, well-done short, a theatrical trailer, the first of his "Ten Minute" featurettes, and an informative Director's Commentary. And hey, this can help you learn Spanish, if that interests you, since the lines are spoken slower than usual with the language, and pronounced clearly. I recommend this to anyone who wishes to view it, especially fans of the multi-talent who created it. 7/10
Review of El Mariachi
