The Mexico Trilogy
Directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Starring Carlos Gallardo, Antonio Banderas, Consuelo Gómez, Peter Marquardt, Reinol Martínez, Jaime de Hoyos, Joaquim de Almeida, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes, Danny Trejo, Enrique Iglesias, Marco Leonardi, Rubén Blades, Willem Dafoe.
SYNOPSIS:
It’s a bit of a misnomer to say this is a 4K Ultra HD release, since only the middle film in Robert Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy, Desperado, gets that treatment. The other two films are only available on Blu-ray discs (Desperado is on Blu-ray too, for a total of four discs), but all three movies were remastered and look great, regardless of the format. Arrow also threw in a nice illustrated booklet, a couple posters, and a big batch of bonus features that are a mix of new and old stuff. Highly recommended.
I’ve longed appreciated the way Robert Rodriguez essentially operates as his own independent film studio, especially with movies that are personal projects for him. That started, of course, with his indie movie El Mariachi, which he made for $7,000 (yes, Columbia forked over a chunk of money to do post-production work before they released it), and continued through the other two films in his Mexico Trilogy, as well as other projects.
Rodriguez makes a point of saying that in an introduction to the two sequels to El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, that are also included in this new set from Arrow Video. It’s billed as a 4K Ultra HD release, but Desperado is the only movie that actually gets the 4K treatment; the other two movies are only included as Blu-rays, a format where Desperado shows up too. (You can also buy Desperado as a standalone 4K Ultra HD release.)
Regardless of the format, all three movies look great. Unsurprisingly, Rodriguez was involved in the remastering of the trilogy, so this is the way he wants the films to look. You could probably quibble over a few things here and there, but, overall, this is the definitive home video edition of these movies. (Thankfully, these movies don’t seem to have evoked the kind of outrage that James Cameron’s recent releases have, even though he signed off on those transfers too.)
Arrow pulled out all the stops with this new collection, which also features a booklet with new essays by Carlos Aguilar and Nicholas Clement, a couple posters, and reversible sleeves for all three films.
A copious amount of bonus features are included here too, some new and some legacy, and I’ll run them down in my discussion of each movie.
El Mariachi (1993)
This is the movie that put Rodriguez on the map. It’s a tour de force of independent filmmaking featuring a cast of unknowns and a story about a mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) who is confused for another man also carrying a guitar case who is killing people.
Our hero quickly finds himself in the middle of a gang war as hit men employed by the crime boss Moco (Peter Marquardt) chase him across a town. The mariachi finds himself with no choice but to fight back against his attackers, which only serves to convince them that they’re hunting the right man.
The guitar player seeks safe haven in a bar run by a woman named Domino (Consuelo Gómez), who, unfortunately, has ties to Moco. That triangle sets up a tense climax. El Mariachi is just 81 minutes long, which means it has a fairly simple story and sticks to the spine of it, so to speak. And that makes sense, given the constraints Rodriguez was operating under.
The extras start off with a 19-second introduction by Rodriguez that automatically plays when the disc boots up in your player. He also delivers a commentary track that’s typical of the “film class on a disc” feeling of the best home video releases. He embraced DVD early on and loves talking about the nuts and bolts of his craft, so this is a must-listen for any fan.
The rest of the extras include:
• Big Vision, Low Budget with Robert Rodriguez (14:41): This is a new interview with the writer/director in which he looks back on the film’s genesis.
• The Original Mariachi with Carlos Gallardo (15:21): Gallardo gave up the role of El Mariachi after making this movie, which he also produced with Rodriguez, but he has played small roles in some of his friend’s other films since then. He has also continued to produce and direct, as well as write screenplays too. All of that is by way of introducing this new interview with him, in which he also looks back on the making of the film.
• A Band of Misfits: The Music of El Mariachi (HD; 12:41): The last new extra for this movie takes a look at the music, which, of course, plays a major role in the proceedings.
• Ten Minute Film School (14:38): This is a legacy featurette that discusses how Rodriguez made the movie for such little money. Those lessons are still applicable today, especially since most people now carry phones that can shoot great video. (As long as they know how to light the shots, block the action, edit the footage, and so forth, but the barrier to entry has never been lower for budding filmmakers.)
• Bedhead (1999) (9:09): This is a short film Rodriguez shot with two of his siblings. It’s a fun look at his raw talent.
The theatrical trailer and a TV commercial round out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★★ / Movie: ★★★★
Desperado (1995)
Sequels are tricky endeavors, especially when a sequel is a quick follow-up to a movie that caught lightning in a bottle. How do you continue the story without essentially retreading many of the plot points from the first film?
