It’s time for another lovely lavish Arrow Video box set, and this month sees the release of Robert Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy. We’ve got three films here, telling the tale of El Mariachi, with the middle film of the trilogy, Desperado, getting the 4K UHD treatment. Let’s jump right in!

El Mariachi

Written and Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gómez, Jaime de Hoyos, Peter Marquardt, Reinol Martinez
Country: Mexico, USA
Running Time: 81 min
Year: 1992
BBFC Rating: 15

Robert Rodriguez’s feature film debut, famously shot for a meagre $7000 (with most of the budget coming from the director taking part in drug trials), El Mariachi is very much the poster child for low budget filmmaking in the 1990s. Telling a Mexican-Western tale of a case of mistaken identity that spirals into an all out war with a small town crime lord, El Mariachi is equal parts action thriller and love story, introducing audiences to the coolness of having a guitar case full of guns.

Despite its low budget it’s a film that brings with it a remarkable amount of style, featuring an odd sense of humour and hyper kinetic camera that’s very much a prototype for the house style that Rodriguez would perfect in his follow up films. The man himself is behind the camera here, as well as calling the shots and the guerilla style of filmmaking he employs brings in lots of handheld shots, as well as interesting camera angles and framing techniques that echo a young Sam Raimi on The Evil Dead.

Despite this, there is a lack of polish and some of the slightly stilted performances may be a little off putting, but it’s still a cracking and ambitious debut; Easily the one film that will show aspiring filmmakers that you really can do it if you have an idea, a keen and eager cast, the will to make it and the desire sell your body to medical science to scrape the money together.

Desperado

Written and Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Selma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Quentin Tarantino, Danny Trejo
Country: Mexico, USA
Running Time: 104 min
Year: 1995
BBFC Rating: 18

If El Mariachi was Robert Rodriguez testing the water, Desperado is the writer/director throwing himself in with a graceful forward tuck into a swan dive. Everything here feels so much more elevated over the original, more likely thanks to a larger budget and some studio backing; The script is snappier, the editing tighter and the action crazier and bloodier, Desperado feels like Rodriguez is finally settling into his “house style”, with plenty of smash cuts, sudden zooms, slow motion and crossfades.

It’s a standalone sequel to the first film with Antonio Banderas taking the role of the Mariachi (played by Carlos Gallardo in El Mariachi) and very much making it his own. The titular character is still on a path of bloody vengeance which takes him to another small Mexican town to take on another Mexican warlord (albeit with a twist to the tale this time round) but the high octane action and brilliant supporting cast make this an absolute cracker of an action movie.

Feeling rather like a companion piece to 90s Quentin Tarantino, the film is full of familiar faces from Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin to Danny Trejo and even Tarantino himself, who shows up as a smart-ass low life. Selma Hayek is brilliantly standout as the beautiful Carolina, El Mariachi’s new love interest, and she displays a great chemistry with Banderas, while Joachim de Almeda is a brilliantly menacing baddie as Bucho.

Desperado gets the full 4K HDR treatment in this set and the picture is lovely with the HDR giving the colours and heat of the Mexican locations real depth and life. The audio mix, however,  is unfortunately a little uneven with dialogue frequently low in the mix versus sounds like gunshots and explosions,

It’s remarkable how a couple of years and a studio backed budget clearly let Rodriguez finally make the film he wanted to the first time round, with the studios seemingly hands off approach giving him the agency to stamp his own mark on the finished product. Desperado is an excellent film and easily the standout of the set.

Once Upon A Time in Mexico

Written and Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Selma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Micky Rourke, Eva Mendes, Danny Trejo, Enrique Iglesias
Country: Mexico, USA
Running Time: 102 min
Year: 2003
BBFC Rating: 15

From the high point of the set we come to the low and easily one of Robert Rodriguez’s most disappointing films. With the biggest budget of the series so far, Once Upon A Time In Mexico brings Banderas and Hayek back in their respective roles, while adding star power to the cast in the form of Johnny Depp as an off the radar, off kilter CIA agent alongside Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendez and Willem Dafoe. Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias even shows up and is a great addition to the cast as a new Mariachi, brining a similarly sexy swagger to Banderas in Desperado.