In the case of 1995’s Desperado, Rodriguez decided that his hero’s exploits in the first movie would become the stuff of legend, as recounted by Steve Buscemi’s character (billed simply as Buscemi) in the opening scene. The bartender he is talking to thinks he’s full of it until he mentions the name Bucho, which gets the attention of everyone in the bar.
Meanwhile, Antonio Banderas has assumed the role of El Mariachi, which makes sense if the character is going to evolve from an every man who’s simply in the wrong place at the wrong time to a dashing hero who knows his way around firearms the same way he can handle a guitar.
We soon learn that Bucho is Moco’s boss, and Buscemi has been spreading stories of El Mariachi on our hero’s behalf. Bucho’s men soon come hunting for El Mariachi, but he’s ready for them. After he’s injured in the ensuing gun battle, a woman named Carolina (Salma Hayek, in her break-out role) takes him to her bookstore to tend to his wounds.
Like Domino in the previous film, Carolina has ties to the drug cartel hunting for El Mariachi, which creates a complicated situation for him. They fall for each other, though, and soon Bucho decides that she needs to die too. The storyline builds to another explosive third act.
The bonus features again lead off with another great commentary track by Rodriguez, along with a new interview with him, Lean and Mean with Robert Rodriguez, which runs a little over 17 minutes and talks about how he became a “big budget” filmmaker with this movie. “Big budget” is in quotes because this film’s budget was only $7 million, which meant Rodriguez had to again be inventive with the production. The rest of the extras include:
• Shoot Like Crazy with Bill Borden (11:21): Rodriguez’s new co-producer looks back on the making of the movie.
• Kill Count with Steve Davison (8:10): The final new interview on this disc features the film’s stunt coordinator discussing the action sequences that were more over-the-top than the first film.
• Ten More Minutes: Anatomy of a Shootout (10:33): This is a legacy featurette has Rodriguez discussing the film’s big shootout.
• Morena de mi Corazon (2:39): This is a textless version of the film’s opening.
Two theatrical trailers and a TV commercial round out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★★ / Movie: ★★★★
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
The final installment in the Mexico Trilogy falls short of the first two movies, in my opinion. The story’s stage is more expansive this time, with El Mariachi tasked by CIA agent Sheldon Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill a corrupt military general who wants to overthrow Mexico’s president. Our hero has his own reasons for wanting to kill the general, but I won’t go into them in case you haven’t seen the film.
A secondary plot line involves Sands convincing a retired FBI agent, Jorge Ramírez (Rubén Blades) to come out of retirement and kill the drug dealer Armando Barillo (Willem Dafoe), who had previously killed the agent’s former partner. While tailing Barillo, Ramírez encounters one of his henchmen, Billy Chambers (Mickey Rourke), who is wracked with guilt over the things he has done; Ramírez convinces him to work for him in exchange for protection.
In addition, Sands’ local agent, Cucuy (Danny Trejo) is revealed to have his own motivations, and soon Sands doesn’t know who he can trust. Meanwhile, our hero has teamed up with two other mariachis to carry out Sands’ orders, which also involve allowing the general to kill the president before they take him out.
If the preceding paragraphs sound a bit convoluted, well, yeah, that’s my main issue with Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I suppose Rodriguez wanted this one to be a “statement” movie, like Sergio Leone’s heavily lauded Once Upon a Time in the West, but I’m not sure that the exploits of El Mariachi were the right vehicle for that. The end result is a movie with a scattered story and some awkward tonal shifts, as if Rodriguez was never sure if he was trying to make a serious film or an over-the-top sequel to a movie that already stretched the limits of credibility.
If you’re a fan of this one, though, you’ll, of course, love Rodriguez’s commentary track, as well as a new interview with him that runs close to 13 minutes and discusses his decision to shoot his movie digitally at a time when that was still a pretty novel concept. The film’s visual effects editor, Ethan Maniquis, also gets a chance to talk about his craft in another new interview. The rest of the extras were ported over from previous discs and include:
• Deleted Scenes (7:47): Rodriguez provides an optional commentary track for this excised footage.
• Ten Minute Flick School (9:05): Rodriguez discusses why shooting digitally is a great thing, back when it was still fairly new.
• Inside Troublemaker Studios (11:24): Rodriguez takes us on a tour of his Austin, Texas-based studio.
• Ten Minute Cooking School (5:50): Rodriguez is a pretty easygoing guy, as shown by this goofy extra.
• Film is Dead: An Evening with Robert Rodriguez (13:20): Filmed in 2003, this presentation turned out to be very prescient.
• The Anti-Hero’s Journey (18:05): This is a great extra that gets into the evolution of the main character during the trilogy.
• The Good, the Bad & The Bloody: Inside KNB FX (19:04): The special effects get their turn in the spotlight.
A pair of theatrical trailers round out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★ / Movie: ★★★
Brad Cook