There’s certainly a more light-hearted feel to this compared to the first two, but where Once Upon A Time In Mexico lets itself down is in its unfocussed plot. Instead of a simple action revenge story, part three plunges the Mariachi into a tale of unnecessary political intrigue, catching him up in a plot to assassinate the Mexican president in an attempt to manufacture a coup to gain control of the country. Banderas is great once again, this time bringing an older, world weary tiredness to the character, but the film is bizarrely uneven, filled with tonally and logically odd beats.

Depp in particular feels like a strange addition, cutting an odd character as Agent Sands, frequently changing his appearance for seemingly no reason and swaggering around like an anti-Jack Sparrow, while Willem Dafoe, Micky Rourke and Danny Trejo muddy the villainous water with one baddie too many, leading to a cluttered cast and a confused plot. Add to that a criminally underused Hayek who has around 5 minutes of screen time in the whole story, as well as large chunks of time where the story seemingly ignores the Mariachi and focuses almost entirely on Sands, and Once Upon A Time In Mexico is both overbaked and undercooked, and a disappointing end to the Mariachi series.

Thankfully, the film does look great with Rodriguez making the move to digital photography, giving the movie a slick, sleek look, while the stunt and action scenes bring some decent zingers (although sadly lacking in some of the panache of its lower budget siblings), but it’s not enough to save this disappointingly middling film.

DISC 1 – EL MARIACHI (REGION B BLU-RAY)

  • Original uncompressed Latin-American Spanish stereo audio, plus an English dub in lossless stereo
  • Optional English subtitles, plus English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
  • Big Vision Low Budget, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
  • The Original Mariachi, a newly filmed interview with producer/star Carlos Gallardo
  • The Music of ‘El Mariachi’, a newly produced featurette on the music in the film, featuring interviews with composers Eric Guthrie, Chris Knudson, Alvaro Rodriguez and Marc Trujillo
  • Ten Minute Film School, an archive featurette produced and narrated by Rodriguez
  • Bedhead, a 1991 short film by Rodriguez
  • Theatrical trailer and TV spot

DISCS 2 & 3 – DESPERADO (REGION B BLU-RAY / 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

  • New 4K restoration from the original camera negative by Sony Pictures
  • Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Audio commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
  • Lean and Mean, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
  • Shoot Like Crazy, a newly filmed interview with producer Bill Borden
  • Kill Count, a newly filmed interview with stunt coordinator Steve Davison
  • Lock and Load, a newly filmed interview with special effects coordinator Bob Shelley
  • Game Changer, a newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Gareth Evans (The Raid)
  • Ten More Minutes: Anatomy of a Shootout, an archive featurette narrated by Rodriguez
  • Textless opening (“Morena de mi Corazón”)
  • Theatrical trailers

DISC 4 – ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (REGION B BLU-RAY)

  • Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Commentary by writer-director Robert Rodriguez
  • The Revolution Will Be Digitized, a newly filmed interview with Rodriguez
  • Troublemaking, a newly filmed interview with visual effects editor Ethan Maniquis
  • Eight deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Rodriguez
  • Ten Minute Flick School, an archive featurette narrated by Rodriguez
  • Inside Troublemaker Studios, an archive featurette on Rodriguez’s studio in Austin
  • Ten Minute Cooking School, an archive featurette in which Rodriguez shows you how to cook Puerco Pibil
  • Film is Dead: An Evening with Robert Rodriguez, a presentation by the director given in 2003
  • The Anti-Hero’s Journey, an archive featurette on the arc of the Mariachi
  • The Good, the Bad and the Bloody: Inside KNB FX, an archive featurette on the film’s special effects
  • Theatrical trailers

As usual, Arrow bring their “A-game” to this set. In addition to the features of previous studio releases, there’s a whole host of new interviews with cast and crew. The archival features are of particular importance here if you have an interest in independent filmmaking, giving you a look behind the camera at Rodriguez’s hands on approach to writing, shooting and editing, while the new interviews are a fantastic retrospective look at the directors journey from a wannabe to a big player in 90’s action filmmaking.

Despite the unevenness provided by the inclusion of Once Upon A Time In Mexico, The Mexico Trilogy is still a cracking set with two fantastic action movies, and a slew of extras that are simultaneously interesting to the film buff and aspiring filmmaker alike. Highly recommended.

The Mexico Trilogy (Arrow)
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